Two new games for the Wii

Be a Two-feet baldhead (if you're not one already)


The publisher of games like Gundam Musou and San Goku Shi has announced a new game for the Wii, titled "Opoona", it a "lifestyle RPG" (where does studio come up with new genre?). You take on the role of a two-feet baldhead boy called Opoona. Opoona belongs to Cosmo Guards, a group of, ahhh... guards who protect the ahh... cosmo.

During a trip to planet Landroll (the sister planet of Landslide), Opoona became separated from his family. His brother and sister are missing (probably got sold as child sex slave somewhere in Russia) and his parents are seriously injuried (how Opoona escaped the child abductors and/or injury is beyond me). So now he needs to find a job (child labour, anyone?) and travel around the universe in search for his siblings.

The game is being developed by Japanese studio ArtePiazza (those guys behind Dragon Quest), and music by Hitoshi Sakamoto (the guy behind FFXII), hitting a Japanese store in summer.

The most interesting thing about this game is that it's only going to use the nunchuck as a controller and nothing else. It will be interesting to see how it turns out, as no other studio has pay much attention to the nunchuck (They are too busy figuring out more ways for you to throw your Wiimote at the TV).

See the screenshots.

Source: Video Game Generation

Be a Pirate (if you're not one already)


Next, Capcom has announced a Wii-exclusive game tentatively called "Project Treasure Island Z". Like many other treasure island before it, there will be pirates, puzzles, and of course, treasures. The story has it that a pirate named Barbaros from yonks ago hid a great treasure somewhere. And in typical fashion, no-one knows where it is, so a game of Chinese Whispers ensued. You take on the role of Zack (and no, the treasure is NOT a DOA chick *drool*, and it's NOT on Zack's Island) who stumbled across a talking skull none other than the great pirate Barbaros himself. He is under some sort of curse he obviously can't get out of and if you can help him, he can help you find his hidden riches.

Rather than going straight to where the treasure is, you will have to go through jungles, ice temple, volcanic caves to rotate handles, turn keys to open doors, play a piccolo and whatever else that is in your way.

The idea sounds interesting, but the pirates are not. Hopefully, it's not another one of them generic treasure hunting game.

Source: Video Game Generation

Sales Chart: Wii are winning in NA

Month ending Feburary

Console War VII: The Battle for America

Report from Game InfoWire today has suggested that the Wii is again the top selling console in America for the month of February.

"According to independent sales data released by the NPD Group, the Wii from Nintendo was America's best-selling video game console in the U.S. again in February, with consumers snapping up virtually every system available in America totaling more than 335,000 units."

The DS, meanwhile, sold 485,000 units in the same time, making a Nintendo one-two finish in February, claiming over half of all consoles sold in the month. Good news for Nintendo, in the face of slowing sales back home, even though it's still outselling the PS3. Sony is introducing its "Home" service later this year. It's some sort of virtual community. From the reception that it got at the recent GDC, it has potential to lift PS3 sales. So it will be an interesting development.

Source: Game InfoWire

Sales Chart JPN: DS game back on top, but Wii are falling

Weeking ending 11 March 2007

DS has reclaimed the top spot with an old favourite, Yoshi's Island DS. With 303,114 copies sold, that certainly is one of Japan's favourite game franchise. Coming from world of Mario, Yoshi has certain appeal towards gamers. Last weeks light saber weilding Gundam Musou has dropped to seventh this week, with only 31,145 units sold. I guess most of the Gundam / Shin Sangoku Musou fans must have had a copy of it by now.

On the other hand, PSP's Monster Hunter 2 jumped back up into second spot, albeit lacking behind with less than 95,000 copies sold. Another former ichiban, Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village, rounded off the top 3.

Another new release, Kenkabancho 2 - Full Throttle on the PS2 entered the battle into fourth, while last week's new comer, DS's Super Robo War W, in fifth.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

DS - Yoshi's Island DS
PSP - Monster Hunter 2
PS2 - Kenkabancho 2 - Full Throttle
Wii - Wii Sports
PS3 - Gundam Musou

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 34
Wii - 7
PS2 - 6
PSP - 1
PS3 - 2

Console War VII: The Battle for Nippon

Looks like there wasn't too much fighting at the console front. All of the console fell over the week. While Nintendo is still outselling Sony by miles, PSP managed to outsell the Wii. Maybe it's just quiet at this time of the year, with school starting soon in Apirl.

DSL - 108,512
PSP - 56,175
Wii - 44,495
PS3 - 32,115
PS2 - 14,585
XB360 - 3,333

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart JPN: Gundam chops down competitions, yet Wii are still winning.

Weeking ending 4 March 2007

As expected from the Gundam crazy Japanese, Gundam Musou has successfully & easily taken top spot when it was released in Japan at the start of March. It sold 170,725 copies (no doubt a lot of them are sold as a PS3 value pack or something). Basically the game is Shin Sangoku Musou (aka Dynasty Warriors) in the Gundam universe. It should satisfy fans of both series. I love both, but that doesn't make me want to buy a PS3 yet.

A new DS title, Super Robo War W comes second, with 139,311 copies sold, less than 2,000 more than last week's ichiban, Monster Hunter 2 on the PSP (137,851). From 4th place all the way down to 23rd are either on the Wii or the DS, such is the dominance of both console.

With the success of Gundam Musou, the Console War VII: The Battle of Nippon, as it will be known from this day forth has seen the Wii suffer heavy casulties. Wii sold 20,000 less units, all of which (and then some) went to the PS3. Only roughly 4000 units seperate the PS3 (40,000) and Wii (57,972), the closest yet this year. The number of PS3 sold has more than doubled over the last week. Is the PS3 finally getting some decent games now? Only time will tell. One thing for certain is that the XBox360 continues it's slow march with only 3,379 units sold.

On the handheld front, DS (111,814) continues to sell more than the PSP (66,156). Cumulative sales for PSP has past 5 million, only about 10 million behind DS.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week:

PS3 - Gundam Musou
DS - Super Robo War W
PSP - Monster Hunter 2
Wii - Wii Sports
PS2 - Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 35
Wii - 6
PS2 - 5
PSP - 3
PS3 - 1

Source: Media Create

Chris Hecker apologise for his "shitty" comment.

Chris "I-am-a-fucking-Nintendo-hater" Hecker has apologised to the rest of the world today after some rather strong words at the GDC days ago. It's unclear whether he apologised on his own accord (probably not), or if he was made to apologise (a more likely scenario) by his employer.

Either way, the damage has been done. I won't be surprised if he was killed, with a wiimote stuck up his ass. Funny thing was, in his apology, he made another smartass comment, "Nintendo needs to be applauded... on making a console that you don't need to mortgage your house to afford."

Was he implying something else is a piece of shit now?

Read the apology here.

Wii is a piece of shit... apparently.

At the GDC 2007, someone by the name of Chris Hecker decided to let his feelings known about Nintendo's Wii. He has been put on record as calling the Wii as "a piece of shit". Well, I've got something for you, Chris, you're a fucking idiot. I don't care if you're on the advisory board for the GDC or is respected within the gaming industry, the fact that someone in your position claim the Wii as a piece of shit does not earn any respect from me.

Let us analyse his rant:

He said, "This thing is totally underpowered... This is not about graphics, more polygons, all that kind of crap. What I want to be able to do is spend CPU to make the machine smarter, more interesting and more automatically intelligent."

Wii is underpower? What? you mean you don't know that? Nintendo has said all along that the Wii is not a high tech toy. Technology should be used to assist in creating the game. It's the idea behind the game and the way that it is deliveried that makes a great game. If you want a smarter, more interesting and more automatcialy intelligent machine, go buy yourself a supercomputer.

He said, "It's about interactivity - that is the key differentiator of our art form, and interactivity is about doing something interesting with that input and threading it back to the user. You can't do that with a POS underpowered computer."

Games by and large is not an art form per se. I thought games are for fun, not to be admired as art. Yes, I agree to certain extend that games is an art form, but you can't say it's a piece of shit just because it doesn't do any of the things you want it to do.

Hecker then quoted Eiji Aonuma, "I don't feel that games can necessarily be considered art. There's nothing wrong with that; our goal is just to make games that are fun." His response was: "This is not good enough for people who are leading our industry... If we're going to make games the art from of the 21st century, we need people who care more than just, 'I'm going to make some fun toys."

If game are not for fun, then I don't know what it's for. You can look at it as an art form for all you like. But at the end of the day, people play games because it's fun, it's entertaining, and that's what matters to (most) people. At least he recognised Nintendo as an industry leader.

He said, "Number one: recognise and push games as a serious art form. Number two: make a console that doesn't suck ass."

If you think you're so fucking good, go and make your own fucking console. Oh sorry, you have never released a game before. Oh, and guess what, you know the FIRST game you're releasing? It'll probably end up on the Wii, you know, the piece of shit that you mentioned. You know what, Chris? I really hope your kids cry day and night nagging for a Wii.

Now I don't pretend that I am a game developer, or own every single game console ever produced, but if Chris "I-am-a-fucking-Nintendo-hater" Hecker can express his opinion, then I can too. If the Wii is a piece of shit, then it has to be the best selling shit I've ever seen.

"Ask not what the console can do for you, ask what you can do for the console."

Sales Chart: a PSP game sold 700,000+ copies!

Weeking ending 25 February 2007

In the world of portable consoles, PSP has admittedly been the underdog, having played second fiddle to the DS ever since its release. But this week, the game Monster Hunter 2 has finally made people want to buy a PSP. It sold an amasing 705,281 copies. Looks like Nintendo will have some work to do if they were to maintain the top spot, which is kind of a good thing, can't let DS slack off, can we?

Actually, this week hasn't been too kind to Nintendo, because the second place has been taken by a PS2 game, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (ひぐらしのなく頃に祭), a fan-made visual novel (80,002 units). I really don't understand how that works. Do the fans gather around and say, "Right, we'll make a game." And off they went and created it, then get it published? It just all sound so strange. Another good example of that is "Tsuki-hime". That game is also a fan-made visual novel. I've never played them before, but by the look things, it's not as uncommon as it seems.

The new Fire Emblem game on the Wii comes third, selling 75,000+ copies. Matter of fact, Nintendo rounded up the rest of the top 20 (except for one), with DS taking 9 spots and the Wii taking 4. A new Lupin the 3rd PS2 game sandwiched in between at 11.

Seriously, I don't know why people is playing SimCity, but they are. SimCity is the top selling game for the DS this week. This flavor of SimCity has been localised, so you can build all the Japanese landmark, like Himeji castles and Tokyo Tower.

PS3 and Xbox 360 both has 1 game on the chart.

Hardware looks interesting this week. The DS is still on top, but PSP, supported by the new game Monster Hunter 2, sold 70,000+ units than last week (136,128 vs 100,210). The closest contest between the 2 handheld this year, and possible the entire history. The gap has widen between the Wii and PS3 however as Wii sold more than last week, and PS3 sold less. Wii pushed further ahead with 78,506 units sold as compared to only 19,315 for the PS3. XBox360 as usual, lacks far behind the rest at 4,183.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week:

PSP - Monster Hunter 2
PS2 - Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Wii - Fire Emblem
DS - SimCity DS
XBox360 - Riot Act
PS3 - Untold Legend Dark Kingdom

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 31
PS2 - 7
Wii - 6
PSP - 4
PS3 - 1
XBox360 - 1

Source: Media Create