Find Nintendo Wii

When it comes to games on the Nintendo Wii, the number of truly good survival-horrors is not satisfying. Even then, some such as Alone in the Dark were not greeted well by game reviewers.

So, the award for the best horror game for Nintendo Wii is still unclaimed, but the situation might change with the upcoming survival-horror called Sadness. This adventure horror game with survival elements has many things going for it to impress us.

Unlike many other horror games, Sadness is not going to shock you with monsters jumping out on you from every corner. Instead, everything is much deeper. Developers focused on creating an atmosphere which is frightening even without any monsters. To add even more fear into the mix, they are making it in black and white.

As far as I know this element will be used in games for the first time which might set Sadness apart from others. Here’s what The Elderly Gamer reports.

Billed as a game for adults only, with strong nerves, you’ll be using the power of your wii-mote in pretty innovative ways, driving away swarms of rats, using a rope to lassoo and climb a wall, slashing a persecutor with a jagged piece of glass.

QJ.NET reports some interesting details as well.

More importantly, they’re planning to pull out all the stops for dramatic effect. In addition to getting voice acting onboard as part of the game’s initiative, they’ll also be working with an orchestra to get the most effect out of the game’s story.

One of the most disappointing things about the game is its release date — Autumn 2009.

Enjoy the video below.

Red Fly Studio will bring us an interesting action-adventure game called Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars in October. Targeted platforms are only the Nintendo Wii and DS.

The game starts with a mysterious asteroid hitting earth and affecting all living creatures and some plant life, especially mushrooms. As a result, four types of mushrooms emerge — two are bad guys and other two are good. Playing as a warrior mushroom, the player will face challenges from all types of other mushrooms. Each has its own weapons, fighting skills and even clothes.

Here’s what SpawnPoint reports.

In addition to the Mushroom Men, several other plants and animals have been affected similarly by the comet. While initially neutral and independent, they eventually team up with one side or the other.

GoNintendo reports more details.

The Wii version of the game picks up where the DS leaves off. The Spore Wars rage fully across the miniature landscape. The societies have advanced to a point where theology and metaphysical pursuits have developed.

Enjoy the video.

Every hardcore gamer will agree that the two main aspects of Nintendo Wii games which need improvement are graphics and more mature games like the upcoming Stars Wars: Unleashed. The good news is that High Voltage Software developing company is trying to satisfy both demands with one game, The Conduit.

The Conduit is being developed exclusively for Nintendo Wii and promises to impress us with its graphics. Until the first trailer was available it was hard to believe that many companies could overcome the limitations of the Wii hardware, but The Conduit might just yet sport the best graphics available on the console to date.

Here’s what IGN reports.

What is perhaps more intriguing is that High Voltage has built a custom engine designed to really push the Wii hardware’s graphic capabilities. The game-maker’s “Quantum3″ game engine brings polish to The Conduit by way of a “full 16-TEV stage material pipeline using up to eight texture sources and a host of innovative blend operations.”

The Conduit is a first person-shooter like Halo and Medal Of Honor where players explore various different out-door locations and will mostly fight against aliens. Based on the video that demonstrates gameplay it’s obvious that game is full of action. Another interesting thing about The Conduit is that there is no publisher yet.

That VideoGame Blog found out the reason for that during an interview with the game’s developer.

We’re in talks with a number of publishers. We’ve been approached by a lot of publishers. We’re taking it slow. That seems to be a concern on a lot of forums, that this is bad but it’s really not the case. We know there are a lot of publishers who want The Conduit and we want to make sure it’s a great partnership in the true sense of the word partnership, not just motivated by a strictly financial or gameplay thing but a meld of many criteria.

Enjoy the video.

Many games coming out this year such as Iron Man and Wall-E are based on movies. Another one is Igor which will be released for PC, Wii and DS. Following the storyline of the film, the game revolves around an evil scientist whose dream is to rise to the top of the city.

The Nintendo Wii version will allow players to choose from one of four characters who can explore the city and fight enemies before reaching the final target — the Evil Science Fair. Igor is being developed by the Legacy Interactive and Gamasutra reports what the company’s president, Ariella Lehrer, says about the game.

With Igor, we set forth to capture the unique mix of dark, yet playful aspects seen in the movie. It’s a great game that can be enjoyed with both friends and family and will appeal to a younger audience as well.

GameZone reports some details about the DS version.

The Nintendo DS version utilizes the stylus to perform movement combinations, combat enemies and solve puzzles. Players can custom build their own monsters to take on puzzle challenges and battle against other mad scientists.

Activison had great success with Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare even if they only released it for Xbox360, PS3 and PC. Nintendo Wii fans were unhappy, but the fifth installment will be released on the platform.

Call of Duty 5: World at War will be released at the end of this year. The game should also be fully optimized for the Nintendo Wii controllers.

The version is also being developed by a separate team. Here’s what CVG reports.

Senior producer Noah Heller said that the Wii version is being worked on by a dedicated in-house team. “It’s a special team at Treyarch - not some out-sourced team. Not some group living in another country. These guys live, eat and breathe Wii,” he said. No sniggering at the back.

Another feature that the Wii version will have is the ability to use the Wii Zapper — a three-button gun made for shooting. Here’s what QJ.NET reports.

Heller went on to say that the team working on the game’s Wii version are working on a lot of “special technology” to ensure intuitive controls. Considering that the Zapper only gives players three readily-available buttons, controls will be key to the Wii version’s success.

One recently released game for the Nintendo Wii that is well worth playing is Top Spin 3. Released on June 23th, the game received high scores from various game magazines.

What is special about this game is that compared withe SEGA Superstar Tennis it’s not focused on Miis, but instead offers real courts, realistic gameplay and stars like Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova. Top Spin 3 is perfect for the more mature audience.

Actually Top Spin 3 is one of those games where using motion-sensitive controllers is near total, and it’s fun hitting the ball by moving the controllers in the desired direction.

Another interesting thing is support for up to four players. N4G reports about the game modes.

There are different modes and different controls. Unlike the next generation versions Top Spin 3 features three main options from the main menu; exhibition, road to glory and party games. Exhibition is your standard quick game mode, with road to glory being the main single player mode. The road to glory mode contains several different global challenges, such as the survival mode, which requires players to win 7 wins in a row.

Here’s what MAXCONSOLE thinks about Top Spin 3.

Top Spin 3 on the Wii does feel like a compromised title in comparison to the next generation versions, but if you’re after a deeper tennis game than Wii Sports then Top Spin 3 is the best choice.

Enjoy the trailer.

No one can argue that the Nintendo Wii found tremendous success since the beginning, but everyone also knows that it can’t last forever. As a result, Nintendo is expected to unveil a successor to the Wii around 2010.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much information going aroudn about the next-gen Wii from Nintendo and it’s hard to imagine how it might look. However, the but guys at T3 Magazine tried to find the answer. The system that you see in the picture is the result of their imagination and here is how T3 explains it.

Our awesome artist’s impressions, part of the future tech feature in the new issue of T3 Magazine, showcase a Wii headset accessory that uses brainwaves to control characters and also feature immersive in-ear headphones. Sweet.

We’ve also imagined a streamlined Wii Remote with just the one button. You point and press, your frontal lobes do the rest.

Looks really futuristic and cool, but it’s all very much tongue-in-cheek. Still, food for thought. Literally.

One of the best adventure games to come to the Nintendo Wii will be available at the end of August. Runaway 2: The Dream of The Turtle is the sequel to Runaway: A Road Adventure which has already been released for PC and Nintendo DS.

This point and click adventure game revolves around two main characters, Brian and his girlfriend Gina. Enjoying their vacation in Hawaii, they soon discover that the beautiful island has many challenges to set before them. Runaway 2 is a two-dimensional game with rich visuals and is one of the few 2D games with an atmospheric environment. GameSeek reports features of the game.

Players will be able to explore more than 100 different places across the globe, throughout the 6 extensive chapters of this new adventure. In Alaska, Hawaii, under the sea or up in the sky, in the middle of a hostile jungle or on board a huge yacht, you will experience an unforgettable adventure in a rich and varied environment.

According to Emma Reilly, the game looks amazing.

New game engine with 3D real time special effects: light, atmospheric effects, footprints, camera changes, panoramic views.

Enjoy the trailer.

One of the best action games coming to the Nintendo Wii at the end of September is The Battle of Argus made by High Energy Production and published by Tecmo. In Japan it’s known as the Argus no Senshi: Muscle Impact and it’s the remake of the five years old Rygar: The Legendary Adventure made for PS2.

For those who have never heard about this game then think of Devil May Cry, but add motion-sensitive controllers, and you’ll get Rygar: The Battle of Argus. Developers decided to remake the old PS2 game and port it exclusively to Wii because of its controllers. Sure, they will work on the game’s graphics, characters and scenario, but the main thing is the gameplay via the Wii controllers. Here’s what producer Keisuke Kikuchi said during the interview with 1UP.

So in the case of a new Rygar, my focus was on how to best utilize the Wii control. Everything is built around the Diskarmor control using the Wii controller. Of course I could have started everything from scratch on a new Rygar project, but if I was to do that it might not have been on Wii, we could have done it for PS3, 360, PS2. However, why we focused on Wii was because of what we could do with the Wii controller.

IGN reports on some of the game’s general features.

Innovative Play Mechanics: The legendary Diskarmor shield can be used for attack, defense, or transportation all with the intuitive use of the Wii-mote.

Action Packed Adventure: This action-adventure platforming title spans various unique zones and requires vanquishing the enemy and light puzzle solving.

Rygar: The Battle of Argus has the potential to be one of the best action games for Nintendo Wii. Enjoy the trailer.

Motion-sensitive controllers are the main selling point for the Nintendo Wii, but when it comes to computer games, graphics are far from being impressive when compared to its competitors. Another important factor is the lack of a hard disk.

And since Nintendo provides gamers with WiiWare to allow them to download games then space for downloadable content becomes crucial. For now, there is only 512Mb available for saves and other stuff, but according to Nintendo Europe senior marketing director Laurent Fischer, new solutions to this problem are being investigated, as GamesIndustry.biz reports.

“We definitely detect that they [gamers] are serious and we know there is an issue in this, so it’s something that we’re working on,” but Fischer poured cold water on rumours - stemming from recent hints dropped by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata - that the company was planning an external solution.

It’s obvious that sooner or later Nintendo will have to come up with a solution, but if it’s not going to be a hardware solution such as external HDD, we’ll have to wait and see what other alternatives might emerge. Here’s what Joystic thinks about that.

Not being privvy to every last internal working of the Wii, we can only speculate that Nintendo is concocting a method – perhaps via a firmware update – for allowing downloaded games to be played directly from an SD card (much like we’d hoped for when the console first went on sale). There may be a chance this “solution” gets revealed at E3.

Photo: © wlodi