James McGeachie

Most of the shots were rendered way above Wii resolution, it was amazing people bought into them. The only huge different really though in the actual graphics is the fact they're completely anti aliased.

People need to remember that just because a developer's name is the same, it doesn't mean it has the same staff that were around 10 years ago and it's the staff that define a team and their games.

Thinking about it sensibly, Nintendo always do things on the cheap and are notorious for it. Nothing about this game really comes across as "huge budget" either, it's big on ideas and creativity, that's what fueled the design and progress, not simply pumping more money and staff into the project.

Weird that Brinstar is back considering that the new Norfair stage is exactly the same concept but with some enhancements. Would've been better if they had Brinstar Depths, simply for the diversity. Sadly this probably means there wont be another new Metroid stage since we already have the frigate too (why the hell did they choose that...honestly...).

Probably a fraction of that, I'd imagine less than 5 million, possibly much less.

You cant really compare years and say "There's no way this year is as big as that one!" because fact is, as time goes on the leaps in gaming are going to get progressively smaller, each new gen is going to feature lesss revolutionary changes in the concepts and gameplay structure of games at the very least, until we go into VR or something anyway. It's nigh on impossible for a game to come out now and have the impact to the gaming scene that something like OOT had in 98'. That being said this year had Bioshock, COD4, Galaxy, Prime 3, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Uncharted, The Orange Box, God of War 2, Lost Planet, Halo 3, Crackdown...etc. Whether or not the year was "revolutionary" or not doesn't matter but it was full of very high quality gaming entertainment.

Looks great though I hope taking a penalty isn't really as simple as just pointing at an area of the net and clicking. Good thing they changed the name since it's coming out a bit later as it'll help establish it as a new product for people who bought the other versions when they came out a while back.

I seriously want a Luigi's Mansion sequel with the Wii remote being used to aim the vacuum, though only with some control depth and not just a couple of suck arse gestures.

Default settings on Wii often aren't what "the developers want" but instead what Nintendo thinks the "casuals" would need to avoid being put off. Advanced/Expert mode is definitely what Retro would want.

There's nothing to suggest it'll even get a headstart. It's likely the 360 version is the primary build yeah, but a PS3 version is probably being worked on simaltaneously and they'll both be released together. On the other hand though it would be very Namcom to release the 360 version with the full intention of releasing a PS3 version slightly later with a huge amount of extra content, in the hope tons of fans will buy a second copy of the game just for the extras, like so often happens with hardcore RPG fanatics.

Probably between 150-250K. Around as well as Galaxy done perhaps, probably less than Wii fit. A hardcore game being bigger and better in Japan lately doesn't mean it's going to have amazing sales. This game is the very definition of hardcore too, Nintendo can't really dodge around and try to market it to both the casual and hardcore crowd like they do with some of their top franchises nowadays, it doesn't offer anything to the Wii owners who bought the system solely for the Wii sports style experience, so that market (the vast majority of Wii owners in Japan) isn't gonna buy the game.

I thought it was on both? There's no way it's a 360 exclusive... Likely scenario is just like the majority of next gen games it's being developed for the 360 first due to the hardware being easier to work with, then will be ported to PS3.

My post was had virtually nothing to do with Tales and I tried to make that clear, it was just concerning developers and games in general. I posted it simply because it seemed kinda relevant to the fact people are fuming a big entry in the series isn't coming to the system and we're getting a sequel. The fact is, whether or not the Tales games have ever "been about graphics" is irrelevant, because more power doesn't just offer better visuals, you can get expanded gameplay possibilities (when used properly anyway). Also just because graphics weren't exactly the main focus of TOS doesn't mean the Tales developers don't LIKE their games to look nice. The cel shading in Vesperia for the record could likely not be done on Wii, I think it's a lot more advanced than a quick glance would have you realise but it doesn't seem like a "huge leap" because it's virtually the limit you can really reach with cel shading. Anyway plain and simple the way I see it is the developers feel that there were already plenty of "current gen" 3D Tales titles and that making another main entry on the Wii would be virtually the equivalent of just making another one on PS2 or Gamecube as the visual differences would be minimal. I think the team wanted a big change of hardware and a new challenge, simple as that, even if extra power wouldn't necessarily automatically do wonders for the franchise. I mean hell there's plenty of franchises that don't really "need" the extra power and COULD actually benefit on Wii but they end up on 360 or PS3 anyway. It's just what the developers feel is "right" I think and they see the Wii as a system for "experimental spin offs" and well, easy cash ins.

I own that game but it is fucking god awful boring. I never got far enough to see flying but I assume the visuals of stuff get progressively worse the further you are away from them or something. Also more importantly though is the world actually a "sphere" or just a large flat area?

I honestly dont think decisions to put the main games of virtually any franchise on 360/PS3 over Wii has anything to do with striking deals or business, it's just most developers prefer to see their creations in full HD and see how much they can do with their game worlds graphics and physics wise with the ridiculous amounts of power they're offered. If the case is too that they don't think a downscaled version of a 360 or PS3 game they're working on (any developer I mean) really will have a HUGE market on Wii then they don't go through the huge effort to do it. As it stands we're not seeing any proof as of yet that 1:1 is possible for much on Wii, which means the system only provides a truly "better" experience in specific types of game and can't improve everything.

That's some fans vid from the older games though right? I mean he doesn't say it has anything to do with Monster Hunter 3.

Most rpg's gave up on the idea of a full world overworld after the ps1 era as plain and simple you can't have the same kind of geometric detail on a huge world map where you can fly around as you can in towns, etc, so you end up with something that looks laughably ps1 level at best. Even on next gen systems if they went for that type of standard overworld you'd be lucky if they had early PS2 level of detail to keep the framerate decent while rendering a whole planet at once. Despite that though I've always vastly preferred things with an overworld as it really feels like you're exploring the entire world, instead of a set path through what seems like a tiny section of the world (such as FFX and similar styles) The system in this game doesn't seem too awful but it obviously is an act of laziness, probably partly to help disguise the fact that they're reusing tons of the same assets from the original game for a very cheap and unnecessary sequel.

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You really shouldn't think of it as "I suppose I'll go for 120" because really, tons of the stars you can get after 60 are still as good if not MORE fun to get than early stars, so you enjoy the game just as much. It's not just "extra content", it's "the game".

They have a form of "mind control" just now which registers brain activity and is sort of the equivalent of a button press. I don't think the full thing is really truly possible though...unless it used devices which could just as well kill you as they could offer a quality gaming experience....

The perfect shot looks fantastic, seems like it offers everything you'd want from a Wii lightgun (except maybe recoil) and everything Nintendo should've delivered with their own official design, but unfortunately they went the route of not associating theirselves with pistol designs.

Modern day Nintendo seems intent in making every new piece of hardware they put out have a new input method, which can only really go so far though as when they eventually reach full ACCURATE motion control, there's nothing beyond that. The camera idea sounds like a variation of the eyetoy though which really isn't too hot. There'd be no physical sensation from any of your actions if you weren't holding anything at all.

A lot of people hate the toothy grins the Japanese development studios tend to give DK as he looked nothing like that in the DKC series or 64. Personally I probably prefer the Jungle Beat model though simply because the fur in Brawl looks awful, both the colour and the utterly strange texture.

It's kinda surprising Waluigi isn't playable, he's one of the first people you'd think is a given...IF they were doing "as many characters as possible" anyway. I think the end character roster could be quite a lot less than expected.

For the record those sales figures are just rough estimates for now, I think anyway. There's usually estimates then specific figures afterwards.