Posts tagged Sonic team at Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Posts with tag sonic-team

More imagery of Sonic Unleashed

Posted Jun 30th 2008 6:00PM by Candace Savino
Filed under: Screens

Gamekyo (formerly known as Jeux-France) posted up some new scans for the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed, which show us a handful of new screens for the blue hedgehog's upcoming title. Considering that the images are based on scans, they actually look pretty nice. There's only a handful, but they show Sonic doing what he does best -- attacking robots and collecting coins.

We're curious to see what the "very different" Wii version of the game will be like when compared to the 360 and PS3 ones, but at least it looks like it's going to be okay. We'll just have to wait until this fall (specifically November, according to Gamekyo) to find out for ourselves.

Gallery: Sonic Unleashed

Born for Wii: ChuChu Rocket!

Posted Jun 24th 2008 10:15AM by Wesley Fenlon
Filed under: Born for Wii

In spite of its untimely demise, the Dreamcast still lives on in gamers' hearts due to a small library of now-classic titles, ranging from the grandiose, such as Shenmue, to the bizarre, like Space Channel 5. Falling closer to the latter on the weirdness scale is ChuChu Rocket!, a unique Dreamcast puzzler that's noteworthy for being one of the last great games to come out of Sega's Sonic Team (I mean, really -- Shadow the Hedgehog?), and for taking the Dreamcast online with four-player multiplayer -- no small feat in 2000. Just like Katamari Damacy, ChuChu Rocket! succeeds on the strengths of simple-but-addictive gameplay and irresistible charm.

ChuChu Rocket! makes no attempt to hide what it is -- a pure puzzler, free of all frivolities and unnecessary dead weight like a story. The concept is quite straightforward -- your only goal is to guide a group of mice (or, in some levels, just one mouse) into a rocket. In many cases, this involves avoiding cats who are roaming the puzzle terrain, waiting to make a mouse sandwich out of your little ChuChus. Both the mice and the cats move in the exact same fashion -- they head in a straight line until they hit a wall, which will cause them to turn right. It's a little like watching a group of lemmings, but, thankfully, the mice move just a bit faster.

Gallery: Born for Wii: ChuChu Rocket

Continue reading Born for Wii: ChuChu Rocket!

NiGHTS' price continues to wane

Posted Jun 16th 2008 7:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Sales

Amazon has dropped the price of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams even further, from a tempting $20.99 to a tantalizing $16.88. At that price, it's almost irresistible! We know this because we are currently almost failing to resist it. Amazon's price for new copies has finally dipped down just below Gamefly's price for used copies, and, as with Gamefly, free shipping is available.

The rapidly-falling price for what was supposed to be the triumphant return of a beloved franchise doesn't really bode well for the future. We shouldn't look forward to a localized version of the PS2 NiGHTS into Dreams remake, for one thing. Or anything that doesn't star Sonic and about a billion other anthropomorphic jerks.

Gallery: NiGHTS

NiGHTS: Journey to awesome free stuff

Posted May 23rd 2008 3:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News

NiGHTS Community, a site for obsessive NiGHTS fans, came into possession of some rare Journey of Dreams memorabilia earlier this year when Sega gave the administrator a private demo of the game (!) Instead of hoarding it forever or selling it on eBay, the site has decided to give it away in a contest. And the prizes are all being given away individually instead of as a giant pile, so you have half a chance.

You could win a PAL copy of NiGHTS or much more interesting (but less playable) stuff, such as a glow-in-the-dark sticker sheet, a Japanese promotional poster, or a two-track soundtrack sampler which apparently was never made available outside of Sega of Europe! We hope you can fulfill your dreams of having stuff with pictures of NiGHTS on it.

Start your morning on a high note: Samba de Amigo trailer

Posted May 22nd 2008 8:45AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Video

Samba de Amigo is one of those things that will always inspire happiness. Even if you're not a huge Sega fan, the bouncy music, bright colors and manic monkeys will probably make you smile. And if you are all about Sega, few things represent everything great about the Dreamcast era like a game about a maraca-shaking monkey. While we may have criticized the new version recently for overdoing the onscreen clutter, we can't deny that this trailer made our morning a lot better. It's just joyful.

It even works on paid professionals. You think that's acting? No, that chimpanzee is totally feeling it.

Gallery: Samba de Amigo

Sonic Unleashed has Cube controller support

Posted May 16th 2008 2:00PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News

Hidden deep within Matt Casamassina's eyes-on preview of Sonic Unleashed on the PS3 and 360 is the news that the ~~Sonic Team~~ Dimps-developed Wii version would not only support a Wiimote/nunchuk combination, but also the GameCube controller, and possibly the Classic controller.

Being the outrageous cynics that we are, we initially suspected this meant we'd be getting a downgraded port of the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 game, but Casamassina also points out that the stages in the Wii iteration are "very different." So now we don't know what to think -- heck, maybe Dimps just believes the game feels nicer with the Cube controller.

Gallery: Sonic Unleashed

Sonic Unleashed: Almost everything we knew was a lie

Posted Apr 29th 2008 1:30PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Rumors

We'll have to mark this as rumor, since the source is Kombo's writeup of a Play Magazine article, and thus a little too far abstracted for comfort. According to Kombo, a recent interview with Sonic Team's Yoshihisa Hashimoto about Sonic Unleashed revealed a bunch of stuff about Sega's latest attempt to refresh the franchise. What he had to say put basically everything we thought we knew about the game into question.

For example, the Wii game is being outsourced. Given the identity of the developer (Sonic Rush's Dimps), that's mostly a good thing, but it's still surprising to learn that we've been misled into thinking Sonic Team was simultaneously developing all three versions. That means that the "Hedgehog Engine," which we thought was being used for all three games, is not being used for the Wii. Furthermore, Dimps is doing not only the coding, but also level design for the Wii game, which means it's a different game.

Worst of all is the news that Sega has already started downplaying the 2.5D aspect of the game. We believed that the whole game played as a sidescroller, but Hashimoto said it'll be about half 2D and half 3D. Great!

None of this means that Sonic Unleashed on the Wii or any other platform will necessarily be bad, it just means that it won't be what we thought it was.

Gallery: Sonic Unleashed

NiGHTS Gameflying out the door for $23

Posted Apr 18th 2008 9:45AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Sales

For an indeterminate period, Gamefly has marked the price of used copies of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams down to $22.99. If you were ever curious about trying out Sega's flying adventure, now seems like as good a time as any!

Unlike the sticker-marred, printed-instructions-bundled nightmare of buying rentals from Blockbuster or a local video store (as someone who spent hours at a previous job cleaning rental sticker residue off of NES cartridges: thanks, local video stores) buying from Gamefly is surprisingly okay. You get the original case and instructions in perfect condition, since Gamefly files them away immediately upon receiving their copies, and the discs are guaranteed.

Sega teases Sonic lycanthropy

Posted Apr 8th 2008 8:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Video

Or lyc-hedgehog-py, or whatever. You know, the werewolf thing that we all knew was coming, because we all saw the leaked screenshots? It's real! Sega's latest trailer focuses on this aspect of Sonic Unleashed, giving us a sneak peek at the thing we've already totally seen. Of course, we don't yet know how this figures into gameplay. Soon we'll find out whether a (cartoon) wolf (who is also part hedgehog) is faster or slower than cartoon hedgehog.

As a bonus, you get to hear how the Sonic voice actor (sorry, Sonic voice-acting aficionados! We can't tell which one it is!) interprets the sound of a hedgehog turning into a werewolf. Do they teach that in acting class?

Gallery: Sonic Unleashed

Dream of a cheaper NiGHTS in Europe

Posted Apr 4th 2008 5:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Imports, Sales

According to Wiiz, Sega has officially dropped the European MSRP of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams to €30. We haven't found the statement from Sega, but Amazon.fr reflects this price. The UK price has also fallen to around £30, but, of course, while these amounts look the same, they represent different costs. To put it bluntly, the price is still way out of hand for the UK. A Freeloader and an American copy of NiGHTS would come out to the same price, plus you'd have a Freeloader.

This follows a similar price drop last week in the U.S. So even though the prices are still different across regions, they're all lower within those regions than they were before.

Wii Warm Up: Dare we unleash Sonic?

Posted Apr 4th 2008 9:00AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Wii Warm Up

It's official: the hedgehog is back, in what many Sonic fans are already starting to call a possible return to form. But every new Sonic game gets called a return to form, because they always look great in initial screenshots -- and because fans' goodwill for the character has yet to be fully eroded.

We're not going to go too far into our personal opinions about Sonic and his recent games -- we'll just say that previous 3D Sonic the Hedgehog games have failed to meet many fans' expectations. Are you ready to give him another chance? Does the new trailer and the promise of side-scrolling gameplay resonate with you? To be honest, it totally does with us. That trailer worked, and we don't want to be the only ones who thought so.

Gallery: Sonic Unleashed

Sonic Unleashed: confirmed for Wii, 2.5D [update]

Posted Apr 3rd 2008 12:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News

Update: Trailer!

While we had no trouble believing that Sonic Unleashed was a real game and that the leaked screens and video were really that game, we had no solid evidence that it would show up on Wii. Sega of Europe has confirmed the existence of the game in a press release, and announced the platforms on which it will be released: pretty much all of them, including the Wii!

Sonic Unleashed will use a new "Hedgehog Engine" and will feature side-scrolling gameplay rendered in 3D graphics, as Sonic battles Eggman and attempts to reassemble the broken world (by running over it?) The werewolf thing also seems confirmed, as the press release says "As the sun sets in Sonic Unleashed, a different type of adventure will awaken in Sonic's newest quest ..." unless they just mean the type of adventure in which you can't see anything. Check out the first two official screenshots of Sonic Unleashed (but still not the Wii version) after the break.

Gallery: Sonic Unleashed

Continue reading Sonic Unleashed: confirmed for Wii, 2.5D [update]

Sonic Unleashed confirmed, mostly

Posted Mar 23rd 2008 5:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Rumors

Some video and screens came out of what looked like a new Sonic the Hedgehog game, identified as Sonic Unleashed. After this leak, Sega issued a press release to a German magazine called Sega On confirming the existence of the game -- and then Sega On removed it. Which means that we don't know what's real, if anything. We also don't know which platform or platforms the game will come out on -- the information out there says 360 and Wii, at least.

Sega On now says that Unleashed is an unprecedented collaboration between Sega teams in Japan, Europe, and the U.S., designed to "rebuild the Sonic brand and prove that it could work in 3D environments." It involves a werewolf-style Sonic, either as a player transformation or as an enemy. It's all very confusing, but we can at least say with some certainty that some Sonic game is coming to some system. Check Gamersyde for a bunch of (likely) screenshots, and hit the post break for a video! It looks ... really cool, and mostly 2D -- which the game was described to be in some possibly fake gameplay details.

Gallery: Sonic Unleashed

Continue reading Sonic Unleashed confirmed, mostly

Samba de Video

Posted Feb 15th 2008 2:15PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: Video

Some random observations about this Samba de Amigo video, as shot at Sega's Gamersday event earlier this month:

Gearbox, we're loving the maraca sound effects that emanate with each shake of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Given the Wiimote's in-built speaker, this is a feature we'd have totally expected (and even the Dreamcast maracas managed this, albeit with a more low-tech solution), but it's still great to see it in action.
New level ahoy! A fairground really does seem like the perfect place for a spot of maraca-shaking.
It's been a while since this blogger recklessly coughed up $250 of his student loan for the Dreamcast version of the game, but one thing I don't recall is Amigo being entirely detached from the levels. On the Dreamcast, the maraca-wielding monkey would dance his way through each stage, his colorful entourage in tow. Here, he simply floats free of the levels. This seems like a fussy/picky point to raise, but we're very fussy/picky people. Especially when it comes to Sega stuff.
It pleases us immensely to see the return of both Samba de Janeiro and bouncing scenery.

[Via NeoGAF]

NiGHTS: Holidays of Dreams

Posted Feb 4th 2008 11:15AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News

While there's (currently) no Christmas-related expansion like there was on the Saturn, Sonic Team still managed to sneak some seasonal content into NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. No doubt some of you have figured this out already, as holidays have happened since the game's release. But new NiGHTS players or those who don't mess around in the "My Dream" mode won't have seen any of it yet!

There's a special celebration of some kind in My Dream every single month. The Nightopians shoot fireworks all day on New Year's Day. In July, they don bullfighting gear for the Running of the Bulls. You can access this content in the manner of a cheating jerk by disconnecting from the Internet and changing the system's date, or you can wait like a decent human being.

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Nintendo Wii Fanboy

More imagery of Sonic Unleashed

Born for Wii: ChuChu Rocket!

NiGHTS' price continues to wane

NiGHTS: Journey to awesome free stuff

Start your morning on a high note: Samba de Amigo trailer

Sonic Unleashed has Cube controller support

Sonic Unleashed: Almost everything we knew was a lie

NiGHTS Gameflying out the door for $23

Sega teases Sonic lycanthropy

Dream of a cheaper NiGHTS in Europe

Wii Warm Up: Dare we unleash Sonic?

Sonic Unleashed: confirmed for Wii, 2.5D [update]

Sonic Unleashed confirmed, mostly

Samba de Video

NiGHTS: Holidays of Dreams

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