O-Games CEO Calls Kinect Too ‘Limiting’
According to the CEO of O-Games, Kinect has many more limitations than Sony’s motion platform, Move. Limiting enough, in fact, that it convinced O-games to develop their upcoming golf title, ProStroke Golf, only on the Wii and PS3 motion podiums. Jim Scott, O-Games’ CEO, explains their reasoning after the cut.
Switched On: token gestures
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
In early 2005, even after the launch of the Nintendo DS, Switched On critiqued pen computing, noting that it was too cumbersome and unnatural to become a mainstream input method. That column was validated by the launch of the iPhone, which banished the stylus to “blown it” status and popularized “finger-friendly” handset designs from all major smartphone OS developers.
Many have described the user interfaces of products such as the iPhone and Surface as ushering in the post-WIMP (windows-icon-mouse-pointer) era . Former Windows Magazine editor Mike Elgan has referred to the new paradigm as “MPG” (multitouch, physics, gestures) However, while these user interfaces feature streamlined designs and more direct manipulation, they still form a bridge with the graphical user interface. The main shift has been to more direct manipulation as the device processes more natural inputs.
The same can be said for Kinect . For a tidy sum and some untidiness, Kinect enables the kind of motion-sensing gameplay that has become the Wii’s hallmark without having to strap the controller to various limbs (as with EA Active for Wii). In fact it eliminates the need to hold a controller entirely, just like the iPhone and iPad free users of mice and styluses. Beyond Soviet Russia, the input device uses you.
Continue reading Switched On: token gestures
Switched On: token gestures originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nickelodeon Aim To Get Kids Fit
The Wii’s getting a fitness game! No, wait, come back, this one’s different. Maybe. Nickelodeon Fit purports to be a “landmark youth fitness product”. It offers kids the opportunity to stay physically active whilst interacting with favorite characters such as Dora, Diego, Kai-lan and the Backyardigans.
Hit the jump for more.
Pong Toss Pro Available Now on WiiWare
Beer Pong is a fine sport for the fine sportsman. Like tennis and horse racing, this sport of champions deserves its own series of videogames. Thankfully, JV Games obliged the world and created Frat Party Games: Pong Toss which released on the WiiWare in July of 2008. Naturally — approaching the titles two year anniversary — it is time for an update. Why? Because it just is.
Enter Frat Party Games: Pong Toss Pro, the update to the game that is “totally not beer pong” according to JVGames.com.
Find out what is new in this version of Pong Toss after the break.
Tetris creator has been working on true multiplayer Tetris for “more than 10 years”
Tetris is among the most widely-played games in history. So why is it that relatively few (in my experience) have every truly played it with another person? Probably because the multiplayer Tetris variants have been — well, more hacks than anything else. Sure, linked Gameboy Tetris was awesome, and there are established multiplayer Tetris communities, but as far as the creator of the game is concerned, we’re “not quite there yet.”
This interview, conducted by Gamasutra at one of the many 25th anniversary Tetris events this year, reveals that Alexey Pajitnov has been wrestling with this concept for quite a while:
It was quite a problem with Tetris that… the game is very intense, you know? If you play on the high level — and that’s where you want to play usually. So, you play on the edge of your abilities, in terms of the speed and reaction, and everything. So, you kind of have no brain resources to observe what the other people are doing.
Yeah. That’s the kind of measured theoretical problem which we need to resolve with multiplayer Tetris. So, if we lower the intensity of personal game playing, we, a little bit, lower the excitement of the game. But if we keep it at the same level, the players don’t have resources to really do some kind of multiplayer actions, to observe, to analyze what’s going on in the big picture, and adjust their strategy.
Personally, I found Tengen’s cooperative Tetris the most enjoyable variant so far. I played it a lot with friends — I admit, at various states of intoxication — and made an interesting discovery: people have, or don’t have, Tetris compatibility.
Playing with my friend Natalie, who is as good or better than I am (always level 9 with handicap on original NES Tetris), I found we were constantly in each other’s way. But playing with my friend Jeremy, who (sorry, Jeremy) was significantly less experienced than Natalie, our play styles just meshed. We racked up huge scores, completing each other’s actions, watching and preparing for the other guy’s piece, and son on.
Really an amazing experience, actually. You can get something like it on Wii with Tetris Party.
But Alexey says they have something coming. Something “really cool.” I trust the guy who came up with this thing to know what he’s about. Can’t wait to find out what it is!
The 3DS’ semi-secret weapon: 3Difying the back catalog
When the 3DS was announced, Nintendo did it alongside a ridiculous amount of fan service. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hoping for a new Kid Icarus game for almost my entire life. Along with remakes or reduxes of classics like Ocarina of Time, StarFox, Paper Mario, there were a number of 3rd-party titles and other fun stuff. But Nintendo has never been reliant on third parties for its breakout hits. Occasionally something like GoldenEye comes along and faces them hard, but the big N has always been about its core properties and, let’s be honest, mining nostalgia.
So: think about it. What’s the obvious move? New 3D technology… old titles. I guarantee we’re going to see a huge explosion of DSWare/downloadables in the form of back catalog games rendered in 3DS-compatible stereo 3D.
All Nintendo has to do is port a few of the standard graphics engines to the 3DS’ impressive new hardware (which we pegged at near-Wii levels of graphic fidelity), map some of the controls to the bottom screen, and set the output to be compatible with the 3DS’ parallax barrier display. I mean, that’s not a trivial task, but Nintendo can do it all internally, having led the development of many of said graphic engines and already having a large, dedicated porting team — as evidenced by the titles already announced.
That video was done in an emulator (Project 64, same as I used back in the day) with iZ3D drivers. If they can do it, Nintendo can. Enable your 3D viewing method of choice; “parallel” works best for me, not having any glasses. (Watch on YouTube for non-distorted version)
So in all likelihood, you’ve got stuff like F-Zero X, Blast Corps, Body Harvest, Wave Race 64 (which would be awesome), probably even GameCube stuff like Wind Waker and Metroid Prime coming down the pipe. Might we even see depth-enhanced (“depth-enhanced,” I like that) sprite-based games? I wouldn’t put it past them. The background layers in SNES games are often already separated to provide parallax movement, though of course the 3D effect wouldn’t be as complete. Super FX and Mode 7 games would be interesting, though.
As a bonus, if and when they decide to support 3D for the big screen (likely their next console will at least have the capability — the 3-Wii? Wii-D?), they’ll have a boatload of games ready for distribution.
Seriously. There’s no way Nintendo isn’t going to leverage its huge back catalog — they know they can make the conversions, and they know people will buy them. They’ve obviously prioritized the big sellers for launch titles, but we’ll probably see announcements for more before the 3DS’ release date, which could be as early as Holiday 2010.
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: Slim pickings
If you’re looking for a Nintendo Channel update akin to the onslaught of media our eyeballs were privy to last week, then think again — Nintendo’s only uploaded a handful of new videos this week. There isn’t even a new Nintendo Week episode to watch!
Instead, the highlight this week is an info video for Arc Rise Fantasia, the latest Marvelous RPG set to grace the Wii next month in North America. For the full list of this week’s content, head past the break.
Gallery: Arc Rise Fantasia
Continue reading This Week on the Nintendo Channel: Slim pickings
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: Slim pickings originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Microsoft says ‘hardcore gamers’ will be the first to buy Kinect. Um…
Whatever you say, Microsoft. The House that Gates built believes that “hardcore gamers” will be the first to buy the Kinect, which comes out in November. Or, in the exact words of one of their marketing managers: “I think we know that hardcore gamers will be the first to go out and buy it, as they are with any product.” That’s interesting, seeing as though a recent survey suggests that only 8 percent of 360 owners intended to buy Kinect (or Natal, as it was known at the time).
Look, I played Kinect at E3, and I’m sure that some people will get a kick out of it, but I’m not one of those people. It’s not that I think it’s “dumb” or anything like that, but that it simply does not interest me. There’s a reason I’ve played Wii for all of 10 minutes in my life: it’ not my thing.
Now, maybe it’s your thing. Maybe you’re all about the Wii, the Kinect, the PlayStation Move. In which case maybe you’ll be one of the first people in your area code to plop down for the Kinect.
But as a “hardcore gamer,” which has to be the stupidest label in the history of stupid labels, I can honestly say I have zero interest in the Kinect and its ilk.
Good luck to everyone involved, of course, but I’m going to comfortably sit out this phase of gaming.
If you need me, I’ll be over there, with the mouse and keyboard (or, sometimes, with the controller.)
NintendoWare Weekly: Mario Tennis, Jett Rocket, Maestro
There’s a Virtual Console game this week! It’s kind of hard to believe. It’s even a Mario game — a Mario sports game, but a Mario game nonetheless.
Meanwhile, WiiWare hosts a 3D platformer that appears very Mario-like, and DSiWare introduces North America to Maestro, a musical platforming game that was only released in Europe in its full cartridge incarnation.
Continue reading NintendoWare Weekly: Mario Tennis, Jett Rocket, Maestro
NintendoWare Weekly: Mario Tennis, Jett Rocket, Maestro originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Microsoft: No Shovelware for Kinect!
Microsoft is trying to attract Wii gamers with their Kinect advertising scheme, there’s no doubt about it. The difference is, however, Microsoft doesn’t want this new platform to be plagued with the endless shovelware that Nintendo’s platform has faced since its initiation. Hit the cut for Microsoft’s comments on industry-wide shovelware.