Starting June 8th you’ll be able to waggle your Wiimote as never before. That’s the date when Nintendo is releasing Wii Motion Plus, an add-on which significantly ups the sensitivity of the motion controls. Thus far there aren’t many games that are offering support for this peripheral.
You might expect that Nintendo would be rushing Wii Sports Resort out the same day as it releases in order to drum up sales for the $20 peripheral. It turns out that’s not the case though. The beach-themed game will be released on July 26th, with a Motion Plus peripheral included with every copy of the game.
You’ll be able to throw a frisbee, race on jetskiis and even duel with swords. What resort involves sword dueling is beyond me, but since the mini-games are all designed to showcase the new potential for control schemes it’s unsurprising they fit that in there somehow.
Team based cooperative gameplay has always been popular. Whether you’re joining with friends to become the greatest fake band of all time or shooting up aliens with a buddy across the country, gamers have often gotten by with a little help from their friends. Yet nothing equals the sheer joy of smashing your friends into a grim digital pulp and dancing on their electronic graves.
That’s the idea behind Worms, one of the most recent additions to the Playstation Network. It’s already been out for Xbox Live Arcade for more than two years but its continued success prompted a port. It’s actually even older than that, with the original Worms having debuted on PC in 1995. After remakes and spin-offs the game landed as a remake on these two current-gen systems.
Though digital distribution isn’t catching on as quickly as some had hoped with the general public the commonly tech-friendly (or tech-obsessed) gaming crowd are embracing it happily. Yesterday rumors were circulating that Patapon 2, the follow-up to the rhythm/action/strategy hybrid would be available only as a digital download. You could still purchase it in a physical store if you were hoping to gift it to a friend/family member since word was that conventional stores would be carrying download vouchers.
Today Sony has come out and confirmed these rumors. Patrick Seybold, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Sony Computer Entertainment has said that this is simply a test to see how consumers will take to the digital-only distribution method. They’re reportedly exploring what people will want more, and with Patapon 2 being a somewhat anticipated title it’s certainly a good game to test the waters with.
Katsuhiro Harada, the director of Tekken 6, had some interesting things to say about bringing a Tekken game to the Wii in an interview with GamePro. When asked if Tekken 5 or Tekken 6 would be heading to the Wii any time soon, he said, “That would be very interesting. Like the Xbox 360 owners, if Wii owners are passionate and make it known they really want the series on their system, we would love to be able to answer that request.”
There has been a serious lack of quality fighting games for the Wii as compared to the other consoles. In fact, the only Tekken game that has been released for any Nintendo system at all is for the Gameboy Advance. “Hearing about the huge number of Xbox 360 owners who are Tekken fans, especially in North America, definitely played a huge part in influencing us to bring the game to that system,” the director said.
So, it’s pretty much up to the fans to voice their opinion about why there’s no Tekken for the Wii yet. For any naysayers about the controls of the said system, Harada had to say, “…the standard controller lacks the right number of buttons and the placement is awkward, so… I suppose the classic controller could handle it!”
Tekken 6 will be heading to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 27th.
The greatest show on earth makes its way on the Wii thanks to the joint efforts of 2K Play and Feld Entertainment. It was revealed that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey will be taking the excitement of “The Greatest Show on Earth” to the next level by partnering to develop circus-themed video games.
For the first time in the near 140-year history of Ringling Bros., the breathtaking thrills and timeless magic of this storied brand will be coming to the Wii home video game system from Nintendo and Nintendo DS™. The new Ringling Bros. themed games are scheduled to ship this holiday season as 2K Play further extends its portfolio of family friendly video game offerings.
During a recent Ringling Bros. performance at Madison Square Garden, and in celebration of this partnership with 2K Play, a Ringling Bros. high-wire artist took to the air and made a thrilling 25-foot walk across a tightrope while maintaining his balance with only a Wii Remote and Nunchuk in his hands, to the delight of upward-gazing onlookers. It no doubt was a precursor of what to expect in the upcoming video games.
More information on 2K Play’s upcoming games for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey will be available at the 2009 E3 Expo in Los Angeles this June.
Nintendo has recently released a trailer for the forthcoming Wii title Punch-out!!. Contained within the trailer is a ton of never before seen gameplay footage from both multiplayer and single player perspectives.
That’s not all in the trailer as Nintendo has made it obvious that a rather large boxer named Giga Mac is going to play an important role in the game. Perhaps a boss or maybe even the game’s final boss?
Or maybe it’s Little Mac from the first game all hyped up on steroids, I mean he does look pretty damn angry. The game is expected to ship sometime this year.
A recent job listing over at Neftlix discovered by Gamaustra details the need for an Engineering Leader for Gaming Platforms. The listing states that all who apply should, ”expect to help build a small technology team to rapidly prototype and iterate on a variety of platforms.”
A variety of platforms, huh? Well, we saw the expansion of Netflix streaming to the Xbox 360 some time ago so who is to say that the Playstation 3, or even the Wii, couldn’t get the same treatment?
Rumors have been floating around that Netflix would be expanding it’s console streaming service to consoles other than the Xbox 360 for some time now. So, it only makes sense that this job listing would point to those rumors and give them a thumbs up.
But wait, maybe they are looking to take on services like OnLive and stream games right to the consoles? We can dream can’t we?
Now here’s something I doubt anyone saw coming. If you’re familiar with the Spyro series, you’ll without a doubt recognize the dragon featuring in the above promotional advertisement. Well, that little guy is apparently coming to the big screen, in 3D.
There’s not much we have to go by other than the fact that it’s from the producers of Eragon but if you like dragons whats not to love about Spyro?
And when the hell are we going to see a Halo movie?
It was recently announced that this week’s Xbox Live Deal of the Week is the GRAW 2 Co-op Collection 2 discounted a full 20% to 320 Microsoft Points.
GRAW 2 Co-op Collection 2 brings back some of the greatest maps in Ghost Recon history and let’s you cooperate and compete in exciting new locales. An all new co-op campaign with 5 missions takes you back to some of the greatest locations from the Ghost Recon franchise. Inspired from the original Ghost Recon and remade to the stunning benchmark from GRAW 2. 9 new adversarial maps – 7 inspired from the greatest in the franchise and 2 brand new maps. 8 new Achievements with a total of 125 points. Exciting new challenges that encourage different tactics. The ghosts are back again. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
Sounds cool and all but does anyone still play GRAW 2? I mean I’d have been much more ecstatic had something like the recently released Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3 been discounted 20%. Oh well, guess I’ll have to cross my fingers and wait for next week.
Starting June 8th you’ll be able to waggle your Wiimote as never before. That’s the date when Nintendo is releasing Wii Motion Plus, an add-on which significantly ups the sensitivity of the motion controls. Thus far there aren’t many games that are offering support for this peripheral.
