Review: Dragon Ball Z – Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3)

Yesterday, Electronic Arts had a quarterly earnings discussion, in which, John Ricitiello admitted that they dropped the ball when it came to supporting the Nintendo Wii.  Ricitiello stated that Electronic Arts would rectify that in the upcoming fiscal year, by releasing a significant amount of titles on the Wii this year, including the porting of Dead Space to the Wii.  Ricitiello said that mistakes were made by tying themselves to the PS3 and 360 over the Wii from the outset, and for not adjsting to popularity of the Wii at some point.

All this is fine and dandy, but I was hung up on the announcement of Dead Space for the Wii.  It is an interesting choice for EA to port to the Wii, due to the high quality visuals that were on display in Dead Space.  Controls also seem to be a difficult thing, as there seems to be far more controls for Dead Space than there is on the Wiimote and Nunchuck controller.

My concern for this title coming to the Wii starts with another port that is currently in the works for the Wii from the 360, and that would be Capcom’s Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop.  When Dead Rising was announced for the Wii, it really made a lot of sense.  Easier targeting system, and a motion control attack system, which would work great for all the melee weapons that are available in Dead Space.  The question was how Capcom would capture the graphical polish from the 360 version of the game, when translating it to the Wii.  We shortly found out how Capcom would make this happen, as you will only have 5-10 zombies at a time on the screen, vs. the 100′s that you would find in the 360 version.  Other features were to be removed from Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop, including no photojournalism and the scaling back of weapons available, which made the release seem handcuffed from the start.

Dead Space, at first looks like a really good candidate for porting, as you will get a better targeting system for aiming at limbs to sever, and some of the shooting gallery stuff like the asteroid belt should end up being far wth a pointing targeting system.  Melee attacks could feel more immersive using the shaking motion of the Wiimote.  But with all of his, you have to wonder if the dynamic lighting, sound, and complex visual presentation will hold up on the Wii.  It seems like EA could end up damaging their brand more than helping it by porting a title like this to a hardware platform that cannot handle it.  It will not be the same Dead Space that people played on the PC, 360 and PS3.

I can understand EA wanting to get a large name brand title on the Wii, but I am surprised they did not go to Mirror’s Edge before Dead Space.  Mirror’s Edge seems to you a bright palette of colors, but never too many at the same time.  Also, the movement that the character is based around is a perfect fit for the Wiimote.  Shake, twist an twirling the wiimote to control Faith through the world of Mirror’s Edge would be a far better solution for the Wii, than moving a complex title like Dead Space.

I am all for getting more hardcore titles on the Wii, but if what made the game great is going to be compromised, is it really worth taking the effort to put it on the Wii.  Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop will be a good test to see if consumers will go for this type of port.