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Sky Crawler (New game from the Ace Combat Team)


pedrocasilva

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exactly! people are so busy trash talking the Wii's capabilities they forget what beautiful graphics appeared on the GC. The Rogue Squadron games looked amazing back then, just goes to show what is possible.

 

Sorry, but something tells me (in some capabilities at least) that the Wii may actually be a bit underpowered compared to the Cube. I'll chalk it up the lack of inspirational software...But its now a year and a half for the Wii and we got games like Rogue Squadron on the GCs launch day...

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King_V, seriously, that's nonsense. How would the Wii be able to play Rogue Squadron if that was the case?

 

It's just a physical fact that it is more powerful, in every aspect. It means nothing if it isn't used (like now), but that doesn't change the fact that it is more powerful.

 

Also, I don't see what's so bull about those screens, except for maybe some anti-aliasing.

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King_V, seriously, that's nonsense. How would the Wii be able to play Rogue Squadron if that was the case?

 

It's just a physical fact that it is more powerful, in every aspect. It means nothing if it isn't used (like now), but that doesn't change the fact that it is more powerful.

 

Also, I don't see what's so bull about those screens, except for maybe some anti-aliasing.

 

Ok...Check mate.

 

(But could it be that the GC game reading chip within the Wii is a seperate entity to the chip the Wii uses to play Wii games?)

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Ok...Check mate.

 

(But could it be that the GC game reading chip within the Wii is a seperate entity to the chip the Wii uses to play Wii games?)

Seriously, no. :p

 

What now, the developers are trying to unlock the cube inside the Wii?

 

Reasons are simpler than that, GC was bleeding edge so developers took it seriously, some exclusives also had budget to tackle that. With the Wii they entered a "wii don't care about graphics" stance, while going burnout on the HD's to push just a little extra juice, so there. Also a lot of talented individuals were put into the HD's thinking they weren't needed on the Wii, with developers not thinking it could be a hit. Of course, these are proven wrong now, and have to change. But the Wii is more powerful than GC, and ther'es no such hardware separation in there.

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  • 1 month later...

Sanka Mark-2 : possesses a high mobility and a velocity which can easily overwhelm the enemy airplanes

s01.jpg

 

Suiga : a general purpose airplane used by many pilots.

s02.jpg

 

Seiei : a high speed, bi-propellers plane.

s03.jpg

 

Itsuha : possesses a propeller mounter on "pusher" configuration just like the Sanka Mark-2. Also, similarly to the Sanka Mk-2, it has a very high mobility which allows it to revolve graciously in the sky even in the midst of the battle.

s04.jpg

 

Incident : a bi-trunked airplane from the Raulten army. Its fuselage, and notably its large wings, give him both high mobility and high turning efficiency, for truely excellent performances.

s05.jpg

 

Fission : a bi-trunked, all purposes airplane from the Raulten army. Possesses an easy to handle fuselage, which confers him all ranges of practical uses within the armed forces.

s06.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

sc01.jpg

^^^ Reconnaissance Mission.

Objective is to take shots of enemy facilities. You fail the mission if the shots you take missed your target(s) to an extent. It's not necessary to engage the enemies in this type of mission. Once you've completed your objective, your only worry then is to return safely, even if this means avoiding the battle entirely.

 

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^^^Aerial Battles

In these missions you'll have to fight countless aircrafts, in cooperation with allied airplanes. Shooting down a large number of enemy airplanes by yourself will also allow you to increase your evaluation. It is also said that these types of missions mobilize the most of the player's handling and skills, if only because you have to make your way through an impressive flock of planes.

 

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^^^Naval Battles

These missions will make you oppose the invasion of the Rostock naval fleet. Because of the large number of targets, using anti-ground armament will be indispensable here, though you'll be able to switch between the your weapons as you wish. You'll also have to oppose a barrage of strong anti-aircraft weapons, and make your way through literally a rain of fire, before striking the enemy battleships.

 

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^^^Stronghold Offensive

In these missions, you'll basically have to capture fortified enemy structures. As you get near these fortifications, the enemy will not hesitate to fire at you a barrage of anti-aircraft weapons, in addition to heavy cannons, such as the colossal "Amibick", which is able to pulverize an aircraft in one shot. In this case, you'll have to put your evasion techniques to use. These structures definitely make for a formidable opposition.

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http://www.andriasang.com/e/blogs/anoop/2008/08/31/sky_crawlers_hands_on

 

The Ace Combat team worked wonders making the PlayStation 2 produce top-class flight visuals, and it looks like they're doing the same with the Wii. Sky Crawlers, which saw its playable debut at the C3xHOBBY event today will instantly grab your eye with its quality visuals.

 

Unfortunately, the C3xHOBBY demo was so short that it was difficult to take in anything but the visuals!

 

jfg1n6.jpg

 

Bandai Namco had the game, which is based off the recent Mamoru Oshii animated film of the same name, set up in two kiosks. Players could sample a short play session of about five minutes or so, taking out as many enemies as possible in a coastal setting.

 

The demo seemed to be set to super easy difficulty, perhaps as a means of letting players get used to the game's unique control scheme. If you don't like waggle, you may want to stop reading here.

 

Sky Crawler's controls make full use of the Wiimote and nunchuck's motion sensing abilities. You control your plane's direction by tilting the nunchuck around. To adjust speed, you tilt the Wiimote up and down.

 

Movement through the nunchuck felt a bit strange, as I found it difficult to keep my arm grounded. My arm would continually rise forcing me to make periodic adjustments to bring the nunchuck back down. I'm hoping this is something that will go away with practice. Or, maybe Bandai Namco will include the option for control via the analogue stick.

 

To fire your guns, you press the Z button. While you're free to seek out enemy planes, center them in your view and fire away, there's a much more "cinematic" option as well. As you fly, a gauge at the bottom of the screen slowly fills up. When this reaches a certain level, you can press the A button to make your plane automatically maneuver about and center an enemy craft in your view. Once you've done this, the enemy is an easy kill via your guns.

 

This maneuvering system is called the TMC, or Tactical Maneuver Command, and it results in some nice acrobatic displays without your having to do any fancy maneuvering. The camera briefly switches out of gameplay perspective and into a more cinematic view.

 

Your TMC gauge has three levels. The higher the gauge level when you execute a move, the more impressive the acrobatics. Of course, building up the gauge means holding off on potential kills.

 

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While the short length of the demo kept me from coming fully to grips with the control system, there was no doubt left over the game's good looks. Picture all those pretty frame buffer grabs of the PS2 Ace Combat games, but without having to go through the PS2's crappy video output. Sky Crawlers image quality is clean. And, of course, the game stays nice and smooth even during those cinematic aerial maneuvers.

 

With the game based off a high profile movie, there's also the possibility for high production values outside of the main game modes. Sure enough, leaving the demo running at the title screen for a few seconds brought up a high quality animation sequence -- hopefully, a preview of what we can expect from the Wii adaptation of Sky Crawlers.

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new screens

c20080905_sky_15_cs1w1_640x359.jpg

c20080905_sky_16_cs1w1_640x359.jpg

c20080905_sky_18_cs1w1_640x359.jpg

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c20080905_sky_20_cs1w1_640x359.jpg

 

2 players cooperation is now confirmed...just not in the way you would expect it.

Basically, as a certain indication is displayed on the upper left side of the screen, a second player can take another Wiimote, and point at the screen to shot at the enemy, granted he is at gun's range. Think : Super Mario Galaxy coop mode.

So far it's unclear whether the second player can jump in anytime or only under certain conditions, though I'd be inclined to believe that he can play anytime.

 

080905_sky_01.jpg

(2P mode in action)

 

Anyway, a few more details from there :

 

- 12 planes in total, with the ability to customize each of them with 26 different parts [i imagine this remodeling would influence the plane's handling to an extent]

- 17 different missions [for comparison, AC6 had 15 missions. AC Zero had 18, and AC5 had 30]

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IGN: Sky Crawlers Flies to America

 

- Third-party publisher Xseed Games revealed exclusively to IGN on Friday that it intends to release the critically acclaimed arcade flight simulator, The Sky Crawlers, in America. The title, officially named The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, will ship stateside in time for the holiday season, a representative for the company confirmed.

 

Developed by Project Aces, best known for the Ace Combat series, Sky Crawlers pits players as pilots in an alternate future in which peace and prosperity has finally arrived -- and yet, warmongering citizens of the world cannot accept it. To appease the people, the government allows private wars between giant corporations. "It is the battles fought by these war contracted corporations... and media reports on them... that satisfy and replace the basic human instinct to fight using the war as a show," stated Xseed Games of the story in an official release.

 

You play as the latest rookie pilot, Lynx, to join the Sky Crawlers, who becomes involved in a secret new military project whose goal is to make pilots immortal. You will "... join Lynx on his journey to conquer the skies while unraveling the mystery behind the military's covert new project."

 

"I'm extremely pleased to be able to confirm The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces for gamers in North America," said Jun Iwasaki, president of Xseed Games. "The innovative control scheme and gorgeous visuals just go to show what a top-notch development team can do when creating a new game from scratch specifically for Wii."

 

 

The stunning title features a unique control scheme in which you hold the nunchuk in your right hand and the Wii remote in your left.

Innocent Aces not only features a cutting-edge 3D engine that enables some of the most realistic graphics on Nintendo's console, but a unique control scheme designed to take advantage of the system's motion controls. Held in your right hand, the nunchuk becomes the flight control stick, which is used to tilt, roll, pitch and yaw the craft. Meanwhile, the Wii remote, held in your left hand. becomes the throttle; tilt it up to accelerate and down to decelerate.

 

The Sky Crawlers is based on a series of novels released by Hiroshi Mori in Japan. Since the license is relatively unknown in America, we caught up with Xseed Games to learn about the translation process and what fans can ultimately expect from the English version when it arrives later this year.

 

 

IGN: The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces" is based on a series of Japanese tankobon and novels by Hiroshi Mori. Tell us about the storyline behind the game. Does the story translate well to the U.S. audience?

 

Xseed Games: The story behind the game takes place in a world where world peace has become a reality. The player takes on the role of a pilot nicknamed "Lynx" who puts his life on the line for a war that is essentially just a show being put on to remind the world how fortunate it is for having no global conflict to worry about. One day, Lynx and his squadron have an unexpected run-in with "kildren," pilots rumored to be invincible. What they find is a surprising truth behind who they are and what they mean to the war.

 

The U.S. audience should have no problems relating to the story as the overarching themes of war, its necessity (or lack thereof), and the role of mankind in it are, we believe, universal. Most of us know or know of someone who was involved in a war, and while some may reminisce over the exhilaration of defeating enemies, most talk of the horrors of war. The game asks the question of whether war really is a "necessary evil" from a new perspective that should prove thought provoking for both the Japanese and US audiences.

 

 

The plane models look great on Wii.

IGN: Project Aces, best known for the Ace Combat titles, developed Sky Crawlers. What kind of flight game is this?

 

Xseed Games: "The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces" is a flight game that walks the line between a serious flight simulator and an arcade style shooter. The control scheme is easy enough for players to pick up and play but also deep enough to reward hardcore flight simulator fans with its unique controls and subtle nuances that will become apparent as the player puts more time into the game..

 

IGN: What are you keeping and changing translation-wise?

 

Xseed Games: As mentioned above, since the story is quite universal, we have decided to stay as faithful to the Japanese as possible. Some expressions had to be localized to English equivalents, but other than that, not much was changed.

 

IGN: Will you keep the original voicework? What about new voice work?

 

Xseed Games: While there will most definitely be English voice in the US release, the issue of keeping the original Japanese voice in is something we are still looking into. Many constraints have to be considered (e.g. disc space, rights, etc.), but we are trying our best to figure out a way to keep both if we can.

 

IGN: Have you worked with Project Aces to make any content or gameplay changes? If so, what?

 

Xseed Games: The simple answer would be...no. The gameplay was excellent to begin with, so there really wasn't all that much to change. The controls are intuitive and the pacing is just right.

 

IGN: Finally, what do you want Wii owners to know about the title?

 

Xseed Games: If you want an excellent flight simulator title with a deep and involving story, this is the game for you. The title maintains the balance between great story-telling and gameplay, keeping every mission fresh, fun and challenging. Casual or hardcore, this game has something for everyone.

 

 

The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces will be available exclusively for Wii this holiday season. Stay tuned to IGN for more on the game in the coming weeks and months.

 

Europe please Rising Star Games :)

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