As some have said, what a load of bull, this looks like Castle Crashers: Wii Edition. How sad, that these developers can't think of their own ideas. Sure they may have added some random abilities here and there, but the 2d-side scrolling-cute-action/adventure game, is all too similar to Castle crashers.

Smash88

Wait, now I see the RTS elements and resources. Interesting!

NiceMissMayonnaise

Yeah, it's "Castle Crashers" for the Wii. No doubt about that.

But I still want to cry "BULLSHOT" for these super-hi res screens that the Wii could NEVER replicate (sorry, pet peeve of mine). Looks darn nice here, but will probably look like muddy shit when it actually hits the small screen.

mariospants

Yep, does smell like Castle Crashers to me. de Blob... The Behemoth... maybe they're secretly offshoots of the same company?

NiceMissMayonnaise

Is it a sidescroller rts? For those who have noticed only the nordic guys, there are some aztec soldiers too!

Looks like a good game.. about time WiiWare started getting some good games.

CockroachMan

Looks darn nice. I think Patapon-style of gameplay, maybe?

Ashurahori

@ZenGaijin: No, it really looks like Castle Crashers; Maybe they saw the massive amounts of hype CC got and they want a slice of it, maybe it will be overpriced too for maximum fidelity...

Daisuash

Look like my kinda game! Side scrolling RTS eh? Sooo...kinda like Grim Grimorie then?

Knoxximus (360/PSN)

@excel_excel:
Yeah, from a first party dev.

@Methusalah:
Suppose there's hitches in any game, still looks pretty alright.

@The Rage:
Meanwhile we'll just keep trying to do Uncharted on crushing :'(

LiamR

This games art style reminds me of CastleCrashers, though it might because I have that game on the brain.

ZenGaijin

Wow, this game looks pretty awesome, actually. I dig the mead-carrying wenches on the Nordic side. If there's an ability to summon them to heal your units by giving them brew, I'm in. Especially if it includes the sound bite:

"MORE ALE, WENCH!"

AntiheroKing

@LiamR: Hopefully PS3 gets game like this soon.

Skeezy

@LiamR: It'd be pretty disappointing if wii can't handle it. I wouldn't be surprised considering all the hitching I run into while playing Strongbad on wii.

Methusalah

@LiamR: Oh yes it would be able to pull it off, its quite capable of this kind of gaming.

DE BLOB!!!!

excel_excel

@Methusalah:
Thats the thing, Wii mightn't be able to pull that off, there's an awful lot going on and i'd imagine it's fast paced.

PS3 needs more games that look like this, oh and, where's my Super Rubadub 2 :(

LiamR

I didn't even realize it was spelled as de Blog. I read it as de Blob and assumed that's what Fahey wrote ;)

Skeezy

@LiamR: I agree. Hopefully it looks as good in action.

Methusalah

I think de Blog would be a game were you have to spread creative journalism through a city devoid of free speech. This is de Blob.

Reneg

@Methusalah:
Damn :(
Like the graphics style though.

LiamR

"de Blob" mistyped as "de Blog" once in the article, and also in the headline...

Methinks Fahey's fingers have "blog" programmed into their autopilot.

KensterFox

although it's an RTS, it sort of looks like a Nordic Castle Crashers wannabe

Sandbox_Emperor

*fixes de Blog typo* Honestly, I talk about blogs all day. It was bound to happen.

Mike Fahey

@LiamR: I'd have to say... just you.

Methusalah

How much does the '3 hit' look like 'Shit'.

Just me?

LiamR

It's Patapon meets Castle Crashers meets Hagar the Horrible!!

Fonzy

@CockroachMan: It's only been a few months. Just like any console it takes time for developers to put together quality titles. Especially if they're unsure of the service prior to its launch.

TRT-X

Wait, this is a Wiiware title? If it's any bit as good as CCrashers, it will be odd to pay wiiware price for something that is better than 70% of the full-price Wii titles...

mariospants

@LiamR: No not just from a first party dev, remember Alien Hominiod? Viewtiful Joe? All games that ran fine on the GC and look the same as this

excel_excel

@mariospants:
My thoughts exactly

LiamR

Hmmm... I didn't know that de Blob had an original developer... Ah well.. *goes back to playing de Blob on iPod*

Tehman

truly these type of games and this type of art style aka lost winds ( still the only game worth getting on wii ware) being the first is what the Wii Ware was designed for.

im excited to see more and i know ill be grabbing it since it'll only be 1,000 points.

Go Team Venture

Castle Crashers is an action game.. this is an RTS.. it sure has a similar art style, but aside from that.. totally different game :P

CockroachMan

Is this Castle Crashers for Wii? Sure looks like it.

KEITH1437

Looks pretty snazzy so far. Kinda like a non-musical Patapon or something.

t0yrobo

@TRT-X: Yeah, I know.. there are a lot of good WiiWare games announced (World of Goo, Megaman 9, Bomberman, the Strong Bad episodes), but since the service started we've been getting mostly shovelware -_-'

CockroachMan

If "The World Ends with You" had a baby with " Black and White"...

PsycheE

@LiamR: but this game doesn't look to be tacking on crappy motion control, besides turn the remote sideways and TAA-DAH

excel_excel

@excel_excel:
Touche, but then again the gamecube didn't have to tack in some rubbish WAEV THA STIK actions.

LiamR

@brenoporra: Downloadable games are the future.. you can't fight it :P

CockroachMan

@brenoporra: To an extent, but some devs are releasing full games on the download platforms, like Siren Blood Curse a full price game available for download, don't worry this is only a good thing

excel_excel

did anyone noticed how this xbla, wiiware and wathever is the ps3 one are kinda taking over?

brenoporra

This looks like Fat Princess meets Castle Crashers. The trinity is complete!

Swift_

first time I read these guys are from my home country

Bluetribal

Best art style since Wind Waker. Honestly.

Soulrivers

@LiamR: Totally thought it was just me. Thanks man.

Lake Somerset

i love de blob on pc and i'll probly check out the wii version. But this looks pretty fun too

gabelogan

well, its no castle crashers, but ill take it. looks promising

bigman88zz

Is it just me or do the Vikings all look as if they drive BMW's.

Odin

Oh nice. Now the 360 has Castle Crashers, PS3 has Fat Princess and the Wii has this.
EQUALITY!

MR. FAP★FAP!

Eh, this not only will play nothing like Castle Crashers but the art also looks nothing like that, are people so out of the loop in regards to 2D that everything looks the same to them? Go look at Castle Crashers again.

Agnates

This looks really interesting.

Xemnas

This looks a bit like a Castle Crashers ripoff, of course so does Fat Princess...
Oh well, I'll buy all three.

XbhaskarX

@Reneg: actually, that sounds like a fun concept. kinda like jet set radio future, but with newspapers. or in this case, blogs. you should roll with it

bigman88zz

My guess that this won't have enough minigames to keep the average ADD Wii user entertained.

KaboomtownUSA

I like the artwork(probably cause it reminds me of fat princess/castle crashers), but I stink at RTS games.

sweetie55

You know Alien Hominid (a game that uses this style) was before Castle Crashers.

This game just made my day, the perfect type of game to end up on Wiiware. This is purchased.

KannonMAK

Am I the only one that thinks this game would actualy play better on anything else but the Wii? I mean it looks like it would actually play better with a regular controller...

Ragarnok

Castle Crashers isn't an RTS.

I must say I've never heard of a side-scrolling RTS before. It's slightly intriguing.

Burguois of Arabia

Castle Crashers ripoff much? Jeeze, it's pretty blatant.

yargh

Haters are out already? The game may LOOK like castle crashers but from the way I see stuff layed out on the screen i'm imagining it may play somewhat close to Battalion Wars(its the only rts i've played so it the only reference I have). I can see some Patapon in it too. Also what is that happening there, is that Vikings vs... Egyptian?

jive238

@ZenGaijin:

You're not the only one though
It does look similar to Castle Crashers

deft0k

I guess everyone is jumping on the "this looks like Castle Crashers bandwagon and they think it will be a side scrolling beat em up even though it's stated clearly it's a RTS-esque game and you can see the cursor on-screen...

Agnates

@Ragarnok: How exactly do cursor driven RTS games (even if this is a highly unconventional one) play better on regular controllers?

@KannonMAK: But that's from the same developers as Castle Crashers. Though I maintain the art in this game is far different.

Agnates

It can play with a regular control because the Wii can do that, you know. Not all games on Wii are motion controlled and the GC controller is better then Dual Shock any day. 360 controller might be a little better, but not for this type.

KannonMAK

Its coming to Nintendo of course it needs to be hated from the first instant, thankfully for these haters this title in some bizarre way looks like Castle Crashers.

WDYC

If Gamecube could handle Wind Waker, Wii can handle this game.

KannonMAK

After playing Lost Winds, i started to have more faith in Wii´s graphical abilities, but then i saw No More Heroes and i lost it :(. Anyway, if it wasn´t because this game is an RTS, i would have it on my radar.

Daisuash

It's a 2D game people, stop comparing it (performance wise or whatever else you guess) to 3D games like Lost Winds or Wind Waker or whatever else, sprites aren't 3D.

As far as 3D performance goes all you need to do is check out Super Mario Galaxy to know the Wii can offer good visuals. All the crappy games in the world can't prove shit when even a single good looking game exists on the system, though I'd say it's not the only one it's the better example because the engine does many things so good, like effects people didn't think were possible, gravity tricks, huge draw distance, a log of things happening on screen, beautiful pixar quality bosses, etc.

For 2D, I guess this is the first title that will really showcase that, it's too bad as it would have been nice to get more 2D games on the Wii, I was really hoping all the DS developers would jump at the chance to offer something better looking without having to limit themselves with very low res sprites...

Agnates

This will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine. I like the art style, I'm interested in the RTS gameplay, and it has splitscreen multiplayer so my husband can thoroughly trash me. Sounds fun!

About damn time the Wii starts getting more RTS games. Remote>standard controller for strategy games!

Naturestee

This is more like swords & sandals crusader with a castle crashers art style, I'll have to see how it plays first though.

walkman1022

@Agnates: Remember, Wario Land Shake is also coming, and that's a very good looking 2D game, with sprites that look just as good as the anime cutscenes in the game. But I'm also happy to see the Wii getting some strong 2D games, It's what I'd love to see the Wii do A LOT more of.

---

As far as this game looking like Castle Crashers... Yeah, it does. Bright Colors, obvious, strong outlines, simple lines for mouths, and exaggerated expression. Not to mention they use the same style of shading (though parts of this look to have better shading and Highlights than CC, really.) I can't wait to see how this animates. CC animation is amazingly smooth looking, this games shading seems to be more detailed, which hints towards somewhat simpler animations. Not BAD, of course, just simplier.

But this seems to be the perfect WiiWare game. Man, with all this setup, it looks like 2009 might see the release of a LOT of 2D revivals on Downloadable services... maybe even some at full retail like Wario. I'm looking forward to all of this quite seriously...

SAB-CA

@SAB-CA:

"Bright Colors, obvious, strong outlines, simple lines for mouths, and exaggerated expression."

You mean like most every cartoon?

Like you said, shading here is more detailed and on top of that characters are all very smooth while in CC you often see more details in the outline (the fur of furries in CC)), but less detail in other parts, like the hands, which we can see the fingers of characters here. There are also no oversized heads in this one.

Anyway, both are cartoon style obviously but I would certainly not mistake the screenshot of one game for the other and I'm sure that even if someone photoshops characters of one game into a screenshot of the other we could easily spot them due to the differences in style...

Agnates

@Agnates: Yeah, now I wouldn't mistake one for the other, knowing what this is, but surely, it's close enough a resemblance that, on first glance, one could easily think "Hmm, The Behemoth is making a new game already!?!"

Fat Princess, and now Swords & Soldiers... I do think we have to give The Behemoth some credit towards their creation, I think Dan's successful art in Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers helped pave the way for them. Much like how Double Dragon and Renegade helped pave the way for post-apocalyptic brawlers, and Ninja Turtles helped pave the way for more cartoony ones.

I still just hope this is enough to get some more Japanese developers, especially Treasure, to jump onto the bandwagon of high-quality 2D console development! It's funny to hear Koji Igarashi talking about how impractical it would be to make 2D sprite games, and then see all these 2D flash games from Western developers... I know they're 2 very different beast, but I think games like this show there is still hope and potential.

SAB-CA

Even you guys call the Castle Crashers' art flash-style, probably thanks to said obvious outlines and the shading, how does that make it the inspiration of every cartoon game that comes after it?

Agnates