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    Wii Sports Resort's E3 2008 demo completed in three months

    July 7, 2009 - 9:00pm

    When we first saw Wii Sports Resort last year, all Nintendo had available were three of the game's events: swordplay, power cruising, and Disc Dog. It turns out that those three (quite polished) events are pretty much all that existed at the time. In the latest Iwata Asks interview, the Wii Sports Resort team reveals that they didn't have anything but the idea of maybe doing another sequel until three months before E3 2008. Above, you can see what had been done: a MotionPlus test involving a virtual toy.As usual, the Iwata Asks interview is full of surprisingly forthright discussion about the inner workings of Nintendo, including the team (and Shigeru Miyamoto) expressing its elation about a MotionPlus delay that allowed for more work on Resort, everyone's relative confusion at Miyamoto's "Wuhu Island" franchise idea, and, best of all, Miyamoto's deceptive methods of team motivation.At one point, Miyamoto announced in an interview that golf would be in Wii Sports Resort, and that the MotionPlus would allow backswing to control the strength of the swing, instead of just speed -- and the team had to rush to actually put golf in the game afterward. Later, he describes how he faked a directive from Satoru Iwata to add an extra game mode. And apparently a programmer couldn't demonstrate the archery feature for Miyamoto because he was too nervous to aim the bow properly.Shigeru Miyamoto sounds like kind of a jerk, actually.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Hands-on: Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage

    July 7, 2009 - 7:38pm

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    Ah, snowboarding in the middle of summer -- well, on a screen and using a Wii Balance Board at least. Our recent trip to Ubisoft provided a brief opportunity to get our feet snowy with the Wii-only sequel to Shaun White Snowboarding and, well, the experience was familiar.The biggest difference: new events in various parts of the world. One we were able to take a crack at was a half-pipe run in New York City's Times Square. The Balance Board control felt great, apart from the act of jumping, which required us to quickly dig our heels into the board rather than, y'know, lifting them off of it. The game really didn't like it when we tried that.

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    Celebrate the launch of The Legendary Starfy, only a month after it happened

    July 7, 2009 - 6:10pm

    Nintendo announced today that it will hold a launch event for The Legendary Starfy at its Nintendo World Store in New York City on July 11. You may be looking at your copy of Starfy right now and wondering if another one is coming out -- no, this is for the one that came out on June 9.The event will run from 1-3 p.m. and will feature Starfy-themed contests, face painting, balloons, and even a life-sized Starfy mascot character. That seems like a lot of attention for a game from a developer who usually doesn't even take credit for the games it works on. Good for TOSE.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Hands-on: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up

    July 7, 2009 - 5:45pm

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    Since it was first revealed that members of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl team were crafting Ubisoft's new TMNT brawler, the expectation has been that it will be a total SSBB play-alike. From our time with it at last week's UbiNintendo day, we can confirm that there are similarities, but, if anything, it's more like "SSBB lite."The four-player, multi-tiered arena aspect is there, for sure, but the complexity of the controls (and, with it, the number of moves and weapon pick-ups) has been dialed back a few clicks. At the same time, the pacing and presentation has been turned up, making for an extremely frantic experience.

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    EA goes into the wild with SimAnimals Africa

    July 7, 2009 - 3:45pm

    Africa is fast becoming a hotbed of activity in games, and EA is the latest to take us there with its new game, SimAnimals Africa. In an attempt to improve the public image of the deadly animals there, EA will put a pleasant face on these creatures in this sequel to the original SimAnimals game on both the Wii and DS. Each are aimed at the casual crowd (of course) and will focus on providing players with "challenges and mini-games that players solve to unlock new items, animals and levels to explore."SimAnimals Africa migrates to retail October 23, 2009.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Hands-on: Rabbids Go Home

    July 7, 2009 - 2:30pm

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    Since their introduction in the minigame compilation, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, the title characters of Ubisoft's latest Rayman spin-off (a platformer!) have been among the least psychologically stable game characters ever. This is reflected in nearly every nuance of Rabbids Go Home, from the sadistic "inside the Wiimote" bonus mode to the piloting of a stolen jet engine through an airport terminal.That first bit we mentioned is a detailed interior of a Wii Remote, which reacted to every twist and button press of the real one in our hands during a recent demo of the game. Inside the Wiimote: a Rabbid, subject to all manner of mishandling as we slammed it this way and that before inflating one of its eyes, deflating one of its ears, sticking a squid on its head and diving into the game proper.

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    WiiSpray tagged with design award

    July 7, 2009 - 2:00pm

    Martin Lihs and Frank Matuse's WiiSpray, the art project that combines a projector, a custom Flash interface and a Wiimote inside a spray can-shaped enclosure, now has documented proof that it is awesome. Over the weekend, International Forum Design awarded the creators of the WiiSpray project its iF Communication Design Award in the category of product interfaces.In August, International Forum Design will announce "gold award" winners from within the group of iF winners. Even if WiiSpray doesn't get that, it's already noteworthy enough to see a Wiimote-based homebrew project win a design award. And it's quite an achievement for a couple of students![Via GameSpot]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Hands-on: Red Steel 2

    July 7, 2009 - 1:30pm

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    We stopped by Ubisoft's San Francisco offices late last week to spend more time with its upcoming Nintendo platform lineup. Although we'd played many of the same games -- at the same stage of development -- during E3, now was the time to really focus on details. So, first up was Red Steel 2, a game that initially had us smitten with its manga-esque East-meets-West visual style, but failed to impress once we took hold of its controls.So, once again, we were faced with the extremely short demo / gameplay primer Ubisoft had created for last month's trade show. This second look didn't leave us any more enamored with the mix of sword slashing and pistol shooting, but we were able to get a better idea of exactly what didn't feel right. At the same time, we came away even more impressed by the game from a visual standpoint than when we'd first seen it in action.

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    Rabbids ready to 'smash up' with TMNT

    July 7, 2009 - 1:00pm


    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up doesn't just remind of another famous Nintendo franchise with the word Smash in the cover, now it's got the same style of cameos going on. The Tanooki took note of two different Rabbids that will make an appearance in the melee brawler.The first Rabbid appears to be a standard insanitus bunnykin, while the other is a Sam Fisher Rabbid. The characters surely have their own fighting styles and special moves. Check out the video after the break.

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    Nintendo's 'Demo Play' planned for handheld games as well

    July 7, 2009 - 12:00pm

    The controversial "Demo Play" feature devised by Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo won't just be limited to New Super Mario Bros. Wii and other console-based adventures. A blurb in Japan's Nikkei newspaper notes that the feature, which allows players to skip difficult areas and watch them played automatically, will also be used in portable games in the future. Nikkei referred to it as a "skip functionality" or "skip feature."Nikkei notes that this feature is designed for "high-speed action games," so presumably you won't be able to let Dr. Kawashima step in and count the number of people who just ran out of the house (we hate that one), nor will you be able to make the Pokémon start choosing themselves mid-battle.[Via Kotaku]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments