I think of R/C as more of an action game with some elements of platforming thrown into the mix.
Mario is pure platforming, and it doesn't get any better in the genre than SMG. On Wii, the visuals don't get any better, either. With sparse, spherical worlds, it plays to the console's strengths.
Two great games.
Indeed.
To me, one thing people overlook is that you can make some fairly oddball games for Wii and still turn a profit, because the dev prices are so darn cheap for a console that isn't HD (you don't employ as many people for creating art and implementing graphics tech). According to EA, it's 25% to 33% as much as PS3/360 games:
http://www.joystiq.com/20...
I agree...to an extent. I'd definitely put MadWorld on a list like this.
But having a superb graphics engine can help out, too -- Bioshock has a cool art style combined with a graphics engine that rocks.
And not to be terribly redundant, but Metroid Prime 3 is in that same boat. Retro made some amazing art for Corruption, and they also managed to give crisp graphics at 60 FPS.
Bioshock can't compete with a game like Uncharted on realism.
Nor can it compete with Okami on surrealism.
But it has such a captivating art style that it makes up for it; there isn't anything else out there like visiting Rapture for the first time. The art deco meets 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea look is, IMO, fantastic. It's all about style, and the aesthetically powerful look creates a virtual environment that is pretty much unrivaled this gen.
The same goe...
Bioshock and Metroid Prime 3 should have made the cut, IMO.
You could make the argument for Muramasa, too, and Batman: Arkham Asylum looks fantastic.
MadWorld hasn't been mentioned yet. If we're looking at raw poly count, it doesn't make the cut, but we're supposed to be talking art here, and there's nothing quite like MadWorld.
[I think Okami actually looked better with bolder colors and 480P on Wii, but still, it's an enhanced port. But it IS timeless. You...
oobob -- Lots of people conveniently forget the development costs of the consoles; they conflate how much the console costs to make and how much a dev kit costs versus how much the actual cost is of developing a new game stretched out over months. I defer to EA's John Riccitiello:
"Development is typically a third to a fourth as much for a Wii game than it is for a PS3 or an Xbox 360 game."
(Hell, if Rockstar did a "San Andreas Stories" for Wii, I'd be there for it on day one.)
But there is certainly something to be said for keeping Wii at 480P because of the cost factor. It's dirt cheap to make games on a platform that's using souped up tech from last gen.
No More Heroes did well enough to warrant a sequ...
Well put, oobob.
And for the overall discussion: no, the Wii isn't dying. Not any more than the other consoles, that is.
I would say that ALL THREE home consoles are past their respective primes. The "OMG factor" is pretty much gone; the eye candy is not going to exponentially improve until we get new consoles altogether, and we've already seen most of the big guns fired -- Halo, GTA, Zelda, Mario, etc.
The caveat is better motion controls. ...
Those other screen shots were pulled from Gamescom leaks...
http://nintendonow.e-mpire....
...and they're pre-beta. That's why they looked unfinished -- because they weren't anywhere close to finished.
For multiplayer...this is more than W@W had, but less than Conduit. They might be trying to jam Wiispeak in at the last minute and are having t...
Arius -- Alright, I'll make sure to stop stating the obvious. ; )
Omg_Armageddon -- The answer to your question is that GI, quite simply, sucks.
I cancelled my subscription long ago with 'em. There's a lot of fanboyism with their editorial style. Oh, they place nice on big titles, usually. But look at reviews for something like NMH -- GI's is pretty stupid. Same for their "second opinion" on the Metroid Prime Trilogy. They consistently have clueless people r...
Sidar -- Pretty much how I feel...it sounds like Conduit with the controls maxed out, doesn't it?
The only other thing to consider is the "spinning" factor, when you're trying to quickly turn. But I honestly didn't have any problems with that in Conduit.
Agreed. If they pull off those graphics in-game, it's going to look fantastic (yes, for a Wii game).
Agreed, oobob. I don't know how other people play Wii shooters, but that's exactly how I do it, too.
Maybe some people are standing up in their living room and pointing at the screen like they're at a demo booth...?
But I'm sitting on my couch. Sometimes I use the armrest of my couch instead of my leg/lap. And I can't say that I've had any problems with "shaky controls" in Conduit on Corruption.
Spoony -- Yeah, the Conduit pretty much had everything going for it but the single player.
I don't quite understand this remark in the article, though:
"Precision mode fixes this - instead of moving your wiimote to turn faster, you move your wiimote to point directly at THAT point."
Well...that's what maxing the controls out in Conduit did, pretty much. There were some times in multiplayer where I'd keep spinning to find an opponent, but that ...
Shh...no talking sense allowed.
I gave the links up there, but apparently the eye sore is so great that people don't even want to research this. These screen shots were old when they appeared months ago. Someone at GI is horribly lazy.
Can't wait for NMH2. First day buy for me.
Seriously.
W@W looks better than those shots. And the reason is because of what build of COD4 we're looking at. Those are the same screenshots that were at Gamescom.
http://nintendonow.e-mpire....
( http://www.n4g.com/wii/News...
2 minutes of searching on N4G will giv...
I honestly still have my copy of Madden 07. I didn't buy 08 for a simple roster update, but CYS is a darn good idea. I might have to go buy an old copy of 09.
Ah, memories of arcade racing...I lost more quarters to Ridge Racer and Daytona USA than I can remember.
But anywho...some games simply require quick button presses. But you're right that motion plus is a game changer, because it adds so much more realism than we've had before.
Why is it that some peop...
Yep. Conduit is derivative, but the online is like crack because of the controls. I go back and play every few weeks, and even then...my first couple of matches back are rough, because I'm rusty. You can't have rust when someone has pixel-perfect control to bust you in the skull.
I really wonder what HD-only console owners are going to do when there's something like Sony wand control in the next Killzone? Is that what it's going to take for some people to realize how bad dual...
For all of the tech talk, I'm with Spoony, Shoko, Software_Lover and lizard. I just don't see THAT much of a difference.
Yes, looking at earthbounding's list, I can see what he mentions. But these are small, "squint really hard while you pause the game" type of differences.
Tri looks pretty impressive as-is. As oobob said, if the gameplay is there, THAT is what matters most. Not a slightly shinier weapon.