Teppo Holmqvist

Works Baten Kaitos (USA) Baten Kaitos: Origins (USA) Battalion Wars (USA) Beyond Good & Evil (USA) Chibi-Robo (USA) Densetsu no Quiz (JPN) F-Zero GX (JPN) Killer 7 (USA) Kururin Squash (JPN) Legend of Zelda: Collectors Disc, the (USA) Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, the (USA) Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (USA) Mario Power Tennis (USA) Mega Man X Collection (USA) Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes (USA) Midway Arcade Treasures (USA) Nintendo Puzzle Collection (JPN) P.N.03 (JPN) Resident Evil 4 (USA) Skies of Arcadia: Legends (USA) Sonic Gems (JPN) Soul Calibur II (JPN) Soul Calibur II (USA) SSX On Tour (USA) Super Monkey Ball 2 (USA) Tales of Symphonia (USA) Timesplitters 2 (USA) Viewtiful Joe 2 (USA) X-Men Legends (USA) Works with old Freeloader Eternal Darkness (USA) Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 3 (JPN) Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 4 (JPN) Doesn't work? Army Men: Real Time Strategy (USA) Geist (USA) Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 2 (JPN)

* Kameo was so mindnumbingly short that it just left sour taste in the mouth. * CoD2 was good, but then once again, didn't really differ that much from its Xbox counterpart. * PGR3 was also good, but not major improvement PGR2. In fact, many hardcore fans prefer PGR2 over 3 because certain things were cut off from PGR3. * Perfect Dark's single player experience was just plain bad. * Oblivion was, naturally, terrific game, but it isn't really for everybody's tastes. So if you didn't like FPS's and racing, you had only one game that was worth full price. Not good selection by any means. Neighbour's lawn always looks greener.

Actually you are wrong. Xbox 360 games retail for 10 pounds* more than Wii's games, and wireless controllers cost only 5 £ pounds less than wiimote + nunchuk combo. So if you start to buy new games, gap just widens and fast. Of course, I don't know anyone these days who would actively buy their games on full retail price. Doesn't make any sense when stuff comes rather quickly to discount bins. * 39 vs. 49.

Yup, but in the other hand, Nintendo is currently planning to release 19 titles for Wii during 2007. When you add high profile 3rd party titles like FF:CC, DQ:S, SSX Blur and Resident Evil, it doesn't really look so bad as GC was. Only thing that I don't really like is how titles are acculumating on Q3-Q4 area. Yeah, but let's put things into perspective. GC didn't launch worldwide. We Europeans got Cube nine months after it was launched on Japan. No big surprise that there was more high profile titles ready for European release. It was really annoying waiting game on both US and Japan. That is practically same thing that is currently happening with PS3's launch. European launch list looks really nice, but it is only because console was delayed for five months. In fact, list has nearly every title that will be released for the console before march. After that release pace will be much slower.

I know this is little bit late, but GamerZines has started to produce free, high quality XBOX 360 fanzine called "360Zine". 360Zine is already on its second issue that has features for Halo 3 and Fable 2, interview with CliffyB and other cool stuff. Really worth checking. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader 6 to read zine. http://www.gamerzines.com/

Well, I would go either with Pop'n Music or Taiko no Tatsujin. First of all, both series are beginner friendly. Secondly, there is budget releases for both games, and controllers are relatively inexpensive, if compared to other rhythm games. With Pop'n Music, I would choose either Pop'n Music 8 or Pop'n Music: Best Hits for beginner. Pop'n Music 8 has really good song selection. There is few decent songs for beginners, and some really hard songs too. Pop'n Music Best Hits is compilation of songs from Pop'n 1-6. Songs are good, but they are really easy. It's good thing if you are beginner, but there isn't much challenge here after you learn more advanced techniques. I'm not, however, sure how well Pop'n games work with PS3... I have heard that there is some incompatibilities, but I haven't been able to confirm this. With Taiko no Tatsujin, all discs are good. Later discs have more songs, so I would focus on them.

I was just stating commonly known facts about launches. Launches work always like this and I wouldn't recommend buying console at launch to any sane person. Point G) is especially true, because when Xbox 360 was released, it took about two months, and we had people complaining how game selection was poor, there wasn't anything interesting on the horizon, how X360 is just souped up Xbox and so on. Sounds familiar?

My opinion? If you aren't in hurry, just wait. X360 will have price drop sooner or later and 65 nm will be good improvement over old one. With Wii, pretty much same thing. Just wait library to grow and prices go lower. And of course, there is possibility of purchasing PS2 or Xbox to fill gap. Both have many great titles for dirt cheap prices.

You just basically proved what I said. Because I disagreed with you, you just try to push harder. You also used "you are fanboy" card, blaming me Nintendo lawyer. You have done that quite often, and tried to invalidate my answers. There is difference between having opinions, and woefully ignorant opinions.

Seriously, buying console at launch is never thing that sane human being would do. A) Launch titles always suck, no matter what console is. There is maybe one or two great titles. B) Launch titles seldom take advantage of console's power. Just look first PS2 titles. Most of them looked only marginally better than last PSone titles. Same was with Xbox 360. C) You pay more for console without gaining anything else than possibility to wave your e-pen. D) You pay more for both games and accessories. E) First 12 months are always slow with only maybe 50-70 releases. F) You have people who complain about points A, B, C, D and E, because they didn't really understand what they were doing. G) If you are trying to have civilized discussion about your new console, your thread is probably spammed by woefully ignorant idiots like Pit-Jr and solitanze. These guys preach their opinions as gospel, and if you disagree with them, they push harder. "If you aren't on my side, you are against me". They also try to use "you are fanboy" card, and dodge every logical and well-thought answer.

I dunno, this ad is most clearly for either Sam n' Max or Bone, which are both episodic adventure games, and perfect for Wiimote.

Wii Systems Programmer Posted 1/25/07 We have an immediate opening for a Wii Systems Programmer. This position will be responsible for implementing our core 3D graphics and audio systems on the Wii. This is a full time position at our San Rafael location. * Responsibilities o Migrate core components of D3D based PC game engine to the Wii o Implement additional platform specific features o Modify and support existing art and production path to accommodate Wii production o Contribute to the design and direction of Telltale Technology and products. * Requirements o Fluent C/C++ (templates, design patterns, STL, etc). Minimum 2 years professional experience. o Experience designing and building game systems on consoles. o Minimum of 1 shipped game title. o Teamwork, communication, interpersonal and organizational skills are essential. o Attentive to detail * Additional Preferred o Prior experience with Wii or GameCube. o Working knowledge of Lua implementation. o C# experience. o Maya experience (as a user and API). o Experience in natural language processing. o Love of adventure games. http://www.telltalegames.com/company/jobs#wiiguy

Miyamoto is very sympathetic person and great designer, but he doesn't really have anything to say when it comes to executive decisions. What he says or personally believes has often little to do with reality, like it was many times proven with Gamecube and N64. If you want to blame someone, blame either Iwata or marketing chief. And before starting complain about OoT's price, we aren't really sure how much it will cost here. I mean, ALLTP costs 900 (or was it even 1000?) points on Japan's VC, but in US VC it is normally priced game. I think that Nintendo has noticed that japanese are actually using VC more actively than others and willing to pay more.

Arrgh blarahahafhaagasfaaaaaaaa.... NINTENDO DOESN'T TRANSLATE KONAMI'S OR ANY 3RD PARTY'S GAMES.

Well, here is quick translations for games that have western counterpart: Kirby's Adventure Shin Megami Tensei* Super Ghosts n' Goblins Romance of Three Kingdoms IV: The Wall of Fire Shadowland * ...wasn't actually released in the west, but I decided to list it here as some of its sequels have been localized.

Well, Nintendo did clearly state on press release that virtual console prices would *start* prices they gave. EDIT: I thought you mean ALTTP, heh. Or maybe perhaps it is released as NTSC-U version. Notice that all Turbographx games are NTSC originals.

Generally European customs don't have right to open any package, if they don't have reason to suspect it has blatantly incorrect price (i.e to evade taxes) or something illegal inside such as drugs. But if your package is taken to customs and there isn't anything that would prove product's real value, customs will determine product's real value by themselves. And they *always* overestimate price. And no, if your package is taken, you aren't blamed for fraud, but you are responsible to pay product's total VAT.

1.5 million games is actually quite well, considering how low Wii's current userbase is and how small the current selection is. Only retroarses really care for VC, and they represent only small minority of current userbase. I just would like to see how the sales have been split between Sega, Nintendo and Hudson.

Well, considering that Taito is onboard, I would say yes. It's just shame that VC doesn't have support for Sega Master System, which had arguably best homeversion of the game (4 new bosses, 100 additional levels). I believe also that we are also going to see sooner or later both Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars*, which are official sequels to Bubble Bobble. * Parasol Stars was exclusive to PC-Engine and Amiga 500, and therefore not that well known in the west.

All right, I will start discussing about rhythm games, because I know quite much about them. I don't play them, but my little brother does, and as a result I have seen nearly every possible japanese rhythm game that is on the market. Notice that I have listed only those rhythm games that are readily available on the japanese market. POP'N MUSIC Pop'n Music is Konami's oldest rhythm game series and quite popular in Japan. In this game, you use special Pop'n Music controller that has nine, big, round buttons, to hit notes that appear from top of the screen. If you miss the note, sample that was assigned to note won't play. If you hit button too early, sample plays too early. Each correctly played note raises power meter on the bottom of the screen. Misses, in the other hand, lower it. Your mission is simply to survive to the end of song and have power meter at least 75 percent full. If you do that, you pass the song. The greatest thing in Pop'n Music is its variety. Each game has variety of song that range from polkka to country and hardcore techno. There is also some licensed songs, though most of them are from various animes and TV-shows (and probably not easily recognisable to westerner). Each song has at least three different difficulty levels, making it possible to even beginner to play most songs. Hardest difficulty levels are really hard, and make Guitar Hero II look like child's play. Links below have sample tracks from Pop'n Music games: SAMURAI SYNDROME (EASY): SCOTLAND (MEDIUM): DRAGONBALL Z THEME (MEDIUM): LOVE SUGAR (MEDIUM): RUSSIA (MEDIUM): GRADIUS (MEDIUM): CONTEMPORARY NATION (SUPER HARD): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09UmZ6zgBkM OI PUNK (SUPER HARD): Self-made Pop'n Music arcade controller. Real ones cost about 400 dollars. BEATMANIA Beatmania is Konami's second oldest rhythm game series, and currently most popular rhythm game series in Japan. Game is controlled by special DJ Controller that has seven buttons and DJ turntable that is used to play certain samples. Mechanically Beatmania works in pretty much same way as Pop'n Music, with only exception being rather hard judge. Power meter drop few bars for each missed note, making it possible that you fail in the song even if you hit perfectly 97 percent of the notes and miss last 3 percent. Musically Beatmania isn't so varied as Pop'n Music. In fact, most songs are some kind of dance music, ranging from ambient to eurobeat and speed rave. Links below have sample tracks from Beatmania games: BLOODY TEARS: REAL ANOTHER: RED ZONE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXPTp1Kv8uI GUITAR FREAK & DRUMMANIA Guitar Freak and Drummania are two relatively obscure rhythm games from Konami, that have been since PS2 packed into same disc, as there wouldn't be enough demand for seperate releases. Guitar Freak is controller by guitar controller that has only three buttons, making it basically Guitar Hero lite. Drummania, as you could guess from its name, is drum game that works mechanically in same way as Pop'n Music and Beatmania. The catch is that Drummania is played using real, life-sized electronic drum kit. Neither of the games features nearly any licensed songs with only few anime TV-tunes. Most of the song selection is recycled from Pop'n Music, Beatmania and DDR. Links below have samples from Guitar Freak and Drummania: GUITAR FREAK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uD23A_DqcM DRUMMANIA: PUMP IT UP: EXCEED Pump it Up is Korea's answer to Konami's superpopular Dance Dance Revolution series. Instead of using normal dance mat, you have special Pump it Up mat that has arrows on each intercardinal point and one arrow on the middle of mat. Game's basic mechanics don't differ that much from DDR, but different arrow placement forces you to move much more than you would ever do in DDR. Unlike other DDR clones, Pump it Up has good, well-done steps and quite good music. Unfortunately only one of the Pump it Up games has been released for PS2, as Koreans prefer PCs over any console. Links below have some samples from PS2 Pump it Up: BEETHOVEN VIRUS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csdjU38Vza4 BEETHOVEN VIRUS (WITH STEPS SHOWN): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITqQw6MTdB0 CSIKOS POST: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bMZn2FOTis BLAZING: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCZB1czqS1s TAIKO NO TATSUJIN Taiko No Tatsujin is Namco's drum game, that is controlled by special taiko controller. Mechanically it works in exactly same way as Donkey Konga*, except that you don't clap at all, just drum using drum sticks. Music ranges from standard J-pop to licensed anime songs and weird covers such japanese version of YMCA. Namco doesn't make Taiko No Tatsujin games anymore, but company has kept all 12 games on the print. Link below has good compilation from Taiko no Tatsujin 7: TAIKO NO TATSUJIN COMPILATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEnIOu8o7t0 * In fact, Donkey Konga uses same engine.

I find it hilarious how people here take Frontline Studios seriously. I mean, we are talking about studio that is responsible for hits like Mafiaso, Tuff E Nuff, Chicken Shoot, Hardcore Pool and Sexy Game. Who really can disagree with company that has portfolio like this?

Yeah. But it's bad when you consider that manufacturing them only costs 75 cents. But everybody needs to get bread to their table from somewhere.

In the final analysis only sales mean anything to console manufacturer and define what is important game. If game doesn't simply move consoles, it isn't important, no matter how good quality it is. I think that only reason why we disagree here is because I look things from business standpoint, you as a inviduals. EDIT: BTW, did you guys notice that Sony didn't list RGB-cable (or Euro AV as Sony have called it in the past) as one of the accessories? I'm actually very surprised that they decided to stop producing them. Of course, there is fair chance that it is simply typo.

How else you would define killer-app from pure business standpoint? Killer-app is popular game that isn't available for other systems, and is able to move sells huge amount of consoles. 2 million sold units isn't really that much, especially when you consider that PS2 had userbase of 120 million consoles. Even if those 2 million bought PS2 only for DMC, they would be a drop in the ocean when you look the big picture. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, in the other hand, sold over 9 million units and probably moved nearly same amount of consoles. That really starts to show in console sales. If game quality would be main definition for killer-app, then REZ that sold only about 100 000 copies worldwide should be killer-app that decided PS2's fate. And when it comes to FIFA, you can't really win console war without EA and its sport titles. No matter what you think about their quality, they are strategically extremely important titles.

51 euros. For comparision, wiimote + nunchuk combo costs here 60 euros. I wouldn't really call Wii's controllers overpriced by any means, especially when you compare it to SixAxis's price.