NintendoWare Weekly: WiiWare demos, Pokemon Rumble, Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures
This week, we get our first taste of Nintendo’s new WiiWare demos. Surprisingly, it didn’t take Nintendo that long to flip the switch for North America, considering the company revealed the long-overdue feature — and day-one annoyance — only earlier this month. And on top of the free trial versions of select WiiWare titles (five total this week!), there are also two new Virtual Console titles to enjoy, as well as three new DSiWare games. Hit the break for the full list.
NintendoWare Weekly: WiiWare demos, Pokemon Rumble, Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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2D Boy’s Gabler clarifies next project
2D Boy’s Kyle Gabler tells Joystiq that the current project he’s working on with Henry Hatsworth creator Kyle Gray and World of Goo programmer Allan Blomquist is not the next game from 2D Boy. Following up on yesterday’s confusing reports on the new game, Gabler told us that he and 2D Boy co-founder Ron Carmel don’t want to prematurely announce their next project, which he believes will have huge expectations following the plaudits plopped on World of Goo.
Gabler explained the game he’s working on with Gray and Blomquist isn’t a 2D Boy or EA title, and he later sent us a link which goes into more detail on the Experimental Gameplay Project website. The game he’s working on with the “EGP guys” will be high quality, though only a couple of hours long.
2D Boy’s Gabler clarifies next project originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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2D Boy’s Gabler drops hints on upcoming WiiWare game
2D Boy’s Kyle Gabler, speaking with Nintendo Dpad, mentions he’s currently working on a new WiiWare project with Henry Hatsworth creator Kyle Gray. Programming things along will be World of Goo code guy Allan Blomquist. Gabler states that the trio hasn’t mentioned “anything about it to anyone,” but drops the gooey detail that the new game is based on an experimental title from their past. Hmmm.
We’re following up to find out if there’s any further information on the title and whether Ron Carmel — 2D Boy’s other co-founder — is also involved in the project. We’ll update as soon as we receive more details.
[Via Go Nintendo]
2D Boy’s Gabler drops hints on upcoming WiiWare game originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The industry chimes in on the importance of reviews for Wii games
Various industry figures have come out in support of Peter Moore’s claims that review scores don’t impact the success of Wii games. One developer told Eurogamer that how a Wii game does is contingent entirely upon marketing, calling Wii games “pure risk.” “A lot of these games that you think are the perfect game for Wii don’t sell because companies don’t have the money to market them,” the developer said. “Whereas Nintendo is spending gazillions of dollars marketing their games.”
Michael Pachter suggested that review scores aren’t important because many Wii owners don’t read reviews. “”I think that Metacritic scores are irrelevant for people who don’t look at them - how’s that for obvious?” Pachter said. “While there are many Wii owners who are hardcore and who care very much about scores, there are many - perhaps half - who are quite casual, and wouldn’t know Metacritic if it fell on them.” He offered games like Carnival Games and Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum as examples of successful titles with little critical acclaim.
However, 2D Boy’s Kyle Gabler offers an instance in which Metacritic scores and reviews do make a difference: indie games, like his own World of Goo, which happens to be the third highest-rated game on Wii. He compares mainstream games to Will Smith movies, which draw audiences without reviews.
“But for indie guys like us, Metacritic and review scores matter a lot,” Gabler said. “In fact we link directly to them from our web site. So does Steam. It makes a lot of sense - potential players don’t feel comfortable dishing out cash for some random unknown indie game without an aggregate thumbs-up from solid reviewers.”
The industry chimes in on the importance of reviews for Wii games originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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WiiWare games appear on Amazon
Hot on the heels of moving into the Xbox Live Arcade market, online retailer Amazon has started offering Wiiware games for purchase, as spotted by a savvy shopper on NeoGAF. The first one spotted in the wild is 2D Boy’s puzzler World of Goo.
Though discounts were a big selling point for the XBLA portion of Amazon’s e-storefront, this first offering is at the full $15 price tag. Here’s hoping that’s not the case for all Wii releases. This isn’t how we want to buy our games, but we could definitely be lured in by the prospect of saving a few bucks.
Update: Just like with the XBLA codes, there are no plans to sell WiiWare codes through Amazon’s UK branch, reports CasualGaming.biz.
WiiWare games appear on Amazon originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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VC/WiiWare Tuesday: Phantasy World of Goo
Today would be an incredible day on the Japanese Wii Shop even if World of Goo weren’t debuting. In addition to one of the best games on Wii, the Virtual Console is updated with four high-quality titles. In fact, Phantasy Star alone would ensure that today was a winner. It’s hard to imagine a better deal than Phantasy Star for just 600 Wii Points.
Other VC games available in Japan today include Castlevania 3 (awesome), the PC Engine version of the NES Ninja Gaiden (quite the curiosity!) and an arcade rail shooter from Namco Bandai. The other WiiWare game, and basically the only unknown property, is Hajitte! Block Rush, which looks like a radial Breakout in which the paddle is in the middle of the screen. We’d try that!
Virtual Console:
- Akumajou Densetsu (Castlevania 3) (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
- Phantasy Star (Master System, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
- Ninja Ryukenden (Ninja Gaiden) (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
- Starblade (Arcade, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
WiiWare:
- Hajitte! Block Rush (1 player, 500 Wii Points)
- World of Goo (1-4 players, 1,500 Wii Points)
VC/WiiWare Tuesday: Phantasy World of Goo originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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2D Boy examines creating a World of Goo
Independent game developer 2D Boy has begun to detail the early days of development for World of Goo. In a recent blog post (the first of seven), the team revealed its original version of what would eventually become the award-winning title. One week into development, 2D Boy had a basic idea of what to expect: A small game with simple physics and collision detection … and which sported no music or animation at all.
If a screenshot (pictured above) of 2D Boy’s creativity coming to fruition isn’t enough, the developer has also made the original version of the game available to download — for free. 2D Boy warns players that the 2006 version “feels like you’re dragging balls inside a jar of honey” and has stability issues but it’s a great extra for fans of the final product. Also, it guest stars Chairry … so it captured our Pee-Wee’s Playhouse loving hearts immediately.
2D Boy examines creating a World of Goo originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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World of Goo coming to Japan in Q2
Earlier this month, a Japanese trademark for World of Goo was spotted, registered by Nintendo of Japan. This lead to conjecture that Nintendo would publish the indie WiiWare hit in that territory. Nintendo’s Tom Prata has kindly confirmed the speculation, telling us that “Nintendo will distribute World of Goo for WiiWare in Japan starting in the second quarter of 2009.”
The company certainly seems taken with the game, which is now pretty much the poster child for WiiWare. At the DICE summit, 2D Boy’s Kyle Gabler even joined Prata onstage for a presentation about Nintendo’s interest in putting more indie games on WiiWare and DSiWare.
Gallery: World of Goo
World of Goo coming to Japan in Q2 originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Sat, 21 Feb 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Touch Ruminations: Serious Business
In the latest edition of Touch Ruminations, former DS and Wii Fanboy Lead David Hinkle talks about how lousy Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop looks and why the Wii needs to be taken more seriously. Basically, he just rants about stuff. The opinions expressed here belong to the author and don’t necessarily reflect those of Joystiq, Weblogs Inc. or its affiliates.
You’ve seen it, right? Horrible, I know. How does something like this even happen? I don’t have all of the answers, but being an individual that has worked in the Wii trenches for years now, I can tell you one thing: this isn’t helping the Wii to get the respect it deserves.
Continue reading Touch Ruminations: Serious Business
Touch Ruminations: Serious Business originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nintendo may publish World of Goo in Japan
Siliconera found a new Japanese trademark registration, for something called … hmm, “World of Goo”? Oh, wait, that’s probably just that WiiWare game, World of Goo, that came out in other territories last year and was loved by all. 2D Boy’s puzzle masterpiece has yet to hit Japan, but it could soon, judging by this registration. Surprisingly, Nintendo is the registering company, meaning that it may choose to publish World of Goo in Japan. That’s a testament to Nintendo’s high estimation of the game’s quality belief that it will sell!
World of Goo isn’t the first Western WiiWare game from a smaller developer to be picked up by a huge publisher for Japanese release. Square Enix released Frontier Developments’ LostWinds in December.
Gallery: World of Goo
Nintendo may publish World of Goo in Japan originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Top 10 Best Selling Games
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