Backbone Entertainment, the developers of the Super Puzzle Fighter II Turboand Super Street Fighter II remakes, as well as the DS Death Jr. game and various other projects, have announced a new original Wii game to be published by Eidos. Monster Lab takes place in the hilariously-named Uncanny Valley, in which the player, as a mad scientist’s apprentice, mixes and matches monster parts to create original creations. The gameplay involves finding parts out in the wild, then taking them back to the lab and performing alchemical, mechanical, and biological experiments on them to augment them.
Once you’ve built a monster, you then take it out into the world and control it in battles! Monster Lab even features on the web battling and trading. With millions of possible combinations, this game could have some serious long-term replayability. Or you could just make monsters over and over.
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, known for his predictions pertaining to the video game industry, spoke out once more to share his thoughts on what Nintendo should do with its white hot Wii to widen the lead over other consoles as the fastest seller this generation. For Pachter, a wise decision would be to sell the Nintendo Wii without Wii Sports bundled in, making it possible to drop the price tag to US 199.
Pachter believes 80 of new Wii purchasers will still grab a copy of Wii Sports, and the un-bundle move “would end up effectively lowering revenues per console by only around $10.” He continued, “at that price point, the Wii should be strong again in 2009.”
Why take 2009 into account? It seems Pachter anticipates competing consoles to contest Nintendo’s dominance, explaining that “because of the high-definition video features offered by the Xbox 360 and PS3, those consoles are more prone to end up in the living room, which could relegate the Wii to the playroom.”
If Sony and Microsoft are to catch up, Pachter predicts the impact will be felt by the Nintendo Wii in late 2009. “By that time… Nintendo will likely combat the perception of ‘HD video inferiority’ by introducing a ‘Wii-HD’ model,” he stated. When it comes to that point, it does sound good for Nintendo to have established a wide user base even if a portion of that opted to own other gaming machines.
The organizers of this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) have given word that all the tutorial, lecture, and panel classrooms at the event will be equipped with “super fancy HD projectors.” According to the announcement. these projectors are expected to provide more detailed and brighter images. These projectors combined with the Audio Track classroom’s Dolby 5.1 surround sound system should be a treat for those who plan on attending this year’s event.
The Game Developers Conference 2008 will take place on February 18-22 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Among the speakers which have confirmed their attendance include none other than renowned inventor and author Ray Kurzweil as well as Corporate Vice President of LIVE Joseph Schappert.
The next iteration of Tecmo’s Fatal Frame franchise has finally been given the official reveal in Japan. As we reported in September of last year, this new Fatal Frame title will be for Nintendo’s Wii home video game console.
Grasshopper Manufacture has the distinction of working on the new Fatal Frame. With No More Heroes already out and about, we anticipate that Suda 51’s crew is already in the starting stages of development. Nintendo will also be helping publish the game.
Story details and info on a release window have yet to be announced, but based on the series’ track record, we can expect this title to be released in North America as well. For now, you can check out these first images of the game:
Third-party accessory manufacturers aren’t the only ones coming up with ridiculousthings to attach your Wii remote onto! A current patent application posted at the European Patent Office’s site reveals some of the crazy peripherals Nintendo dreamed up to explain the controller’s potential, like the goggles shown above. ThinkGeek’s Wii Helm seems like a respectable, thought-out product, compared to this silly idea. Wouldn’t that unbalanced weight give you a sore neck after a minute of wearing this headpiece?
And there are much zanier diagrams in the application document — Wii remotes in racing helmets, bike pedals, skateboard wheels, and teddy bears! How would this stuff even work? There are also drafts for a docking station and the old shotgun-design Zapper (the GameCube and wireless receiver demonstrating the Zapper shows the artwork’s age). You can check them all out in our gallery below!
HAY GUYZ, we’ve got this terrific image of a cat resting his fatigued head on a Wii Fit board, but our LOL caption has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to come up with a replacement caption?
The commenter with the funniest bit of accompanying text will win … nothing. You might earn the admiration of Kamezo here, maybe. You can’t really guarantee anything when it comes to cats.
If you frequent video game blogs or boards, you’ve probably heard about the Fox News debacle that was sparked by the “pornography” in the game Mass Effect. Wired decided to poke fun (or jab sarcasm) at the alarmist network, pointing out a few other games that should raise hysteria among the stick-up-their-butt crowd.
We won’t spoil the whole feature, but to steal an excerpt, this is why Fox News should fear Geometry Wars: “Geometry is math. Math leads to science. Science leads to lies. Thus, Geometry Wars directly indoctrinates our children into the evolutionary lie that we’re all descended from homosexual monkeys. Naked homosexual monkeys. We suggest instead the game Intelligent Design Wars, which is just like Geometry Wars, except that the credits read, “We don’t know who made this. (But it was probably God.)”
We couldn’t concur more. Won’t someone think of the children?
One gaming magazine called Nmag Gamepro reportedly has juicy details on Mario Kart Wii, but Nintendo was quick on the trigger and tagged everything on its pages as pure rumor and speculation.
For those who’ve been keeping tabs on any developments pertaining to this wildly anticipated kart racer, that means drivers Baby Peach and Boo are actually not yet confirmed to be in the game. Nmag Gamepro’s claim of Mario Kart Wii having 32 courses with 16 brand new and 16 old, while exciting, will also remain in the rumor bin for now.
According to Eurogamer, a spokesperson from Ninty said, “Nintendo has not announced any further information on Mario Kart. We’ve spoken to the magazine and it’s just pure rumor and speculation on their part.”
Among the rumored details debunked are the return of sliding and snaking techniques, one-of-a-kind cars for each driver, and controls similar to Excite Truck. Then again, Nintendo did not refute anything, so sliding and a good selection of tracks are very likely. If they ever get confirmed or if official Mario Kart details ever see the light of day, we’re sure to keep you updated so watch this space!
We’ve been told that all good things must come to an end, and this unfortunately applies to Iwata’s informativeinterviewsegmentswithSakurai (no one ever anticipates a Sakurai inquisition!). So, what better way is there to end things than to talk about the beginning?
In this installment, Iwata questions Sakurai about the roots of the Smash Bros. legacy. While the original idea (Dragon King: The Fighting Game) sounds like it’d be a good time, we’re really glad that Smash Bros. became what it did. To think, the game almost didn’t have Nintendo characters in it (gasp, shock, sound of horror)!
As we always say, you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been — so, head on over to the interview and read about the beginnings of Nintendo’s beloved fighter in the final segment of “Iwata Asks.”
Earlier this month, Atari and Ignition Entertainment had initially announced that they were making a game adaptation of the George of the Jungle Television series for the Wii, PS2, and DS. If you were wondering just how just how this particular ape-man would be looking for his pixelated debut, we’ve managed to pick the game’s first trailer video.
This should serve as a teaser of the sort of (mis)adventures the King of the Jungle can encounter in this upcoming action-platformer as he faces up against hostile monkey tribes, ferocious crocs, tiki warriors, and other humorous nasties. If you (or your siblings) enjoyed the cartoon, you may want to wait up for George of the Jungle’s launch. Enjoy the video!
