Posted Nov 21st 2008 6:15PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
If you've got multiple EA Sports All-Play games, you may have noticed a commonality among the boxarts beyond the normally consistent design scheme: the cover athletes are all grinning. Well, except for this guy. It's not just because they've been paid several thousand dollars to have their photograph taken -- the smiles were a corporate mandate, from the mind of Peter Moore!
Moore believed that a smiling athlete on the cover "embodies the experience" of All-Play. He explained to MTV Multiplayer's Tracey John: "If you played Madden on the Wii and you're playing with guys with the heads the size of five watermelons, it's hard not to smile. We wanted to be able to deliver that experience on the packaging."
Does that mean that playing an EA Sports game on another console is a grueling trial?
Warning: you are now entering a Wii Fanboy nostalgia zone; if we get wrapped up in jabbering about our wholesome childhoods over the next 200 words, you've been warned. The cause of this trip down memory lane? The announcement that Tomy would be bringing a Pop-Up Pirate game to WiiWare. Yay!
Pop-Up Pirate Wii will emulate the pop-ular children's board/party game, in which players would hold their breath (that bit is optional, but helps) while inserting plastic swords into a plastic barrel containing a pirate. If you chose the wrong slot, the pirate would spring out, startling everybody. As dull as it sounds now we've written it down, it was all the rage back in the '80s, before those damn computer videogame whatchoomacallits came along and ruined everything.
Like other board games of our childhood that relied on a steady hand (such as Buckaroo and Operation), we're not yet certain that a videogame version will capture the same ridiculous levels of tension, but still, three cheers for Tomy for at least trying! The chunky, colorful visuals are a great start, in our opinion.
Also on Nintendo of Japan's WiiWare page: Simple Series Vol. 2 The Number Puzzle Neo. If ever a series was designed especially for WiiWare, the cheap-but-cheerful Simple series would be it. Both of these will launch next Tuesday in Japan for 500 Wii Points each.
The NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) recently decided to put all of this generation's consoles through their paces and see which console reigns supreme in the eco-friendly department. As we've heard in the past, the Wii has pretty much dominated all of the competition in each field of study. When looking at power consumption, the Wii only uses 16 watts, compared to the 119 watts of the Xbox 360 and 150 watts of the PS3.
The full NRDC study can be seen here. Warning: it's pretty much all in pdf format.
To promote the release of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes, Capcom is offering an exclusive Tatsunoko vs. Capcom 2009 calendar to retailers. The calendar will feature original artwork on each two-month page, as well as a Shinkiro cover that varies by store. The limited-edition calendars will be handed out with purchased copies of the game starting on the December 11 release date.
The Bic Camera/Sofmap version of the calendar features a group portrait, the Geo version features Ryu and Ken the Eagle, and the Imagine version's cover features Doronjo and Morrigan. And the exclusive "JC" edition features these preview images printed out and stapled together with some calendar pages from Word.
Yes, we posted about this before, but as the giant boulder that is the holiday season ominously thunders towards us, we may as well say it again: GameStop will probably have some major Wii shortages in the near future.
Chief financial officer David Carlson admitted in a conference call that the hardware "may be well out of stock by the holiday season," echoing another executive's recent claim that the 'Stop's inventory would be empty by the first week of December. He added that both Wii Fit and Guitar Hero: World Tour were "in very, very short supply" and "out of stock in many cases" respectively.
Obviously, plenty of other places sell Wiis, but if a major name like GameStop is running out of the things, you can bet they won't be alone. Unless you want to end up like Johnny and Orlando up there, get your skates on.
It's not so hard to believe, really. People have been doing it for many years now, since the Tickle Me Elmo dolls became so popular, really. Folks did it the last two years with the Wii and now, with the news that Guitar Hero: World Tour's full band kit bundle could be kind of scarce during the holidays, folks are taking advantage yet again.
"In order to assess continued demand for the title, we conducted proprietary channel checks both at major online retailers and at bricks-and-mortar retail locations across the country," said analysts at Cowen and Company, adding: "resellers on Amazon.com are pricing the band kit at close to USD 300, well above the USD 189 list price." Wow, that's quite the significant increase. While not as severe as it is on Amazon, eBay users are also selling the full band kit at higher prices than it should.
Remember, holiday shoppers: get out there early and get out there often. If you're trying to track down one of the full band kits for Guitar Hero: World Tour, then we'd suggest you get on a first name basis with the store managers in your area.
The research bods at EEDAR have got their abacuses out and calculated that Wii games are more prone to "price protection" than titles on rival machines.
What's price protection? Price protection occurs when a publisher of a game that isn't selling offers its game to retailers for a lower price, allowing stores to get rid of excess stock quickly. If this happens too soon (EEDAR defines "too soon" as "when a title's third month average selling price has decreased by 20% or more from its original average selling price"), it is known as "early price protection."
Anyway, EEDAR found that 15.1% of all Wii software goes through this process, compared to 7.5% on Xbox 360 and 9.09% on PS3. What does this disparity say about Wii software? EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich thinks it backs up the theory that third-parties struggle on the Wii because they and retailers have "overly aggressive expectations" for Wii games, and that it proves "quality is one of the most impactful features for a video game."
Four new WiiWare titles came down the tubes in Europe and Australia today, and the selection couldn't be more diverse. Art Style: Cubello and Strong Bad Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands you'll already know about, but CueSports and Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam are more mysterious beasts. The former looks promising, the latter, er, not particularlygreat, according to the few reviews that are about.
"All formats – Xbox Live, WiiWare, PlayStation Network – are all viable formats for us," Square Enix US president John Yamamoto specified. As the team -- currently comprising three people -- grows, the focus will expand to middleware and to a wider variety of original games on all formats. The middleware research, as well as the connections with Western studios, should ensure that future Square Enix titles can be developed in a timely manner. For now, at least, we can hope for a second WiiWare game!
Those online Tetris Party tournaments won't just enhance your fearsome internet reputation -- they'll also offer Wii Points as prizes, a pretty awesome way of keeping player interest high. The first tournament kicks off December 1st, and contains four rounds, each featuring one of Tetris Party's eighteen variations. After you complete a round, the game will give you a rank and confirmation code, which you can register at the official Tetris Party tournament site. Perform strongly over all four rounds, and you could win!
Five hundred prizes are up for grabs (though how many points will be given away isn't known), and we're fairly sure this is a global contest -- there's no mention of regional restrictions in the press release. Skip past the break for start dates, end dates, and other details of the first tournament, then get practicing!
Nyko is doubling the effectiveness of their previous charging dock, adding two more slots and two more NiMH rechargeable battery packs to the mix. Dubbed the Nyko Quad Charger, the new charging station will be available in North America next month, just in time for the holidays, and will cost you $49.99.
Hit up our gallery below for a closer look at the docking station.
Nickelback's Chad Kroeger wants you to stop playing Guitar Hero and would much prefer you pick up a real instrument, he recently told MTV. "It's tough to find other bands out there, because either they're making a record, or they just got done touring," he said. "So kids: Start rock bands. Set down the 'Guitar Hero,' learn how to play an actual guitar and start a band, because it's hard to find more bands to put a solid rock-and-roll package together, to get out there." You hear that, kids? If you don't play Guitar Hero, you can play real music with Nickelback! Personally, we'd rather play the game.
We'll admit the allure of Guitar Hero is probably greater than actually learning how to play guitar. Because the learning curve isn't as steep with the game, and with Guitar Hero including such a wide range of music (well, not all music) that is sure to please just about anybody, we can't say we're surprised that the kids would be looking to Activision's music game for their jollies.
The sequel to 2007's gem of a racing game, DiRT, is going to be releasing on Wii, says Codemasters. What do we say? Yay! We're pumped!
The Wii version will release simultaneously with the other console ports of the game next year, and is to include a "tuned-up car-handling physics system" and "new damage engine effects." We're hoping the game will be solid on the Wii, as it could benefit from the Wiimote. Think Excite Truck, but better.
Sega will release The House of the Dead: Overkill in Europe next February, and there'll be an optional bonus at "selected retailers" for fans who preorder: this rad Collector's Edition. Arriving in a fetching minimalist slipcase (loving the authentic scuff marks), this will come bundled with a graphic novel that tells the stories of Agent Washington and Varla Gunns, and the events that lead up to the game.
Here's the downside: this sweet package has so far only been announced for PAL regions -- apart from Germany, obviously. Sucks to be Germany, eh? Hit up our gallery for a closer look at the comic's cover and a sample page.
Well, not literally, but it would seem that THQ has thrown out its lawsuit against Activision over the boxart for Baja 1000: Score International. Activision has altered the boxart for their game (catch the image past the break), but, seeing as how the game has been available for a short while now, what of the copies that have already reached store shelves? THQ isn't too concerned about that, apparently.
If you've got multiple EA Sports All-Play games, you may have noticed a commonality among the boxarts beyond the normally consistent design scheme: the cover athletes are all grinning. Well, except for this guy. It's not just because they've been paid several thousand dollars to have their photograph taken -- the smiles were a corporate mandate, from the mind of Peter Moore!
