Update: More Info on Wii Exclusives for Star Wars

New details into the fencing mechanics of LucasArts’ highly-anticipated Star Wars: The Force Unleashed were recently revealed by Gamepro. Check out the initial preview of the game by MyWiiNews here.

It has already been reported that the Wii version will attempt the most unique and accurate fencing to date for the console. While games like Red Steel and Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors left gamers feeling let down, the gang at LucasArts are working hard to finally deliver what could be the sword-fighting sim that Wii owners have been salivating for since the console’s launch.

The mechanics in The Force Unleashed will allow players to attack in all five cardinal directions — left, right, up, down and a forward thrust — giving gameplay with the Wiimote an edge over other titles that have featured fencing. Although the controls won’t mimic the player’s motions entirely, gamers should still be able to get a more fulfilling fencing experience when playing The Force Unleashed. Not only will the game allow players to get a closer feel to actual fencing, but the gameplay also lends itself for player-created combos.

Another key component to sword fighting is blocking, which LucasArts have made sure to include. Instead of just pressing a button to block, players will have to raise the Wiimote up into the air, as if they are actually blocking an incoming attack. Raise the Wiimote to shield an attack coming at your character’s head, and your dark apprentice will do the same on screen.

The next step for immersion via the Wii is the use of the nunchuk.

The nunchuk comes into play when players want to use the dark powers of the force. Used in conjunction with the motion-controls of the Wiimote, players will be force pushing their way through enemies with ease.

Just like the fencing mechanics, the gameplay when using the force relies on the gamer making the motion of the desired action. For instance, let’s look at the force push; a Jedi/Sith technique that has the character thrusting his palm towards an enemy and sending them reeling backwards. Just as the avatar will extend his hand out towards the enemy, the player will do the same with the nunchuk. By merely pushing the nunchuk towards the screen, the player will perform a force push.

Simplicity and intuitiveness at its best, perhaps.

Other force moves, such as the force repulse, will allow players to send multiple opponents flying backwards through the air by combining the Wiimote and nunchuk movements. To execute a force repulse, players must hold Z and A and swing the Wiimote and nunchuk in a downward motion at the same time.

The Wii version will also offer an exclusive force technique known as the force maelstrom. By performing the motions for the force repulse, while adding a repeated downward swing of both controllers, players will be able to create a larger radius of destruction for the regular force repulse.

But perhaps the most sparkling difference between the Wii and its Xbox 360 and PS3 counterparts, is the exclusive ability to duel other players.

Players will have a variety of worlds to duel on and a lengthy list of characters to choose from, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Count Dooku, two different versions of Luke Skywalker, and even Lord Darth Vader himself.

Provided LucasArts is able to provide the depth of online play that Wii owners have been begging for, multi-player duels could be one of the biggest things that comes out of the Nintendo camp this year.

Intuitive controls and Wii exclusives make this port of the game a stand-alone title from the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. What the Wii lacks in graphics is being replaced with what Wii owners have wanted all along - innovative gameplay with satisfying results.

It’s been a period of growing pains for sword fighting on the Wii. The gameplay in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess seemed more of a nuisance than anything else, while Red Steel offered movements that were far too scripted. Suda 51’s No More Heroes brought fencing to a new level by actually allowing players to somewhat immerse themselves in the combat control scheme, however the game still failed to provide a truly realistic approach to each and every aspect of combat. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed looks to be the next step in evolution for an authentic fencing simulation for the Wii.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed hits store shelves on Sept. 16. Stay tuned to My Wii News as we continue to preview this exciting title.

No more same ol’ same ol’: No More Heroes delivers

In a market that is drowning in casual titles, Wii owners have little to enjoy when it comes to an authentic and enriching game experience. This, of course, has seemed to be the trend since the Gamecube’s conception, and fans of Nintendo have come to realize that as long as they want to continue seeing their favorite avatars — Mario, Samus, Link, etc. — they will have to wade through the rest of the sub-standard games that third-party developers port to Nintendo consoles. But that’s all changed thanks to the gang at Ubisoft and Suda 51.

Their newest brainchild is No More Heroes for the Wii. The gritty tongue-and-cheek title follows the life of Travis Touchdown as he works at attaining the number one spot as the top assassin in the west coast fictional city of Santa Destroy.

While MyWiiNews’ own Cole “Ilchymis” Jones has previously reviewed No More Heroes, this write-up will feature a look at the inner context and meaning behind this gem, rather than rehash what he has already written.

From the moment players begin the game, they are instantly reminded of the violence and minimalist camera techniques that made Spaghetti Westerns famous in the 1960s. Suda 51’s stylistic and unique cell shading — which saw popularity in the highly-acclaimed Killer 7 — is once again used to give players an anomalous palate of colors to wrap themselves around.

More so than anything, No More Heroes focuses on the day-to-day tribulations of Travis. The anti-hero lives in poverty, purchased his weapon of choice — a beam katana — off an Internet auction site and has a fashion style that lies somewhere between punk and metro-sexual.

But it’s Travis’ personality that is the most compelling. While Travis maintains a cocky and confident aura because of his expertise in killing, he continues to show players that he is just another squirrel trying to get a nut. It is Travis’ day-to-day activities that connect him to the player.

Much like you would see in a Quentin Tarantino movie, the anti-hero is put into circumstances which you wouldn’t expect to see them in. Take Pulp Fiction for example. While Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent (John Travolta) live the life of cold-blooded killers, you see them in scenes that do not befit the reputation and stereotypes that accompany that perceived lifestyle.

How many hitmen do you imagine wind up in the suburbs wearing clothes from a gangster-turned domesticated, gourmet coffee drinker, or even further, hitmen that talk about why a dog has more character than a pig over breakfast at a questionable diner?

How about Budd “Sidewinder” (Michael Masden) in Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol.1 and 2? Is the stereotypical contract killer really just an overweight alcoholic who lives in a trailer and is routinely verbally abused by the manager in the strip club that he works at?

It’s this type of dialogue and these types of actions that allow viewers to find a connection with the characters they are watching.

It is no different for Travis.

While players get to see a skilled assassin do what he does best, they also get to watch as he struggles to get money through odd jobs, such as picking up litter and mowing lawns. In fact, the image of Travis mowing a lawn had this writer almost in tears from laughing.

The humor is dark, as a means to reflect the surreal setting and tenebrous characters.

The voice acting is superb and even though the dialogue is littered with sexually mature themes and profanity, none of it seems out of place or forced. Everything is there in balance, with nothing being in excess.

The game’s sandbox style gameplay also lends to Travis’ connection with the player, as well as being a central narrative element in itself.

Much like your average Joe, Travis slowly slips into a routine of looking for odd jobs, training at the gym and perusing the latest fashions at a hip clothing store. All the while, the player — and Travis — is fully aware that this daily grind will eventually lead to some over-the-top and gory sword fighting that will have blood flowing like the fountains at the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas. It makes collecting coconuts for a street vendor all the more quirky and poignant.

While there are many games on the market that take themselves too seriously, it is refreshing to play a game that is one part daring and one part dark comedy. It’s much like watching an independent film or listening to progressive music. You know what you are watching or listening to is special, but it’s hard to put your finger on what exactly makes it that way.

Suda 51’s Goichi Suda told Gamespot that he is ready to make a sequel to No More Heroes. This was reported to be said one week prior to the game’s US release.

“Actually, I’m really willing to make a sequel version — and right now I’m asking if it can be made,” said Goichi-san in Gamespot’s interview. “I think No More Heroes is a great game. There’s no other action game like it for the Wii. If it was a band, it would be really energetic like the Arctic Monkeys.”

Since it’s release, No More Heroes has received critical acclaim and an 83 percent approval rating on GameRankings.com.

Hopefully, more studios will have the courage of Ubisoft and Suda 51 to make unique titles — like No More Heroes — that stand out in a saturated market of blasé games.

Recognizing individual console strengths, LucasArts brings innovation to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

In a galaxy long, long ago… third party developers would routinely create multi-platform games.

However, things have changed with the advent of the Wii, and while Sony and Microsoft continue to enjoy graphically-driven titles, the Wii, sadly, has been more or less left out of the picture.

While there are games for all three platforms, none of them really feel unique. Specifically in the case for the Wii, most of those games feel like a bad port.

But that is all about to change thanks to a new disturbance in the force.

LucasArts unveiled game footage of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), showing a multi-platform title that displayed not only a new direction for the franchise, but technological improvements for all three consoles.

The Force Unleashed takes place in between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. While young Luke Skywalker is out killing womprats in Tatooine, Lord Darth Vader is feverishly working to rid the galaxy of all remaining jedi. As an end to his means, Vader introduces his “secret apprentice.”

As Vader’s secret apprentice, players will get the chance to revel in the dark side. And although the idea of potentially three siths at the same time violates Star Wars dogma, George Lucas — the man behind the cultural phenomenon — is creating the new story, which the game’s official site says, “promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy,” so purists should wait before they sit down to write their angry letters.

As far as the technology is concerned, developers for The Force Unleashed have created two new advancements to make life as a sith apprentice as immersive as possible. The first is DMM (Digital Molecular Matter), a physics engine that allows things in the environment — such as boards, glass and metal — to respond properly when something collides with it. The hard work and result by Pixelux Entertainment is allowing the player to throw a storm trooper through a board and see the board actually break and splinter where the storm trooper made contact. Instead of predetermined breaking patterns, DMM allows for players to feel immersion through the ability to actually impact the environment around them in an individualistic and unique way each and every time they interact with something.

The second advance is Euphoria, by NaturalMotion Ltd. Euphoria is a behavioral-simulation engine, which will grant life-like reactions to environmental stimulus for NPCs. In other words, when a storm trooper is pushed towards a cliff, they will respond by fighting to get their balance by swinging their arms, etc. Even further, if that storm trooper is dangling from the edge and another storm trooper is pushed off the cliff, the two NPCs will actually try to grab each other in order to save themselves. NPC involvement like this — in a game which allows players to fully-utilize abilities like the force push — should prove for quite an exciting gaming experience for players.

Even though the game is being designed for all three next-gen platforms, the most obvious difference between the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions to the Wii version will be the graphics. As a result, some of the more graphically-demanding levels in the game may not see their way to the Wii console. Whether or not this will affect the amount of immersion that DMM and Euphoria will bring to the gaming experience is yet to be seen.

However, Wii owners will get something that should leave owners of the other two graphically-superior consoles drooling: multiplayer duels. Wii owners will have the chance to pick between 20 different characters to partake in one-on-one duels with other players. The combat will take place in nine different settings, which will all involve environmental hazards and power-ups.

While this should open the Wii experience to some hardcore multi-player action, it has been said that wielding the Wiimote will not exactly be freeform sword fighting. Instead, the developers at Chrome — the gang that’s designing the motion controls for the game — have stated that the game will only recognize cardinal directions, such as up, down, left, right and forward.

It’s more than any other sword fighting title has to offer for the Wii, and I for one can’t wait to thrust the nunchuck forward to perform a force push.

LucasArts is the first developer to show how a game can be created for all three next-gen consoles without the chance for the gaming experience to suffer quality based on which console a player owns. While the Wii version won’t offer top-notch graphics like the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360, Wii owners will get the chance to experience fluid motion-sensitive controls and multiplayer duels.

LucasArts isn’t letting their vision for the game be diminished by developing on all three consoles. If anything, it is providing the level of quality that respective owners expect; ground-breaking graphics for PS3 and Xbox 360 owners and innovative and intuitive controls for Wii owners.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is due to arrive in a galaxy near you this summer.

Beyond industry rumors: Beyond Good & Evil 2 in development?

Near the end of 2007, Surfer Girl leaked video game insider information revealing that Ubisoft is reportedly designing a sequel to the highly-overlooked Beyond Good & Evil.

Created for PC, Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox, the 2003 title was highly-acclaimed by critics but saw lackluster sales when it was released to the public. In fact, it wasn’t long before the game could be picked-up in the discount den.

Rumors are that Michel Ancel, creator of Rayman, initially wanted the fast-paced Wii title to be a traditional platformer, not a series of mini-games. However, another developer stepped up and delivered Rayman: Raving Rabbits, much to Ancel’s detest.

Ubisoft then gave Ancel the authority to greenlight a project of his choosing, which is the supposed Beyond Good & Evil 2.

At launch, Beyond Good & Evil saw stiff competition from industry giants, such as the highly-innovative Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell.

Beyond Good & Evil was ranked as 47th in PC Gamers’ top 100 list of the best PC games.

The game featured an enriching story filled with corporate conspiracies and a young female journalist out to uncover the truth. The gameplay followed in the footsteps of any action-adventure Zelda-type game, where combat and puzzle solving were integral to the story’s progression.

The game also featured several moments for stealth, ranging anywhere from sneaking past unsuspected enemies to photographing corporate, alien and military malfeasance. Variations in gameplay even allowed for players to obtain an upgradeable hovercraft that was used to traverse the watery world, as well as gain access to a racing mini-game.

Players were quickly immersed in the game’s intrigue and rich musical score, and the cliffhanger ending only left gamers wanting more. It was one of those games that was highly-praised by those fortunate enough to play it. Much like the Playstation exclusive Legend of Dragoon, the lack of attention due to other anticipated titles left Beyond Good & Evil lost in video game history to collect dust on video game store shelves.

It is reported that Ancel told Nintendo Power that he is working on a new title that “means a lot to him” and that he would like to create a Beyond Good & Evil sequel. Whether or not the two are related is yet to be seen.

It’s quite easy to envision how the Wii’s control scheme could be used in the combat and picture taking — seen in games like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess — as well as the the game’s hovercraft driving, with controls like Mario Kart Wii and Excite Truck.

Here’s to hoping that Beyond Good & Evil 2 goes beyond rumors and that the game gets developed, showing gamer nation the sort of immersive titles the Wii can bring to the industry.

Ubisoft paving the way for hardcore Wii titles

For at least one game developer, the Wii is a platform that is ready and able for more hardcore titles.

In Wired.com’s recent interview between Chris Kohler and Ubisoft’s Yannis Mallat at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, Mallat said, “there is definitely a market,” for action-adventure games on the Wii, such as Red Steel and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Ubisoft, who’s Assassin’s Creed was the ninth best selling game in 2007 — selling 1.87 units for the Xbox 360 alone — is also the developer behind the Wii-exclusive No More Heroes. The stylish and well-received No More Heroes is the game that G4’s Kevin Pereira said makes owing a Wii worth it during an airing of Attack of the Show. GameRankings.com released an overall review score of 83 percent for the flashy sword-fighting title. The information that GameRankings.com used was comprised from 25 separate media outlets.

As far as the best selling Wii games of 2007, Wii Play came in at second behind Halo 3 by selling 4.12 units. Super Mario Galaxy — which most Wii owners agree is a hardcore title — was listed as the fifth highest-selling game with 2.52 million, while Mario Party 8 rounded out the top 10 by selling 1.82 million units.

Ubisoft was one of the first developers out of the gates when the Wii launched a little more than a year ago. Their third-party developer offering, Red Steel, promised to be one of the first hardcore titles for the system. It sold approximately 1.2 million units, and even though it received mixed reviews on its gameplay, Red Steel offered an engaging story with mature themes and unbridled action, which is a plus for any standout Nintendo title.

Although it hasn’t been officially announced, Red Steel’s sequel is rumored on many industry sites for release later this year.

So with the support of a developer like Ubisoft’s Yannis Mallat onboard, how long will it be before other top developers start seeing the Wii as a serious gaming machine?

While it is easier for third-party developers to focus on the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 — due to the similar system specs for each console, as well as the potential chance for more sales due to cross-platform releases — game designers need to see that the entire Wii nation is not made up of casual gamers. With more than 20 million consoles sold world-wide, it’s time for developers to take a look at producing games that are not based around graphics, but games that offer designers a new world of opportunities for development, said Tony Key, vice president of Ubisoft, in an interview with Kohler.

While Nintendo continues to offer hardcore titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it should be only time before third-party developers start to see not only the ease and innovation in creating Wii titles, but the success in doing so.