Gaming site Kombo got themselves a nice exclusive today in the form of purported concept art from Factor 5, artwork that was reportedly used in a pitch to Nintendo for a potential Kid Icarus game for the Wii. According to Kombo, the Lair and Rogue Squadron developer is actively pursuing a Wii entry in the series—a long touted rumor—but that Nintendo hasn't officially committed to the project. The above image is just one of many pieces of artwork said to be from a new-gen Kid Icarus game and there are many proposed looks. One things for sure—each and every design will make you feel like your feeling too close to the sun, eyes first.

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Poor Lair. Looked gorgeous, but, yeah. You know. Controls. Sucky. Well, the rumour that was so good it turned up twice in February has been confirmed by Sony, with a Lair patch due in Japan on April 17 adding the option of analogue controls for the much-maligned shooter. I know what you're going to say next. "Who gives a rat's arse? It's too late". And sure, on one hand, you may be right. On the other, though...this might bump the game from a C to a B- on your ratings scale. Which would mean picking it up on the cheap (and pretty soon, it's gonna be cheap) wouldn't be the stupidest thing you did this year.
Analog Controls Coming to Lair [IGN]

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It looks like Brash Entertainment is trying to set themselves up as the go-to guys for licensed movie games. First they tap Games Republic of Folklore fame for what can only be a Clash of the Titans game, and now Factor 5 has signed on for a movie to game transfer slated for a 2010 release, to be announced at E3 this year. Factor 5 of course is the developer behind the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series, Lair, and the classic Turrican series. Why are they pulling in the good dev teams for movie translations? President and co-founder of Factor 5 Julian Eggebrecht says it's all about long lead times and creative freedom.

We're already working on a title that is more than two years out, and because the filmmaker is a game fan who is really excited about how we want to expand on the story of the film, we've been given a lot of latitude. It's been really fun to dig deep into this universe.

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In between trying to convince IGN that the only people who found Lair's controls to be woeful were "hardcore" gamers, Factor 5 boss Julian Eggebrecht raises the possibility that those same controls might be tweaked in a future update for the title:

If we find a chance in the future that would bring Lair to the audience which didn't get any access, that would be fantastic. I can't say anything quite yet, but there might be something in the works there. We might have a chance yet to bring those back to the table and hopefully, if that should happen, they would give the game a second chance.

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Factor 5's Lair wasn't exactly the most well received of PlayStation 3 games, despite its often-pretty graphics. It was generally blasted for inaccurate SIXAXIS control, unreliable SIXAXIS control and craptastic SIXAXIS control, among a few other things we don't remember. According to a report from IGN, the team has decided to give game development and motion control a go on another platform, bringing an unnamed game to the Wii. F5 boss man Julian Eggebrecht told the outlet that the team is hard at work on something that's not for the Virtual Console and not running on GameCube era Star Wars Rogue Squadron tech, with IGN believing that it's not a waggle-filled PilotWings sequel.

So what is it, if it's not all that? Could it be that 3D Turrican update Eggebrecht hinted at to Gamasutra last Spring? With all those Turrican ratings popping up on the ESRB lately, we wouldn't be surprised. In fact, delighted might a good word.

Official: Factor 5 Back on Wii [IGN]

Lair developers Factor 5 have already submitted SNES releases Super Turrican and Super Turrican 2 to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board for a Wii Virtual Console release, but we've been sitting on the prospect of those releases for half the year now. This week, another Turrican rating comes to us in the form of Mega Turrican, the Sega Genesis release of the side-scrolling shooter series.

While we've heard whispers that a new Factor 5 developed Turrican game may be in the works, it would seem that Julian Eggebrecht and crew are waiting for something to light a fire under them. What's it gonna take, guys?

ESRB Game Ratings [ESRB]

Factor 5 honcho Julian Eggebrecht must be exhausted from constantly "defending" his company's poorly received PlayStation 3 title Lair and its hit-or-miss SixAxis controls. G4 caught up with the Dragon's Lair fanboy at Tokyo Game Show to get one more justification out of Mr. Eggebrecht whose game has been retitled Rise From Lair in Japan. I respect what Factor 5 was trying to do, but trying to target gamers who aren't hardcore with a PS3 game? Simply puzzling.

Factor Five's Julian Eggebrecht may have taken some knocks on the chin for Lair's gameplay, but not many were complaining about the unquestionably stellar graphics of the title. And that's pretty much enough for me to name him an unquestionable authority on every platform's individual graphical nuances (and anything else necessary for this article to be extremely important). Right now, Eggebrecht's questioning an industry that's all but given up on the Wii ever making pretty games:

If you connect you can get a lot of shader effects which would've been on the 360 or the PS3...it's got so much more power compared to the GameCube. If even with the extremely similar shader hardware, the system clockrate is so much higher, you can do so much more advanced things.

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Oh, OK. So Lair isn't crap. It's cursed! Factor 5's Julian Eggebrecht has told MTV that Lair didn't just endure a troubled development. Something was up. Something...supernatural.

I am not a believer in ghosts, but this one was haunted.

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Factor 5's Lair got one bad review. And after that, the levies broke and the criticism came pouring in. Now, in the wake of carnage, we can step back and see where things seemingly went wrong. (Of course, not having played the final build, I stubbornly stand by my impressions.)

So hit the jump for our Frankenreview: the longest, most obnoxious review title you've ever heard. And find out why, aside from the questionable control scheme, most reviewers are hating on the game.

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