WNR: 7th June 2010

welcome to the new WNR! We're barely one week away from the E3 and I'm so nervous and excited about it that I started dreaming the nintendo conference in the last nights X3 HELP ME! XD

ahem, anyway, I take this chance to tell you that during the week of E3 I will not review a game, so that I can focus on the coverage of the event for you :3 I really, really hope to be able to bring good news to all of you ^^ also, thank you very much for following me =n.n= anyway...let's start!

VC RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
-Wild Guns (SNES) see, seph ? they released something >:3

EU
no releases this week

WIIWARE RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
-Ben 10 Alien Force: The rise of Hex (Action game)
-Vodoo Dice (Puzzle game)
-Robocalypse: Beaver Defense (Tower defense game)

EU
-Robocalypse: Beaver Defense (Tower defense game)
-Brain Drain (Puzzle game)

GAME RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
8th June:
-Green Day: Rock Band
-Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
-City Builder

EU
11th June:
-Super Mario Galaxy 2
-Green Day: Rock Band

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

New details and low-res scans on Sonic Colours have been released (Action/Platform game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/40864/
-Sweet Mountain and Tropical Reservoir zones
-Sweet Mountain is a
mountain of pastries
-Developers want the game to have crazy level
designs like old Sonic titles
-3D levels have you running from one
point to another, comparable to Sonic Unleashed’s daytime levels
-More platforming in 2D areas
-DS version looks like Sonic Rush 3
-DS version also has the tension cause
-Will still be similar to
the Wii version
-Tails involved with the story, but you can only
play as Sonic
-Knuckles and Shadow may appear, but again, not
playable
-Simple/light story
-Driller, laser suit, rocket suit power-ups
-Wii version plays
similar to Sonic Unleashed
-Yellow Wisps turn Sonic into a drill
-Green Wisps turn Sonic into
energy, which lets him dart around like a laser and taken down foes
-7-8 Wisps
-Only carry one Wisp at a time
-Flick Wiimote to
activate Wisp
-Gauge shows how long you have until the Wisps power
will end
-Yellow Wisp power lasts about 10 seconds
-Can refill
the gauge by finding another Wisp
-Motion controls for Wisps only
-Tilt nuchuck to drift around turns
-3D sections have narrow
paths, encourage you to quickly move forward
-More platforming in
side-scrolling areas
-Many hidden paths
-Game has emblems, but
SEGA won’t talk about hem now
-If you’re underground as a drill
when the time expires, Sonic will die
-Dr. Robotnik has pulled the planets together with a tractor beam,
transforming them into an amusement park
-Go from planet to planet
-Can choose which planet to visit from a world-map screen
-Sometimes have freedom of where to go to next
-Tropical Resort
Zone: Neon lights, water fountains, spotlights, Giant Ferris wheels, Dr.
Robotnik’s voice can be heard on the PA system
-At the end of the
sage, the Ferris wheel turns into a robot
-Sweet Mountain Zone:
Donuts, pancakes, other food, use the drill to go through
-At the
end of each level, Sonic steps on a button to free Wisps from a metal
capsule
-At least 8 planets
-Consistent frame rate
-Upbeat, jazzy soundtrack

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New screens for Lost in Shadow have been released (2D Platform):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/40811/

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A new game has been announced for Wii! Its name is Earth Seeker, an action game developed by ex-Capcom talents (included the designer of Street Fighter II). Here are the first scans showing the artworks of the game. Maybe we'll know more during the E3:
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/40914/

Also, here are the first details:
-Capcom developers Noritaka Funamizu founded Crafts & Meister in
2004
-Action game
-Focuses on the destruction of Earth
-No actual gameplay details yet
-To be published by Kadokawa Games
-Takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth
-Humans heritage put in a
spaceship, taken off the planet, but it crashes into another planet,
cargo scatters
-Ship’s computer trying to recreate the ecosystem
from the Earth on the new planet, but is creating strange plant and
animal life instead as a result of the crash
-Set 1,000 years after
the crash
-Ship is mysteriously releasing poisonous elements into
the atmosphere, you need to stop it
-Work together with the
planet’s species (Ewok-like race called the Guardians)
-The
Guardians have used technology from the ship to quickly advance their
own
-The Guardians weren’t human-friendly at first because the
crash caused a lot of damage, but help them because they want to drink
alcoholic beverages humans make
-Regarding a release in other
territories: “I think it’d be a good thing for the industry if
we took a moment to rethink what Japan’s games should be doing. There
are gamers worldwide, of course, and making games to meet their needs
certainly isn’t a bad thing, but I feel like we’re throwing out too many
Japanese values and the uniqueness of our games along the way. A lot of
Japanese kids don’t even play games these days, right? I want to teach
them again that games are a lot of fun, just like how our parents taught
us when we were kids.” – Yoshihiro Sudo, Kadokawa Games

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New scans and details for The Last Story have been released: they look gorgeous X3 (RPG):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/40907/

-Hero is Elza, not Erza
-Heroine is Kanan
-Elza lost his
family as a child, fights as a mercenary to make a living, hopes to
become a knight
-Knights are respected while the opposite is true
for mercenaries
-Kanan is mysterious character
-Elza’s
mercenary group has come to Ruri Island looking for work
-Complete
missions with your mercenaries, but you only control Elza, other
characters are CPU controlled
-Scans show first look at battle
scenes with status displays
-3-4 battle members besides Elza in the
scans, two names are Quark and Jackal
-Only Elza can use
Gathering, use it to attract enemy’s attention
-Blue light from
Elza’s arm will appear when he casts Gathering, enemies might come over
and surround him
-Use Gathering to allow allies to cast magic
-Counter will show up over an ally’s head when they cast magic, when it
reaches zero the spell will be executed
-Enemies will have their
attention placed to ally’s casting spells unless you use Gathering
-Elza doesn’t have Gathering immediately, obtains it following an early
mission on Ruri Island
-Identifying the power that Elza obtains
plays a role in the game

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A new trailer for Dragon Quest Monsters Battle Road Victory has been released (RPG):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/40933/

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A new trailer for Batman: The brave and the bold have been released...it looks fun! X3 (Beat'em up):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/40980/

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New details on Wii Party have been released:

-Wanwan Karuta: Four players, Wii remote plays a different sound for
each, sound needs to match animal on screen
-Remote Control Hide
and Seek: Hide the Wiimote in the room, others players need to locate
it, Wiimote emits sound
-Sensitive Bomb: Hold Wii remote like a
bomb, pass it to others without shaking it
-Games above under the
Living Party mode (one of three modes)
-Six games in this mode
-Over 80 minigames in the Teiban/Standard move
-Optional Wiimote
bundle confirmed

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A new wiiware game has been announced from Square! Here are the first screens and details:
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/41071/
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/41117/
-Called Kumanage
-Two versions
-“Throwing action game”
-Takes place in a mysterious picture book in an old mansion
-Use
Wiimote to throw objects to solve puzzles
-Boy character Kiina or
girl character Piina based on the version you buy
-Kiina’s volume:
Paper bears, “strange but cute” characters appear from the picture book,
need to throw them to protect your blue gem
-Piin’a volume: Toss
paper bears at gimmicks to gather red candy
-Releasing June 8 in
Japan
-1,000 Wii points each
-Different stages and stories in
both versions
-Bonuses for those who clear both versions
-Probably will be released worldwide
-Akira Oguro is an illustrator

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New screens for Metroid: Other M have been released (Action game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/41019/

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New character details and a beautiful trailer for Xenoblade have been released (RPG):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/41027/
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/japanese-the-xenoblade/100807

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A new trailer for Devil Kings 3 has been released (Action game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/41063/

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an 8-bit GTA-like game for wiiware has been announced! Here are the first details and an artwork with a few screens! Looks interesting to me :3
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/41084/
-Called Retro City Rampage
-Initial version submitted to
Independent Games Festival last year as Grand Theftendo
-Releasing
this fall
-8-bit open world
-Take on missions, explore, steal
vehicles
-More than 30 vehicles
-Developed by Vblank
Entertainment

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Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock has been announced for Wii! Here's a first trailer:
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/41105/

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WII GAME OF THE WEEK: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
Genre: Action game
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher: Ubisoft (USA) Rising Star (EU)
Hours spent on the game: 10



At last the long-awaited sequel of No More Heroes arrived here, in Europe. This may be a very late review for the americans, but hey...I couldn't help, the game is just that important to me ^^

Suda 51 once again puts us in control of Travis, who after the rank battle of the first game, left Santa Destroy, becoming a legend for all the assassins. Three years have passed and Travis is forced to join a new, bigger rank battle to avenge his best friend, who was killed by the actual king of the rank. Let's see in detail how the game of the crownless king was developed :3

The game uses a cel-shading look, wich has been improved greatly since the first game. The characters are way more detailed, the shading and the colours are stylish and even the levels are more detailed and various, with just a few them looking "repetitive". The movements of the characters are smooth and believable. Watching Travis slash away at his enemies and using wrestling moves on them is just pleasant. They even made it so that, depending by the sword that Travis weilds his animations and fighting style changes, resulting in a different experience every time.

A special mention also goes for the effects of the laser beam on the enemy bodies, resulting in light marks, wich sort of reference to many anime out there. Only graphic look that could've used more work is on the random enemies around, even though now they're way more various than in the first game, while the assassins of the ranks are always very detailed and always nice to see move and fight, unless they're kicking your ass ;P

Gameplay-wise, the battle system has been tweaked. There's a clear difference between high and low defense. High defense lets you go for rapid uts and slashes, while the low defense is more slow and crushing, useful to break the guard of the enemy. They powered up the physical moves too, so that you can actually pull out combined combos of slashes, kicks and punches and a flick of the remote while running executes a quick, wide slash, useful to start out the battles. So, Travis is pretty much more powerful than ever, as if showing his experience he developed during the past rank battle.

The "slot-machine" system is still there. When an enemy runs out of health you can finish him off with the right flick of the wiimote and a slot-machine starts up. If you get three symbols of the same kind Travis gets different power-ups, that make him invincible for a period of time. There's a "slow-motion" mode in wich the time slows down, allowing Travis to slash his enemies to death.Another power-up makes Travis shoot thunder balls from his swords, another one makes him execute an attack wich kills all enemies in the area while another one turns Travis in a Tiger to slaughter the now scared enemies who pitifully cower or try to run away.

The wrestling moves are executed in the old way, stunning the enemy and grabbing him to trigger a motion-sensor quicktime event to proceed with certain moves you can learn trough the game. One thing that should be noted is how the AI of the enemies has been raised quite noticeably. They're more aggressive and smart and there are more kinds of games. There are the usual gunmans and guys with bats, but there also are skilled swordmans, big muscled, stronger ones or even guys weilding chainsaws.

The battles against the assassins are always fun as much as in the first game, if not more. They always give you different challenges and msot of them are also very difficult. Mashing the button won't help, you have to move and slash in the right way, breaking the guard of the boss and looking for his weak spots. Not only the boss battles are fun and give always something new, with new patterns and stuff, but the bosses are as crazy as ever. I'fe fallen in love for more than one of them. The style of the game is all there, with over-the-top assassins with their crazy behaviours, crazy weapons and there also are afew returns wich I won't spoil to you

In a few boss battles you'll also be able to play as Shinobu Jacobs, an assassin of the first game and Henry, Travis's twin brother, wich is a nice change of pace, even if it would have been fun if the game gave you the option to play the entire game as them.

Outside the battles the game changed very much. The overworld is gone, replaced by a more direct map to go directly where you want. This may make a few gamers feel a bit disappointed, even though in the first game the overworld was pretty much useless and not as open as, let's say, GTA or similar games. Travis is still able to work to gain money, but this time the jobs have been turned into full-fledged, awesome 8-bit games, wich touch different genres like racing, puzzle, action and arcade. they're VERY satisfying and fun, giving an old-school feeling to the game and referencing a few old games like Tetris or Tumblepop. Other few mini-games are put in the game, like in the gym, where travis can train to get stronger or get more health, training with the VERY ambigous new gym trainer. There's also a cute shoot'em up game in Travis's TV and mini-games involving Jeane, Travis's cat. All of those little details just make the gameplay more varied and way less frustrating than the jobs and side-missions of the first game.

there are side-missions in this game too, but they are optional and all meant to simply unlock a secret of the game to make Travis fight without his jacket, so yeah, just for who wants to waste more time :3 A last detail about the gameplay is the different swords Travis can weild. This time they can be changed during the level too and the difference isn't just in power but in their fighting style too. For example there's a very long beam katana, wich has a very wide range and power but is also very slow to execute attacks. All a matter of preference or strategy

The story of the game is as crazy as the first one, with Travis wanting to avenge his friend, but also joining the second rank battle to, as usual, get Sylvia on his bed to do stuff yes, the good old Travis. While the plot developement doesn't have the plot-twists of the first one, going trough the battles and watching the behaviours of the crazy assassins is still very fun and the ending, wile quite criptic will pretty much close a very important doubt that all of us had during both of the games...you'll understand X3 This without counting the MANY, MANY references the game gives, wich make the plot more interesting. The game haves just so many references from both games, anime and movies: Final Fantasy 7, Killer 7, Gunbuster, Mazinger Z, Star Wars and even Metal Gear Solid. Can you recognize them all ? :3 in the end, the plot is not as surprising as the first, but still quite enjoyable.

The soundtrack, on my opinion, is even better and more varied than the original, with a lot of tunes sticking in your mind, a few of them even vocals. Especially the boss fights, wich as usual are as crazy as the assassins themselves. The music touches many genres. Jass, pop, rock, metal...you name it :3 It seriously is a soundtrack you'd try to get. Here are of my fave examples:





About the flaws of the games I'd mention, a camera wich, not always works well and the framerate wich tends to go down in certain cutscenes, even if not in a total frustrating way, you still can see what's going on X3 Some may not like the choice to take off the free roaming, but the game itself makes up for that. The boss battles are more than the first, the jobs are better than the first, pretty much all has improved and increased since the first game.

This game is recommended to all of the NMH fans and to people who love fun and crazy action games. A must for the anime fans wich may find a lot of references in the game to laugh at. Also, if you didn't play the first...do it. It's worth it, even if just to play THIS one :3

I'll be first in line waiting for No More Heroes 3 when it will come out on the next nintendo console, like Suda 51 confirmed more than once ^^

Here are a few screens:
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/73961520090810_172601_17_big.jpg
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/73961520090810_172558_0_big.jpg
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/73961520091227_172756_6_big.jpg
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/73961520091227_172755_2_big.jpg

and a nice video:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/launch-trailer-no-more/61252

that's all for this week! Have a good wii gaming time! :3

hmm... city rampage does look rather interesting...and I'd like to see more video action on the sonic colors...