It’s a scientific fact that 100 percent of people on Earth love Scribblenauts — trust us, an actual scientist said that — unfortunately, not everyone owns a Nintendo DS. Sure, almost everyone owns a DS, but that still leaves a small sliver of humanity who will be unable to experience 5th Cell’s wordy puzzler whenever it hits store shelves this September.
Fortunately for this minuscule contingency, there’s a chance Scribblenauts could be released on other platforms. In a recent interview with VG247, the game’s technical director, Marius Fahlbusch, explained, “We never limited ourselves to the DS as platform in our heads and we’ll see what the future holds.” Personally, we think it would be a hit on any platform, whether that platform be Xbox 360, PS3 or coloring book.
According to EA’s Joe Booth, plans for the Nintendo Wii are “long-term” at EA, as the company tries to strike a good balance of titles for the popular platform in 2009. In an interview with the Official Nintendo Magazine, the senior producer for Electronic Arts’ Nintendo group said the company wants to “take some risks” with Nintendo’s home console.
“The industry has woken up to the Wii,” Booth told the mag. In his own estimation, Booth — who is overseeing Need for Speed Nitro for Wii — feels the Wii has a lot of “new energy,” which drives his group’s passion. Perhaps Nintendo’s energy stems from sailing high above the competition in hardware sales.
Electronic Arts has a slew of Wii exclusive software planned for 2009, including EA Sports Active and Dead Space: Extraction, along with special Wii versions of its annual sports franchises.
Last year’s de Blob found a squishy, colorful place in all of our hearts and, more importantly, sold enough copies to make THQ keen on a sequel. Speaking to IGN, a representative for the publisher expressed pleasure at de Blob’s performance worldwide, promising that we can “expect to see more of de Blob in the future.” We’ll hold you to that, THQ.
Something else of interest in IGN’s article: NPD data shows that de Blob sold 230,000 copies in North America between September 22 and the end of 2008, whereas Wario Land: Shake It! moved only 150,000 copies in the exact same period. de Blob isn’t just a third-party “core” success — it’s even outsold a rival title from Nintendo!
All right, we watched this trailer, and we’re still pretty cloudy on the details. Apparently Plättchenhad a story — and it ties into the story of Bplus’s next game, Niki - Rock ‘n’ Ball. Developer Bplus is, rather surprisingly, expecting to launch Niki this week, according to the Nintendo Channel, although Bplus just says “soon”. Taking a lesson from Plättchen’s reception, they’re pricing Niki at 500 Wii Points.
The new trailer is part of the newly-opened Niki website, in which you can see control diagrams of the game’s motion-based and “retro” sideways-Wiimote control schemes, learn about the various low-poly creatures inhabiting the world, and, perhaps most importantly, read Niki’s story in legible text instead of teensy subtitles.
The Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was never released in North America (only the inferior Game Gear version made it there), so its appearance on the ESRB database (which pretty much guarantees a Virtual Console release) is a little bit of history in the making. A very little bit, mind, because the differences between the 8-bit Sonic 2s are trivial, to say the least.
We never played either iteration, so are unqualified to comment on the game’s quality, but Wikipedia informs us that this was Tails’ debut appearance, which also means this game marks the start of Sonic having friends. Man, look howthatturnedout.
Tyrone from Nicalis asked us if we wanted to run an exclusive Cave Story sprite comparison, and we responded by sputtering, mostly, and attacking the keyboard furiously with our frantic approval. The new sprite that Nicalis chose to share with us is Sue Sakamoto, whom you rescue fairly early in the game. Beyond that, we’re a bit shaky on what people would consider a spoiler, so we’re not offering any more biographical details. We’re impressed by how much the new sprite resembles her character portrait, and by the fact that her scar is visible.
This is the sprite that has really convinced us that the upgraded graphics are a good thing. They’re still blocky, but more expressive and with more variation between the characters.
After the break, we’ve got another sprite comparison, this one from the Nicalis blog. Huzzah!
Gallery: Cave Story (WiiWare)
We’re not going to stop talking about Cave Story any time soon. You may as well read up on it and join the discussion!
We’re amazed that Red Fly has managed to finish Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars in time for its November 11th release. Whenever we check in on the game, someone from the studio always seems to be showing the press the latest build, or taking gamers behind the scenes, or chatting to us. Sincerely though, we appreciate the attention, chaps (and Shiggy never returns our calls).
Interactions Design Lead James Clarendon is the latest to be thrust in front of the camera and show off Red Fly’s baby, and a mighty fine job he does too. Amongst other things, Clarendon shows us the tutorial level, the clever home-made weapons, the slightly grotesque life meter, and the “SCAV” system. You may have seen much of this before if you’ve been following the game closely, but now it’s all condensed into this one walkthrough. And when is it not a good time to watch Mushroom Men? Never, that’s when.
Oh, woe is us. Microsoft just dispatched (and then pulled) a press release boasting about the imminent arrival of Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox Live Arcade, describing the game as an XBLA “exclusive.” We can safely assume this means the bird and bear won’t be made available on the Virtual Console, news that conclusively crushes whatever slim hopes we had for the game appearing on Nintendo’s service. We suppose $540 million buys you these kind of perks, eh?
To rub salt in our open wounds, Microsoft also disclosed that sequel Banjo-Tooie would be made available on XBLA early next year, “making Xbox 360 the new home of the beloved Banjo-Kazooie franchise.” We think we’re going to sigh sadly now, reader. Feel free to join us.
Wherever you’re reading this, wave your hands in the air like you just don’t care, because Mega Man 9 has been dated for North America.
After months of build-up and hype and oh-mai-gawd-is-this-really-happening levels of disbelief, September 22 is the date we all need to circle with copious amounts of red. That’s 57 and a half hours away at the time of writing. Capcom, we think we might just love you. Best of all, North American Wii owners will be amongst the first to play the game — Japan has to wait a further two days, and owners of other console will have to exercise some patience (the PS3 will get it September 25, while the Xbox 360 version is due — snigger — October 1).
While you wait for your chance to take down the Robot Masters, pass the time by getting misty-eyed in our Mega Man boxart gallery.
Evidently, Konami ill needs logic or sequential order when releasing Castlevania games on the Virtual Console — which is probably why Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse has only just been rated by Australian regulators at the OFLC.
The game, a former star of Virtually Overlooked no less (if you can hear celebratory gunshots being fired into the air, that’ll be Alisha), now looks like a certainty to join Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, and Super Castlevania IV on the download service. If you read this, you’ll be reminded of why that’s very special, fist pump-worthy news indeed.
Scribblenauts could come to other platforms originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
