Remember back when Mark Rein let loose somebody was working on Unreal Engine 3 for Wii? Well, we finally know what game will be using it, we guess. Kind of. We don't really know much about the exact game, per se. What game? The one that EA is publishing from Q Entertainment, Resident Evil co-creator Shinji Mikami and the man responsible for one of our most favorite Wii games, Suda51.
Suda says Unreal Engine 3 is a "powerful, easy-to-implement game engine" that is aiding his company to "quickly bring our vision to life." He also added that the "tools and technology" allow him to "create games faster, easier and with less risk." So are we excited? Well, maybe. It's not like the Wii version is mentioned and we would think it should be, considering no title up until now has utilized Unreal Engine 3 technology. But, hey, we'll try to be as optimistic as we can, because we feel confident in the abilities of all involved, to tell the truth.
Now if only we could some information on what this game is ...
Posted Oct 3rd 2008 11:50AM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
Because it's not a Nintendo event if it isn't followed by "where's (Game X)" questions, Kombo cornered Reggie Fils-Aime at yesterday's conference and asked him about the status of North American versions of Disaster: Day of Crisis and Fatal Frame IV. While nobody expected concrete dates or even confirmation from Reggie's answers, he still managed to impart a bit of information.
Regarding Disaster: Nintendo of America is waiting to see how the game performs in Europe before making a decision. That means that we at least have to wait for a while afterOctober 24 to hear anything.
As for Fatal Frame, he offered the following frustrating response: "you're going to have to contact the publisher for questions on that." So it might be coming out here -- just not from Nintendo, despite Nintendo of Japan publishing it. Who wants to start cold-calling publishers?*
*Note: Wii Fanboy does not encourage the cold-calling of publishers.
We know what you're thinking: Disaster: Day of Crisis' protracted development can't have been that calamitous, right? The game released in Japan last week, and promptly earned itself a respectable score in Famitsu. And just getting released is probably more than we should expect for some games.
But not every part of the title's gestation was peachy. The Monolith Soft team who worked on the game have been recounting their experiences in an interview for Nintendo's Japanese website, revealing that they were first approached about developing an "epic" game in early 2006, to be delivered in time for the launch of Nintendo's new Wii console.
This gave Monolith around nine months to finish Disaster, but by the time the deadline had rolled around, the game still felt incomplete and had very few Wiimote-related functions -- instead, it used the Classic Controller. Nintendo temporarily halted the project in October or November of 2006, only for work to begin again in early 2007; at this point, the entire game was revamped to include more waggle.
Getting to peek behind the development curtain is always intriguing -- we're just glad everything worked out for the game in the end.
Oh, man. Listen, Disaster: Day of Crisis is a game we've been waiting on for a long, long time. We like the idea. We like what we've seen. We even like this video (showing off nine minutes of opening gameplay, including the intro movie), despite the questionable YouTube quality. It looks pretty decent and more than playable. We daresay it could even be fun. But the dialogue is a little lacking.
Okay. Let's get real: it's repetitive, unrealistic, and silly. But hey, we're used to less-than-stellar game writing, and Disaster has one thing going for it at the start: a hero with an indestructible noggin -- and that's all any action game really needs, right?
Two trailers for Disaster: Day of Crisis are now available on the Japanese Nintendo Channel. The first, above, does an excellent job of channeling American action movies, which is good for something that purports to put the player in one. It's got a brooding hero, stern-voiced narration from some kind of military official, and explosions all over the damn place. The second trailer combines the gameplay footage we've seen with a bit more context, which basically means walking around. Presented this way, it seems a bit less like a collection of disconnected events.
We don't mind saying that these trailers have worked. We could really stand to hear about a US release.
Imagine our surprise when we heard that Nintendo of Japan plans to release Disaster: Day of Crisison September 25th. After hearing barely anything about the game for months, including a no-show at E3 and PAX, we were incredibly doubtful the game would release this calendar year, yet alone at all. But, sure enough, the official Nintendo of Japan website has it listed. Right here.
So with a Japanese release ironed out and the European release date for October 24th set in stone, when can North America expect the game? We've contacted Nintendo and are awaiting word. As soon as we get it, we'll update the post.
While cruising around Konami's booth at E3, I saw Lost in Blue: Shipwreckedand, honestly, wasn't too excited to play it. Once the demo person showed me exactly what was up with the demo (a variety of minigames and the main Survivor mode), the title grew on me a tad, but, overall, failed to leave me with the impression that it could provide a lengthy, worthwhile experience.
If you could take only one item with you to a deserted island, what would it be? If you answered Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked, that's pretty funny. The "only one item" rule prohibits taking a Wii with you to play it on -- not to mention the whole lack of electricity thing.
Take a look at the latest screens in the gallery and make your choice. Is this really the game you'd want to have with you? You can shear sheep, watch your pets put on a show and even do some skipping. Not the most productive tasks when stranded, but it can't be all hunting and gathering.
Blurry English screens were a big indication that Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked! was being localized outside of Japan, and Konami already announced a fall target for the game in North America. The company recently offered a European projection as well, though. Apparently, PAL nations (perhaps not Australia) can expect Shipwrecked! in the fall, too, along with the third title in the DS series.
Famitsu also has some new screens for the game, which may not be blurry but definitely don't live up to the Wii's graphical powers. As for the gameplay, the images give you a sense of what kind of survival activities Lost in Blue will demand from you, and reveal a cute mouse-like creature that the castaways seem to befriend. Just click on past the break if you'd like to take a look.
Our sight is finally going from spending too long looking at Doki Doki Majo Shinpan Duo screenshots. Mother said it would happen!
Somebody broke in overnight and maliciously slathered our monitors in Vaseline.
As it stands, those are the only three explanations we can muster for these blur-o-rific Lost in Blue screens, the first English language shots to appear. They actually look a little better shrunk down (see above), but the same can't be said for the full-size versions. Are we being harsh by suggesting those smudgy textures recall the dreaded Nintendo 64 fuzz? We only criticize because we want this to be just right!
Some awesome ideas coupled with mediocre execution: that's the story of Lost in Blue so far. Hopefully the potential of the series will be realized now that Konami has shifted development from the DS to the Wii, and these scans, extracted from the pages of CoroCoro magazine, are a promising start.
If you've played any of the Lost in Blue games on the DS, much of what appears in these screens will look comfortingly familiar -- dislodging coconuts from trees, starting fires, cooking with rudimentary tools -- but there appears to be the odd new feature as well; for instance, we don't recall a dog being in any of the DS games (though feel free to correct us there). Hit the "Read" link below for the full scans.
Gamefly hinted a few months back that Lost in Blue was jumping ship to the Wii -- a rumor that has now been confirmed for Japan.
Konami announced the game by adding it to the Survival Kids list on the company's Japanese website (Survival Kids is the title of the series in Japan). Spencer Yip from Siliconera informs us that the game will have a multiplayer option and offer some sort of online component, but other than that, little is known.
We're sure this game could be a good fit for the Wii, as long as Konami doesn't go overboard with the waggle. There's a lot of survival activities that the Wiimote could work well for, though, so we're willing to wait and see how this one pans out.
After being announced almost two years ago (note: two years in the game industry is roughly equivalent to 853 Earth years, or at least it feels that way) Famitsu finally managed to yank a Japanese release date for Disaster: Day of Crisis from beneath the rubble.
July 3rd is the day to note down in your BFF journal, and are we relieved about that. The long stretches of silence in the build-up left us fretting about the fate of the title, but now we know: the natural-disaster-survival-me-do is definitely coming! Yaaay!
While we're on the subject of Japan and release dates, we should also mention that Famitsu has Super Mario Stadium Baseball down for a June 19th release. As someone who finds baseball to be a dense, impenetrablemystery (this could have been written for me), I'll leave it at that.
Gamefly has always been a great source for finding out about new games, and thanks to some sleuthing from the folks at Siliconera, another one may have been revealed.
According to a listing on the game rental site, Konami's DS series Lost in Blue might be jumping ship to the Wii. As Levi points out, the game can be an even better fit on the Wii than it was on the DS. While the DS is a great system for adventure games, the Wiimote might make the minigame portions of the title more fun and less tedious. Furthermore, we've already seen that point-and-click works well on the Wii, so Lost in Blue has the potential to become a welcome addition on the little white console.
We know that a lot of you are fans of the quirky survival series, so what are your thoughts on this rumor?
Nintendo of Europe is featuring a couple of trailers for Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition that should help convey how cool RE4 is to those of you who didn't play it back on the Gamecube. They also do a pretty good job of reminding the rest of us that Resident Evil 4 was pretty damn cool.
After seeing the trailers and screenshots, we can feel ourselves starting to turn into Capcom's willing zombie minions. Maybe Wiimote aiming would improve the experience! Maybe waggle does trump a novelty chainsaw controller!
Remember back when Mark Rein let loose somebody was working on Unreal Engine 3 for Wii? Well, we finally know what game will be using it, we guess. Kind of. We don't really know much about the exact game, per se. What game? The one that EA is publishing from Q Entertainment, Resident Evil co-creator Shinji Mikami and the man responsible for one of our most favorite Wii games, Suda51. 
