Funktion

It's currently £17.73 at TheHut.com

I don't know if this only applies to GAME retail stores, but check the following news item.

I'm still very interested in the Wii version (I still find the graphical style of this version more appealing than the more "realistic" style used for the next-gen releases), but I'll wait for a price drop. The same way I purchase items on "day one" to support some companies whose releases I think are worth supporting, I can't possibly support the shameless behavior regarding the European launch of this title. I already own the Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS versions, which I picked up when they got released in the US, but I'm still interested in picking up the Wii and PC versions in the future.

Not to sound like a salesman (), but DVD.co.uk dropped the price for Muramasa yet again. It's now £22.99 (again, an excellent price for a day one purchase). Hopefully this will convince more people to purchase the game.

For those interested in pre-ordering the game, DVD.co.uk has now dropped it's price to £23.99 (or about 27 euros shipped for customers outside of the UK, such as myself), which is an excellent "day one" price for a videogame.

They may be a bit slow (at least for customers outside of the UK), and I wouldn't recommend them for Blu-Ray discs (I received several re-sealed products instead of brand new ones), but they are good for videogames (never had any problems, and I bought plenty of games from them). They usually have Wii games for crazy prices (The Conduit was £17 on release day, and they usually sell lots of recent Wii titles for less than £10 soon after release in special 1-2 day sales), so it's one of the stores to keep an eye on for Wii bargains.

Spyborgs is £12.73 on TheHut.

The game is already selling below £20 (HMV, Amazon, ...), for those interested.

Please don't remind me that Fragile may suffer the same fate... If you walk into a store today, you have World of Warcraft and The Sims in the PC section, and not much more; in the DS section you find Brain Training, lots of Nintendogs rip-offs and a few Nintendo titles scattered; in the Xbox 360 and PS3 sections you get a silly number of music games and it's accessories, and lots of shooters; walk into the Wii section, and you get WiiFit, party games and silly accessories that you put on your remote to do absolutely nothing (I'm talking about those pieces of plastic that simulate a tennis racquet, a golf club, ...). This is the sad state of the gaming industry, when it comes to retail. There's no diversity, titles (especially from smaller publishers) either have no shelf presence or a very limited shelf life (remember when you could easily go to a store and purchase a game released 2 or 3 years earlier? Now, unbelievably enough, there are games nearly impossible to find after less than a month, even at online stores!). Sadly, this keeps getting worse. Does anyone think it's normal that most games now drop their prices in more than 50% (sometimes as much as 85%) after just 1 or 2 weeks of being released, and then vanish from the stores? This can't be good.

You mean Ninja Spirit (Ninja Scroll is an anime movie, and later series), right? Ninja Spirit rocks! : peace: During the first year or so of the Wii, I called it my "Virtual Turbografx". The Virtual Console on the Wii was the first time I had access to lots of Turbografx games I never played before (the console was never released where I live, not even through importation), and it was like I had opened a treasure trove. I ended up not playing Zelda (which I purchased on day one) because I was busy playing Bonk's Adventure (a new personal favourite; I now put the Bonk series second to Mario only on the 2D platformer genre), Super Star Soldier (kick ass shoot 'em up), Dungeon Explorer and Bomberman '93. Even now I own well over half of the total Turbografx titles released on the VC. Needless to say, Ninja Spirit is now also a personal favourite. It's a shame it never received sequels. As for Muramasa, I hope everyone who is interested in it pre-orders and purchases the game. This retail situation is sure to impact the sales of the title, and if sales don't happen for this and other RSG titles (retailers are not carrying Ju-On either) we're sure to lose Rising Star Games sooner or later, which would be devastating to our chances of receiving some more "niche" titles.

Personally, I couldn't care less about reviews, after about 30 years playing videogames I'm resigned to the fact most games I enjoy receive lukewarm critical reception (such as the Nintendo DS game Contact, one of the best games I played in many years IMO, and nobody cared about it), while MGS, Halo, GTA4, Modern Warfare, games that don't say a thing to me (heck, GTA4 bored me to tears) receive 9's and 10's all around. It's perfectly natural for me to buy games on day one that were previously bashed by pretty much everyone, if I'm interested enough in something it's not someone else's opinion that is going to change my mind. We all have different tastes, just because some guy liked or disliked the game it doesn't mean I will like it/dislike it like he does, so I really don't get why some people only buy games that "x" publication gave grade "x" or more, because otherwise it isn't worth their time (it's their call, I guess). That being said, regarding Edge's score, I read these discussions about a publication's score for this game, and I seriously have to ask: does anyone honestly care about review scores for New Super Mario Bros. Wii? By now, is there anyone that doesn't know how a 2D Mario game plays and controls? Would a 2/10 review stop anyone who played and enjoyed a 2D Mario platformer before from purchasing this game? This is the kind of game reviews are even more worthless than usual. The game is going to sell loads because it's a 2D Mario platformer, the game is going to be fun and control stupidly well because of the same reason (read above, 2D Mario platformer ), does anyone have any doubt it?

To be honest I never noticed anything terribly wrong with the AI players movements (except in a few 2 or 3 to 1 plays), because I kept switching between players (frenetically) and moving them myself, especially on defense. By the way, my comments regarding your "complaints" were in no way a critic to your review, just my personal opinion based on my gameplay time. And even without the full text (which, by the way, was it for a website or publication?), your comments were quite helpful, because they convinced me to give this game a try. Hopefully more people will give it a chance too. Lots of Wii titles are getting (in my opinion) unfairly ignored, unfortunately if it isn't a Zelda or Mario title, or something that receives a 9 in 10 or similar score, it's never looked upon twice by some people. There's lots of titles worth your time that don't achieve such scores, especially since most 3rd party Wii games are not selling very well, and 1-2 weeks after their release they are being sold for £10-£17 most of the times. Games such as Opoona (criminally ignored), the Trauma Center sequels, Eledees, Dewy's Adventure, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Dungeon, Blast Works, Deadly Creatures, Klonoa, The Munchables and many more. Heck, even games like Little King's Story (one of the best games in this generation of consoles, IMO), Zack & Wiki, Madworld and other well received titles are selling like crap. Seriously, I don't get why multiple console users are running to the stores to pre-order Modern Warfare 2 (with it's stupidly inflated price), and then have to think twice if Little King's Story is worth the £10 some stores are selling it for, even if they are interested in it.

And so I picked up this game, and honestly I found it surprisingly fun. When this was announced, I wasn't impressed and discarded it almost immediately as one more of Ubisoft's "shovelware" titles for the Wii. Well, looks can be deceiving, while it's far from a perfect title it's also great fun, and a game where it's clear Ubisoft made an effort to present us with a good title. This game is being pretty much ignored (to a point where even finding a review of it is almost an adventure), but in this case I would say unfairly so. I guess Ubisoft is "paying" for the lack of quality of most of their Wii output (that, and the total lack of advertising). What made me give this game a try was the apparent similarities it shared with a title I quite in enjoyed in the past, Sega Soccer Slam. And it does share a few similarities to Sega Soccer Slam, although it's not as fast paced because the field is bigger in this game. Still, the game is a fun and fast arcade-style football game with no fouls and no out-of-bounds, and where special moves and crazy goals from the middle of the field are pretty much the order of the day. Technically speaking, the game has nice visuals, with interesting art design (in the fields in which you play, the background elements look like crazy drawings; and usually new elements start to show up as you score goals; transforming stadiums! :p), and a nice soundtrack (by Mutato Muzika, the company of Devo's Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh; Mark and a few other people composed the game's soundtrack). The game's main mode, the story mode, is actually quite fun. In it you go through 4 semesters of practicing, playing matches, recruiting new team members, improving you and your teammate's skills (with a few light RPG elements), taking basic exams on your knowledge of the game's controls and opposing teams, purchasing items and other stuff (and guess who handles the shops: Rabbids ), and playing in tournaments. Besides the main mode, there's a quick match mode (which allows for VS matches), and several mini-games (most you unlock during the story mode). The game has "achievements" (medals, actually) that you can check in one of the main menu's options. You have 50 to get, and this option also keeps track of your progress with player recruiting/unlocking and items purchased, and gives you a percentage of completion (a bit similarly to games such as GTA). Ganepark32 considered in his review of the game 3 main negative points: - AI issues - Gameplay is very basic - Some control issues As for AI issues, in 12 hours of gameplay I experienced maybe two significant issues with the AI (in one of them the opposing character in a mini-game was simply standing there, I tackled him and he finally started running). A bit more testing would have detected this, but in wasn't frequent, and didn't affect my enjoyment of the game. I would say I had more problems with the camera getting sometimes stuck on a player (instead of where the ball was) than actual AI issues. As for "Gameplay is very basic", it indeed is. But it's typical of this sub-genre of games, fast-paced arcade-style sports games are usually like this. You have low-pass, high pass, tackles, shooting (with a strength gauge) and special moves. That's pretty much it, but at the same time that's pretty much all that's needed. More complex moves/controls would work against the pace of the gameplay. This isn't a game that's going after the FIFA's and the Pro Evolution's, this is a game were scores of 8-12 goals are perfectly normal, and shooting and scoring from the middle field is the order of the day. As for control issues, this is where I have to disagree. I never experienced any issues with the controls at all, I never failed to do what I wanted (and fast), and I never triggered anything I didn't want to (because thankfully they barely used motions controls, they only use it to trigger the special moves; in a fast paced game such as this, any failing to register a movement or triggering something else would make the game an unplayable chaos). Maybe Ganepark32 used either Wii MotionPlus or the balance board, and one of them failed to properly work in terms of gameplay. I don't have the balance board, and I didn't try MotionPlus with this game because the control configuration with it seemed stupid and tacked-on, in this game I would rather have the analogue stick controlling the direction of a shot and the time I press a button control the actual shot than having to either point up or down for it to register different types of kicks. All in all, while it's not a terribly original game, and one to earn any GOTY prizes, it's also not a shovelware title or a game devoid of any interest. It's a worthwhile game for those looking for football games where realism isn't the order of the day, and where tactics and complex playbooks are replaced with lots of goals and tackles every couple of seconds. Personally, I'm not a big fan of sports titles, and when I do play a sports title I'm not seeking realism (if I wanted that I would go outside with a ball and play with friends, instead of having my butt on a couch... ), I seek fun. I always preferred soccer games such as Virtua Soccer 2 or Sensible Soccer to games like FIFA. If you are like me and you appreciate a fast-paced arcade title which doesn't require a 3 button combination to dibble your opponent, you could do a lot worse than this title. Especially for the price, less than a month after release it's already being sold below £15.

I was already aware of that through some videos I saw. No problem, I like unlocking stuff in games.

The part time jobs at the beginning of the game, when you get your house? If that's it, I did it almost a year ago. Regarding talking to Rover, do you mean at the menus? I did select I wanted to receive communications on the menus where Rover is present. I didn't start a new game, it's the same game I'm playing since the release date. Unless there's new part time jobs in the new game and I totally missed it.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I'm yet to get a single DLC item. I played the game on Tuesday, hoping to get the first Nintendogs DLC. I had my town's door open for almost 2 hours, hoping to get the letter from Nintendo (like it happened with Animal Crossing: Wild World), but I didn't get a thing. I have WiiConnect24 on in both the console and the game. How do you guys do it to receive the DLC? Do you have to add someone to your friend's list in order to "properly" connect to Nintendo's server and receive the DLC?

While this game is mainly directed to a younger audience, the early videos and previews of it make it seem like mindless fun and maybe worth a look, especially at the budget price it's being sold (less than £17 on several stores). For those not aware, the game has both an Adventure mode (a beat 'em up that plays similarly to Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, with 2 player co-op) and a Battle mode, in which all unlocked characters (over 20, including Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain America, Falcon, Ms. Marvel, The Thing, The Hulk, Nightcrawler, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Invisible Woman, Storm, Thor, Doctor Doom, Sabertooth, Mole Man, Magneto, Crimson Dynamo, A.I.M. Agent, Abomination and Juggernaut; Nick Fury, Sentinel and Loki are in the game, but apparently they are not playable characters) fight in 2-4 player battles similar to games such as Powerstone. Besides the unlockable characters, there's also unlockable costumes/alternate characters (such as U.S. Agent, Spider-Man 2099, and apparently even Captain Britain).

Ok, you sold me on it. It's been years since I bought a football game, I'm more of a fan of arcadey and fast paced football games such as Virtua Striker 2, Sensible Soccer, the already mentioned Sega Soccer Slam and the old Super Soccer for the SNES, than the supposedly more realistic games such as FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer. Besides, the idea of pitting the Rabbids against a team comprising of Sam Fisher, Rayman, Jade (Beyond Good and Evil), Altair (Assassin's Creed) and the guy from Prince of Persia in a football match sounds like a lot of fun... :p

Thanks. I may give it a try, seeing as it's already being sold for around £15.

Did anyone pick this up? I didn't follow this game, but I just saw a couple of videos that made it somewhat resemble Sega Soccer Slam, which I enjoyed, so I was wondering if the game is any fun at all.

I find Brownie Brown to be a very underrated company, who has a bit of a bad reputation for reasons I'm yet to understand. This recent "alliance" with Level-5 is a match made in heaven. Besides this "bonus" RPG, I can't wait to get my hands on Fantasy Life, the RPG they are making together.

The US release is currently set for Winter 2009. The European release is set for early Spring 2010. It would be nice if the game made it before the end of the year, but considering the number of games Rising Star Games has scheduled for the end of this year, it's not really realistic, since it would definitely get very crowded (they have 3 known Wii games already scheduled for that time period).

Fragile, as posted above, was announced through RSG's mailing list, and even though the main page of the website still wasn't updated to reflect this (members of their Hoshi mailing list are supposed to be "warned" before the actual announcements) you can see the page linked on the email here (click on the image below): l As for Arc Rise Fantasia, the game was announced during a press event at the end of 2008, but the website still doesn't have a page for the game (neither does No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle). They usually only put pages for the games when the release date is more or less set in stone. But you can see the press release and announcement is various websites, such as: -GoNintendo -Joystiq -Cubed3

No doubt. But the thing is, while the US has publishers like Atlus, and more recently Xseed and Ignition Entertainment, we basically had no one to bring to Europe and Australia more "niche" titles. Sure, some of them eventually got released, but we missed on a lot of games. That's why Rising Star Games, and a few other companies that have been appearing recently, are important to gamers from our markets.

I'm turning into a Rising Star Games "fanboy". :p I have to say, they are one of the best things to happen to the European and Australian markets. They are bringing some wonderful games that we might have missed otherwise, and a few of the games they released didn't even get a US release. Just look at some of their currently announced Wii games: -JU-ON: The Grudge (2009) -Muramasa: The Demon Blade (2009) -Valhalla Knights : Eldar Saga (2009) -No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle (2010) -Fragile (2010) -Rune Factory Frontier (still undated) -Arc Rise Fantasia (still undated)