Rumor Control - IGN's Nintendo Voice Chat

[philcollins]

well, i dont care about the other games developers. nintendo only have thier own standard to live up to and thats all im comparing it against.

[Hellfire]

The problem is people have stupid expectations of Nintendo in their heads.

[Helmsly]

There's a surprise mid-Wii-k in review (probably because their wasnt one on Friday) :

 

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/840/840598p1.html

 

doomed1 at Neogaf has a breif summary:

 

No More Heroes

-Not gonna hit high scores

-going to appeal to Killer 7 fans

-combat can be repetitive and the open world isn't the greatest ever

-likes the settings, characters, tone, and art style

-they want to show some stuff. constrained with NDAs

-Killer 7 cameo? sp0rsk?

-explore trying the game even if you don't like Killer 7

-bemoaning about how "only if Suda had more power to work with"

-lacking some polish in areas, but still alot of fun

Questions:

-no blood in PAL NMH is lame

-NMH does the best hack&slash. waggle H&S hasn't been quite realized

-think that NMH will be able to slip under the radar better than Manhunt 2, but still could end up snowballing

-NMH not the best of the best, but really "culty-cool." difficult not to like the content.

 

Jeremy Dunnam

-brown nosing

 

WiiFit

-Matt is a Fattie

-put your info in and it changes your Mii

-Wii Balance Board=Wiibo="cool"

-bunch of stuff locked?

-Balance Board is an energy suck

-feel the "Wiibo" needs an AC adapter or some form of charger

-gonna catch on in America

-Matt's balance is bad too

-should wear athletic clothes while Wii stuff

-convinced it will be a good workout tool

-Wiifit=WiiHit

Questions:

-300lbs. weight limit could be problematic

-having alot of fun with WiiFit

-WiiFit=!WiiPlay. actually feels more like a real game, but with exercise (WiiSports+Brain Age?)

-WiiFit, Wii Sports, SmartyPants good holiday games.

 

Reviews

-Off-road eXtreme!: turd

-Mini Desktop Racers: turd, slightly better smelling

-like Simple2000 series, but turdier

-Code Lyoko: standard license

-alot of shitty shovelware

 

VC

-Pokemon Snap, Ghosts and Goblins. nifty, will DL

-Matt gets neat stuff, Mark doesn't

 

Industry Insider

-ex. MoH:H2 feature

-positive stuff hard enough to get ahold of as is, negative stuff uphill battle

-getting non-PR responses for standard stuff hard enough as is

-no schedule for the feature

-gonna try and get some Retro love

 

Other Questions

-doesn't see SF4 on the Wii. not shown the best system for fighters so far

-EA wondering how they can make MySims better. gonna ask Matt and Mark

-don't know what's up with Japan. they're pobably crazy.

-Smash Bros. rumor rosters are bogus

-keen to look into that retail list. thinks it could be real

-lots of stuff coming for Sonic Zero G. looks better than original

-going to get NiGHTS in soon too

-inevitable FF6 remake probably on DS. Square being slow to support Wii. FF Wii predicament weird.

-Metroid Prime art>?Metroid Prime 3 art. Metroid Prime 3 Tech >>>> Metroid Prime tech

-Super Mario RPG DS would be awesome

-support is ramping up

-Ogre Battle on Wii? don't know, would be surprised. guess it's not that secret Wii older franchise

-Golden Sun 3 Wii all but confirmed

-Jeremy Dunnam brown nosing

-EGM rumors taken with a grain of salt. FFCCCB probably just being held onto.

-Mark and Matt hot lovers, but not chicks

-Real Men do not use items

-Fire Emblem improvements: true Wiimote support, faster battle system. would be open to real-time control

-doesn't know how much Smash Bros online will suck. could be gimped, but they don't know

-local will be great, though

-Matt meated Peer about a week after he met him

-some reminiscing about the history of IGN and Matt's early experiences at IGN

-Matt really likes the Nintendo Family

[Hero-of-Time]

Golden Sun 3 on the Wii??!! Awesome.

[Noku]

Golden Sun 3 on the Wii??!! Awesome.

 

All but confirmed = not confirmed at all

 

Edit: whoops, sorry, my bad

Nevermind my nonsensical blabbering there

[theguyfromspark]

Matt meated Peer about a week after he met him

 

Whaaaaa? Am I being dumb again?

[david.dakota]

300lbs weight limit for WiiFit? So, its rather pointless for the fatties.

[flameboy]

300lbs weight limit for WiiFit? So, its rather pointless for the fatties.

 

But thats still about 21 stone...If people are past there it could be argued that they need more help than from a computer game. I mean I think I could do with losing a bit of weight but am no where near that.

[Hero-of-Time]

But thats still about 21 stone...If people are past there it could be argued that they need more help than from a computer game. I mean I think I could do with losing a bit of weight but am no where near that.

 

I seriously LOLed at that. Classic!

[blender]

21 stone is heavier than most bathroom scales can cope with.. Therefore, a balance board may be the best electronic scale available.

[pedrocasilva]

300lbs weight limit for WiiFit? So, its rather pointless for the fatties.

Didn't Nintendo say they were evaluating bigger boards for US and Europe? Japanese people are smaller by default, kinda like their hands are smaller too, which makes a controller made for japanese not necessarily perfect for western people and all.

 

I dunno about that, but I doubt they are trying the US Wii fit Board, if it'll be any different.

[tapedeck]

So I guess we will get something like this

 

 

[ShadowV7]

I think Pedro is right. I remember reading somewhere that Nintendo were re-doing the board a bit since more people are fat in the US and Europe. No point people standing on it then breaking

 

I can see it now. They release two versions, one like Japan and one for fat people, and the fat people in denial go for the normal one...

[Hero-of-Time]

Heres this weeks stuff

 

Voice chat/Virtual Console

- Reggie talked about how Nintendo is still considering voicechat, and how he wouldn’t be surprised to see it on Wii in the future.

- Both expect it to happen (when Nintendo say stuff like this, it basically means it is happening) but are dumbfounded by how long it is taking.

- Both really hope it comes out in time for Smash, but are doubtful.

- For the majority of VC games, we’re not going to see modifications or upgrades (like we did with Pokemon Snap), simply because Nintendo doesn’t need to do it.

- Don’t expect a VC price drop in the future - they’re doing great and there’s no need to change anything.

- Hope to see more import games (like Sin and Punishment) and expect this because it appears that Nintendo is paying attention to the wider gaming community.

 

NPD

- Both Wii and DS did exceptionally well.

- Numbers don’t include some retailers such as Walmart, so the numbers are even larger.

- Analysts are predicting around 1.6-1.7 million for Wii in December.

- Make sure you camp out if you want to get a Wii - don’t go on ebay or anything because you will be ripped off.

- If the quantity had been there, Wii sales would have definitely been over 1 million. Nintendo would be kicking themselves right now because of their inability to get more units out.

- Very solid performance by 360 (not too far away from Wii) and PSP, as well as Playstation 2. Playstation 3 numbers are still comparatively low, but much improved from last month.

- Galaxy released a week later than COD4, so both games are basically selling at the same pace - if Galaxy came out earlier, then it would probably have reached around the same numbers as COD4.

- Guitar Hero 3 Wii should be a 1 million seller by the end of the year, which should do very good things for future Wii 3rd party support and also proves that 3rd party games can sell very well if they are high quality and appeal to the Wii audience. EA should be kicking themselves for not releasing Rock Band on Wii.

- Bozon thinks it’s taken way too long for the mono issue in Guitar Hero 3 Wii to be fixed. Action needs to be taken.

 

- Bozon thinks that the great sales of Resident Evil on Wii should lead to an original Resident Evil game on Wii, likely in the vein of Resident Evil 4.

 

- It seems that casual and minigame titles on Wii are selling best, with a few exceptions.

 

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams

- A bit disappointing. Some publications (eg: Nintendo Power, who gave it a 9) are giving it high scores, but Matt and Bozon think that it doesn’t get close to the original.

- It’s still a solid game but it has a lot of flaws that bring it down.

- Bozon was a fan of the previous game but is let down with this installment.

- The flying feels very mechanical, and feels very analogue - it’s not very fluid (you can actually see the degrees of movement) - stuff like Galaxy feels much better. Also surprisingly features camera issues.

- However, it has a bunch of cool features, such as using the weather channel.

- Easily works best with analogue control, but therefore doesn’t provide an experience unique from other consoles.

- Review should come out early next-week.

 

2008 Support

- Wild Earth announced - looks pretty dull, appears to be in the vein of Afrika.

- Baroque announced on Wii and PS2 - action, hack-and-slash game, somewhat of a Wiimake.

- Sonic Riders - went hands-on with it and think it is pretty average.

- Wii Love Golf - turning out really good. Good fun and has a lot of Capcom nostalgia.

 

- They have several planned exclusives next week - revealing one or two games that are nothing mind-blowings but should at least be interesting.

 

Game of the Year

- Most likely contenders are Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Mass Effect (which is the least likely due to it’s technical issues) and Super Mario Galaxy.

- Uncharted is a chance but features too much repetitive gunplay.

- Assassin’s Creed is really fun but also very repetitive with its missions.

- Matt thinks Metroid Prime 3 won’t be a consideration but deserves much more attention.

- Peer thinks Phantom Hourglass also deserves more attention as it is an excellent Zelda title.

- Halo 3 doesn’t really have a chance at all.

 

Reader Questions

- Both expect a delay of Mario Kart Wii. Think it will probably release around the summer period.

 

- Talk about how releasing games around the same time can canabilise sales (eg: No More Heroes and Smash Bros. Brawl releasing around the same time) - for example, the game Stranglehold (which had tons of money put into it) was released around Halo 3 and has so far has sold less than 200,000 on 360 and even less on PS3 (115,000).

 

- So far 3rd party support for Wii hasn’t been amazing. They know of a few cool games coming to Wii, so expect some good announcements next year, but there hasn’t been enough AAA 3rd party games announced for Wii.

 

- Guitar Hero 3 Wii shows the right 3rd party games on Wii can sell very well. Matt believes 3rd party Wii games, if they are supreme quality, well advertised and appeal to the right demographic, can sell over a 1 million in a month.

 

- Both still think Street Fighter 4 on Wii is a very slim chance.

 

- Matt thinks Resistance is the most overrated title on PS3 - doesn’t understand why people got so excited over it. Bozon (who played Halo 2 a ridiculous amount) thinks Halo 3 is also overrated - Matt was bored out of his mind.

 

- No hints as to when the next Zelda game is coming out on Wii. Have heard nothing about it. They expect to hear the first news about it probably in 2009. Be prepared for a very long development cycle for this game, as it’s the first ‘true’ Wii Zelda game.

 

- Don’t expect the Friend Code system to cease anytime soon.

 

- Matt can’t say anything more about the mystery games. Peer has read the design documents - he is a big fan of the franchise and hasn’t seen a big installment in that franchise for a long while, and thinks it uses the Wii well.

 

- The other game - Peer was never a big fan of the franchise due to the characters, but Matt thinks some gamers will wet themselves upon learning of this game.

 

- Both games are going to be very cool, and everyone should be very excited about them. They are not vaporware.

 

- Both believe the headset will come before any hard-drive, and that the hard-drive is a pipedream at this stage.

 

- Matt will be playing Bioshock, Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4 during the break. Peer just finished Call of Duty 4 and Assassin’s Creed, and will playing Halo 3, God of War 2, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Mass Effect. Bozon will be playing co-op Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles with his brother, as well as Bioshock, Call of Duty 4, and play handheld games like Dementium.

 

Im pretty interested in the 2 games they hint at, especially the 2nd one where Peer isnt a fan of the characters. Hmmmm.... Starfox? Golden Sun? Earthbound?....I wonder.

[darksnowman]

Just listened to it, shorter at a "mere" 45 mins. Its got a kind of festive vibe to it with all the holiday season talk, with it being the last one of 2007. All I can remember from is it being about how games have sold this year, it was kinda fun when Peer came in though. There didn't seem to be any big news in it cos it was more like the Year in Review.

[Hellfire]

"Sonic Riders will actually be pretty good!"

a few days later

"Sonic Riders is just average!"

 

You know I bet I'll really enjoy NiGHTS, but everyone will be disapointed by the 11 years of hype and the intarwebz will be a funny place.

[ShadowV7]

A proper Lylat Wars type game would do well on the Wii. Though a Golden Sun would be amazing.

[Deathjam]

Never got a chance to play Nights. Was it really as amazing as people say?

[Guest Maase]

For what i played of the first Night, it sucks, i hate it, i don't know why but i hate it, lol

[Hero-of-Time]

Never got a chance to play Nights. Was it really as amazing as people say?

 

I think its a marmite game. Alot of people adore it ( like myself ) yet others despise it.

[Helmsly]

First new WiiK in review of the year is up:

 

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/845/845204p1.html

 

Edit-for some reason its in M4A and not MP3.

 

 

Summary by _Alkaline_ of Neogaf:

 

Game of the Year- Winner was Super Mario Galaxy.

- This was the first time that the Nintendo editors did not take part in the discussion - they only submitted their votes as they were away on holiday. However, they did play all of the contenders.

- Craig and Matt voted for Galaxy, but Bozon voted for Call of Duty 4 because he loves multiplayer FPS.

- Call of Duty 4, Bioshock and Mass Effect were all deserving of winning, though Mass Effect less so due to its technical issues.

- Such an incredible year of gaming that the decision was very hard to make compared to previous years - at least 5 games would have automatically been 2006 GOTY.

- Surprised that Bioshock didn't win any of the major awards.

 

CES

- Matt's one of IGN's tech-nuts.

- Looked around the Apple and Mac areas as well as TV and projectors.

- There would be lots of worthless Wii accessories - there was a Cooking Mama accessory which changed the controller into a fork, a Zelda sword and shield that blocked the IR, and a Trauma Centre scapel add-on.

- Found it pretty boring - gets worse and worse every year, and always bring back old products rather than E3 which bring in new ones.

 

Bomberman Land

- Did a ton of hands-on this week.

- Ton of mini-games.

- Use IR and motion to play the game - for example, you shoot volcano droplets with a gun and tilt the controller to steer.

- Some aspects are cool and innovative, but how many mini-games do we need on Wii?

- Dissapointingly no online, despite the DS version having it.

 

Bully: Scholarship Edition

- Will have full impressions next Wednesday.

- Motion kept to a minimum.

- Good-looking, more in-depth version of the PS2 game.

- Some Rockstar representatives may be coming onto the podcast soon to talk about the game - this is something that will be happening more throughout the year.

 

Nitro-Bike

- Definitely not Excite Bike.

- Looks blurry and has framerate issues that shouldn't be there.

- Floaty are floaty - more like Excite Truck than Excite Bike.

- Mid-air tilt controls are a bit floaty and unresponsive.

- However, the more they played it the more they started liking it - when you first pick it up it's like "what the hell?", but as you keep playing and the world opens up more and you get more used to the controls and trick system, the game improves.

- Very glad to see the game actually has online. Also has some cool mini-games, like Hoop Havoc, which are good fun and keeps things fresh.

 

My Horse and Me

 

- Killer app - possibly even better than Ninjabread Man.

- Matt played it for about 3 minutes - it's pretty much what you would think.

- You ride a horse and sometimes jump.

 

de Blob

- Matt first played this game about half a year ago - it was decent fun but lacked polish, needed more wii remote usage and had boring music that needed to be really spruced up.

- Sat down and played it this week.

- Pretty impressed - the game is really funky and has a distinct style to it.

- Start out with a black and white world and your blob is small, but it gets bigger as you paint the town, which becomes more colourful

- The music is layered - it starts off basically non-existant but as you paint the town more and more the funky music builds.

- A ton of racking up combos through jumping from wall to wall and from skyscrapers.

- The gesture system worked every single time, which is an improvement from the original build.

- The camera is still a little weird, the gesture system needs to be deeper (and should use IR which is a missed boat) and multiplayer hasn't been seen yet (though it is in there), the game has really improved.

- A really weird, funky, original and fun game - expect more coverage.

 

Super Smash Bros. Brawl-

Coming out in Japan at the end of the month.

- Bozon wants to see a few more characters revealed before the site updates stop.

- Love the fact that Olimar and Pikmin are in the game.

- Anoop, the Japanese IGN guy, will get the game as soon as possible and give impressions, they will also get an import copy to the US for Matt and Bozon to cover.

 

Wii Fit

- Trying to work with Nintendo to get a US copy to cover.

- Matt and Bozon are going to see how much weight they can lose through Wii Fit.

- Both are also participating in the Nike Challenge.

- Already sold 1 million in Japan despite the price - game is selling great and should do well in USA as well.

 

Some upcoming notable games in 2008

- No More Heroes (review coming soon)

- Mario Kart Wii

- Animal Crossing

- Wii Love Golf

- King Story

- and more

 

Red Steel 2

- Rumours that the game experienced a troubled development cycle and has been shifted to a different team.

- It's coming and we will hear more about it in the near future (probably in a few more months) - but don't expect a mind-blowing game.

- Indeed, Matt expected to hear more about the game in 2007, but it never happened - this may provide validity to the rumour.

- There are more Ubisoft games coming to Wii.

 

Games they can't talk about

- Have been making calls - they made a call to a company which is making a notable Wii game. The company didn't know that IGN knew, but Matt let them know they did and that he wanted to cover it or at least post it as a rumour.

 

- Unfortunately times have changed since a decade ago and you can't reveal news as soon as you know about it.

 

- Both really want to reveal some of these games.

 

- Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Expansion, which is apparently really fun. and Guitar Hero 4 are both coming to Wii and the Wii version of GH4 will feature many improvements.

 

Reader Questions

- Matt expects there to be classic controllers specific for each Virtual Console system.

- Zack and Wiki give-aways will be announced next week - if you win, contact them.

- Of all unrevealed Brawl characters, Matt wants to see Cloud the most, as well as Viewtiful Joe. Bozon would love to see Megaman. Both expect one more big, crazy announcement.

- Expect to hear reports of people falling off their Wii Balance Board.

- People from Nintendo and other companies read IGN and from time to time contact them to find out information on things like polls and feedback.

- No More Heroes is a culty, showpiece-game that's not perfect but great fun.

- Really looking forward to King Story. We Love Golf is also a great game that is worth purchasing.

- Expect to see SSX Blur 2 and possibly another Medal of Honor game announced this year.

- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is coming.

- Both hope we'll see a Zack and Wiki sequal announced this year.

- Bozon is working on a Virtual Console game right now - working with Way Forward. This is seperate from Matt and Bozon's own game.

 

Matt and Bozon's VC game

- "Blackout"

- Totally in limbo right now.

- Was pitched to a major 3rd party who really liked it, but they're incredibly busy right now and it may take a while for the game to come to fruition, if ever.

- Two companies offered Matt jobs to quit IGN and work for them, but he didn't want to.

- The game was supposed to very dark and uninhibited, unlike nearly all games on Wii.

- Graphical style was black and white - this minimalist approach to Wii can result in impressive Wii visuals.

- Premise: You're a child stuck at the top of this skyscraper during a blackout (due to a storm) and told by your mum to hide and something comes in that kills your mum in front of your eyes.

- You have nothing to protect yourself, but you can run and hide in certain areas. You go through the guts of the building in order to get out of it - however, in order to progress, not only do you need to solve many environmental puzzles, but you also need to stealthily navigate the areas in order to avoid the evil.

- There is a lot of use of lighting - indeed, you control a flashlight with the Wii remote.

- One idea that was pitched, in order to give the character more strength, was to hold a teddy bear which, when it had enough power, could storm hallways as a demonic bear and destroy enemies. However, it would not be able to harm the main enemy - your mum, who wakes up from the dead.

- The only colour in the game is red - this bring out the violence, and you'd see a lot of red around the building.

- A really original, interesting idea that hopefully will one day be realised.

 

Bozon's Way Forward game

- Called "Lit"

- You're in a school that has a power outage, and there's evil in the darkness, and you have to solve motion puzzles around the environment. The premise of light and darkness is a big element.

- The game is simple but has a really unique and interesting premise.

- The art and style is amazing that is quite Tim Burton-ish, though it now looks a bit more like Silent Hill.

- The game was unveiled in Play Magazine.

- The game should receive more coverage in the future and Bozon will provide some material from the game himself.

- There's no publisher for the game yet which allows IGN to talk and reveal lots about the game, especially once more is completed.

 

- 1up detested the controls for Medal of Honor Heroes 2 and said it needed the classical controller - Matt and Bozon think this is flat-out wrong and that the game provides the best console FPS controls ever.

- To put games on WiiWare - you need money (around $2000 for a dev kit), then you need to prove to Nintendo that you can make games worthy of being on WiiWare (which is the hardest part) and then buy a dev kit from them.

- Rock Band still might be coming to Wii - EA pretty much announced it during a conference call a while ago but nothing has been confirmed yet. They would be kicking themselves right now.

- Wii sales in Japan should mean a good deal of Square Enix Wii support.

[Deathjam]

The last bit of that has me excited "- Wii sales in Japan should mean a good deal of Square Enix Wii support ". Still hoping to see the secret of mana games make a surge on the Virtual Console, especially the third one. Sigh God I hope you are hearing my prayers...

[Hellfire]

That Red Steel info is interesting. Why? Because Surfer_Girl (one of those people that have insiders and spreads rumours, but no one actually believes them) said the exact same thing a few weeks ago I think. Which means she might be the real thing.

[Goron_3]

Wait a sec...In order to release a game on Wii ware you have to prove to Nintendo that it's good?

 

Well, maybe if they applied that OUTSIDE wiiware we wouldn't get the Ninjabread man game...

[M-PG71C]

No kidding Goron, the amount of crap that is hitting the Wii market is unbearable. Certain third parties need to get their damn act together.