Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast - summary

GTA: Chinatown Wars

- Craig got to play it last week
- Showed him early part of the game
- Craig had certain expectations, he’s pretty psyched
- A lot of emphasis placed on touchscreen “side-things”
- Will need your stylus in your hand
- One minigame has you shoving trash aside looking for drugs
- Game engine runs on top screen, bottom screen is where the story happens + touch screen minigame
- Fixed perspective angle
- Never cuts away from action on the top-screen - will still see action on top screen during minigames
- Not hiding from being M-rated
- You’re a drug dealer - buy and sell drugs, dialoge all f-bombs and s word, there is violence
- Blood stays on the road when you run over someone
- Bozon’s excited for the game
- Engine itself runs really smooth - Craig didn’t see frame rate falter - 30 FPS
- No voice-overs, subtitles in cut-scenes - there’s only environmental voice - radio stations are instrumental (probably due to limitations of the cartridge)
- Can listen to radio while walking around
- Not too much humor in the first 5 missions
- Surveillance cameras are hidden packages in the city - if you destroy one of the cameras it can affect the price of what you can get for drugs
- Comes out March 17
- Game is ambitious, it’s a full-fledged GTA experience - Taken seriously at Rockstar
- Bozon thinks he might get more play out of Chinatown Wars than GTAIV
- Huge focus on online - next month we’ll know more about online

Marble Saga: Kororinpa

- Only specific levels use the Balance Board
- Sequel to Kororinpa Marble Mania
- Craig thinks its fun
- Like a Marble Madness clone
- Marble can be a panda head
- For Wii Balance Board stuff there are 30 original mazes just for the peripheral
- Can make own levels and send them to friends or send them to Hudson (who will send them to everyone)
- Comes out March 17

MadWorld

- Craig also played MadWorld
- It’s really awesome
- Beat-em-up, takes place behind you
- Kind of like a game show, be as brutal as you can
- Controls work very well - motion stuff is supplemental
- A button is punch/grab, B button is chainsaw
- Idea behind mandarts is trying to hit guys into the bulls eye - keeps track of how many times you do it, etc.
- If you pick up money and throw it, bad guys will be attracted to it
- No WiiConnect24 stuff - There are leaderboards but nothing you can upload
- A lot of stat tracking going on in the background
- Game has a great style - People say they can’t see what’s happening in screenshots - When it’s in motion, you can see everything contrasting
- Craig thinks it’s a great game

- SEGA laid off 30 people this morning

Klonoa

- Looks like it’s going to be awesome
- Everything looks a little smoother
- Added some Wii functionality if you want to use it
- Bozon hopes it plays really well

New Play Control! Pikmin

- IGN Nintendo Team has the game
- Selling it at $30
- Should be $20
- Matt says once you try these new controls you’ll be a complete believer
- Matt can’t wait for Pikmin 3 now
- Game itself fantastic in its own right
- Plays so well with the Wiimote - Pointer really works well - Game faster and more precise
- Screen not stretched in widescreen
- Matt thinks it looks better than a lot of Wii games
- Changed a lot of the game progression in DK Jungle Beat

NPD numbers

- Nintendo won by a longshot
- DS became first system to sell over 3 million units in a month
- Expectations were that Wii would sell over 3 million, supply may have limited its numbers
- 10th best-selling game was Mario Kart DS
- Wii Music has sold almost 900,000 copies

Deadly Creatures

- Matt has final reviewable build
- Has made his way through 8 of 10 chapters
- Has come together, better than he thought it would be
- Final game has a few small bugs - camera will get caught, etc.
- Atmosphere is awesome
- Matt is liking it, will be a good game for people

High Voltage Software Hot Rod Show

- Bozon not digging it so much
- Camera should have been behind the truck
- Not smooth when you make rounds
- Ideas work, just doesn’t play so slick
- Almost a bit too simple
- 5 racers, 6 tracks
- At 1000 Wii points it seems overpriced
- Feels like a little afterthought game

Legacy of Ys: Books I & II

- Moves extremely fast
- Never really no where you’re going
- Old-school RPG
- Will have hands on this week

- Will have an interview with guys at Jupiter up soon (World Ends with You)

Big Bang Mini

- Very good shooter
- You’ll like it if you enjoyed Space Invaders Extreme
- Touch controlled shooter

Winter

- Wasn’t just made up
- Screens, developers interview, video up
- Fun, cool project that never got the chance to come out
- Was made almost 2 years and looks better in some respects than just about every other Wii game out there - technically looking really good, especially for 2 years ago
- Some of the outside areas look good, sometimes looks rough
- Battle with the wolf looks good
- First time they saw the game they were playing Escape from Bug Island

Renegade Kid interview

- Moon is second game as Renegade Kid
- They are Nintendo-enthusiasts - DS is a great platform
- Difficult to work within the constrains of the DS cartridge
- Dementium helped to create Moon
- Drawn inspiration from Goldeneye for N64 - big landmark in FPS gaming - Wanted to get replayability into Moon, Doom 3, next-gen games like BioShock, etc.
- Lack of single-player because wanted to make single-player great - multiplayer would have diverted their focus - They are interested in Wi-Fi
- They pay attention to the other FPS on DS
- There’s still more that Renegade Kid can do with the DS
- Have not announced what their next game is
- Would like to make more DS games
- Renegade Kid interested in Scribblenauts - has a fascinating concept

Reader questions

- Lack of Japanese Wii games? Premature to say that Fatal Frame IV, Disaster, Captain Rainbow, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom - It’s a case-by-case basis - Will probably see all of the Nintendo games coming to the US - Fatal Frame is coming, it’s just a matter of time, maybe Disaster. Probably no Captain Rainbow.
- All of the Disgaea games are self-contained. Should start with the original game if you haven’t played the series.
- Next Nintendo console at E3? No, not with the Wii sales as they are
- Game looking forward to in Feb? House of the Dead: Overkill, Deadly Creatures
- Take on potential new Zelda game hype train (countdown)? Marvelous, SEGA both have countdowns - Matt jokes about Zelda Harvest Moon
- Final version of Dead Rising Wii? Will get it this week, will start previewing it soon - It’s Dead Rising light - Serious downgrade from 360
- New KORG? KORG DS-10 sold around 110,000 copies - Maybe will do a DS downloadable one for DSi - haven’t heard anything
- Convince Nintendo to localize Soma Bringer? Matt thinks it will probably happen - It’s a quality RPG
- Cool with DSi pricing? A little overpriced - $149.99 is where it should be - losing GBA slot but getting more stuff - shouldn’t be $50 more
- Excited about Arc Rise Fantasia? Daemon played it at TGS, liked it - Standard RPG
- Any idea when we’ll see/hear more about Spyborgs? Will have a big push for it - will be completely transformed (at least very different-looking)
- Expectations of Renegade Kid’s Wii project? Pretty much focused on the DS right now - Still dabbling in Wii, but for now just think of what they have going on for the DS
- Any word of Metroid Dread exiting? Existed at one point - Plug was pulled
- No organized riot to bring Professor Layton 2 to the US? Second one needs a lot of localization, might require budget of full game - might not be cost-effective - some very specific Japanese puzzles

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