Wii: 2007's Most Wanted
Something for the Wii-kend?
Forever Blue
- Gamepage
- Release Date: 2007
If the BBC's Blue Planet failed to convince, Namco's enjoyable PlayStation title Treasures of the Deep opened gamers' eyes to what an ideal setting realistic, underwater worlds make for a videogame. Forever Blue, the first scuba-'em-up for some time, plunges players into the deep and beautiful oceanic universe of the fictional Manaurai Sea. Controlled exclusively by the Wii Remote, players point an on-screen cursor to guide a diver through shoals of fish in a search for rare sea-life and of course, sunken treasures.
New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra provides a lilting soundtrack to accompany what looks to be an experience rich with beauty and danger (in the form of sharks, rays and whales), although MP3 support over an SD card will allow players to swim to Sepultura should they be so inclined.
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
- Gamepage
- Screenshots
- Release Date: Winter 2007
The original Nights game, released in 1997 for SEGA's Saturn, received a flurry of abuse for simply not being Sonic enough. Fans looking to justify their platform's dominance over upstart PlayStation wanted another Green Hill zone, all point-making speed and fury. But Nights' purple-y, dreamlike world of flight and magic was something altogether different. For better or worse, opposite expectations exist today. A slew of sub-par orthodox Sonic titles combined with Nights' retrospective acclaim amongst cognoscenti has expectations acutely raised for this unexpected sequel.
That this game should find its home on Wii is only natural - this world with that interface is a match too perfect to be passed on. The androgynous jester will be controlled with the remote, with or without an analogue stick as you glide gracefully through the inimitable world of Nigthtopia. Naofumi Hataya is involved as musical director, a wise decision as the original's music was both haunting and excellent. The game will integrate with the Wii's Weather Channel - presumably whereby weather conditions in the game mirror those outside your window (an evolution to the original game's use of the internal clock to change level themes). Masks alter your abilities, and there will be a breeding element to the game, but all these additions will be for naught if Sonic Team cannot keep the game's delicate soul safe and unaltered beneath these surface alterations.
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
- Gamepage
- Screenshots
- Release Date: Autumn 2007
With Masachika Kawata producing (the man behind the PS2 version of Resident Evil 4) and numerous members of now defunct Clover Studios (the team behind Viewtiful Joe and Okami) on board for this Wii exclusive, expectations are high. The last Resident Evil game to debut on a Nintendo console proved to be one of the very best titles not only in the series but also in the videogames canon, but whether such a dramatic success can be recreated with an on-rails shooter seems unlikely.
Compatible with the forthcoming Wii Zapper peripheral and taking in classic locations from Racoon City, the game promises (along with every other Wii iteration of a well-loved franchise) to combine series traits with the system's revolutionary control system. So expect green herbs for regenerating your health and shotguns for depleting theirs. Whether the game can successfully manoeuvre itself off the on-rails path its chosen genre encourages is unknown, but failure to do so might brand the game as little more than a House of the Dead also-ran.
Pokémon Battle Revolution
- Gamepage
- Screenshots
- Release Date: Q3 2007
This is a game of firsts: the first Pokémon title for the Wii; the first Wii title to use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in America and Japan and the first Wii game to wirelessly interact with the DS. Still, for players sick of Nintendo's Gotta Flog 'Em All approach to the franchise, it's possibly the last title on their Most Wanted lists. Set in a theme park called Pokétopia the game has you battling your way through eleven coliseum's worth of opponents
Rare Pokémon can be won in the game and transferred back to the recent DS titles, widening its appeal to those currently besotted with their handheld breeding programmes. Trainers can be customised and, along with six Pokémon, taken online to do battle either against friends or random opponents.
Despite these fan-pleasing features the game appears to have dropped some of the elements that made previous titles in the Stadium/ Coliseum series popular (e.g. the RPG mode). For players without an all-important DS and a copy of Diamond or Pearl, these reduced features appear all the more ungenerous.
Mario & Sonic At the Olympic Games
- Gamepage
- Release Date: Autumn 2007
- Screenshots
Is there any event more suited to bringing two rival mascots together for the first time than the Olympic Games? The sheen of global unity and understanding bombastically masks any fierce competition. Still, Mario and Sonic might be on a poster for the first time ever, but all rivalry remains intact - at least in the minds of their fans. Despite the companies having been working together for some time, it is jarring to see their iconic characters sharing the same space and it's unclear if the pairing will fit well together.
But then who better to make it all work out than Miyamoto himself who's overseeing the implementation of a slew of different Olympic sports supposedly including Judo, Table Tennis, and Swimming through to the usual line-up of track and field events. Still, one wonders quite how the traditional furious button mashing of athletic-themed games will translate to the Wiimote. Perhaps pasty-faced gamers will end up with some beefed up forearms by the end of the summer after all.