With all the major publishers still so used to promoting their upcomings in May and no E3 to do it at, they've been hosting their own smaller functions. The week before last, Nintendo hosted a Media Summit in the US to pimp their latest and although we weren't on-site, Nintendo Australia were kind enough to hook Steve up with a showcase of some of the new games. Read on for all the details including hands on with the Wii's Resident Evil 4, Mario Strikers, Super Paper Mario and more.
Aussie Big N Update
Monday 04 Jun 2007, Coverage by Stephen Farrelly
A week ago Nintendo of America held a summit for US journos showcasing some of their upcoming Wii and DS titles and touted their strength in numbers which, to this day, continue to grow astronomically. NOA's own Reggie Fils-Aime was on-hand to make subtle cracks and remarks about the competition and to do what he does best - "kick ass and take names" (the yanks came up with that remember, not us). At any rate, among all the games shown were the likes of Pokémon Revolution, Mario Strikers Charged, Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition and many more, but the point of the summit was actually not necessarily on the core games we're all interested in; in fact what Reggie talked more openly about was the success Nintendo has had in the last few years with expanding the videogame market to include casual and non-gamer types.
Unfortunately we weren't there in person to hear all of this, suffice to say though, the Wii - whichever way you want to look at it - and its portable counterpart, Nintendo DS, are revolutionising the industry's growth. People over 50, more females, even younger audiences are all flocking to both Wii and DS, and this is without the help of the likes of E3 - it's all viral and it's all working in The Big N's favour. But when wrapping up this excitable speech of industry growth, new consumers and a different type of market, Reggie went on to ensure all of the 'core' gamers in attendance were aware that Ninty hasn't forgotten them at all, confirming that four of Nintendo's biggest franchises would indeed hit the Wii and DS this year: Metroid Prime: Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hour Glass - are all slated for a US release in 2007.
So where does that leave us? Well, we can confirm for you the first of the big guns released this year, Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, will be landing on store shelves as early as July 5, while the incredibly fun Mario Strikers Charged (more on these in a moment) will hit retail June 7. That's two massive games already released for the console within a month of each other and beginning in less than a week. While on the DS front, you can expect to see both Pokémon Diamond and Pearl land on June 21. Other games that are due to release this year in Australia with no solid dates yet are the next Brain Game updates, More Brain Training From Dr Kawashima and How Old is Your Brain, as well as the newest lawyer romp, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice For All from Capcom and Custom Robo Arena - all for DS.
As far as Wii goes, Super Paper Mario will definitely hit Aussie shelves this year, though no official date has been given, while the other major releases maintain their silence with no word on whether we'll see Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime: Corruption or Super Smash Brothers: Brawl in 2007 in Australia (though I put my money on us seeing at least two of these this holiday season). In the US, Metroid Prime: Corruption was actually brought forward a lot earlier than most anticipated with a release date of August 20, while a tentative date of late September was given for Europe which allows my Sherlock Holmes type skills to assume that, of the "at least two games" we'll see this year, MPC will be one of them. As for the other two big-name titles, that's anyone's guess.
Now, while we certainly weren't lucky enough to attend the US Nintendo Summit, Nintendo of Australia's own PR front-man, Vispi Bhopti, was nice enough to give yours truly a run through of most of the games mentioned above (no, not Galaxy, Corruption or Brawl, unfortunately), beginning with the most impressive of all - Mario Strikers Charged.
If there are any Nintendophiles on here who remember just how spot-on Super Mario Tennis was for N64, you're going to feel right at home with Nintendo's take on soccer in the Mario universe. You play games of four-a-side against a myriad of teams with a number of classic Nintendo characters including Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Wario and Waluigi (among other B-listers as well). The big names are the team captains while the B-list faces are your sidekicks.
Control is incredibly intuitive, and I easily trounced through the tutorial section in less than 15 minutes, which meant I was able to jump right into the action without being dragged into convoluted lessons better learnt on the field. You control your characters with the Nunchuk analogue stick, pass with A and shoot with B. When on the defensive you can slide-tackle with the D-Pad or shake the Wii Remote a little to properly tackle your opponents, and with a tap of the A-button you can select your on-field character to control. That's the basics of handling and once you understand that, it's simple.
Shooting for goal can be a hard task though, as the goalie AI is really very good, however, a system of 'hot potato' has been implemented whereby passing the ball to your team-mates back and fourth a few times in front of goal will actually change the ball's glow, when it's white, it's prime time to have a crack at the goal and with the new colour, you're more likely to score than when it's at its normal red colour. There are variant colours in between that indicate just how 'hot' the ball will be when you shoot offering an idea of how likely you are to score a goal. Obviously the trade-off for this is standing in front of the goal for too long means you're more open to being tackled and so you have to be on your toes and thinking quick.
Like most Nintendo-based sports games, you go through a series of cups playing each team twice (if you choose the Career mode), while on the multiplayer front you can have up to four players taking part in a match both in the lounge room against each other or online! Yes, this is the first online game for the Wii, and I can tell you, it took less than two minutes to play a ranked match which was executed smoothly and without a single drop in performance. No lag, slowdown or anything. All this was also done from a simple Wi-Fi USB Connector I have plugged into my PC. With that said, however, it's still not nearly as clean or well presented as Xbox Live, but it is a start.
The next game I went hands-on with was the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 4, only this time the game has been Wii-ified. Resi 4 Wii Edition is essentially a combination of both the GameCube and PS2 iterations of the game with all-new Wii controls and the ability to finally play the game in progressive scan mode at 16:9. Everything is completely intact, and even though it does look a bit dated now, it still plays brilliantly, especially with the new control system.
Coming into the game for the first time since I powered through the GameCube version (no less than three times, I was a bit obsessed), I immediately knew what the controls were going to be - it really is
that intuitive. You control Leon with the Nunchuk analogue stick, hold Z to make him run, C pulls out his knife (though just shaking the Wii Remote immediately has him attacking with it), B puts you in the aiming position, A shoots and, of course, with the Wii Remote you can now take out enemies with pinpoint accuracy. It's an incredibly affable control system and only enhances an already brilliant gaming experience.
Finally, Super Paper Mario was handed to me to have a crack at, and while I avoided taking in too much of the story (knowing full well how deep it was going to be), I can tell you the series has been stripped back a tonne. It feels less like an RPG now and more like a 2D side-scrolling Mario adventure with some whacky level design and a bit of 3D here and there for good measure. It definitely looks the part and plays beautifully, but having some of the core RPG elements pulled from the game doesn't feel right. Still, it's the type of game that needs some solid investment, and one I deliberately held back from getting too involved with to save for the review - so stay tuned in the coming weeks for that.
Like the
Sony Pause event, having this kind of access to Nintendo products and movements that are Aussie relevant can only help as it keeps us all informed and aware of what we should be saving our pennies (and game playing hours) for. We'll have more info on the big games coming from The Big N sooner than you think, but for now, rest easy in the knowledge that from here on in, whether you own a DS or a Wii or both, you're going to have quite a lot to get excited about.
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