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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land The combination of EA, Steven Spielberg and casual Wii gaming targeted at children and retirees may not instill much in the way of hardcore gaming fervor, but there is something unquantifiable about Boom Blox that makes it so appealing. On display on just one monitor at last week’s Nintendo Media Summit, the Spielberg production—not unlike a virtual game of Jenga played with a cannon—had a consistent crowd of press and PR surrounding it, some of whom were repeat Boom Blox-ers regularly returning for another taste.
Boom Blox‘s main gameplay draw lies in the ability to knock down towers of inconsistently shaped blocks with the toss of baseballs, bowling balls, whatever, all of which adhere to an accurate physics model. Simply line up your shot, after a careful panning and scanning of the camera, then whip the Wii-remote at the screen to start knocking blocks off. Special blocks and multipliers pile on the tactics, but gamers of any skill level can compete from the get-go.
Frontier’s WiiWare effort LostWinds may not be grabbing headlines, especially in the midst of releases like Grand Theft Auto IV and Metal Gear Solid 4 on the horizon, but it may be the WiiWare title with the most potential. Arguably the prettiest of the digitally delivered offerings from Nintendo’s answer to Xbox Live Arcade, LostWinds lets players take control of two characters at once, big-headed boy adventurer Taku and, well, a gust of wind.
Sega is revitalising one of its most endeared and niche properties with Samba de Amigo for the Wii, handing of development to Gearbox Studios and trading in expensive, dedicated and unreliable maraca peripherals for a pair of Wii controllers. The Wii version can utilise either a nunchuk-and-Wii-mote combo or, preferably, a dual Wii Remote set up. The latter scheme feels more natural and, if Gearbox Studios gets force feedback and proper embedded speaker output working, potentially more authentic.
But how true to the original will Sega’s casual-friendly music game ultimately be?
At Nintendo’s Spring Media Summit, Mario Kart Wii dominated the available couches, with a half-dozen demo stations, twelve Wii Wheels and an opportunity to go hands-on with the game’s online multiplayer modes. It was our first chance to spend time with the Wii entry in the series, now well into its second decade.
2D Boy Drops Historic First F-Bombs During A Nintendo Presentation. Kudos to 2D Boy’s Kyle Gabler, for bringing the adult language to the Nintendo Media Summit. It’s certainly the first Nintendo media presentation to feature the phrase “Fuck that” delivered by a presenter. Later, Kyle kept it rated-M by announcing that other games “can totally fuck you” in relation to asynchronous multiplayer in the WiiWare’s World of Goo. Oh, and World of Goo looked gorgeous on WiiWare. Off to play it!
Brett Tosti, Executive Producer and Emily Morganti, Marketing Coordinator, from Telltale Games publicly demonstrated Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People this morning at the opening of day two of the Nintendo Media Summit. The WiiWare title, announced yesterday, will feature the e-mail answering character fave from Homestar Runner.
Nintendo of America kicked off its two day Media Summit with a handful of presentations this morning, highlighting a handful of upcoming titles and previewing Mario Super Sluggers, the Wii baseball title previously known as Super Mario Stadium Baseball. The event, currently going on in San Francisco, plays host to hands-on time with select games from the Wii, WiiWare and Nintendo DS’s upcoming slate of releases, including Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, Boom Blox, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness and more.
Hit the jump for the full list of titles on hand at the Media Summit.
Nintendo kicked off its Media Summit this morning with a quick preview of its next mascot-filled baseball title, now known as Mario Super Sluggers. Nintendo of America’s Bill Trinen walked the gathered press through a single inning—much speedier than the real life thing—featuring the Mario Firebats team taking on the Peach Royals. Like Mario Strikers Charged, Mario Super Sluggers uses a similar coach character team set up, with second string Nintendo characters like Shy Guy and Baby Mario covering the field while the player handles pitching duties.
