Entertainment Electronics Blog

MDK 2 will be the latest classic to be remade as a downloadable release, Interplay announced today.

A WiiWare version of the venerable third-person shooter is being developed for the Nintendo Wii. A high-definition version is also planned for the PC.

“MDK 2 was a great title to work on and we’re happy to have some of the original team working on these new versions,” Beamdog co-founder Trent Oster said in the official release.

The original game was developed by Bioware, and stars the janitor Kurt Hectic, the eccentric scientist Fluke Hawkins and the mechanical six-legged dog Max. It’s fondly remembered as much for its sense of humor as its action.

The Wii version will be out this winter. The PC version wasn’t given a timeframe, but it will be available through Beamdog’s digital distribution platform.

All signs point to Nintendo introducing a new black Wii console in May, and a poster leak from GameStop all but confirms most of the rumors we’ve heard. Kotaku reports that the poster (above) teases a black Wii bundle, which includes a black MotionPlus accessory, Wii Sports, and Wii Sports Resort.

This is very similar to the rumors we had previously heard from various retailers. Of course, now we have photographic evidence, so the new color and bundle is almost a certainty. May 9 is the likely date, so if you’ve been waiting for a sleeker Wii that can sit alongside your PlayStation 3 like a little brother, this is your chance.

Considering that Nintendo and Mistwalker’s The Last Story is due out on the Wii before the end of the year, the Hironobu Sakaguchi-run developer is being awfully quiet about the game. A full-on reveal will probably have to wait until the E3 show in June at this point, but until then, Nintendo seems content with releasing tiny little drips of info on the RPG — partly on the Japanese teaser site, and partly in previews published in Famitsu and other Japanese game mags.

A few of the tidbits released so far:

- The game’s fictional world is a pretty orthodox take on the sword-and-sorcery genre, without the sort of SF-style trappings often seen in Japanese RPGs.

- Much of the game is set in Ruli, a peninsular bay home to a thriving merchant metropolis. Ruli has survived relatively unscathed from the war and devastation over on the main continent, and the city in its center is massive and filled with twisty back alleys. It is run by Count Alganan, a cunning leader with shrewd political sense and a full knowledge of magic and its potential powers.

- Mistwalker has revealed concept art of the main hero and heroine (above). Their names haven’t been divulged yet, but they are apparently members of Ruli’s mercenary class, putting them pretty low on the social ladder.

- Battles in The Last Story take place in realtime, but you’re allowed to pause the action and enter commands manually should the need arise. Notable in the media shown off so far is the presence of “pointers,” lines drawn outward from enemies indicating where their attention is currently focused. As the hero, you’ll be able to “gather” enemy attention and divert them away from allies, useful for protecting spellcasters and ambushing monster hordes.

No US date has been announced for The Last Story yet, but an American release seems all but inevitable. Stay tuned for more coverage.

Scotland-based game developer Cohort Studios has a thing or two to say about the next wave of motion controllers. The studio is currently hard at work on The Shoot, an on-rails shooter designed for the PlayStation Move, and it’s pretty safe to say Cohort’s sold on the tech.

“The PlayStation Move is a great piece of hardware,” Cohort CEO Lol Scragg told Develop in a recent interview. “It has a fantastic feel to it and it’s incredibly accurate. We’ve had no issues with it, and the hardware and the libraries have come on well.”

But how does Sony’s device stack up against the competition? “Having used both controllers a lot, I’d say it was clear that the Move controller is so much more accurate [than the Wii remote],” Scragg said. “And it’s not just across the X and Y-axis either, the Z-axis is really accurate as well.”

The CEO went on to discuss the negative perception of motion control among hardcore gamers. “I understand that, if you read any of the forums, you’ll [see] people state they don’t need motion control, but that’s because they’ve likened motion control to the Wii,” he explained, adding, “Once Sony and Microsoft start releasing their own games for their motion controllers, I think the core will come round to it.”

Granted, Scragg’s opinion may be somewhat skewed by his company’s investment in development for the PlayStation Move. It’s still nice to hear developers getting excited about new technology.

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is on track to launch in the U.S. this summer, a decade after the N64 original was released in Japan. To bring North Americans who haven’t played the Virtual Console version up to speed, president Satoru Iwata gathered several developers who were involved with the original project to discuss their memories for the latest Iwata Asks.
Particularly interesting is the revelation that a peripheral was in development for the N64 at the time that would have functioned as a pointer of sorts.

Treasure president Masato Maegawa briefly mentioned the peripheral during the discussion, but said that the developer decided not to use it because it would have lengthened development time.

“When I saw the Wii Remote controller, I thought, “So this is the sensor they were talking about!” Maegawa said. “So I said, “Come on, let’s make Sin & Punishment for Wii!” and started bugging [director Atsutomo Nakagawa and art director Yasushi Suzuki] about it.”

The rest of the interview serves as quite an interesting look into the history of Sin & Punishment, particularly the developmental difficulties that kept it in development for three long years.

The complete interview is here. Sin & Punishment for the Wii will be out June 27.

In what may be the best symbolic example yet of Nintendo’s current phase of prosperity, president Satoru Iwata announced that lifetime sales of the Wii have surpassed those of the NES, and the DS has outsold the Game Boy — making them, respectively, Nintendo’s best-selling home hardware of all time and best-selling hardware period (via Shacknews).

“Needless to say, these are just two milestones of a larger journey in our efforts to reach the ultimate goal of bringing one home console for every household and one handheld for everyone,” Iwata said, possibly while stroking a white Persian cat while seated in a swivel-chair in the belly of a submerged nuclear submarine.

The numbers break down to 67.45 million Wii units sold as of the end of December, compared to lifetime NES sales of 61.91 million units. The DS has sold 125.13 million units as of December, compared to lifetime Game Boy sales of 118.69 million.

We believe the coarse phrase you’re looking for is holy crap.

Americans are still waiting for Pokémon Rumble, but Nintendo has already moved on full Wii title starring the iconic creatures. And it’s not a battle simulator either.
Screenshots of PokéPark Wii have emerged, most of which feature Pikachu doing what it does best — being best. As you might have guessed, the yellow rodent once again takes center stage in this adventure, and he must explore the titular PokéPark, which features a variety of attractions populated by — what else — Pokémon.

Pikachu will apparently be able to befriend the Pokémon around the park, utilizing their abilities to make the various challenges easier. For instance, Flying Pokémon will be useful in the Sky Race. There will also be a variety of tag, battle and quiz mini-games.

Pokémon fans rendered skeptical by the franchise’s less-than-stellar console outings should take note — this is the first console title to be developed by Creatures Inc., which is responsible for the mainline handheld series. It’s due in Japan on December 5, with a North American release likely due next year.

Unlike several other games we could mention, Need for Speed: Nitro is definitely not getting delayed into 2010. In fact, it’s actually jumping ahead a couple weeks, with the release date set for early November.
Developed for the Wii and the Nintendo DS, Electronic Arts is taking aiming at casual gamers for this one. The racing is meant to be extremely forgiving, and it features an art style that plays to the Wii’s strengths.

Electronic Arts has also released the complete soundtrack for the game, saying that it exemplifies the game’s “intensity, attitude and adrenaline.”

Would you be willing to pay to play Monster Hunter Tri online? According to MTV Multiplayer, Capcom is wondering the same thing.
At the moment, Japanese fans must pay 800 Wii Points ($8) for one month of online play, 1500 Wii Points ($15) for two months and 2000 Wii Points ($20) for three months). That would be unlikely to go over well in North America, where only Xbox Live and massively multiplayer games like World of WarCraft have subscription fees.

A similar system was in place for the PlayStation 2’s Monster Hunter G, but was removed for the western release. When 1UP spoke with Capcom representatives at TGS, they said that based on the franchise’s past history in North America, Monster Hunter Tri’s online play would likely be free as well.

Whether or not the online play ends up costing money, Monster Hunter Tri will be breaking new ground on the Wii. Capcom has confirmed that the console port will be doing away with the Wii’s notorious Friend Codes, and that they will be hosting games on their own servers rather than Nintendo’s.

With the franchise picking up some steam in North America, Monster Hunter Tri could be poised for a breakthrough. In the end, it may depend on whether Capcom decides to go ahead with the pay-for-play plan.

Monster Hunter Tri will be out in North America next year.

Elecom has released another set of keyboards with the TK-U01MAL series. Both are available in USB with a 3m long cord, and are available in black to match your PS3 and in white to match your Wii. Since these two keyboards are primarily made to be used with the two gamimg devices, they can also “stand-up” so that they take up as little space as gamers aren’t slobs and can be Ikea-net if they put their mind to it. Till now, nothing on pricing or whether the Elecom TK-U01MAL series keyboard will be available in the States.

But you can always import, if only you wish.