Entertainment Electronics Blog

GTA 5 coming in May? Kratos headed online? Mickey Mouse going HD? Wii U getting an app store?

2012’s videogames are the subject of intense focus now that the new year has dawned, so NowGamer has rounded up the biggest rumours to emerge over the Christmas break.

GTA 5

The next Grand Theft Auto could be headed for a May release according to a piece on the NME’s site – does it know something we don’t?

God of War 4

The much-rumoured sequel will include an online co-op mode according to speculation. Meanwhile, the most recent confirmation that development on the game is underway comes from a composer’s online resume.

Epic Mickey 2

A sequel to the Warren Spector-designed, Wii-exclusive sequel has been long rumoured – but it will have split-screen co-op and also hit Xbox 360 and the PS3 according to a chunk of text alleged to have been included in a recent Disney newsletter:

“Disney Epic Mickey 2 is the latest game in the critically acclaimed Disney Epic Mickey videogame series. In this all-new action-platforming game available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii, Mickey embarks on an epic journey and is pulled back into a world filled with Disney’s forgotten characters. Players can choose to play single-player as Mickey or for the first time players can also choose 2-player split screen mode. In the 2 player mode one person can play as Mickey wielding magic paint and paint thinner to dynamically change the world and the second player can play as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit – Walt Disney’s first cartoon star – with the power to fly like a helicopter and use electricity to fight or friend enemies and solve challenges. Team-up and choose your path to save this forgotten world because the choices you make will alter the story and change the end of the game!”

Wii U

A Newsstand-style service will turn the Wii U controller (and the 3DS) into an e-reader according to a new rumour, while apps are also headed to the next-gen Nintendo console according to another.

Hitman: Profession

Square Enix registered the trademark ‘Hitman: Profession’ on 22 December. Is it the name of the first game from new studio Square Enix Montreal?

It seems fair to say that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a success for Nintendo, what with the largely positive reviews it’s been getting (including the requisite 40/40 from Famitsu). Following up on last week’s interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, the Japanese magazine sat down with Skyward Sword producer Eiji Aonuma and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi to discuss the game in further detail — here are some of the highlights:

- Plotwise, Skyward Sword is a prequel to Ocarina of Time, telling the story of the origin of the Master Sword. This came about despite the fact that the game’s Wii MotionPlus support came along long after plot details were finalized. “It’s funny,” Aonuma said, “but Fi, the sword-spirit who appears in this game, was something we finished up before we decided this would be a Zelda that used Wii MotionPlus. We already had her as a sword spirit beforehand, and during our announcement at the 2009 E3 show, her design was modeled after the Master Sword. At the time, though, you used her in a completely different way gamewise than you do now. The MotionPlus swordplay was something that was completed later on, and as a result the game’s story and action gameplay came to both focus more on the Master Sword. It wound up coming together pretty well.”

I was pleasantly surprised when I sampled Nintendo’s upcoming Wii party game Fortune Street last month at New York Comic-Con. Despite being a multiplayer title starring Mario and other game mascots in a virtual board game setting, Fortune Street is the furthest thing from Mario Party you could imagine. The few minigames it contains are generally automated affairs that play themselves in a few short seconds: no button-mashing or stick-twirling required. Rather, Fortune Street has far more in common with Hasbro’s Monopoly than with the usual minigame collections that have shown up as multiplayer releases over the past decade.

What I didn’t realize based on my NYCC hands-on is that it’s even deeper than that. Fortune Street is playable in both standard and simplified modes, and at public events Nintendo has been demoing it in the latter mode. With the training wheels taken off, Fortune Street is kind of ridiculous. Like a real “grown-ups” board game such as Risk or Monopoly, a single match can take hours. I recently played a demo with other members of the gaming press — including IGN’s Audrey Drake — and two hours wasn’t enough for us to complete a game. And that wasn’t even on one of the more complex boards!

Last month marked the five-year anniversary of Bully’s release on PlayStation 2. Aside from a re-release (in the form of Scholarship Edition) on Xbox 360 and Wii in 2008 and a PC port later that year, there hasn’t been much talk of a future for Bully. In the meantime Rockstar has been busy — Grand Theft Auto IV and both its expansions, Red Dead Redemption, two Midnight Club games, and more have been released since then, yet Bully remains the preeminent Rockstar game for many. With Bully developer Rockstar Vancouver currently occupied with Max Payne 3, there are plans to evalute the prospect of a new Bully following MP3’s release in March.

Bully isn’t the only Rockstar game that has had to wait a long time for a sequel. Max Payne 2 was released in 2003, making it at least an eight-and-a-half-year wait for MP3. Red Dead Revolver was out a year later, in 2004, but it wasn’t until 2010 that Redemption came along.

Kirby fans who own a 3DS are in for a treat this week. The fifth 3D Classics title has arrived on the eShop in North America today, and it’s the second Kirby game ever release: Kirby’s Adventure.

The game was originally released on NES in 1993 before later being released on Game Boy Advance in 2002 as Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land. A Wii Virtual Console version is also available. The obvious benefit of this 3D Classics version is the addition of 3D support and the ability to play it on the go if you don’t have a copy of Nightmare in Dream Land (and a system that plays GBA games) handy. Its price is set at $5.99.

Let’s face facts: regardless of what I say about Mario Kart 7, it’ll end up being one of the best-selling games on its platform, just like the past two installments. Though the presence of an actual challenge in Mario Kart DS didn’t detract from its popularity, Mario Kart Wii marked a new movement for the series, and one that essentially turned Mario Kart into a party game. Not that there’s anything wrong with party games, of course; it’s just that Mario Kart Wii made any display of skill a losing prospect, as it perpetually sabotaged success in an attempt to level the playing field. Some would view this approach as a masterstroke on Nintendo’s part, as it allows a group of people with differing skill sets to complete on equal ground without nasty things like “experience” getting in the way. As expected, Mario Kart 7 takes this same tack, and its regressive nature promises to annoy karting fans looking for the series to hop back on the highway to the danger zone.

Before this ends up reading as a total condemnation of Mario Kart 7, it should be noted that the game features a few interesting additions. Instead of choosing from an array of vehicles — which has been the case since Double Dash — MK7 allows the player to individually choose the wheels, chassis, and glider for their kart, with each part affecting its stats in some way. Coins collected during a race can be cashed in for further parts; these coins also boost your kart’s acceleration (only during the race where you grabbed them, of course), and spice up things up a bit by hinting at prime power sliding arcs and possible shortcuts. If you’re looking for other interesting mechanics of twists on this staid series, you might want to look elsewhere; even the promise of land, sea, and air travel is little more than lip service, as indicated by Jeremy’s E3 preview.

There has been much said about the slow sales of the 3DS early in its life. And it’s not as if it was just a creation of the media or fanboys — it was failing to meet expectations to the point where Nintendo decided to drop its price by $80 in August, not even six months after it first went on sale. Besides the money it’s losing — which will contribute to the company’s first annual loss in 30-plus years — this drop might cause consumers to be wary of picking up a Wii U early in its life for fear that its price will be dropped soon afterward.

As dire as that may all sound, the DS didn’t have the hottest of starts either, yet it went on to become the best-selling portable game system of all time worldwide, and the best-selling game system of any sort in the United States. While it’s no guarantee the 3DS will follow in its footsteps, Nintendo has delivered word today that first-year sales of the 3DS are on track to surpass those of the DS.

There has been much said about the slow sales of the 3DS early in its life. And it’s not as if it was just a creation of the media or fanboys — it was failing to meet expectations to the point where Nintendo decided to drop its price by $80 in August, not even six months after it first went on sale. Besides the money it’s losing — which will contribute to the company’s first annual loss in 30-plus years — this drop might cause consumers to be wary of picking up a Wii U early in its life for fear that its price will be dropped soon afterward.

As dire as that may all sound, the DS didn’t have the hottest of starts either, yet it went on to become the best-selling portable game system of all time worldwide, and the best-selling game system of any sort in the United States. While it’s no guarantee the 3DS will follow in its footsteps, Nintendo has delivered word today that first-year sales of the 3DS are on track to surpass those of the DS.

Following the 3D remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for 3DS, Majora’s Mask seems like the natural choice for Nintendo’s next remake project. The company is instead working on an original Zelda game for 3DS because it didn’t want to release back-to-back remakes. While Majora’s Mask 3D may end up happening — fans asking for it will only help its chances — it’s not the only Zelda game that may end up with a 3D remake.

Earlier this year, Shigeru Miyamoto talked about how more game remakes on 3DS are a lock. When it comes to Zelda, it’s A Link to the Past he’d like to see next.

When the Wii U was officially announced at this year’s E3, the multiplayer possibilities immediately started coming to mind for scenarios where each player had his or her own tablet? Soon after we learned Nintendo wasn’t planning to sell the tablets separately because the system could only support a single tablet at a time. In other words, multiplayer would consist, at best, of one player with a tablet controller and others using Wii remotes. That’s hardly an ideal scenario for gamers or developers, and as such, Nintendo is reportedly trying to work out a way to support two tablets on one system.

The tablet controller itself is not filled with the sort of hardware you’d find in an iPad or any other tablet; the system streams content to the controller, which is why you can’t play games on the controller when it’s far away from the console. Were the tablet sold separately, this would be good because it’d keep costs down. But without support for more than one tablet on a single system, there would never be any need to sell it on its own.