Wii U And Ubisoft. U Still Mad?

It has been just over a month since Ubisoft’s decision to make Rayman Legends mulitplatform and massively delay the finished Wii U version. In that time we’ve seen protests, arguments and more promises. Michel Ancel has told Wii U owners that the online challenge mode will be released for the Wii U this April, as a way to compensate hurt fans.

“We’ll release the full online challenges mode of the game exclusively to the Wii U fans. Now this is a really exciting feature because it’s the first time Rayman has ever really been online. The online challenges mode in Rayman Legends will be accessible through the main hub. New challenges are generated weekly and daily each with its own leaderboard. The challenges take place in 5 different settings which features a unique set of gameplay styles.”

It’s better than nothing, which is something we could have certainly got. Deep down I think we all knew that the game was never going to stay to its release date after a few protests and tweets from video game players. Ubisoft have half compensated us and we should be thankful, regardless of the hugely inane decision previously made, you can stay mad at them, you have a right to do so and several reasons but on the whole, can Wii U owners be truly annoyed at Ubisoft?

Ubisoft’s support has been charming to say the least.

As of now, there are more Ubisoft games on the Wii U than any other developer, including Nintendo. Suddenly, the “U” in Wii U doesn’t seem to stand for anything but Ubisoft. For sure, there are games that aren’t great and could be considered “shovelware” right now, but something is better than nothing at this point in the Wii U’s product cycle. The system needs games and Ubisoft have delivered on their part. They’ve provided exclusive games such as Rabbids Land, Sports Connection, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013 and the highly praised ZombiU. They have enough games to appeal to every demographic, so it’s hard to complain that the developer and publisher isn’t providing something that you may like.

Ubisoft is the best supporter of the Wii U right now.

Sure, the platform has missed out on a few big titles from Ubisoft, including the highly anticipated Far Cry 3 but this can hardly be considered their fault when the game was most likely already in full development before they managed to get hands on a Wii U development kit. Looking on the bright side however, we got a very competent version of Assassin’s Creed III as well as receiving Just Dance 4 too. Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth was also put on the Wii U too.

Carry on complaining and we might not see many more titles from Ubisoft. They have plenty of good titles in the near future.

But that’s not all, future support is also coming too as Ubisoft remains positive about the Wii U’s future. The next Assassin’s Creed game, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is headed to Wii U, as well as the cross generation title Watch Dogs. If people carry on complaining about one bad judgement, well who knows how Ubisoft will react. Am I saying that nothing should be done to show the company how we feel about the decision? Not at all, but that time has passed and we’ve left a mark, Ubisoft knows what is in store for them if they are to pull a stunt like Rayman again.

I’d like to make clear that Ubisoft have also shown praise and support for the platform in various interviews and such, of course, they won’t exactly come out and say “Well the platform sucks” but from the direction taken in some games, GamePad usage, supportive comments and more, Ubisoft understand the Wii U much better than most and they can see its potential, unlike some.

These two are best friends right now.

I’d also just like to make clear once again, I am not saying that people can’t be mad at Ubisoft about the Rayman decision. It was, still is and always will be an incredibly poor decision from the eyes of thousands. Should we however, continue to moan and complain and blurt out being “entitled” to other games because Ubisoft made this decision? No, not at all. They are a business first; they’re here to make money. And in being a business, they make a lot of crappy decisions, in fact I could write thousands of words about them, but I’m remaining relevant to the Rayman situation at hand right now.

The job has been done, Ubisoft will learn from the mistake made. All the Ubisoft development teams make great games and in no way am I hear to say that any of them are poor, I’m not qualified to make that judgement.

EA and their relationship with Nintendo on the other hand…well that’s another story for another day.

Review The News. Week 9 – Super Smash Lego Creed 2: Ultimate Dogs

Congratulations, you made it through another week, go you! Of course, as with every week comes news and now we’re officially into March, Wii U games are starting to be released again! Most significantly on the list this month include Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Need for Speed: Most Wanted U and the premature Game of the Year, Lego City: Undercover. It’s only up from here folks. Onwards to the news.

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes Coming To Wii U In Spring

The latest edition to the library of strange, old but welcomed ports is Lego Batman 2. Previously released on 360, PS3, PC, Wii, DS and 3DS, the game is a Lego version of the Batman series but this time, includes several other super heroes too. Here’s the PR:

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Announces LEGO® BatmanTM 2: DC Super
Heroes for Wii U M

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games are excited to announce that LEGO® Batman™ 2: DC Super Heroes, one of 2012’s best received family games, will soon be making its way onto the Wii U™ system
from Nintendo this Spring 2013. Releasing to critical acclaim in June 2012, NBC News hailed it as “the best LEGO game yet,” while IGN called the story “…entertaining from start to finish.” Since its summer 2012 debut, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes has sold more than 3.4 million units worldwide to date.

LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes will take advantage of the innovative Wii U™ GamePad controller. Players will navigate through Gotham City using an enhanced interactive map and select their favorite DC Comics characters to assemble a powerful team of heroes, all with the use of the controller’s touchscreen. They can even enjoy the entire game experience on the GamePad in off-TV mode, or have a second player join in on the TV, so they can fight crime
together without having to share a single screen.

The award-winning LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes gives players the chance to step into the shoes of the Caped Crusader and fully explore a LEGO version of Gotham City. Once again under threat from the Joker, Batman must defend Gotham with the help of powerful friends like Superman and Robin, to put a stop to the diabolical plans of his nemesis and his entire team of super villains including Lex Luthor, The Penguin and Harley Quinn. Encounterall of the Dark Knight’s iconic allies and enemies in a charming, hilarious, family-friendly adventure full of exciting gameplay.

At least they’re not forgetting co-op and making good use of the GamePad, though that probably won’t justify a full retail price for the game. However, more games means more to play and that’s never a bad thing. B- from me.

Watch Dogs Wii U GamePad Usage Undecided, Already Running On Wii U

Despite Ubisoft announcing that the PS3 and 360 versions of Watch Dogs are not in development yet, Ubisoft Bucharest have got the Wii U version up and running. In a recent interview with Digital Spy, Senior producer Dominic Guaytold then all the game’s “core” social features – such as allowing users to access other players’ worlds through smartphones – will be possible on the Nintendo platform. Though they have still not made a final decision on the GamePad usage, he told DS that it feels natrual.

“We’re still investigating how we’ll use the tablet on the Wii U, but with the things I mentioned before, for us it’s not going to be a weird stretch,” he said.

“It’s natural. What’s really cool with Watch Dogs, when we start thinking of those devices, it’s not a weird abstraction, it’s not like I’m a space alien and now I’m using a tablet. Why am I doing that?

“Aiden Pearce is using a device to control the city, so it’s quite easy to imagine what we could do with that.” Source

Glad to hear this game is getting the Wii U version it deserves, Ubisoft in general have done a good job using the GamePad (See ZombiU, Rayman Legends) so I have no doubts that this will be any different. 80% score this week Ubisoft, keep it going.

Lego City: Undercover Webisodes 1 And 2

In some pretty good social-network advertising, Nintendo have put up small trailers or webisodes for the exclusive Lego City: Undercover game. Normally I don’t care for things such as this but I enjoyed them and thought they were worth sharing.

MH3U 3DS Online Multiplayer Workaround Coming To Europe

Are you annoyed by the lack of online multiplayer on the 3DS version of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate? Well fear no more, after you’ve purchased a Wii U and a Wii or Wii U LAN Adapter, you can connect your 3DS online and get going! (Yes that was half sarcasm.)

We can confirm that on March 22nd, the launch day of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, an application named MONSTER HUNTER 3 ULTIMATE Packet Relay Tools for Nintendo 3DS will be made available as a free download on the Nintendo eShop on Wii U.

This application allows players of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on Nintendo 3DS to play the game online by using a Wii U console connected to the Internet via the Wii LAN Adapter or Wii U LAN Adapter (to be sold separately). Using this set-up, one Nintendo 3DS system can connect to the Wii U console, and play Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate online with other players.

Please note that while the Wii U console is providing this function for the Nintendo 3DS system, it is not possible to simultaneously use the Wii U console for playing Wii U software or to connect locally to another Nintendo 3DS system. A copy of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for Wii U is not required.

Personally I do not care for this, I’m neither interested in the game nor going to have to use this, so I don’t really have an opinion. The circumstances for taking it online seems cruddy though, you won’t be able to play your Wii U while using it. Still, it’s a thing and useful to some. 55%.

Jett Rocket II: The Wrath of Taikai

The latest game from Shin’en Multimedia is “Jett Rocket II: The Wrath of Taikai”, the sequel to the first Jett Rocket game. The website went live this month and gave the following description:

Jett Rocket returns! Your favorite planetary inspector is back and in trouble. His archrival Kaiser Taikai has to settle an old score with him.

Explore the home planet of the Power Plant Posse and ignite your trusty old jet pack in this epic full-3D action-adventure!

Jett Rocket II runs in full stereoscopic 3D at a super-smooth 60 frames/sec.

Shin’en never fail to impress and 3D at 60 frames a second is amazing. Looking forward to seeing more and luckily they gave out some screenshots of the game (not native however.) Make sure to visit their website for more in the upcoming month. A big fat 75% from me today, this is good news and a lovely addition to the eShop.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Wii U Announced. Release Date October 29th.

Well, the next Assassin’s Creed is coming and that’s all we know really. You can go to the website for the official countdown trailer and be excited but the series is becoming an annual release, which I’m not really in favour of. Having said that, I’m willing to give anything a look before judging it, bring it on. B- grade.

Sakurai’s Right Arm Is Hindering Work On Super Smash Bros. 4

In his regular Famitsu column, Masahiro Sakurai has detailed a full report on his damaged right arm. Polygon has translated the article and wrote the following:

“I think the one word I’ve said the most this year, by far, is ‘Ow!’”. “Not only am I getting calcific tendonitis, but they’ve also found what are apparently several ruptures in the muscles. My upper arm hurts, and there’s this chronic dull pain in my elbow joint as well. On the lower arm, there’s this feeling of fatigue around the flexor muscles that turns into pain when I use a keyboard or game controller with my fingers.

“There’s no instant cure for it, so all I can do is either block the pain with injections or put my arm in a cast to keep the ruptures from spreading. I was told that the important thing was to keep my arm as rested as possible. In order to get it fully healed, the only thing is to not use my right arm or hand. So not only am I using a trackball with my left hand; now I’m using it to eat, brush my teeth, wash my hair, and even drive as much as I’m able to.”

“As a director, I don’t have much time in the weekdays to proceed along with my own work,” “The entire day is spent overseeing other people, holding meetings, working on other proposals, making visits elsewhere and so on. If I can get everything squared away, then I can work on my own stuff, but most of the time there’s just an overwhelming lack of time. Often I go in on my off-days to catch up on my own work, but with my body going on me like this, I have to cut these extra days out of my schedule and even with that I can’t use my right arm very much to control things. If this disorder lingers, or if it never gets fixed, there’s no telling what impact that would have on the project.”

“I’ve had to control two characters at once in a lot of game projects up to now,” “so as long as I keep it to simple moves, this works well enough. It doesn’t go that easy with the Nintendo 3DS version, though, and the debug camera is pretty hard to control. Still, now I realize how important it is to have your health. I’m glad I’m still in good enough shape to work.” Source Via Polgon 

While I am sad to hear about his injury, I’m only filled with pride that he continues to work as hard as he can. Major respect to him, I can’t wait for the game personally, bring it on! Rating: N/A

That’s it for this week, some time this month I’ll be able to add to the list of released games for the Wii U and we’ll be finally out of the software drought. Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you next week.

Review The News. Week 8 – Ubisoft Redemption?

Despite Sony grabbing all the attention this week with their Playstation 4 announcement , there’s still some Nintendo news for you all to enjoy. Let’s get straight to it.

Wii U Is Receiving Rayman Legends Challenge Mode In April

In a recent Facebook post from Michel Ancel, he revealed that in light of the Rayman delay, Wii U owners would be getting the challenge mode from the game early, coming this April.

“We’ll release the full online challenges mode of the game exclusively to the Wii U fans. Now this is a really exciting feature because it’s the first time Rayman has ever really been online. The online challenges mode in Rayman Legends will be accessible through the main hub. New challenges are generated weekly and daily each with its own leaderboard. The challenges take place in 5 different settings which features a unique set of gameplay styles.”

All the levels can be played with up to 5 players and leaderboards will be included too. I think this is great, though it won’t please all the people annoyed by the delay, it’s good to see the development team doing something to cure the wound. 8/10 from me, well done Ubisoft Montpellier.

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon Advert

It’s strange to report an advert but I think NoA did a pretty good job here, so I felt it’s worth showing off. It truly does feel like the year of Luigi, an A+ from me.

Monster Hunter 4 Trailer

Lego City: Undercover Trailer

Ubisoft Confirms Watch_Dogs For Wii U, Boxart Shown

Coming from the press release:

NEW YORK – February 20, 2013 – Today, following the announcement of the PlayStation®4 from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE), Ubisoft® revealed that its highly anticipated open world action-adventure game, Watch_Dogs™, will be available for the launch of the new system.

As demonstrated onstage today at PlayStation Meeting 2013, Watch_Dogs’ ambitious scope illustrates that Ubisoft is once again at the forefront of new technologies, giving freedom to development teams to create unprecedented entertainment experiences. Development of Watch_Dogs is being led by Ubisoft Montreal, with support from Ubisoft’s Bucharest, Paris, Quebec and Reflections studios. Receiving more than 83 awards and nominations at E3 2012 where it was first announced, Watch_Dogs blends cutting-edge technologies and sophisticated game design into a realistic, living open world.

In Watch_Dogs, players will experience the realities of living in our fully connected society, where individuals and corporations are at risk of exposure by our ever-increasing reliance on networks and technology.

Players will assume the role of Aiden Pearce, a new type of vigilante who, with the help of his smartphone, will use his ability to hack into Chicago’s central operating system (ctOS) and control almost every element of the city. Aiden will be able to tap into the city’s omnipresent security cameras, download personal information to locate a target, control systems such as traffic lights or public transportation to stop a chase, and more. The city of Chicago is now the ultimate weapon.

“Ubisoft has a strong history of supporting new technologies with unique and creative offerings,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer, Ubisoft. “The power and capability of the PS4 allows the Watch_Dogs team to further push the boundaries of what was previously thought possible in interactive entertainment.”

Watch_Dogs will be available on PS4 at launch, along with its release on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the Wii U™ system from Nintendo and Windows PC.

Also shown off was the box art for the game.

Looks kinda bad personally, but I’m glad to here the game is finally coming to the Wii U, I never had any doubts personally but it puts to rest those who did. 8/9/8/9.

F-ZERO (SNES) Is On The Wii U VC 

From Feb 20th to Mar 21st on the Wii U eShop, the SNES classic F-Zero will be available to download for 30 of your respective currency, as part of Nintendo’s 30/30/30 promotion, just a heads up for you all! It’s still challenging now as it was back in the day, pick it up!

That’s about it for this week, March is a good month for releases, not long to go now. Hopefully the hype around Sony will die down over the coming days and we’ll hear more about Nintendo stuff. Thanks for reading all!

Lego City: Undercover. Why You Should Have This In Your Wii U Library.

When I first saw the announcement for Lego City: Undercover (called “Lego City Stories” at the time) at Nintendo’s press conference at E3 2011, I sighed. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the previous Lego games, they’re great fun but after the release of Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game in May of 2011, the series had started to become stale. I can’t blame them, they had a formula and it worked, base Lego games upon high-profile franchises and sell millions of titles.

So when I heard about the new addition to the series, I should have been relieved but the Lego aesthetic had become boring and I disregarded the game completely. At the time, I was sure there would be plenty of Wii U titles I would care for before this, so the game dropped right off my radar.

The game as it was at E3 2011.

Oh how foolish I was.

Almost two years later and it’s now a game I purchased my Wii U for. There’s several reasons for this, the similarities to the massively popular Grand Theft Auto (which sort of makes up for GTA V’s absence on the console), the fact that it has been built ground up for the Wii U and, for lack of a better word, it simply looks fun.

I’ll address one of the main points people commonly make about this game, which is that it’s “a Lego version of Grand Theft Auto”. It’s a fair comparison but not exactly correct, yes, both games are set as an open-world, sandbox adventure as well as using several items and interacting with the surrounding environment but really, the similarities stop there. For one, there’s no guns so you can’t begin a stake-out or car demolition whenever you want, the story appears to be very humour-based, quite different from GTA and, well, the whole story is a role-reversed version of GTA. Also can you drive a bicycle van in GTA? No, didn’t think so.

You’ll be commandeering several vehicles in Lego City: Undercover, one of which appears to be this bicycle truck/van!?

Don’t fret however, just because this is Traveller’s Tales’ first major, open-world game doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re doing. Loz Doyle told ONM in an interview that they’ve really put in the work to make the city feel alive.

“We had to develop a full streaming system, a civilian population, a full traffic system and a physics-based driving system to name but a few. Then there’s the sheer volume of work involved in building the city, the levels and the many vehicle models.” Source

The size of the city you’ll be traversing too, is huge. Inspired by New York and a few other American states, you’ll see many parody versions of landmarks and famous places. While there are much bigger game worlds in video games, Lego City: Undercover‘s will “take around 10 minutes to drive a loop of the city”. Along with the general city, you can climb buildings and walk along rooftops, which Doyle explains:

“That doesn’t even include exploring all the side roads and other regions. Not only is there the ground level city to explore but you can also get up on most of the rooftops where there is a whole load of additional gameplay.” Source

Along with this new open-world approach is the brand new plot. Traveller’s Tales needed to create a fresh story after no longer being tied to an already existing franchise, safe to say, they’ve done a great job. [Spoiler Alert] The protagonist of the game is undercover detective Chase McCain, who returns to his beloved Lego City to find that crime is overflowing, due to escaped prisoner Rex Fury, who broke free from Albatross Prison. Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to work out how Fury escaped from prison, find him and erase all the crime from Lego City. [Spoiler Ends]

TT have done their best to create a city full of life.

Just as one would expect from this type of game, you do not need to follow the story at all times and the player can break away from the main story at any time, however some locations will only be available to access after completing a certain part of the game. Disguises are how you progress and open up locations and the game contains 290 different choices for you to use. Doyle says:

“There is a huge variety of gameplay outside of the story, in fact there’s more than we had planned to include.” Source

A burglar disguise will help you open safes, your police uniform will allow you to arrest people, a fire-fighter disguise will allow you to put out fires and so on. These disguises will be unlocked as the game progresses and all offer different abilities. To accompany your disguises are a multitude of vehicles, over 100 in fact, which vary from tractors, to limousines, to bikes and even helicopters and much more. You can collect these vehicles and then call them in to you when you enter a call-in point within the game, saving you the trouble of having to locate and take these individual vehicles. Doyle explains:

“Once you’ve collected some vehicles you can go to a vehicle call-in point and call in any vehicle you have bought, in any colour” “Disguise Booths are dotted around the city as well, and you can go in these to change into one of the disguises that you’ve purchased.” Source

You’ll be taking control of several methods of transportation.

They have the essentials covered for an open-world game, that’s for sure, but why else am I so excited to play this game? Purely for the fact that it has been built ground-up for the Wii U for over 2 years. Just like ZombiU, the developers had the GamePad in mind when creating the game, which means it has significant usage rather than a quick map job. Again, sharing a similarity with ZombiU, the actual in-game character posses a Wii U GamePad (well, not exactly, but the gadget is very similar to it.) This device is used constantly throughout the game to search for criminals, accept video calls from friends and displays a map of the city, making it much easier to navigate the environment. Doyle even goes as far as saying that the game would lose something on other platforms, due to the lack of a GamePad.

There’s just something about this that feels, brilliant.

Not only all this GamePad usage gets me excited, but because they’ve built the game around the Wii U, they’ve grown and adapted to the hardware, meaning this game looks stunning, even with the Lego aesthetic attached to it. It’s a lovely blend of Lego pieces and smooth textures that make the game look fantastic, as well as the general feel of the world which has to be seen to be fully appreciated. Luckily enough, there’s a trailer you can see here, which does exactly that.

My final point is that, put simply, the game looks fun. In an industry where doing something different is considered a big risk, Lego City: Undercover is a bright light within the Wii U’s library, bright enough to shine next to Nintendo’s own Nintendo Land or New Super Mario Bros. U. Watching older trailers of the game will show you the several parodies it has of other films, the voice acting and humour are great and just the gameplay itself looks fun, swinging down zip lines, jumping across rooftops and chasing down criminals as well as being transported down a familiar looking green pipes creates a real sense of ‘fun’ gameplay, like the developers said to themselves “How can we make this better?”.

This game brings out a side of me that hasn’t been seen for a while, the immature, child side. It makes me remember why I originally started playing games, to have fun, to enjoy what I play, to do things that are impossible in real life. Very rarely does a game do this and I thank Traveller’s Tales for making a game that, while reaches out to a diverse demographic, can make everyone feel the same age.

Lego City: Undercover releases on March 18th in North America and Europe on March 28th. Pre-orders of the game will come with a Chase McCain miniature figure, so get in quick if you want to take down crime in your own Lego city! (The figure will come with all first copies in Europe.)

“Chase McCain’s the name, catching crime is my game.”

Boxart for the limited edition version of the game.

Is Lego City: Undercover on your pick up list? If yes, why, if no, why not? Let me know! Everything I’ve seen of the game has been great, I hope TT and Nintendo can deliver on the execution of this game, I’ll be watching closely. Hopefully, this is the Wii U’s next stellar title and everything is pointing to that being the case.

Review The News. Week 7 – The Need For Speed U Will Not Believe.

Another hard week of rumour, speculation and drivel has passed. Gamers are tired of hearing doom and gloom, regarding everything, analyst predict the skies are blue and someone, somewhere, bought Aliens: Colonial Marines without reading the reviews and had a heart attack due to shock. Let’s trim down the doom and concern it to Nintendo, who surprisingly  had an okay week. Nintendo Directs were presented and some great games were announced, so enough of me, let’s get down to business.

Nintendo Direct – Trailer Roundup

You can find the whole Nintendo Direct on your respective Nintendo site, so I thought I’d just post the trailers instead.

Ancel And Rayman Development Team Join In On Rayman Legends Delay

Highly respected game designer and Ubisoft Montpellier joined in on a recent Rayman Legends protest these pictures show. Ancel and team brought with them a sign which reads ”Release Rayman. Support Ubisoft Montpelier.”, which the character in question is seen crying in the middle of. It’s one thing to piss off your own fans Ubisoft, but to annoy your own developers is just stupid. While I’m glad they’re speaking out about this situation, I’m also gutted that Ubisoft have not done anything as of yet. A 10/10 for a team speaking out though, that takes some balls to do and myself and many others are glad they have done it.

Dragon Quest VII Ships 1 Million Units In The First Two Days In Japan

Amazing figures for DQ VII have shown up in Japan, with one million units shipped (not sold) within two days, setting a new record for 3DS releases. While there isn’t much to say about this, hopefully this number will convince the publisher to localise the game and add more figures to that number. It’s early days for this title and may even go on to do more than 2 million. However, this situation is looking to be repeated by Capcom’s Monster Hunter 4 and Nintendo’s Pokémon X and Y versions, which will surely match and perhaps surpass this number. Exciting times! An A* from me. Source

Need For Speed: Most Wanted U Is The Definitive Version. Uses PC Assets And Textures

Alex Ward of Criterion Games recently showed off the Wii U version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted and talked about the development of the game, which you can see here. Ward talks about how creating a “Vanilla version” of the game would not do the machine justice and that it’s “by far the best looking version of the game.” Also included is a new co-operative mode, use of Miiverse and general improvements to the game. I must say, I’m incredibly happy with how this turned out, I was expecting a shoddy port by Criterion but they’ve surprised me and won me over, I shall be picking this up soon. 10/10/10/10 from me, well done Criterion, you put other developers to shame.

Pokémon Rumble U Announced

The first Pokémon game to hit the Wii U is…Pokémon Rumble U. The latest edition of Corocoro has confirmed that a sequel to the 2009 game Pokémon Rumble is coming to the Wii U, featuring all 5 generations of Pokémon. The game can feature up to 100 Pokémon at one time and will be sold though the Wii U eShop service. Not really the thing I want but I’m willing to give it a try, C- for now. Source

That’s about it for this week, I have something about Aliens: Colonial Marines Wii U but that’s for another week. Sorry it’s not been a great effort this week, hopefully Nintendo give us great stuff next week to combat the PS4 announcement. Until then my friends, stay safe and game on.

Rayman Legends – Ubisoft, You Betrayed Us

I sit here (that’s a lie, I’m actually lying down in bed) calmly in my room just trying to get my head around this whole situation. I’m not quite sure of Ubisoft’s ultimate motive about all this but it really does baffle me. Of course, I’m talking about Rayman Legends being delayed (Also referred to RaymanGate and #SaveRayman / #FreeRayman). In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, I’m sure you know what’s going on but to clarify, I’ll deliver a summary.

Rayman Legends was originally a Wii U exclusive game, releasing to accommodate the Wii U’s launch and battle against Nintendo’s own New Super Mario Bros. U. However, come the 8th of October, we hear news that the game has been delayed and will not meet the Wii U’s launch. An unfortunate event of course, but nothing too harmful, maybe going directly against Nintendo’s own Mario was not a good idea so a delay could help them in that respect, as well as being able to polish up the game too, to make sure it’s the best it could be.

Soon after, we are given a lovely Rayman Legends trailer, looking fantastic and at the end appears this.

Christmas 2012, perfect.

Great! A release date at Christmas, this will be a great present to those unwrapping their Wii U’s on Christmas day and a charming game to demo what the Wii U can do right now.

However a short time later we hear the game has been delayed, again. Many speculated that the reason for this delay was to rework some of the game after there was backlash about the percentage of the game just playing as Murphy on the GamePad. Ubisoft told us:

“Rayman Legends will launch worldwide in the first quarter of 2013,”

“We’re happy that fans are excited about the game, and we are taking the time to make sure we deliver a game that lives up to and hopefully exceeds their expectations. We’ll have more details to share soon.”

Huh, okay. 2012 ends and we’re all into the new year now and Ubisoft gives us a little snippet of the game to try on our Wii U’s by releasing a demo on the Wii U eShop. I downloaded it, played it and absolutely adored it and you can read my thoughts upon it here. I’d also like you to remember the first sentence of that impressions feature.

Despite being delayed until this year, my excitement for Rayman Legends was still quite high and this demo has only assured me that I’m correct to be enthusiastic about this game.

Now at this point in time, it’s February. The Wii U support is, lacking, to say the least. I have no problems admitting this even as someone who bought a Wii U day one and has felt buyer’s remorse quite a few times already. February was barren and Rayman was the saviour. Now, I have £40 deposited into my bank account every month and after buying a Wii U and 4 or 5 games to keep me going for a while, February was almost like a reset button on my bank account. So when I looked into February, saw that Scribblenauts Unlimited and Rayman were the only games hitting shelves this month, my hand was placed firmly upon Rayman.

That was until Thursday of this week. You lost a sale Ubisoft and it absolutely pains me to say that.

My problems do not rest with this.

On Thursday, Ubisoft announced that the game was releasing on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in September. Make no mistake, my problem is not with the game coming out on other platforms and no longer being a Wii U exclusive, I personally thought that was going to be the case for a long time. It’s a fantastic game if the demo is representative of the game and the more people who play this game the better because in all honesty, Ubisoft Montpellier are amazing developers. I loved their work with ZombiU and I am sure their huge talent is showed off in Rayman Legends just as much. No, my problem lies with this:

Today, Ubisoft announced that its forthcoming title Rayman Legends, already announced for the Wii U system from Nintendo, will also be released on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. All versions will now hit shelves in early September 2013.

“All versions will not hit shelves in early September 2o13.” What? So after two original delays which, although annoying, seemed to make sense, the game will now come out seven months later than intended? I could understand this action if the game was not fully finished but it is and Ubisoft have really stuck the metaphorical middle finger up to their amazing developers. Here’s what one developer has had to say about it:

I completely understand you but you have to understand one thing. This is not a decision taken by the development team, this comes from really really high up, so please don’t pick on the game.

If you’re pissed, imagine how we feel. Think on the situation, we’ve been making overtime with this game practically since May preparing E3, and then almost a demo per month (gamescon, Wii U presentation, shops, eShop, etc…) and at the same time trying to actually finish the game. We had a first delay because it was obvious we couldn’t finish on time but we gave it all to be there on February. What face do you think we had when the week we had to close the game we’re being told it’s not going to be released? I couldn’t believe it.

For practical matters, you’ll have to wait for some months for the game to be released and will most likely serve for more content to be added and do it better. For us, this means we’ve spent 6 months barely seeing our wifes, kids, and friends for nothing because, after all, such a haste wasn’t needed. Believe it, it was a hell to swallow these news.

Even then I’m firm in what I said back in the day, Rayman Legends is an excellent game and will still be, and the team that’s making it doesn’t deserve to have your back turned on them just because some men in ties one day took a wrong choice. This industry is really that shitty.

Source via Neogaf via Neogaf (Thanks all!)

The game had also finished development for the most part on the 9th of January, according to this post.

“Today is a great day! We’ve closed Legends [development] :)” read a post dated 9th January. “See what you think next month!”

Source

So not only have higher ups at Ubisoft angered Wii U owners but they’ve seemingly hurt their own developers too. If you don’t want to believe these developers either, Ubisoft has confirmed that the game is just sitting there doing nothing until September so the game has a simultaneous launch.

“There are no issues with the game development, the only reason for the delay is to release on multiple platforms.”

Source

The game is finished, please release it.

Not only am I annoyed and the developers annoyed, along with thousands of other gamers too but from my perspective, this doesn’t make any sense from a “business” perspective too. I’m not a business expert, though I do have some years in basic knowledge of business practices, yet I still can’t see why they would release the game in one of the busiest time periods of the year for video games. It’s like a rush hour on the highway of video games, one of which is a monster truck called Grand Theft Auto V and a shiny Mini Cooper called Wind Waker HD. Not only that, but two new highways are being opened very soon after September called the next Xbox and the PS4. People’s money will be going elsewhere for other games and it pains me to say that, especially seeing as I am one of them.

February was the perfect time to release just the Wii U version, you can still release the other versions I do not mind that. February was calling out for a game like Rayman Legends to come along and whisk it away. You may not be very impressed with the install base but games like this are the reason people buy consoles Ubisoft. The Wii U is performing slightly better than the Xbox 360 and PS3 did at launch, have some faith and I know it’s not fair to compare the two, as the Wii U has seemingly only just surpassed the graphical capabilities of those systems. Look at what the Wii did, sure the Wii U won’t be a copy and paste of that success but it can do it proud with games like yours. You have made a mistake and I hope someone higher up realises this. If this whole thing is to do with Microsoft’s simultaneous release practice, then at least say that, but I won’t say any more as I am not educated to do so. You made a bad decision.

It all sounds childish and when I look back and read this, I half-heartedly agree. I won’t dismiss that I’m passionate about my hobby though, it’s something I like doing and has helped me through a lot. Yes, Rayman Legends is still coming out. Yes, the game will likely be a little bit better due to the extra seven months and yes I’ll still buy it at some point but not straight away. I was looking forward to playing this game very soon and I’m not sure I can say the same thing in seven months time. Ubisoft Montpellier, you are amazing people and you create fantastic experiences, please continue to do so.

However, whoever was in charge of that decision, you are not amazing, you are not fantastic and please, do not continue to do this.

Let me take you back to this:

Despite being delayed until this year, my excitement for Rayman Legends was still quite high and this demo has only assured me that I’m correct to be enthusiastic about this game.

This game is still amazing but my enthusiasm is gone. I had £40 placed on this game and it’s gone. Come September, that £40 will still be gone, lost to other amazing games. I hope Ubisoft learn from this, not as some sort of attack from Wii U owners, but as a message from gamers to Ubisoft and it’s practices. You’ve left many sour and hurt your image and I hope you will make it up to them properly, not by offering us a “exclusive demo.”

Buckle up, it’s a seven month wait guys.

There’s currently a petition for Ubisoft to stick to the original February release date for the Wii U version of Rayman Legends, personally I do not think it will achieve anything from Ubisoft apart from a “sorry, no can do”, but it’s worth a try. Show Ubisoft that your view matters and what you think of the whole situation otherwise, they’ll continue to do things like this.

Petition Link

Review The News. Week 6 – RaymanGate Legends, What A Week For Nintendo.

It has been a hard week for all. Microsoft had been submitted to insults and sent to purgatory after EDGE reported that the next Xbox system will block used games. The Nintendo got shot in every limb after several delays and news that I’ll go into later. It has not been a happy week at most but nevertheless, keep your head high and kick it through another week! Onto the news.

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge No Longer An Exclusive 

The first game to lose its Wii U exclusivity is Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. One can only assume that it was a timed exclusive but at least those who bought the original game on their Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 get to play this vastly improved version. If you heard a few week earlier, I managed to grab this game for 1 pence from Amazon and it arrived this week! It’s an okay game but I can definitely say I still don’t think it’s worth a full asking price, which is good because according to this blog:

But don’t worry as we’re working out with the price, it’s not going to be a full retail price.

I really don’t have an opinion on this, so I’ll give it a C rating and move on.

Scribblenauts Unlimited Delayed In Europe

Coming from Nintendo regarding Scribblenauts Unlimited:

“We are sorry to announce that Scribblenauts Unlimited, a game developed by Warner Bros. Interactive & 5th Cell and published by Nintendo of Europe for both Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, will be delayed in Europe.

“It has come to light that some changes need to be implemented within the game before we launch them across Europe. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and we hope to make further announcements on the European launch of these games very soon.”

We really have no idea why this is the case, for one, the game is available in Australia, so anyone from Europe can import it from there and play it on their Wii U if they so wish and two, the game was momentarily available on the eShop yesterday. I really have no idea what it going on here, so a 30% from me. At least we got some sort of response, however helpful.

Iwata Ask: Wii Street U

February 7th was the day that Google’s special Street View service launched for the Wii U in Japan. Interestingly enough, the focus isn’t on the service itself, but rather, what Iwata is wearing in the Iwata Asks interview of the service.

Yes, this is a thing. Iwata is laughing at you while wearing 17 cameras on his back. Deal with it.

Some interesting details from the interview include:

-Project had a relatively short development time.
-The suit (‘Trekker’) seen in the posts below is for shooting images in narrow spaces. Contains 15 cameras.
-Used it for trekking around the Grand Canyon.
-Weighs about 40 pounds/18kg.
-Will have a Miiverse community.

Overall, I think this is a pretty cool service. Though I don’t think it should be charged for a price (which it will eventually be), the interview half makes up for that! A 6.7 for now. Here’s a trailer if you haven’t seen it before.

Rockstar Has Nothing New To Share About GTA V Wii U

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Rockstar says “nothing new” to share about Grand Theft Auto V for Wii U or PC.

— GameSpot.com (@gamespot) January 31, 2013
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Coming from the mentioned GameSpot tweet, Rockstar has nothing new to say about a PC or Wii U version of Grand Theft Auto V. Many were interested to see if they had made more plans for these two platforms after the game had been delayed for September, but Rock* were quiet as ever when making a comment. Time will only tell. 0/10

Rayman Legends No Longer An Exclusive, Faces Seven Month Delay

I won’t babble on too much about this as I’m writing an entire separate post, but Rayman Legends has been announced for the PS3 and 360. This does not bother me in the slightest, however, the seven month delay being announced for the Wii U version, three weeks before it comes out, is what bothers me. Just so Ubisoft can have a simultaneous launch. 0/10 F. o%. I really hate this and it’s ruined my week.

So there we have it, a generally disappointing week which ended on a very low note, I’m sure I’ve missed out on other stories but I really can’t bring myself to be optimistic today. Luckily, I placed my pre-order for Lego City: Undercover Limited Edition not too long ago, which comes with a little Chase McCaine figure! It’s the only game I’ve paid full price for on Wii U and I welcome it with open arms. There’s also a new trailer you should check out right here, so as good as I can, I’ll try and leave on a high note. I’ll see you next week, with hopefully some better news!

Review The News. Week 5 – It’s Not All About The Competition.

This week has been filled with news but mostly relating to Sony and Microsoft and their upcoming consoles, more specifically the former. However there has been lots of smaller bits of information and news regarding The Big N, so I apologise if there’s nothing too eye-grabbing this week. Anyway, enough of this introduction, onto words, pictures and YouTube videos!

Lead ZombiU Writer, Gabrielle Shrager, Discusses Sequel Oppurtunities

Gabrielle Shrager (formerly the Shragernator) discussed what she would do with ZombiU 2 to Game Informer if she has the chance.

“More melee weapons would be one of the first things on our list. Give me a halberd to keep those zombies back! The pickings in the Tower of London’s armory would feel like Christmas!”

The cricket bat was designed to be used almost as a last resort, significant because it’s such a violent assault on your senses. Players quickly learn that it won’t save their bacon against more than one zombie at a time (either the hard way, or by listening to the Prepper). Some players depend on it entirely instead of scavenging for ammo and new gear, and these players deserve a richer melee experience.”

The fact that she’s discussing what a sequel would include gives me great hope that a sequel to the game is on its way or at least possible in the future. Having played and completed ZombiU I can agree with the fact that it deserves a sequel, not only because there’s places that it can improve on but because I feel that it really deserves it. More people should experience this game as it’s a great return to the survival horror genre! A solid B grade from me, can’t wait to hear more. Source

LEGO City Undercover Would “Lose Something On Other Platforms” 

Executive Producer of LEGO City Undercover, Loz Doyle, spoke with Official Nintendo Magazine to tell them that the game would lose something on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Speaking with ONM, he said:

“LEGO City Undercover would definitely lose something on other platforms. Chase is actually given a LEGO version of the GamePad as his Police Communicator, so it’s really woven into the story.

“We started with a massive array of ideas [for the GamePad] but in the end we focused on it being a police device. The map is really useful to have on at all times rather than in a small corner of the screen, plus you receive video calls from different characters.”

I think he’s right, it’s good to see that the developers are taking the Wii U so seriously that even they don’t believe the game would be the same on another platform. This is also why I don’t believe the 3DS prequel will be as good as the Wii U game, but I stand to be corrected! As usual, the score for this is totally unbiased, so it’s going to be an A++! Not long to go, the game launches in the UK on March 28th!

Sniper Elite V2 Coming To Wii U?

In the weird tradition that is bringing older games to the Wii U, the latest example is Sniper Elite V2, according to Amazon. May 21st the date given for release and of course, it is being charged at full price, although it is unknown (if this turns out to be true at all) if the game will ship with all existing DLC released for it. I have played the game on PlayStation 3 and I found it to be suprisingly fun and challenging, though I still question a Wii U version, there’s not a lot I can think they can do with the GamePad screen, but then again, that’s a reason why I’m not a game developer! I don’t really have an opinion on this as of yet, so I’ll meet it in the middle with a 5/10. More games would be nice, yes, but is there really much point in giving the Wii U old games at full price? Vote with your wallets my friends.

Lego City Undercover’s 100% Completion Task

After I stopped staring at the feature in jealously, I noticed that CVG have noted the 100% objective for Lego City Undercover. While this can still be subject to change, Chris Scullion who got to preview the game wrote (semi spoilers):

While the numbers may change by the time it hits the shops, the preview build we played suggested that a 100% file would involve putting together all 65 Super Builds, earning 450 Gold Bricks, collecting 40 Red bricks, unlocking 110 Vehicles and finding 290 characters.

While some may find fatigue in achieving a 100% save file in Lego games, I find that it’s one of the few series where I always want to get 100%! Lego Star Wars on both the DS and Wii are examples of this and I hope I can do the same in an original title on Wii U. That date again (UK) folks, is March 28th! 100%

Resident Evil: Revelations On 3DS Was A Success, A Reboot In Mind For Franchise

The producer of Resident Evil: Revelations, Masachika Kawata, recently spoke to Eurogamer about the possibility of a reboot for the franchise as a whole. Kawata told them:

“If we did [go with an open-world], we would want to preserve what Resident Evil is and what makes it appealing to fans, while also making it accessible to new players. It would almost entail having a slight reboot to get the series into a place where it would work with open-world gameplay. That’s just a personal opinion.

“A lot of decisions would have to be taken before something like that is done to the series, but it is something that…” he trailed off. “There is a possibility.”

He added:

“Once we see Revelations released on consoles, we’ll be looking very carefully at how the title is received and what feedback we get. I think we’ll get a lot of input from the fanbase and the media on what it means for Resident Evil, and what it could mean for the future of the series. We’ll definitely be looking at that as a signpost for where we need to be going next.

“Moving forward I can see us focusing even more on the horror aspect and fear in the series, and see us making something scarier than we have already.”

The Resident Evil series is 17 years old and has certainly been subject to criticism before but maybe the reception to the latest game in the series, Resident Evil 6, has shown Capcom that something fresh is needed or as stated by Kawata, putting focus back onto the horror and fear aspect of the series. Those elements seemed to be more prominent in Revelations, the then 3DS exclusive title, to which was a success.

It originally launched for 3DS in January last year. Sales were decent for 3DS games at the time, Kawata said, although Capcom would have liked “a little more”.

“Going by the 3DS market at the time we released the game, it was definitely a success and we’re certainly hoping we can repeat that success with the home console version.

“Given the large development costs we had on the 3DS version, we would have liked to have even a little more sales than we did in the end. But that doesn’t mean we saw it as a failure by any means.”

All in all, if Capcom make more Resident Evil games like Revelations, add in a few more puzzle elements and generally improve on what they are doing now, I’ll be a happy gamer. A good 7/8/7/8 from me.

Nintendo Is Working On An NFC Game

During the latest earnings report after a conference call, Iwata took the time to explain Nintendo’s aims, strategies and other business type things. One thing among them was the subject of NFC (Near-Field Communication) and how it’ll be used in a game. Nintendo are reportedly making preparations in that area and we should see something by the end of the year. In all honesty I’m not sure how I feel about an NFC related game, I never saw the appeal of Skylanders and still don’t see it with the upcoming Disney Infinity, maybe it’ll take a Nintendo franchise to sway me over? A bronze award for now, it’ll be interesting to see how they go about this new form of game.

Iwata Talks 3DS and Wii U 2013 Games

In Nintendo’s Q4 2012 report which you can read here, Iwata has shared something about everything, though more specifically and importantly to us, he talked about 3DS and Wii U games. Firstly regarding the 3DS, he said:

We have already announced that “Fire Emblem Awakening,” “Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity,” “Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon,” “Brain Age: Concentration Training” and “LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins” will be released in the first half of this year. For the overseas Nintendo 3DS markets, this year will be a good harvest time of what we have developed for these two years. We plan to intensively and actively sell approximately 10 key titles on our own in order to change the Nintendo 3DS system from a handheld device just to play the Mario series to the one to enjoy a variety of games. Naturally, we will keep the momentum of already-released titles with much sales potential by, for example, having them digitally distributed.

And of course, if it needed to be said, there are more Wii U games that have yet to be announced by Nintendo which will release this year.

Q. What is the timeframe of the new software you were mentioning? What about the development structure?

Iwata : We are not thinking about a long timeframe. We are thinking about Mid year up to End of the year 2013. We also have games that are slated for end of the year that we havent mentioned yet.

1 + 1 = 2 really. There’s things coming but they can’t say for yet, I will say however their “keeping cards close to the chest” approach is really getting to me now. I understand maybe not being able to talk about Wii U, but what’s the danger in saying X game is coming to Wii U/3DS? Who knows, maybe Iwata does, maybe he’ll give me an answer one day, maybe he’ll hire me. Promises promises Nintendo, all vapour. 50% from me, I’ll decide the other 50% when we see the evidence.

Toki Tori 2 Preview

I briefly returned to WiiUAndMii for a quick preview of Toki Tori 2, to which I gave you some concept art, screens and a little trailer I made up! It’s shaping up to be a lovely little game, I suggest you check it out. Two Tribes will release it on the Wii U eShop soon. I can’t rate my own work, so N/A.

This Week’s Releases

Zen Pinball 2 is this week’s Nintendo eShop release and I don’t really think it needs an explanation, it’s pinball, short and simple! Anyway, it’s free to download but you only get a 5 minute trail on the tables, as they are sold as DLC. The full list of DLC available is here:

Zen Classic Pack featuring Tesla, El Dorado, V12 and Shaman (€9.99 | £7.99)
Marvel Pinball featuring Spider-Man, Wolverine, Blade and Iron Man (€9.99 | £7.99)
Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles featuring Marvel’s The Avengers, Infinity Gauntlet, World War Hulk, and Fear Itself (€9.99 | £7.99)
Marvel Pinball: Vengeance and Virtue featuring X-Men, Thor, Ghost Rider and Moon Knight (€9.99 | £7.99)
Excalibur (€2.99 | £2.39)
Earth Defense (€2.99 | £2.39)
Sorcerer’s Lair (€2.99 | £2.39)
Paranormal (€2.99 | £2.39)
Mars (€2.99 | £2.39)
Epic Quest (€2.99 | £2.39)
Plants vs. Zombies (€2.99 | £2.39)
Fantastic Four (€2.99 | £2.39)
Captain America (€2.99 | £2.39)

Personally, I loved the 3DS Zen Pinball so I don’t doubt the quality of this game, however, I’m not a fan of these DLC practices so it looses points there. A 6.4 from me.

That appears to be it for this week, thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope you’ll give it a rating and/or share it with others! Or not, feel free to carry on doing your daily activities, I don’t mind, I’ll just sit here…wondering why I did this…Joking! See you all next week I hope!

Review The News. Week 4 – Iwata Asks, Iwata Gives.

In the slightly altered words of long time Nintendo enthusiast Ice-Cube “I can’t believe, this week was a good week.” The huge focus of this week was so big it deserved its own post, so for the unexpected Nintendo Direct summary, please click here and fill your brain with Wii U goodness. Take away this week’s Nintendo Direct and we are still left with some good stuff to review, so stay tuned to know what went on this week.

Iwata Asks – Platinum Games

Announced in the previous Nintendo Direct, company president Satoru Iwata takes himself, his question board and sometimes creepy laughter to Platinum Games, a first for him. Rather than focusing on something specific, Iwata has gone directly to them.

The first of many interviews between these gentlemen, I believe.

Iwata: Today, I’m here to conduct a new challenge. Most sessions of “Iwata Asks” so far have dealt with a specific software or hardware, but since we have become closely acquainted with PlatinumGames. I thought it would be good if I could talk about PlatinumGames as a development group, rather than about a specific product, and I asked for your time. I’m not sure how this will turn out, but I’m looking forward to it. Thank you.

I really do ask you to read these interviews, they’re much less an interrogation and feels more like a lunchtime meet up with friends. You can read the full interview here. Soon to follow is an interview with Hideki Kamiya, creator of The Wonderful 101, which is teased at the end of this interview. Overall an A-, great read, great presentation, let down by the promise of Kamiya DLC at a later date which could have been in at the start. 91%

Inaba: Perhaps Kamiya-san will come next time.

Iwata: Yes, it looks like I will first talk to Kamiya-san on The Wonderful 101.

Minami:I wonder what he’ll have to say… (laughs)

Inaba: He might let loose a bunch of complaints. (laughs)

Iwata: Huh?

Inaba: He tweets a lot. (laughs)

Iwata: (laughs) Thank you for today.

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon Online Multiplayer Confirmed

Originally coming from the official site for the game, gamers caught on that the next game in the Luigi’s Mansion series has some form of multiplayer. Many first speculated this after seeing the Nintendo Network logo on the official boxart for the game but dismissed it as some sort of leaderboard.

[From The Official Site]: With so many new places to explore, all new ways to capture ghosts, and a brand new local multiplayer mode, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon is another star turn for Mario’s heroic brother—and it’s only on Nintendo 3DS.

Famitsu then ‘confirmed’ local play, download play and online play for the game, but finally Nintendo World Report confirmed that the game has all the aforementioned features. You can read IGN’s impression of the multiplayer here, Destructoid’s here and Nintendo World Report’s here. Luckily screens and a trailer were given to us too, only to make the wait for the game even more unbearable. A solid 7, so far it all seems great but little mention of a variety of modes, which makes me curious at to what Nintendo are hiding.

UPDATE: Wow just seen the European box art and it takes it straight down to a 5 now. For shame!

A 2? A DAMN 2? Really prefered the previous one but hopefully this will grow on me.

Game & Wario Dated For March 28th In Japan

Game & Wario

The official Japanese website has opened for the next game by Intelligent Systems, Game & Wario, giving it the release date of the 28th of March. This means that the rest of the world will likely see this title in April or May! Not massive news but at this point it’s good to see some Nintendo Wii U software on the horizon, so I award it the silver award!

Resident Evil Revelations HD Officially Announced

We are finally given an official announcement of Resident Evil Revelations HD, the past 3DS exclusive, remade for consoles and PC, yes, the Wii U is included in the consoles part too! Set to hit US shores May 21st and UK shores the 24th,  the game will feature HD visuals, enhanced lighting effects and an immersive sound experience” both through retailers and digital stores. The game also boast an additional new enemy, a new difficulty, improvements to Raid Mode, new weapons, new skill sets and the choice to play as Hunk too.

A port/remake of a fantastic 3DS game? Fine by me, especially seeing as it’s a truly amazing game that was overshadowed by Resident Evil 6 even though the majority agree it’s the better of the two. 87/100, it’s all looking good from here, now we just have to wait and see if Capcom doesn’t mess it all up some how.

New Lego City Undercover Trailer

I will report anything and everything about this game. 1000000%. Additionally, a recent interview with the game developers of Lego City Undercover revealed that it will take 10 minutes to drive a loop of the city. Loz Doyle continued

That doesn’t even include all the side roads and other regions. Not only is there the ground level city to explore but you can also get up on the rooftops where there is a whole load of additional gameplay.

Resident Evil: Mercenaries HD Incoming?

Following the announcement of the Revelations HD port, a fan on the Capcom forums requested that Resident Evil: Mercenaries should receive the same treatment, to which Capcom Senior Vice-President responded

Understood on the request. Let’s talk next week on this topic.

In all honesty, I don’t really have an opinion on this, glad it’s coming so other people can enjoy it but ported two 3DS games seems lazy and a quick cash grab, so I’ll give this 5/5/5/5, 20/40, for now.

This Weeks Releases

 

The Cave‘s story is based on a magical talking cave with a labyrinthine set of tunnels within it. Seven characters, drawn from across time and space, have come to the Cave, believing they can “learn something about themselves and who they might become”, as stated by Gilbert, while harboring a dark secret. The Cave is a platform-adventure games developed by Double Fine Productions. It’s available on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and Steam as a downloadable title.

That’s it for this week, at the time of writing this sentence, I still haven’t come up with a funny subtitle so I’ll apologise in advance if it’s not good. Thanks for reading, have a nice weekend and keep on gaming!

Honourable mentions for news:
Trine 2: Director’s Patch is live in the EU
New Sonic game to be revealed in February, available for almost all platforms.

 

Nintendo Direct 23/01/13 Summary. Holy Arceus, No-One Was Expecting This

The 23rd of January, 2013 will go down in the history books as one of the most unexpected and exciting time to be not just a Nintendo gamer but a gamer in general. Shortly before the day was upon us, a Nintendo Direct was announced for Japan, then Europe and finally America. A worldwide Direct, who saw this coming? The full list of details from the “mini-E3″ are detailed below, complete with videos and pictures for your visual entertainment.

- Green ticks on Miiverse accounts let you know that the profile is authentic and is from Nintendo or another developer or special individual.

These ticks will appear alongside developers, Nintendo employees and official Miiverse accounts for special individuals.

- Within the New Super Mario Bros. U community you can watch Super Play videos from the YouTube channel within Miiverse and share your thoughts.

- A spring and summer Wii U system update will bring new features and improve load times for launching games and returning back to the Wii U menu.

Wii Uloading slower than a Slowpoke? These two updates should hopefully fix that, though we’ve been tricked before!

- The Wii U Virtual Console service is launching just after the Spring system update however the final line-up won’t be available at launch, it’ll come with NES and SNES titles. These titles will allow you to save a restore point in your game (just like the 3DS) and be able to play them only the GamePad independently. GBA titles will also be available at some point. Those who have already bought the games on the Wii Virtual Console will be able to download them again for a discount price. NES games ($5-6) and SNES ($8-9) will be $1 and $1.50 respectively if you have already downloaded them  (For UK: NES: Normal £3.49, Discount £0.99.)

The bargin bin. Those who already own the games will be able to “upgrade” if you will, for a smaller price.

A Wii U Virtual Console trial campaign will start this month and will run until July, the titles available before April will be available before the service is officially started. Each title will be 30 cents/pence and will stay at that price for 30 days, with the titles being Balloon Fight, Fire Emblem, Mother 2, Kirby’s Adventure, Super Metroid, Yoshi and Donkey Kong. Balloon Fight is available to download right now.

Celebrating the Famicom’s 30th, a new game will go up everymonth and will remain 30 of your respective currency for 30 days.

 Pikmin 3 will have a feature where you can use the GamePad as a camera in order to take unique pictures for Miiverse.

- You will be able to create closed-user communities in Wii Fit U so you can discuss exercises, BMI, weight changes ans so on privately or with who you wants and you can encourage each other to achieve your goals and such. Similarly the Spring update will include more official communities per title, the ability to create user communities, a filter function so you can see what you would like to see and usability improvements.

Wii Fit 1

Wii Fit 2

Wii Fit 3

Wii Fit 4

Wii Fit 5

A web-based Miiverse will be here this Spring, while a proper App will be available later on.

-Miiverse will also be available on Smartphones this spring as a browser based site, an app is coming at a later date.

- Nintendo TVii is coming to European countries, Europeans will have to be patient for the service.

- Iwata apologises for no new Nintendo titles in January or March but the steady stream of games will start in March, starting with Wii Fit U, Lego City Undercover, Game and Wario and The Wonderful 101.

- A new trailer for The Wonderful 101

We are also treated to an update on Bayonetta 2 development with this trailer.

- A new type of Iwata Asks will cover game development studio’s culture and game philosophies. The first will start with Platinum Games and is coming soon. Iwata hopes to have one with The Wonderful 101′s producer Kamiya and talk about the game.

- Development for Super Smash Bros. 4 on Wii U and 3DS is huge and going well, screens will be at E3. EAD Tokyo Team is hard at work on the 3D Mario game for Wii U as well as the Mario Kart game for Wii U, both of these games will be seen at playable form at E3. A new party game from the developers of Wii Party is out this summer.

- Good Feel working on a Yoshi game, has Epic Yarn like visuals (or even, The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest feel). Trailer and a screen here.

- Nintendo collaborates with Atlus to bring Shin Megami Tensei crossover with Fire Emblem.

- The Legend of Zelda on Wii U confirmed.  Aonuma working on new Wii U Zelda now.  Driving theme behind development is to rethink the conventions of Zelda.  This includes complete dungeons in certain order, play by yourself.  Visuals to be different from what we saw in the E3 demo.  Looking forward to revealing more.  New Zelda game will take quite some time to complete.

Developers are looking to change these parts of The Legend of Zelda.

- The Wind Waker being revamped for Wii U and is due out this Fall. Along with the whole game being in HD, there will be game improvements, Miiverse and Off-TV play available!

Wind Waker HD 1

Wind Waker HD 2

Wind Waker HD 3

Wind Waker HD 4

Wind Waker HD 5

Wind Waker HD 6

Wind Waker HD 7

Wind Waker HD 8

Wind Waker HD 9

- Nintendo/Monolith Soft new title features a character with a giant sword.  Xenoblade meets Monster Hunter meets other huge games.  Title ‘X’ for now.

Nintendo made a lot of promises, E3 seems to be their focus for huge announcements this year. Screens of SSB4, the next 3D Mario game and Mario Kart, as well as much more and 3DS software too. Add on competitor announcements too and you have yourself one great show. What are you looking forward to most?