Rage of the Gladiator - Amit the Snake Charmer Trailer

...Waiting for new WiiWare games is literally painful... XP

Woah, the ending was awesome. One concern. If my memory serves me right, they play the same track in all of the trailers.

Spitting fire from the mouth was random!

oh come on! haven't we had enough trailers? i'd prefer the game...

Hey Ghostfire Guy, if you're showing up here like you do for all these trailers, what's your response to Nintendo Power's review which gave the game the middle of their three scores claiming that the first-person view "causes a slight disconnect in the action and makes some enemy attacks feel cheap" and that none of the control schemes are "ideal?"

Also, what do you think of High Voltage Software's upcoming "Tournament of Legends" Wii disc game, which appears to be very similar to your game?

Once again it's looking great.

I'm SO much more pumped up for this Gladiator combat game than another one on Wii that I won't mention.

The comments about the Nintendo Power review above are a bit worrying though

I'm still getting it regardless because I showing my support for the devs since I truly believe they took on board some of my suggestions but it would be nice if it were a really good game too.

I'm sure if you guys are up for this game a few niggling gameplay issues won't stop you. It does look like it'll be a blast to play although I hope the music isn't the same all the way through 'cause I can see me reaching for the mute button on my TV remote very quickly.

this game still looks like crap

Hey guys,

The good news is the game is finished. We're just waiting on Nintendo for approval. It should be out soon. Sorry its taking so long.

As far as the Nintendo Power comments, I think one of the core aspects of the game is that its first-person perspective. Some people may not like that perspective, and I totally respect that. We chose that perspective for several reasons:

1) We found that the bosses felt "bigger and badder" when they took up pretty much the entire screen.

2) If we went with an over-the-shoulder 3rd person camera then we would also not be able to have the bosses perform certain attacks where your hero's body would occlude the boss model.

3) We didn't want to use a wireframe (transparent) character since that would look a bit out-of-character for the game's theme.

4) The game feels a lot more "in your face" with a first-person camera.

We definitely took a risk doing this, but we'd rather try to push the envelope and try new things than conform to what is already done. I think in the end it worked nicely.

-Ed Roman
Producer, Rage of the Gladiator

Regarding the music: We actually have 7 different music tracks in the game. We've re-used certain tracks in the trailers because some of the music isn't as appropriate for trailers. But all of the music is really excellent. 2 of the tracks are available for download here:

http://www.ghostfiregames.com/gladiator/rage-of-the-gladiator/media/

We'll probably make more music available for download soon.

-Ed Roman
Producer for Rage of the Gladiator

Ghostfire team, your never going to please everyone players and professional reviewers alike.
I use reviews to guide my attention towards a possible purchase, however I read as many I can before I make a decision, but the swing comes from opinions of other gamers on forums that I use.
I like the look of this game and have done since it was first announced, this kind of perspective is what the Wii is made for..
Can't wait for it to hit Europe.

Bulbasaurus Rex took the words out of my mouth. The only reason the Nintendo Power "review" has me concerned is that I know the staff loves Punch-Out!! so I thought they would warm up to this one. Besides theme, what do think is the single biggest difference between Punch-Out!! and RotG is, Ed? I am also considering getting Tournament of Legends over this unless it has waggle.

I don't agree with most reviewers these days anyway. I'm looking forward to the game.

I wonder, did the Nintendo Power mention how WM+ was in their "review" of the game? Also, how did they get a copy of the game? Ed, did you send them an early copy for review?

BTW, did anybody else notice the skeleton faces on the snakes? I thought that was an awesome addition and a nice attention to detail that many may have missed, I know I missed it the first time.

No, they didn't specifically mention WM+, just that it has many control schemes, none of which are ideal. Maybe they didn't know you can use WM+. From everything I've read here, that control scheme sounds very ideal. Ed Roman, what do you think about that?

@Bulbasaurus Rex:
Thanks for the reply! That's one of my main problems with the "review" then. Why not mention WM+ and how it functions. What motions are assigned to it? Does it actually make a difference? How about the fact you can adjust the WM+'s sensitivity in the game?

Nothing. Did they actually review it, or just play it for 5 minutes on each setting? Did they mention how many bosses are in the game? How long it took them to finish it? Replay value?

Or do they just say, "Hmmm..." and expect me to know what they mean by that, with a one or two sentence summary?

We did give them an early copy of the game, and due to a miscommunication they produced a review unintentionally early. I'd rather not speak negatively about their review, since I think its unprofessional to do so. But I will say this -- they had the game in their hands for a very short amount of time before they produced their review, and it is possible that the reviewer didn't fully get into the game. It is also possible that the reviewer didn't have an affinity for this particular genre. But that's all just speculation, and I don't want to assume it. I respect their opinion, and I know that we can't please everyone. We learned that the hard way when WiiWareWorld gave our first title Helix an 8/10 and IGN gave it a 4/10.

The strategy we took when making the game was to make a gamble on investing heavily in a game and taking our time to polish it and make it really amazing, rather than rush it out like shovelware. World of Goo actually inspired us in this way. They demonstrated that you can run a successful small independent studio making WiiWare titles with new, original IP. We knew that it was a gamble since many games have been profitable on WiiWare even if they didn't deliver high value.

I think the reviews of the game will speak for themselves when the game is released. We're really proud of what we made and we're totally and completely addicted to the game.

This coming week I'll be in San Francisco demo'ing the game to the press at the Nintendo Media Summit. This will be the first public demo of the game. I encourage you to take a look at the press coverage we get and see reactions from the press on the game as they play it live.

-Ed

@Coffeewithgames It's hard to include all that stuff when they need to keep most of their reviews to just a few sentences in length due to magazine space.

@Bulbasaurus Rex:
I don't know the format of Nintendo Power's magazine, though I'm going to check the store for this one. I don't know if the reviews for WiiWare games are short on purpose, or not. I'm sure they could add extra pages if they needed. Most magazines are nothing but ads anyway, with very little content.
I'm getting Rage of the Gladiator, regardless of this review.

So am I.

Day one buy! Cant wai!!

Came back here after reading/watching about Ghost Slayer and between the 2 this one wins hands down.

And thanks to MR(S). Ghostfire for their comments.

this months nintendo power already has a review on this but it is not out...whats up

@fxtek76:
Ed Roman, the Producer on Rage of the Gladiator said they sent Nintendo Power an early copy, he made it here in the comments section, #17.

"We did give them an early copy of the game, and due to a miscommunication they produced a review unintentionally early. I'd rather not speak negatively about their review, since I think its unprofessional to do so. But I will say this -- they had the game in their hands for a very short amount of time before they produced their review, and it is possible that the reviewer didn't fully get into the game. It is also possible that the reviewer didn't have an affinity for this particular genre. But that's all just speculation, and I don't want to assume it. I respect their opinion, and I know that we can't please everyone. We learned that the hard way when WiiWareWorld gave our first title Helix an 8/10 and IGN gave it a 4/10."