Nintendo Wii Fanboy

It may not shatter the earth as Dead Rising did, but the latest Famitsu has interesting news for fans of D3 Publisher's Simple series. Joining the Simple Wii and Simple 2000 Wii series is another new line, the @Simple games, a line of 500-point WiiWare games.

The first two games in the lineup, @Simple Wii Vol. 1 THE Block Kuzushi Neo and Vol. 2 THE Number Puzzle Neo, are the usual early Simple stuff (Breakout and sudoku), but for five bucks! Download services are where this series belongs, in our estimation. The low budgets can be matched with even lower prices (and even less commitment from the customers).

D3 Publisher has its Simple Wii series, which consists of cheap, original Wii games designed on a low budget. The company also has its Simple 2000 Series Wii, which consists of cheap Wii games designed on a low budget. The difference, aside from the extra number? The new Simple 2000 Wii games are actually ports of old Simple 2000 series games for the PS2.

The first two Simple 2000 Series Wii games have both been enhanced with new features: Simple 2000 Wii Vol. 1 THE Table Games, which includes Solitaire, Reversi, Go, Mahjong, and other games, now has online play; Vol. 2 THE Party Games, which includes Sasuke-like athletic challenges, plate spinning, and sports-based minigames, now has waggle.

Chris Kohler has taken a somewhat surprising stance on an issue that Wii enthusiasts have to face daily: shovelware. Most people online seem to be of the opinion that Wii shovelware will cause the Wii to fail, the game industry to crash, and life on Earth to end (when aliens discover our copies of Chicken Shoot and declare us unfit stewards of our planet), but Kohler sees Wii shovelware as not just not terrible, but maybe even good.

Supporting his argument is one of his best examples of shovelware gone right: D3 Publisher's Simple series. D3 admits in the very packaging that their games are cheap, with the implication that you shouldn't expect much. People buy them expecting flawed experiences, and can then ignore the technical issues. Simple games allow games by new developers with small budgets to share shelf space with AAA games. And if people don't want that, they know not to pick up the game.

People can spot a crap game, Kohler says, and know to avoid it. Nobody's going to be fooled into thinking a Data Design Interactive game is high-quality. Kohler likens it to knockoff He-Man toys or bargain-bin DVDs in Walgreens: people can tell the difference, and these things don't deter sales of real products at all. What they offer is a cheap, occasionally novel choice, and more choice is always better. If a "shovelware" game is at least a little bit fun, then it's good that it exists.

The final point he makes, which is something we hadn't considered: allowing garbage on the system is a message that Nintendo isn't so closely restricting content for the Wii. This could translate into AO-rated games in the future, or (we think) wildly experimental games.

Oneechanbara Revolution does indeed look much better in motion than in stills, losing the awful scanline look that has made us question whether D3 should have been releasing screens at all. In motion, Revolution actually looks quite a bit better than the original PS2 game -- not only graphically, but in terms of smooth movements and combos. Initial impressions make it seem that the game actually has quality this time, and that the new controls are fun (if tiring). Even though we were less than totally enthused with the PS2 game, we could see ourselves really enjoying some blood-soaked waggle combat with this.

After the break, there are two more videos, including a demonstration of co-op gameplay. These videos, as well as the one above, are very violent and bloody and absolutely for adults only and not safe for work. If your mom or boss is severely disappointed in you, don't blame us.

D3 Publisher's official page for Simple Wii Vol. 6 THE Wai Wai Combat has a bunch of new screenshots (and a few old ones) of the party/online shooting game. It kills us that this game looks so incredibly awesome, represents a completely unique implementation of the pick-up-and-play party game idea, has six-player online, and is budget-priced. It kills us because the Simple series is Japan-only, and it is currently extremely difficult to play imports.

Whine Whine Complaining aside, the information page also reveals a bit more about D3's "Apian" avatar system, which is really cute and also expandable. Turns out that each Simple game includes certain parts and accessories that you can use to customize your character -- we think across games. Well, that just destroys Miis.

While a couple of the games in the Simple Wii series have been interesting (though we can't comment on their actual quality), it's fairly apparent from screens that Simple Wii Vol. 5 THE Block Kuzushi is basically a miss, due to some questionable design decisions.

The main problem is that the actual playfield is so small. About 20% of the screen is occupied by actual game, with the rest going to gaudy backgrounds and a view of your "Apian" avatar (all the Simple Wii games use the same totally cute avatar creation system). This seems like an odd choice, especially since it forces all the actual blocks and the paddle to be tiny onscreen. In addition, if there is pointer control for the paddle, we would much prefer to have the whole screen at our disposal instead of being restricted to minute movements.

The other issue we can spot from screens is that, for some mysterious reason, the playfield is tilted. Both of these choices seem like they would make the game harder to see and more annoying. On the upside, the game has a level editor. With the awesome-looking THE Shooting Action scoring a 17/40 in Famitsu (and with little chance of localization), we shouldn't continue caring about these games, but we still do. Famitsu reviews don't matter anyway.

When D3 announced that their popular Simple series would come to the Wii, we expected stuff like mahjongg games and low-budget Wii Sports ripoffs. Instead of (well, in addition to) the normal cheapo kart racers and casino games, D3 seems to actually be putting some thought into the Wii concept. They seem to be focusing the Simple Wii series on multiplayer party games that fall into a variety of categories -- not just "minigames" and "sports-related minigames." The two most interesting Simple Wii games to us are Vol. 4 THE Shooting Action, a multiplayer space shooter, and Vol. 6 THE Wai Wai Combat.

Simple Wii Vol. 6 THE Wai Wai Combat is a cute-looking third-person shooter (in the style of Resident Evil 4) with Wiimote aiming and an emphasis on multiplayer. The game can be played by up to four people on one system, or up to six people online. The game looks pretty simplistic, both in terms of its cel-shaded style and its objective (shoot each other). It does feature various multiplayer modes like capture the flag.

Simplicity would be very welcome in this genre, to be honest. We dropped out of multiplayer 3D shooting games when we couldn't find anyone to play Doom with over our 14.4k BPS modem.

We wondered when we heard about D3's Oneechanbara Revolution whether it would be part of the Simple budget series from which the Oneechanbara games originated. Well, actually, we suspected that it wouldn't be, since Oneechanbara VorteX on the Xbox 360 had crossed the full-price barrier, and since a series of Simple Wii games had been announced independent of this new Oneechanbara.

But we continued to hope. We can forgive a repetitive, low-tech game for the right price, especially if it's in the action genre we crave. However, at full price we find it harder to overlook the obvious issues with the game (not that it matters, since it's a Japan-only release). We now have extremely definitive proof that Oneechanbara Revolution is not a budget game: the price. NCSX is taking preorders for the title at a price of $58, and Amazon.jp lists the game's retail price at 6,090 yen ($55), with Amazon selling it for $46.

D3 is including somewhat of a consolation prize with every copy, in the form of a soundtrack CD. The music's the most entertaining thing about the game anyway!

D3 Publisher released some screenshots of the next two entries in their Simple Wii series, Simple Wii Vol.3 THE Party Casino and Vol. 4 THE Shooting Action. Both games use the same set of Mii-like characters, which we think are adorable. We're particularly interested in THE Shooting Action, because it appears to be a competitive shooter!

Using four different kinds of weapons, up to four players can shoot at each other in spaceships. Given the appearance of targeting reticles on the screen, we're guessing that aiming is done with the Wiimote pointer. And ... it's online. Suddenly, we're very interested in this game. If it's the same kind of space dueling found in Star Control, but with four players and online play? We'd gladly pay a budget price for that.

GAME Watch is referring to D3 Publisher's Oneechanbara R as Oneechanbara Revolution now, solving the mystery of what the R means. We sort of assumed that it was "Remake," ourselves. Does this mean that the new Oneechanbara game takes significant steps forward toward becoming more than a ridiculous novelty game?

Probably not. The title is probably just a reference to the Wii, once called the Revolution itself. Oh, well. Let's not let the supposed terribleness of the games bring us down. Today is the best day of the year for browsing a bunch of screenshots of bloody zombies, and GAME Watch has obliged with a large collection of new screens.

Their post also reveals that the game contains not just the cowboy-hat-and-bikini-clad Aya, but also Saki, the other playable character from the first Oneechanbara game, just in case you'd like to choose which underdressed girl with whom to slash monsters.

Before TGS, we learned that D3 Publisher would be expanding their Simple series to the Wii, with the first two titles being Everybody's Kart Race and Everybody's Bass Fishing Tournament. But after the first two entries in the series, D3's already got four more titles lined up, not including Oneechanbara R, which comes from a series that used to be in the Simple category.

The next four games are, in order of Simple series number, THE Party Casino, THE Shooting Action, THE Block Kuzushi, and THE Wai Wai Combat. A Block Kuzushi game actually came out in the U.S. for the DS, under the name Break 'em All, so there may be a possibility of a similar release on the Wii.

If Data Design Interactive can get away with PS2 shovelware on the Wii, then we don't see why D3 can't make some original budget software and market it worldwide. We've always wanted to see the Simple brand in the U.S. There's something refreshingly honest about making the "budget-ness" of a game apparent right away.

[Via Siliconera]