Overview
- Number of Players
- 2
- Genre
- Release Date
WiiWare
- 6th Oct 2008, 800 points
- Controller Support
- Official Site
- rivermanmedia.com
Reviews
Is WiiWare collapsing under an avalanche of 'falling block' games?
If there’s one thing you can learn by looking at the current WiiWare release list it’s that the Wii certainly has no shortage of quick and casual puzzle games. Some might say that there are too many, but can we ever have too much of a good thing? Madstone is, literally, another...
Screenshots 6
MadStone News
News First Details Of Riverman Media's Next Game
Remember Riverman Media? Of course you do, they brought the fiendish falling block puzzler, MadStone to WiiWare back in October.
We enjoyed the strategic gameplay and awarded it a respectable 7/10. If you haven’t yet checked it out, why not do so today? The guys at Riverman have revealed some exclusive new details about their next game, which...
Competition MadStone Savant Challenge Contest
Those of you who've been putting a little overtime into Riverman Media's WiiWare puzzler MadStone will be happy to know that all that hard work is about to pay off. Literally! If you're one of the first to complete the game in the hidden Savant Mode you can score yourself some much-needed Wii Points in the official MadStone Savant Challenge Contest.
Below is the official contest announcement from Riverman Media containing all the details of the contest. The creators of MadStone want to put your skills to the test. Now that MadStone has been out a couple of weeks, we would like to challenge our fans to complete MadStone o...
News USA WiiWare Update: Midnight Bowling And MadStone
There is something for everyone today on the Wii Shop. First up is Midnight Bowling, another successful Gameloft cellphone game now brought lovingly to WiiWare. When we reviewed Midnight Pool back in August we quite liked it so there is every chance this might be worth a look too if you have grown tired of Wii Sports bowling.
If puzzlers are your...
News MadStone Coming To WiiWare On Monday
Good news for gamers who just can't get enough puzzle goodness from the WiiWare service as RiverMan Media has announced that their new title MadStone is coming to the WiiWare service on Monday, October 6th and will cost 800 Wii Points. We recently previewed the game and were impressed with the game's simple but frantic game play. If you're looking for something a bit different in the puzzle genre, you should definitely consider picking up MadStone when its released. Below is the press release.
...
It's no secret that the WiiWare service has seen quite a long line of puzzle releases since its inception, so news of yet another upcoming puzzler will likely draw more than a few sighs from Wii owners. But after playing a preview build of RiverMan Media's upcoming WiiWare puzzler MadStone, we have to say that you might want to give this game a try before you write it off as just another lame attempt to cash in on the WiiWare service.
The premise of MadStone revolves around the idea of smashing through piles of crumbling ruins in an attempt to get your M...
News RiverMan Media Interview - MadStone
MadStone was confirmed back in June and it appears to be shaping up to be a pretty solid puzzle title for the WiiWare service. Keen to know more about the mysterious developers RiverMan Media, we tracked down brothers Jacob Stevens and Paul Stevens and asked them nicely if they wouldn't mind answering a few questions about the soon to be released game. Happily for us they were only too happy to oblige...
WiiWare World: Can you tell our readers a bit about how Riverman Media got formed? Jacob Stevens: It may sound sentimental, but from the momen...
About The Game
MadStone is a dynamic, tension-filled puzzle game with an earth-shaking twist! In a landscape filled with crumbling ruins, you use the Wii Remote to smash through rubble and release the power of ancient magical spirits. As you gain in power, you can literally shake the earth itself, unleashing vast amounts of energy and leaving your opponent in ruins.
In MadStone, you clear through towers of stone in order to collect the magical elements, called SkySigns, that are trapped within. The goal is to get your SkySigns (moons in the screenshots) to the bottom of the screen, where they are collected in your mana pool. Collect enough, and you can execute a super move that causes an avalanche of destruction!
Comments 49
Interesting. Could be a frantic 2-player game.
This game looks pretty cool and fun... hope it comes out soon to the wiiware... i hope this is between around 500-1000 wii points.
Hmm, coolz.
This just doesn't look like my kinda game
Does anyone actually know what is going on here? What is the point? It looks like you just literally shoot forever.
@Demon212
That's exactly what I was thinking, then I noticed that there is a gauge on top color-coded to each player, and when one player started to do really good, the color for that player started to fill more of the gauge than the other, and I think it is possible to destroy those moon things so you do have to be a little more careful about which block you shoot than they made it look.
all you have to do is just randomly shoot blocks endlessly? i still don't understand this game.
hey. look. another puzzle game that ill get. thats 2 in one year. a new record!
Hey everyone,
My name's Jacob Stevens, I'm a developer for MadStone. Thanks for checking out our game!
The objective of the game is to collect MadStones (moons in these screenshots) in the energy pool at the bottom of the screen. You do this by creating chain reactions of falling blocks that break each other and create a cascade toward the bottom of the screen.
Those of you who noticed the donut-shaped meter in the middle of the screen are very observant. As each player collects more and more moons, the meter fills up more in that player's favor. Eventunally, one player fills the meter and wins the match.
We just put the finishing touches on the game and are now testing it before we ship it to Nintendo to be released. We'll be putting out new screenshots and videos shortly. In the meantime, enjoy the other great titles on WiiWare!
Jacob Stevens
Riverman Media
www.rivermanmedia.com
^ Now isn't that something. Just shows how influential this site is getting. But to put something relevant to MadStone, the two-player looks enjoyable, but how would the single-player hold up?
still looks like shooting random blocks endlessly to me? can someone elaborate onthe strategy here?
Virus--
The single player mode is a sequence of levels, each with different goals. In some modes you win by filling up the donut meter, just like in 2-player versus mode. In other modes you race the CPU to get a certain score. And in some levels there is no opponent at all, and you must solve a puzzle within a certain number of moves. We've got 5 difficulty levels in single player. Beginner is super easy and someone who's never played the game should be able to get through it no sweat. Master mode though, well, let's just say I can barely pass it and I play the game several hours a day!
Strade--
The MadStones (Moons) won't fall into the energy pool unless the blocks below them are broken. Blocks come at two "damage levels." Undamaged blocks must be damaged twice before they break. Damaged blocks only have to be damaged once. A block can be damaged manually by the player, or by another block falling on top of it. It is by making use of this second method that you can create chain reactions that will set the whole screen falling. The best players don’t break random blocks, they specifically target blocks that will set off chain reactions.
Have fun!
Jacob Stevens
RiverMan Media
mmmm i wonder when the game will come out hopefully next month. how do you do powers and what do they do if anybody knows.
i am not trying to be rude, but can't you still break random blocks to get through the level? eventually if you click enough you will get it. and if you get lucky, you will get big combos just clicking random blocks.
After a second look, it reminds of Drill Dozer for some reason. And wow, thanks for the reply Stevens! Still, like strade32, I question if "strategic-clicking" can beat "mad-clicking." I can see how clicking only the undamaged blocks could trigger a combo after a while, but does it have that great of an advantage over just randomly clicking blocks?
Hi Strade,
Good question! Breaking random blocks would sort of be like placing random blocks in Tetris. Yes, you probably would eventually score some lines, but you'd be far outpaced by a player that's being more careful with their moves.
Just to give you an idea, when I do random moves as fast as I can against a medium level CPU, it outscores me by a factor of ten. (And wins really fast.)
I promise, there's plenty to think about and plenty to master!
-Jacob Stevens
Riverman Media
ok, that is all i need to know, thank you, and thanks for the replies.
@Riverman Jacob
What is your targeted release date and what (if any) online features (leaderboards please) will this game have?
Blaster,
The game itself is done. We're giving it a final polish and sending it to Nintendo for their testing process. Unfortunately, Nintendo has asked me not to say any more than that about the release date.
Unfortunately, being a tiny team of three people, we aren't able to include all the features we'd like to. This includes online features.
I'm hoping that if you all like the game enough, we'll get the funding to do a much expanded version with online play for Disc-based Wii and DS!
Jacob
@Riverman Jacob
is your team happy with Nintendo so far. don't you find it frustrating that you cant tell other people when your game is going to come out. sometimes developers don't even get notified when their game comes out so i hear. Do you find any problems with them.
he's probably not even allowed to say that.
lol i guess so
Andy,
Haha, I don't exactly know what I'm allowed to say, but I'll say it anyway:
I've absolutely loved working with Nintendo on WiiWare!
I've worked with several other distributors and publishers, and no other company has consistently been so helpful or dedicated to bringing quality games to their service. They give us the support we need. Their payment system is better. They're more open-minded about different concepts.
As far as the release dates, this is more of a logistical concern. They can't give a release date because they don't know if MadStone will pass their internal tests! If we fail a bunch of times, the game will come out later.
But yeah, Nintendo is far and away the best publisher/platform I've ever worked with. As of right now, I don't have much desire to develop for any non-Nintendo platforms.
Jacob
i do hope that is coming from the heart and not nintendo threatening you say something nice . just joking
riverman
thanks for answering my (And his) questions. Its refreshing to hear good stuff about Ninty nowadays.
same thing he said
so we can except more games on the wii or wiiware right? lol thanks for answering my question it makes sense now.
andy836- we can always "except" more, but i wonder if we can EXPECT more? haha
Well this is shaping up to be much better than expected. I'm glad that guy from Riverman Media was here to explain everything for us, now it's a must buy for me!
im not into puzzlers
I am, and this game looks pretty good
hmm another puzzle game ill probalay give this a miss to be honest
So their is no online features present.
Well riverman jacob do you know what that means?
NO BUY FROM ME!
I apoligize for insluting you.
Your right Finalkingdom13. Online isn't everything and I know that now. So if Riverman Jacob wasn't able to add this because of lack of support I'll forgive him. In fact I might buy it as long it is 500 Wii Points.
The game looks really slick. I like the look of it.
I'm going to guess 800 points will be the price.
Now that the Riverman guy explained everything, me is thinking i might buy this
I wonder how many blocks it'll be.
Looks very interesting. Now that the game's web site has confirmed to me that it's a "hold the Wiimote sideways" kind of game, I just might give it a try! Man, so many Wiiware games I'd like to download, so little memory!
lol, tell me about it.
Anyone download it yet?
More of these puzzle games? Would it kill them to develop something a little more creative?
Don't shoot the messenger but...ouch.
Goin to download this game now and play it!!
Funny enough, one of the three developers on this project is one of my college professors (Jacob is a fairly recent alumni from my college =P). We played it for a while today, and it was quite a bit of fun! Once you really grasp the mechanics, it becomes much more than simple button mashing and is a very fun multi-player affair. I haven't tried single player, but I'll give it a shot when I download it onto my own Wii later tonight.
IGN reviewers can be quite harsh...even by looking at this game I would think it would deserve better than 4/10. I won't be surprised if it were actually pretty fun.
This looks to have the same awesome addictiveness as Magnetica Twist-and, though shorter (?), it's 200 pts cheaper!
So this is basically the same thing as Pokemon Puzzle League but 200 points less and uses up fewer blocks.
what's there doesn't seem worth 800 points to me. it feels like a flash game i could find online for free.
it's pretty, but there just isn't that much to it.
i like the puzzles a lot, but i wish there was a separate puzzle mode.
not a terrible game, but definitely not a great game.
oh, and it gets tiring shaking the remote (but maybe i am just shaking too hard)
The contest is still going on! It's motivating me to get the game!
If its similar to Pokemon Puzzle League, then that's fine by me!
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...