Read-a-long with Nintendo Power #246 (October 2009)

By Joe Fourhman | September 8, 2009

Last issue promised No More Heroes 2, but you’ll find no such Touchdowns here. Instead the cover story is about Avatar, a movie tie-in that already has me weary. To make matters even more confusing, EIC Chris Slate’s column talks up a Sega Genesis 20th Anniversary for the cover, but it hardly matters since the mag is wrapped in a full page ad for Spectrobes: Origins! If you can make sense of that, you’re ready to read-a-long!

Issue #246, October 2009
featuring Avatar (Wii), Tower of Shadow (Wii), Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (Wii), Dementium II (DS), WWE Smackdown vs Raw (Wii/DS)

This could be a terribly damning statement: “Hollywood’s most notorious perfectionist isn’t about to have his work tarnished by a crappy video game.” As James Cameron’s first movie since Titanic, anticipation is high for Avatar, even if animation wags have already ginned up some unfavorable similarities to box office turd Delgo. You can go enjoy that link, by the way. It’s really funny.

So what about the game? The Wii version will be entirely different from the PS3/360 edition, and none of them will simply follow along with the film’s story as with most movie-to-game adaptations. On the Wii, we’ll get a prequel. And a frankly bizarre assortment of Nintendo peripheral usage.

You’ll flick the Remote to initiate stealth attacks, and swing it to bash around your staff. But that’s fairly normal stuff for a Wii action game, and we can take small comfort in creative director Daniel Bisson’s promise that “Too many [Wii games] ask you to waggle all the time. We wanted to prevent that as much as possible.”

How about MotionPlus support? Yep, it’s on the docket in the form of the Hellfire Wasp. If you have the MotionPlus plug-in, you’ll be able to fly the bug around the level to assist with platforming puzzles. If you don’t have a MotionPlus, there will always be another way to solve the level. Sort of reminds me of the Tingle Tuner from Wind Waker.

And let’s not forget the Balance Board. There are on-rails flying sections that can be controlled by, I assume, leaning.

I have to say, this all seems very average to me. In fact, the reliance on Wii gimmickry raises substantial cause for concern. I don’t get any feeling that this will be any more than a regular ol’ mediocre movie game. Similar to how I don’t see Avatar being more than a regular ol’ mediocre animated fantasy adventure flick. Maybe I’m wrong. But this article certainly doesn’t offer much to change my mind. I’ll go check out Delgo for a preview.

Whatever. Let’s move on to something that legitimately looks awesome: Tower of Shadow. It’s still a long way off (summer 2010), but Hudson’s Wii exclusive looks like this generation’s Ico. The similarity begins with the bloomed-out lighting and subdued color palette, but the game also exudes that thoughtful poignancy that marked Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

We’ve seen a lot of unique takes on 2D games lately, from Warioland: Shake It to Braid, and Muramasa to the forthcoming A Boy and His Blob. Tower of Shadow’s deal is that the 3D environment creates a 2D platforming world by way of realistically projected shadows.

As the unnamed shadow boy, you’ll exist only in a flat plane, traversing a level that is created as shadows lie across the 3D world. Designer Osamu Tsuchihashi promises that there will be ways to interact with the physical realm to adjust or manipulate the shadows. Tsuchihashi won’t say much about the game’s story… other than that there’s a tower and a boy in it. But when NP drops the word “melancholy” to describe it, one look at those screenshots is enough to convince me they’re on the right track.

A lot can happen between now and next summer, but this is definitely one to watch on Wii.

This reader letter has GOT to be fake.

Am I the only one wishing for a new Mach Rider game? It begs for Wii Wheel support, and when the rider loses a life, it would be cool to see him blow up and come back together with 3-D graphics!

Mach Rider was an NES launch game. So here we have a probable adult (can you imagine a kid picking up Mach Rider on the Virtual Console?) trying to talk up a new version of an ancient, unloved game by suggesting it utilize the friggin’ Wii Wheel, big explosions, and the phrase “3-D graphics.” I call shenanigans.

Last issue, readers submitted “ideas” for Wii MotionPlus uses. This time, it’s all about the Vitality Sensor. The most popular suggestion is that games could sense your stress level and adjust the difficulty accordingly. Which is probably the best idea since we killed off all the passenger pigeons.

Whether the game gets harder because you’re calm, or easier because you’re stressed, this doesn’t strike me as a particularly accurate use of the tech. I don’t think you can assume that the player is ever 100% focused on the game, and therefore any assumptions based on heart rate or whatever are out the window. What if you’re playing a game to relax and you end up involved in a verbal argument with someone in another room… that stress has nothing to do with the game.

And has anybody considered that the damn Vitality Sensor seems to take one entire hand out of action? It plugs into the Nunchuk port, and it probably requires your left hand to lie still on a flat surface. This trinket is destined for non-games only, gang. These attempts to jam it into a “core” game experience are amusing thought experiments at best, and the ravings of blinded fanboys at worst.

Download Staff Picks: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord (WiiWare), Bit.Trip Core (WiiWare), Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1 (WiiWare), Pulseman (Sega Genesis)

Top scoring Wii review: Muramasa: The Demon Blade and NHL 2K10, tied at 8.0 (all scores out of 10)
Top scoring DS review: Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story 9.5
Lowest rated Wii review: Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga, 4.0
Lowest rated DS review: IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey and Bleach: The 3rd Phantom, tied at 4.0

This issue also sees two first-party DS games – Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box and Fossil Fighters – reviewed at 8.0. Cursed Mountain for Wii hit 7.0, but the Wii version of Disney’s stab at Pokemon, Spectrobes: Origins, mustered a mere 5.5.

The Club bonus that could have been. – Before they settled on Doc Louis’ Punch-Out!! as the surprise reward for Club Nintendo Platinum members, Nintendo was considering putting Doc Louis in “an 8-bit bicycle race with upbeat chip-tune music.” Now join me in saying awwwwwwwwww.

Advice from the Guru of Greatness – WWE sports entertainer John Morrison has some advice for your least favorite Smash Bros stars. He says Pit should wear pants, Captain Falcon should smile more, and Luigi should consider “some biometric upper-body work.”

Yeah, you don’t remember him – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up gets points on the board for including little known B-character Fugitoid… but loses BIG points for using the hideous 90s animated series TMNT logo on the box art.

Hot on the heels of Smash-Up – There’s another Ninja Turtles game on the way to Wii, and the subtitle Arcade Attack should tell you all you need to know. The game will feature storyline panels from the original black-and-white Eastman & Laird comic book.

Curious about Sega’s Sakura Wars? – Sakura Wars is a real deal in Japan, with the franchise cresting dozens of core games and spin-off titles… but its western debut comes in the form of a Wii port of the PS2’s Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love this November. It’s an adventure game (like, with dialogue trees and everything!) about steam-powered mechs and young opera singers.

Dementium, spoiled – NP doesn’t mind wrecking the ending of the original Dementium game, Bobby Ewing-style. The sequel, coming to DS early next year, will feature a better save system.

Next month in Nintendo Power… after apologizing for no No More Heroes, NP vows a Halloween-timed focus on Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Also, NP will reveal a “major DSiWare title.” Woot!