Just in case you didn't hear him the first time he said it, Kaufman Bros. analyst Todd Mitchell has reiterated his belief that the Wii only truly benefits Nintendo, and that third-party developers have only seen "isolated successes" on the console.
Mitchell's argument may have been aired before, but it's also tricky to dismiss, especially as only two third-party titles have so far broken the one million sales barrier (launch twosome Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids). Then again, when it comes to top-drawer, original Wii software, Nintendo has delivered on a fairly regular basis. With the odd exception or two, can the same really be said of other publishers?
In case your G-Phoria watch party got too loud for you to actually hear the winners, a GoNintendo reader wrote down all the Nintendo wins and sent them in. We had our G-Phoria Scorecards all ready for the big show, but at the last minute our traditional Adam Sessler-shaped G-Phoria cake fell apart, and we cancelled the gathering out of shame. We still had to pay for the auditorium, but we think we made the right decision.
Here are the winners (good luck on your betting pool!): Best Sports Game: Wii Sports Best RPG:The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Stride's Longest Lasting Game: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Game Most Deserving of an Uwe Boll Movie: Red Steel
Oh, G4 and their hilarious comedy awards. Zelda's not an RPG!
However, following a call to Ubisoft, they have found that nothing has been announced. At the moment, we have a game that we know people are working on, but officially doesn't exist. Spooky! It's like a ghost-game.
Ubisoft posted a job announcement looking for an online programmer for Wii projects. The listing states that the job is in their "Production Studio in Paris, where Red Steeland Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter games have been developed."
It seems kind of likely that this involves Red Steel 2, which was itself basically announced via job listing, but let's not get out our Jump to Conclusions Mats. Yes, slicing your friends up online would be pretty great. But Ubisoft works on a lot of games other than Red Steel, and there are a lot of things you can do online that aren't playing games, as Nintendo has ably demonstrated with every Wii channel.
Red Steel and Twilight Princess are reminiscent of terrorist videos ... at least to one individual in the UK. Apparently, this ad was a bit too "violent, offensive, and disturbing" for seventeen (yes, seventeen) television viewers in Britain, and they made their displeasure known. After a review by Britain's Advertising Standards Authority, however, the ads were deemed okay to go. "We also considered that viewers were unlikely to link the ad to recent events in Iraq. We concluded that the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence," the Authority said. Translation? Damn, y'all are sensitive.
Obviously, we've now won the console war. Sony and Microsoft can just go home. Good game, guys. Good game.
There have been a lot of sales to report lately! If you picked up a Wii at Toys R Us yesterday, you now have an opportunity to get some relatively good games for a decent price, from now until the 10th.
Toys R Us is offering three Ubisoft-published Wii games for the price of two. Your choices are GT Pro Series, Open Season, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, Red Steel, and Monster 4x4: World Circuit. This offer is valid online, but we aren't sure about its status in TRU stores. If there are three games in that list you're interested in, or two games you're interested in and one you think you could get a decent price for on eBay, then you are in luck!
Apparently, all one needs to run back-ups on their Wii is nothing more than a little technical know-how and an inexpensive cable. At least, we found this out whilst browsing YouTube today and coming across user Textb00k's video, that is. As you can see, in the embedded video available past the post break, this individual has apparently done nothing more than soldering a parallel port cable to the Wii's drive board and jacked it into his PC. The reward for his efforts is a back-up disc of Red Steel running on the console.
While it certainly looked like things were headed in that direction, now it seems that a Red Steel sequel is pretty much confirmed. The only thing left is for an official press release to start making the rounds. The good ol' Dojo of Pain, the game's community website, recently featured the following telling quote: "...if any student think he anywhere near ready for Red Steel 2...Get Ready to Do My Laundry! [sic]"
Late last year, Ubisoft posted a job listing announcing they were in need of a designer for more Red Steel action ... a designer with online experience. While Red Steel may not be the best game ever to hit consoles, the multiplayer is actually pretty fun, and taking the fun online could really make this a viable franchise. Well, that and actual cut scenes.
When the big man speaks, we listen. And yes, we're referring to the deity that is Reggie Fils-Aime, standing atop his mighty pedestal after supplanting Zeus for the title. He was recently on Spike TV's GameHead, speaking rather generically about the Wii. But, as you may have guessed, there was a diamond in the rough: the news that the first multiplayer online Wii games will be announced in Q1 2007 and start shipping in Q2. Finally!
We're a little disappointed that online didn't come right out of the box; God knows some games really could have benefitted: Madden 07, Call of Duty 3, and Red Steel certainly could have used the boost. Still, at least a smidgeon of online functionality is coming quite soon, with the ability to trade custom levels in Elebits via the magic of the internet intertron. That's its new name. Thus have we spoken, and thus it is so.
[We don't normally steal our sister site Joystiq's pictures, but this one was just too good.]
Sorta kinda maybe. Everyone's favorite overly-hyped-shooter-with-glitchy-aiming-mechanisms-and-unintuitive-combat seems to be gearing up for another go. Ubisoft's Paris division has posted a big digital "Help Wanted" ad on the internet, whose transcript shall be withheld to save the reader from silly BabelFish translation errors. In any case, it asks for a game designer for the "continuation of the Red Steel franchise". There is no direct confirmation that the sequel will be on the Wii, but come on. It's pretty damn obvious.
One must wonder if the world really wants this. If they can iron out the bugs, improve level design, and add more realistic melee combat, maybe they'll have a winner. If not, we'll always have Super Smash Bros. Brawl to fall back on, right?
A reader from the UK wrote in to us telling of his journey to the local game shop where, upon inspecting the back of the display box for Red Steel, he noticed the above 'EDTV/HDTV only' tag in the upper-right corner. Both surprising to himself and us here at Wii Fanboy, it appears that this has to be a printing error. We've contacted Nintendo and await their response.
It's the first time we get to ask you guys now that the Wii has released, so, what are you playing?
For many Americans, today feels a lot like Friday and, as far as our employers and government are concerned, it might as well be. With tomorrow being the day we celebrate Thanksgiving by stuffing our faces (more than usual) with turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and various delicious types of pie, we felt we'd ask what you're playing a little early. For all of our non-American readers whose country's past does not include Pilgrims and Native Americans coming together in peace, well ... be sure to rub your next exclusive holiday in our faces.
So what will it be? A little multiplayer Wii Sports with the family? Is your family interested in seeing what this Wii is all about, or is your obsession with gaming like some kind of contagious virus to them, forcing you to play Red Steel alone in the basement?
Looks like the game did not recover from its less-than-stellar showing at E3. With two of the three largest game reviewing outlets slapping the game silly in their reviews, are we to believe the game is that bad? What do you fine and intelligent readers who picked the game up already say?
Gamespot - 55%: "Red Steel isn't completely devoid of merit, but it's a half-baked, buggy game that feels rushed and poorly executed. There's a good concept in here somewhere, as a swords-and-guns shooter pitting you against yakuza villains certainly seems like it could be very exciting. However, the experience itself hardly fulfills any of the promises behind it. So if you're looking for an exciting new way to simulate gunning or cutting lots of dudes down using the Wii Remote, you'd best keep looking."
eToychest - 78%: "However, despite its faults, the long and short of it is that Red Steel is a fun first-person shooter, and hopefully a decent indicator of where developers will be able to take this genre on the Wii. The title controls extremely fluid, and is likely to draw praise from those PC gamers who up until now have been turned off by how the first-person shooter genre has been portrayed on the home console market. This is certainly one of the stronger titles for the Wii's retail debut, and while certainly not for everyone, is still a commendable example of the immersive experiences the Wii is capable of conveying."
1UP - 50%: "Don't be fooled into thinking Red Steel reinvents the FPS. It's nothing more than a ho-hum shooter with a creative but flawed gimmick stapled on. Sure, it might not steal the launch lineup, but at least it proves this type of game is welcome on the Wii."
Here we are, just hours away from the US launch of the Wii. Still debating on Red Steel? Here are some shiny new screens to look over while you think about it. Several of these really showcase the lighting effects to their advantage. The Wii may not be able to boast the power of the PS3 or the Xbox 360, but if the design is good enough, Wii games can be just as beautiful.
Say what you will about Red Steel -- whether you're interested in the game or not, the concept art we've seen from the design process has been uniformly gorgeous. We got our hands on some fresh new screens that are almost as pretty. Check 'em out after the jump.
_thumbnail.jpg "Mega Man 9")
_thumbnail.jpg "Smash Bros. Brawl Snapshots")
