WNR: 11th April 2010

VC RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
-Ironclad (Neo Geo)

EU
-Blaster Master (NES)

WIIWARE RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
-Fishie fishie (Arcade game)
-Learning with the Pooyoos: episode 2 (educational game)

EU
-Zombie: Panic in wonderland (Shooter)
-Learning with the Pooyoos: episode 2 (educational game)

GAME RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
no releases this week

EU
no releases this week

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

New scans for Metroid: Other M have been released (action game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36451/

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A new scan for Sonic the hedgehog 4: Episode one has been released (2d platform):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36455/

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New screens for Prince of Persia: The forgotten sands have been released (action/adventure):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36462/

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A new trailer, boxart and details for Xenoblade have been released (action/RPG):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36805/
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/japanese-peaceful-xenoblade/64246

- Character whose name might be Seneka is in the trailer
- Senka
discovered a battle machine, sees it’s broken
- Senka wants to learn
about the secrets behind the power of Monado (a sword)
- Man speaks
to Senka who has been researching Monado
- Anyone can activate
Monado, but controlling it is an issue
- Inn scene: Hiyoru (girl)
brings food to the man, says she will feed him but also says things have
changed since the last year, the man feels pain and drops the spoon,
regrets that he can’t hold Monado due to his pain
- Outdoor scene:
Hiyoru and Seneka converse, sit on a bech, Hiyoru notes that the wind
feels good, Seneka surprised that it’s peaceful where they are, Hiyoru
wants peaceful days to continue
- Siren sounds, Seneka says it’s a
“Falling Object Alert”, defenses shoot at the falling objects
-
Seneka and Hiyoru are located on Kyoshin (one of the two gods), things
seem to be falling from the god a lot and that’s why there are
alarms/defense
- 3 save files
- Wiimote + nunchuck or Classic Controller options
- “People born from Kyoshin return to Kyoshin”
- Kyoshin residents
thankful for the fields/nature that have helped build their civilization
- Kyoshin tribes: Homs, Nopon, Nienter
- Homs: Human-like race,
live in colonies in lower half of Kyoshin
- Nopon – Traveling
merchants, live across Kyoshin
- Nienter – Have ancient history,
built advanced civilization, live in Kyoshin’s head area
- 70-80 hours for the main quest
- More than 100 hours with optional
content
- World is “seamless”
- Loading at major areas (body
parts, ex: lower leg to upper knee)
- Realtime, seamless battles
- Can see enemies on the field
- Auto-attack when you attack
normally, attack continuously
- Can use Arts (special attacks) when
you go behind an enemy/go to its side
- Yoko Shimomura doing the
soundtrack (at least the main composer)

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A new scan for Sengoku Basara 3 has been released (action game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36497/

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New screens for Super Mario Galaxy 2 have been released (platform game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36537/

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Screens for a new wiiware game called Heavy Fire: Special operation have been released. The game seems to be a gun survivor:
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36560/

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The european boxart for Sin and Punishment: Successor of the skies have been released (shooter):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36567/

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The boxart for Samurai Warriors 3 have been released (action game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36578/

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New screens and a video for Trauma Team have been released (surgery simulator):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36583/
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36608/

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The boxart for Trackmania Wii has been released (racing game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36593/

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A new artwork regarding the main characters of The Last Story have been released as well as details about them (RPG):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36615/

- Characters in latest art piece are the main character and heroine
- Director: “There is a wall between the two.”
- Other stories in
The Last Story besides the one with the two characters in the latest art
piece, including:* The fear of speaking your true feelings
*
The mystery of the father who went missing on boat
* The difficulty
a leader has in making decisions
* The close accomplice who’s
turned to evil
* The foolish archaeologist’s prison break-
Director: “It’s very important to merge battles and gameplay with story.
Neither can stand on its own. Once both are connected together, the
characters will rise up as ‘human’ within the container of a game.”
-
Producer: “The characters who appear in The Last Story all walk their
own paths and have their own stories.”
- Producer feels that players
might be touched by other stories in the game: “Once you’ve been
touched by that, it’s likely that you’ll be able to feel their [the
characters outside of the main character] true feelings, which you did
not see before.”
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A new teaser video and screens for Jett Rocket has been released (platform/adventure):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36709/
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/36832/

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A few new details for Conduit 2 have been released (FPS):

- About 30 suit upgrades
- Take on AI enemies in Team Invasion mode
with 3 friends locally or online
- Q4 release
- Wii exclusive
- ASE used for exploration, will act like the visor in Metroid Prime
- “we’re not considering any melee weapons that would make use of its
added fidelity.”
- Can shoot helmets/armor off enemies

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A lot of new videos for Monster Hunter 3 have been released (Action/RPG):
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/quest-series-monster-hunter/64163
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/quest-series-monster-hunter/64164
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/quest-series-monster-hunter/64162
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/quest-series-monster-hunter/64165
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/quest-series-monster-hunter/64166
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/viral-trailer-monster-hunter/64185
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/viral-trailer-monster-hunter/64191
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/viral-trailer-monster-hunter/64181
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/viral-trailer-monster-hunter/64187
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/viral-trailer-monster-hunter/64183
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/viral-trailer-monster-hunter/64189

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A teaser video for Gods VS Humans has been released:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/debut-teaser-gods-vs/64314

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A couple of new videos for A shadow's tale have been released (2d platform game):
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/konami-gamers-lost-in/64320
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/konami-gamers-lost-in/64322

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Even though it doesn't have to do with the wii I can't resist X3 here are the first scans of Pokemon Black & White!
http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=120150

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WII GAME OF THE WEEK: Nights: Journey of dreams
Genre: Arcade game
Publisher: Sega
game time: around 10 hours



I have heard a lot of nice things around this game series. The game is quite particular and its first chapter conquered a lot of fans all over the world. It's one of Sega's forgotten franchises. I picked up the game two weeks ago along with Red Steel 2 deciding to dive into the world of Nightopia and check it out to see what made this game so particular.

What I found was a truly addicting gameplay that kept giving various challenges to me with each level. But let's go into detail!

Nights (the character) could be considered as Yuji Naka's second Sonic. She's a free spirit, only wanting to fly around Nightopia, the world of dreams she so cares about and protects from the Nightmarens, a race of Nightmares who only want to destroy the dreams of everyone to drag Nightopia into the darkness.

At the start of the game you can Choose between two Storylines with a boy (Will) or a girl (Helen) starting to have weird nightmares that try to hurt them. Both of them suddenly see a light and they run toward it, finding a weird owl who greets them and Nights herself who offers them to fly them around, Dualizing with them (Dualizing lets Nights become one with the childs so that they act as one entity, sort of.).

The visual look of the game haves low and high points. The models of the characters are not really the best around and are below the average wii quality, as well as the surroundings. Yet there's a very smart use of certain textures (especially for the bosses, that use a quite high level of detail for their textures) and a great creativity in the level design (some levels are more inspired than others though) that can easily make up for the low graphic level of the models.

The framerate of the game runs very smoothly while playing, but it almost always seems to go down during the cutscenes, thing that ruins the narration of the storyline, even if the plot, as you can expect, is not really a metal gear or a final fantasy. It's a shame, because the movements of Nights are really nice to watch in the cutscenes, even if they could have used a bit more work on Will and Helen that almost always seem to use the same expressions.

The gameplay is what makes this game so particular. The game gives you different challenges for each world (there are in total 6 worlds with 5 levels each, included the boss fight) and in most of them you'll have to make Nights fly around on a 2d perspective trough rings, avoiding/defeating enemies, grabbing blue chips and so on. Flying trough rings and grabbing blue chips will count as "Links", wich are a big part on the final rating of the level. The levels have a rating system that kind of works like the sonic one, depending by the mission and by how you execute it you'll get a certain rating.

An important note: To get the real ending of the game you'll have to get at least a C on all missions. Anyway, this is the gameplay in a few words. The game gives you different control settings, but I found myself just fine with the nunchuck/wiimote one, without using the motion controls (wich are quite clunky in this game. Luckily they aren't forced on you). It'll take a while to get used to the speed of the game, but after a while you'll really have fun building up links, flying trough the levels, performing paraloops (that involve nights flying to form a circle of stars that work as a vacuum for blue chips and enemies.) and going trough the different missions.

The game can give you a lot of different challenges that can also be quite different from the usual 2d flying ones. There are levels in wich you'll be able to control the kids trough platform levels, wich will also give you puzzles to solve. Or nights will turn into a ship and you'll have to save the Nightopians who fell in the river. There are many examples of missions, the game never ever gets repetitive even if it still sticks to certain rules, like a time limit for every level, wich plays a big part in the rating, especially in the boss fights.

Talking about the boss fights this game haves some of the creepiest-looking bosses ever, in a good way. They really had fun designing them, for sure X3 Every boss haves its own level wich plays in its own way. For example, Donbalon, the boss I drew in the wii sketch resides in a huge pinball-like level in wich you'll have to frab him and push him up the big field, until you can reach the top and send Donbalon into oblivion.

There are still so many things to say about the other challenges, but I won't spoil too much of it, beside the fact that the level design is quite great. The first level of each world always involves you flying after a bird who got a key to release Nights' spirit. The levels got not only a lot of creative traps, but also certain special areas like huge slot-machines or mirrors capable to split you into 4 Nights to move at the same time. So yeah, the game never got repetitive X3

It obviously is a particular game, so not something everyone can like, since the style of the characters is also quite particular. Seriously though, it's worth a try, even just to play a game series that was also part of the gaming history.

The story of the game is quite simple as well as its developement...though I somehow saw it as a sort of fairy tale, simple but with a sort of moral at the end of it (at least in the true ending), talking about being responsible and not relying simply on others' strenght to solve your problems.

The soundtrack is something well-developed, with a lot of catchy, different tunes, even though the on that will probably stick to your mind is the main theme of the game that also haves a vocal version playing forward in the game (awesome <:3).

To end the review the game haves a few technical flaws: low framerate in the cutscenes and a few glitches here and there, but despite this the gameplay is fun, addicting and various, changing the pace quite often, even giving you 4 different forms to turn into in the main levels, to vary the fun and the battles. The game can be cleared in a few hours, but the lenght can be eincreased quite a lot if you consider getting an A in every mission and collecting all the hidden "drops" wich will unlock more and more stuff.

Not a game for everyone, but certainly a special, creative game. Who will be able to see its magic will probably be pleased by the final result, even if now I wish a new game could be possible, to fix the flaws of this one and make the experience even better.

here are a few screens:
http://gamekyo.com/images5_4_22063.html
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/57421520071002_224425_1_big.jpg
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/57421520080116_191254_0_big.jpg
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/57421520071205_114843_14_big.jpg

and a couple of videos:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/japanese-trailer-nights-wii/24445
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/boss-fight-nights-wii/28896

that's all for this week! see ya next time and have a good wii gaming time! :3