Helix Games founder Bailey Earley has recently conducted an interview on Miiverse with user Folkloner, providing some details on the studio's upcoming Wii U eShop release Don't Touch Anything Red, as well as explaining some of the company's future plans. There are some interesting ideas, should they get off the ground.
First of all, Don't Touch Anything Red — a simplistic runner with co-op and competitive multiplayer also included — is set to arrive in September in North America for $1.79, and should arrive "even sooner" in Europe.
In terms of future projects, the New Zealand-based studio is planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign for Altered, which was given the following description:
Yes, "Altered" will be on the Wii U, but we're also targetting[sic] the 3DS and Steam.
"Altered" will be a 2D stealth/action game where you can control physics in order to infiltrate different organisations to steal data, which you can then sell for upgrades. There will be a Story Mode, Mercenary Mode, and a local Multiplayer Mode.
Perhaps the most intriguing — and ambitious — plans from the studio are to release a media player for Wii U, to allow streaming of video and music; whether this project can get off the ground is certainly in doubt, but it'd help fill a gap in the system's capabilities.
Well, I can't speak too much about how it will work as even we don't fully know what he Wii U can do, but it seems like you should be able stream content from your PC over LAN.
I can't give a release estimate, but it will launch for under $5.
...Music is even easier! There will even be ways to play with the media, such as speeding up or changing the pitch, just in case you don't think Eminem can rap fast enough.
They're bold plans, certainly. You can see a trailer for Don't Touch Anything Red below, but let us know what you think of the Altered game concept and, of course, the prospect of a media player for Wii U.
[source miiverse.nintendo.net]
Comments 23
Nintendo should have shipped the Wii U with a media player day one. The 3DS has one.
Thanks for posting this. I'll be sure to forward you any future DevTalk Interviews.
Streaming HD video from my Mac to the TV through the Wii U would be a dream come true!
They should use standard protocols for the media player such as UPnP/DLNA.
Finally.....An attempted media player function!! If it never gets going at least someone tried to add what , let's face it, should be a basic functionality of all modern console's!!
At least I still have this alternative: https://www.playon.tv/mymedia
Video output on my laptop is busted, so I rely solely on my Wii U to watch video on big screen.
But it still can't stream HD videos, so a 'real' media player on Wii U would be very good!
So what would be the point of that unless it could stream flv videos to the wii u?
I'd be quite interested on a full-fledged media player. I hope this gets off the ground.
I wonder if it would be possible to make a bluray player for Wii U.
@Dawn-Shade Same here. I used Plex for awhile until I had a problem with it and couldn't get it working again.
PlayOn has less of quality in the presentation department in comparison and it's annoying that I have to cycle through the options to get back to the Folder that contains my Media but it works without issue (for me) and i'm happy with it.
The fact you can plug an external hard drive in to the Wii U,surely it must be possible to play media directly from there rather than having to stream it?A modded Wii can do it rather well without official external HD support so I'm sure the Wii U can too!
OMG Media player? That would be awesome! I need one till I get my PS4 (which will hopefully have full media support end of this year). The more ways to play movies etc, the better.
@dequesi It can already be done using Plex. It's cumbersome but it works!
And once again people fawn over trash that has nothing to do with gaming... if you have a PC, why is there even a remote need for a Media Player for WiiU that can only stream videos from that very PC that can easily accomplish better results?
I guess the term 'gamer' only applies to owning a console nowadays, not actually using it as intended...
Yep a media player would be a great app for the WiiU.
Liking the look of DTAR, that's for sure
A Media center would be awesome and I'd buy it for $5. Hopefully it would be as nice as XBMC.
I have been using Plex installed on a home server, but it can easily run from virtually any PC. Movies are viewed on the Wii U with its web browser and play back in HD without problem.
Depending on how ambitious this project is I may buy into it if it allows playback of content stored on the Wii U.
@AlexOlney Plex supports a lot of media formats but it would be nice if this supported more. I know it probably wont but it would be nice. The best non-PC device I own for playing video is the Western Digital TV Live Hub. It has 1TB of storage and plays more media formats than any other device like it, including Roku, AppleTV, Chromecast and others.
The game looks like junk and plays on as simple of a concept as a certain playground kid's game... Geez, indi is not synonymous with crud but these guys sure are pushing it.
I find that the only use I got out of my XBox's media player was the NHL's music track uploader. So then my songs would play in the game. We watch Netflix but also have a massive physical media collection (and no desire to digitize) including hundreds of vinyl albums. Our audio system is seperate from the video system, so that our movies and song look and sound better. The same tech doesn't work for every application, despite what Microsoft may say.
Nintendo have already told us (Nocturnal) only games are being accepted for the WiiU at this point in time. We submitted a detailed design for a non-gaming application, but it wasn't even considered.
If this media player thing is allowed, I'll be very surprised.
@AlexOlney thanks for the reminder! I had actually installed that ages ago but had forgotten all about it. I tried it last night and it went surprisingly well! I'll have to put it to the test a bit further
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...