Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Reading favorable impressions from the Joystiq crew about Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant helped put the game onto our selective radars. Watching this video, which features the game's senior producer Kristen Forbes, then got us even more intrigued.

Forbes points out a lot of issues that bug Wii gamers to no end -- the lack of commitment to the Wii's graphical capabilities, for one, and unnecessary waggle, for another. If the next Crash iteration can really fix these problems, though, we'll definitely be looking forward to the game's release this fall.

There may be a ridiculous amount of Crash Bandicoot games, but since we enjoyed the last one, we're wearily keeping our eyes on Mind Over Mutant. Announced last weekend at the Sierra Spring Event as having an October 2008 release, our Joystiq overlords got their grubby little hands on the Wii version of the game and offered up some promising impressions.

Like Crash of the Titans, Mind Over Mutant offers drop-in co-op play. According to Joystiq, the humor famous to the series remains in tact, and with 8,500 different lines programmed for the characters to say, they hardly (if ever) repeat themselves when shouting random bits of dialogue.

While Joystiq acknowledges that this game is targeted toward the younger crowd with its sillyness and bright graphics, it seems like a game that any lover of the platforming genre could enjoy.



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Everything we've seen from Crash of the Titans makes us want to ride around on the backs of beasties. Think we can sneak into the rhino pen down at the zoo? If you don't hear from us soon, please send medics and painkillers. In honor of the latest Crash title's co-op multiplayer, maybe we'll take a friend to distract the rhinos while we climb on board. Any volunteers?

No?

Well, just check out the new screens then. And here we thought you liked us ....

Not to take a jab at our Xbox 360-loving brethren, but if we are going to point to any game, in recent memory, that sold well and had an absolutely, amazingly-horrible script, it would be that game. Seriously, we know that Capcom isn't the best when it comes to crafting game stories or dialogue (Jill, here's a lockpick. It might be handy if you, the master of unlocking, take it with you.), but that game's story and dialogue was just absurd. Still though, Free Radical co-founder Karl Hilton thinks the Wii, not the Xbox 360, is the system that will encourage more games that don't need good writing in the market.

Hilton says "The success of the Wii has showed how unimportant writing is to a huge chunk of the games market – and that market sector is growing." Of course, taken out of context, the quote can be horribly mistaken for meaning something else, but we're sure Hilton meant to say the success of the Wii console has opened the door for games that focus more on gameplay than, say, delivering a large, epic story to the market to be more successful.

So, how do you interpret Hilton's statement?

[via Joystiq]

Free Radical Design, which was formed from key members that left Rare after working on Goldeneye 007, has a new title in development for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 known as Haze. In the FAQ at their website, when asked if there will be a Wii version of the game, the company states "There are currently no plans for a Wii version of Haze. Sadly, the cutting-edge technology we're using requires more power than the Wii has available. If we could, we would." This got us to the thinkin' over here at Wii Fanboy.

Would this be the case for titles in the future that are being developed on all platforms? Think about Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids, which Michel Ancel has stated during a preview that it is primarily being developed for the Wii, followed by ports to the PS3 and Xbox 360. How would it work the other way? Sure, we know that Call of Duty 3 is another title that will be present on all consoles, but is the game being built on Xbox 360 or PS3 architecture, then ported to the Wii? Is this the wall that Free Radical has hit?

The comment brings up some questions, sure, but we doubt that a company who could give us one of the greatest console FPS games ever made could be so disinterested in such an innovative console. Hopefully, the next time we discuss Free Radical, it'll be in regards to their newest project on the platform.