I love when games like these come out - lets you know what old games still have the ol' cache... Qix fared miserably. Will Tempest do better? I think so.
Now, see? Advertising! Pushing your WiiWare game by linking it to a popular sporting venue. Bravo! Offering the soundtrack, marketing genious! This is the difference between Toki Tori's "success" and Lostwinds' "failure". (Both have done really well, in truth. It seems merely that puzzle games take time to catch on.)
@PALgamer Unless, of course, there are other rules... NoA has a one title per publisher per month rule, which, if NoE uses the same, would mean that Actionloop pushed Pokemon to July. I still think the reason NA got Dr. Mario when it did was because it came out the week before in EU and they try their best to do as many simultaneous launches as they can.
The trickle theory they seem to be using for WiiWare is highly annoying, but somewhat understandable. They want all WiiWare, regardless of quality, to get an equal share of the spotlight... were they to use more than a 1 watt bulb for said spotlight, however...
That's a good point, and worth noting. XNA, as it stands, is extremely limited. Sure, for free you can make games, but in order to play them on the Xbox360 or share them with other people, you've got to pay their $99/year fee. And you can currently only share your games with other people who've paid the $99 (or $49 for six months) fee.
So as it is now, it's no competition for WiiWare. But soon, by year's end, they say, they'll be releasing Zune tools and "will make game distribution on the Xbox 360 much easier with the Xbox LIVE Community Games feature."
We'll see if they've got a better plan then, I suppose.
I still maintain it'll do well. A glorified pie-eating contest with no bloating, no calories, no indigestion. It could do phenomenally well, it's got online play, even. What will make or break it is the price. I don't see a game with online play coming in under 1000 Wii Points, though... But it really needs to.
Well, score one for worldwide simultaneous launching... Unless you're looking for Pop or Defend Your Castle... But then, they weren't going to be close, anyway.
And yes, EU's schedule goes VC one week, WiiWare the next.
He does have a point. But then, look at it from the other side. XNA - smaller profit share, much larger pool, your little fish will never even be seen, let alone thrive... Weren't there already lots of reports about how the small developers much preferred WiiWare for just those reasons?
It's true, though. With XNA all you need is a computer and a dream. You and millions of others. TRY to get your game noticed. And if it isn't noticed, you get nothing.
It's most likely what they said originally - it's not in the budget. WiiWare is meant to be on the cheap, so massive TV ads and such are unlikely.
But then, there's really two companies behind every WiiWare title. Nintendo and the publisher. Just because Nintendo doesn't advertise doesn't mean the little gaming company can't do its share. Look at My LIfe as a King, they did that online flash game thing in addition to their official website. Look at Major League Eating. They've done... An event at the Nintendo Store, three "Meet the Eaters" press releases, one "Watermelon Eating Record Set" press release, have their website up and running... Though this shows the downside of the publisher advertising, they don't have any clue when their game will actually be released, so they can't really do targeted advertising, and end up doing a press release a week till it launches.
@BlackFira We already have online storage. You can re-download purchases from the Wii Shop whenever you please. Nintendo's not likely to allow anyone else to store their property, especially since they already do it for you.
The real "Storage Solution" is a memory expansion for the Wii, no extra code, no extra anything, just plug some extra flash memory inside the unit and it'll be a much larger Wiifridgerator. Though there's the chance that the 3.3 System update will be able to protect against modified game files, allowing them to lift the encryption from the SD card and allow the backed up games to be accessed directly from the card.
I knew it! I KNEW this was a "lady of the evening" sim! I'd use the modern vernacular, but it's so overused it's lost its true meaning. Everything from mastering your strut to "disciplining" the Johns... What else would one expect from ex-Rockstar North employees? As an aside, yet another game were the previous victim gets to have some sort of spotlit revenge.
"The interesting thing is that the games you would think would work well with the Balance Board actually don't."
Funny thing is, the only games I think would work are things like skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, and balance exercises like Yoga or Tai Chi. So is he saying this game doesn't work? Because it seems like a perfect fit.
"In fact, the game’s simplicity would actually be perfect for children who find Wii Sports Tennis to be too difficult."
Heh.. The data from the Nintendo Channel confirms this. The only statistically significant results were filed under the <13 age category - meaning the person who enjoyed this game the most in 100% (+/- some error) of the cases was a child, probably a young one.
I'd love a raw data dump from this update... It's fascinating, and one would never be able to find every little detail. It not only shows you Hardcore/Casual, Gamer/Everyone and Alone/Friends stats, but lets you filter those stats by age and/or sex. Which can give juicy bits of data like this:
All reviews of "Family Table Tennis" have come from the <13 age demographic.
Neat, huh? Most WiiWare hasn't got enough reviews yet, so submit your data!
@StarDust Alas, the art of writing efficient code and compressing file sizes is long dead. Both this and Cocoto are far, far too big for what they are. This one fits on a CELL PHONE, why is it so huge? All I can think is that Wiiware games are low budget titles, and all that optimization is time consuming and costly.
So it seems. They planned on 8P local multiplayer with 4 Wiimotes and 4 Bongos, but Nintendo told them they can't do the Bongos, so they did 8P with "sharing of Wiimotes/Nunchucks"... Sounds like a great use for wireless nunchucks, but Nintendo's suing Nyko over those.... Guess Nintendo doesn't like Plattchen very much.
Hmm.. they said over on GoNintendo that it's one player controls Angel and the other three shoot stuff. Could work, and certainly better than most co-op's, "Your friend gets to draw lewd and disturbing things on screen while you're trying to play!"
As for the game being innovative, I think of Odin Sphere when I see this game. Nothing really new, but done really, really well.
Interesting.. They sell alternate costumes for the King and Chime, I suppose one could be a Queen... They gave Chime a bikini for one of her alternate costumes, after all.
1000 points, eh? Well, seeing how poorly the 700 and 800 point titles have been doing, probably better to charge the default price if you're not able to do 500. Looks like a fun game, but Pirates aren't my thing, so I'll be passing, as well.
500 points for a gorgeous platformer, it should already be a no-brainer. I recall reading that there was a mode where one player controlled Angel and the other controlled the girl, I dunno how 4 player would work, but I'm sure it'll be fantastic.
Ah, PR Spin... When I called you all Geeks and Otaku, I meant it in a GOOD way, honest!
Note he doesn't actually say he's sorry for WHAT he said, just how it was taken, nor did he say we're NOT Geeks and Otaku, in fact he says he's "like" that, but doesn't call himself such, mind... But hey, Geeks and Otaku are terms of endearment, honest!
Would be really, really nice... Here's hoping! After RE4, RE:UC and Z&W, it's certainly plausible...
Ok, according to the OFLC list, the applicant was Red Ant Enterprises, which is the company that brought Okami to the Wii. So... Yay? Of course, they're in Australia, so it could just be that Megaman gets different numbers down under... Hmm...
@BlackFira Bakeries and Emporiums give Morale Spheres, beat the dungeons that give those and build them. Meanwhile, use your Morale to boost the Town and People so you get longer days.
@Yatesy If you've ever seen a Looney Toon eat corn on the cob, you'd know what "typewriter" was.
Mastiff has been doing press releases every week since Major League Eating got snubbed as a launch title. They say MLE is a real sports league, and press releases like this would support such. But really, people only care when a record is broken and on July 4th, when the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is held. If this game doesn't come out by then, they're sunk... and possibly have a nice lawsuit against Nintendo for delaying their game's launch past the one day a year people actually care about Major League Eating. It'd be like releasing a Football game the week AFTER the Superbowl. Or Baseball after the World Series, and so on...
As far as the game goes, yes, online play, glorified pie-eating contest, it could resonate with the Wii audience quite well... if it's priced right.
Pokemon Ranch was #7 after 12 hours, #4 after 36 hours, and now, 48 or so hours after release, it's #3. It's a meteoric rise to #1.
Family Table Tennis is actually doing better than most, holding its position. (It was #4 at one point in the week.) Casual and 500 points = Epic Win, apparently.
I'm baffled that Protothea is beating Star Soldier R. Star Soldier's cheaper and has online high scores. But Protothea, you can play for more than 5 minutes... So it wins?
The price points are interesting too. 500 point games make the top 5 (er, 6.. ), while 700 and 800 point games make the bottom 5.
@DanAran The massive sales of TV Show King and Family Table Tennis contradict that theory. What's more likely the case is for every "core" gamer, there's a "casual" mother/father/grandparents who also use that Wii.
I don't get it... 500 points for what's essentially a mini-game in Mario Party, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, WarioWare, etc.. etc... And it's selling? Better than everything but Defend Your Castle and branded games? How?
I guess the commercial's true, people love to eat $5.
This is just baffling to me.. I hope they include these rankings with this week's, as a lot seems to have shifted. And... it's... odd. I was thinking the cheaper games were rising to the top, with Dr. Mario, Pokemon and Final Fantasy having the brand recognition to buck that trend, but... it seems that 700 or 800 is NOT 500... Anyway, the next list compared to this list will be fascinating.
Sorry to burst the bubble, but after only 12 hours of availability, My Pokemon Ranch is already the #7 most downloaded WiiWare title. (Beating Toki Tori, which is #8) By next Monday, I expect it will be #1.
On a side note, TV Show King is not currently #4, Family Table Tennis is. Is that better?
Er.. Go into the Wii Shop, go to Wii Ware, and look at Popular Titles, presto, the top WiiWare downloads, in order. Sites that show you movement from week to week generally grab their data from there on Wednesday or Thursday. You can grab it anytime, though. But without the context of what they were last week, it means little.
He really seems on the ball. 1000 is too much for most of these WiiWare games, 500 point games will likely rise to the top of the downloads and make these companies think twice about their pricing... Alas, Nintendo gets the final say.
His art and the 500 point tag will likely make Eternity's Child a mega-smash hit.
Anyone who's surprized at just one WiiWare this week hasn't been paying attention to the ESRB ratings page here. There were 9 games currently rated for US release. 4 Mondays in June, 8 games (Magnetica and Pokemon are both Nintendo, so only one can be in June) so if they did two a week then they'd out by July, whereas if they only do one a week till more get rated, then they've got two whole months. Never underestimate Reggie's Night Terrors of an "empty week".
Yes, there are 100+ WiiWare titles, but the vast majority of them haven't got a whole lot of code written yet - they're still mainly ideas.
1500 points is as expensive as WiiWare gets... For 100 levels of a puzzler? Well, I guess that's just 15 points per...
12 local player multiplayer? Er... How? Unless they have it one using the Wiimote and another using a Nunchuck... The Wii can't address more than four Wiimotes... I don't think the GC controller ports add another four, but even if they do, that still leaves four. Very bizarre...
Ah-ha! Wikipedia says the 12-player mode is ONLINE, not offline. THAT makes sense.
And here I thought there was nothing more to the game other than getting 901 Archers and putting the Wiimote down. Giants, gnomes, Catapults, oh my...
I was trying the "ultimate challenge" - Heroic Mode with NO archer tower. I had something like 1000 mages and 800 masons, then hit level 40 and the catapults wiped me out.
Anyway, fantastic game; can't wait to see what's next!
"Major League Eating" is from Mastiff, yes. And could do really, really well. TV Show King did well, MLE is basically a glorified pie-eating contest, and could do really, really well in the US.
It's interesting that Nintendo turned him down because he's not really a business, just a hobbyist. (Essentially, it would seem.) Smacks of protecting their proprietary secrets.
What's really interesting is that if he was denied because his game was no good, then Nintendo's exercising more quality control over WiiWare than they do with their disc based games. heh.
Comments 255
Re: RUMOUR: PopCap Games To Develop For WiiWare?
PopCap will probably do WiiWare... They like money.
Re: Gyrostarr
I love when games like these come out - lets you know what old games still have the ol' cache... Qix fared miserably. Will Tempest do better? I think so.
Re: Saikyou Ginsei Igo - Board Game Fun For Japanese WiiWare
They never heard of Shogi, huh? Who said they were otaku?
Go and Shogi are two.. Let's see, the others would be... Mahjong and Pachinko, perhaps?
Yeah, near zero chance this will be released outside Japan.
Re: Toki Tori For WiiWare Goes To Euro 2008
Now, see? Advertising! Pushing your WiiWare game by linking it to a popular sporting venue. Bravo! Offering the soundtrack, marketing genious! This is the difference between Toki Tori's "success" and Lostwinds' "failure". (Both have done really well, in truth. It seems merely that puzzle games take time to catch on.)
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Block Breaker Deluxe and Cocoto Fishing Master
@PALgamer
Unless, of course, there are other rules... NoA has a one title per publisher per month rule, which, if NoE uses the same, would mean that Actionloop pushed Pokemon to July. I still think the reason NA got Dr. Mario when it did was because it came out the week before in EU and they try their best to do as many simultaneous launches as they can.
The trickle theory they seem to be using for WiiWare is highly annoying, but somewhat understandable. They want all WiiWare, regardless of quality, to get an equal share of the spotlight... were they to use more than a 1 watt bulb for said spotlight, however...
Re: Microsoft Befuddled by WiiWare
That's a good point, and worth noting. XNA, as it stands, is extremely limited. Sure, for free you can make games, but in order to play them on the Xbox360 or share them with other people, you've got to pay their $99/year fee. And you can currently only share your games with other people who've paid the $99 (or $49 for six months) fee.
So as it is now, it's no competition for WiiWare. But soon, by year's end, they say, they'll be releasing Zune tools and "will make game distribution on the Xbox 360 much easier with the Xbox LIVE Community Games feature."
We'll see if they've got a better plan then, I suppose.
Re: Major League Eating: The Game
I still maintain it'll do well. A glorified pie-eating contest with no bloating, no calories, no indigestion. It could do phenomenally well, it's got online play, even. What will make or break it is the price. I don't see a game with online play coming in under 1000 Wii Points, though... But it really needs to.
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Block Breaker Deluxe and Cocoto Fishing Master
Well, score one for worldwide simultaneous launching... Unless you're looking for Pop or Defend Your Castle... But then, they weren't going to be close, anyway.
And yes, EU's schedule goes VC one week, WiiWare the next.
Re: Review: Cocoto Fishing Master
1 - It's not a "bad" game, just not a "great" one. It's mediocre.
2 - It's not "unwanted", you just don't want it. Others do want it.
In fact, going by the top downloads of WiiWare, Star Soldier R is more "unwanted" than this game. By leaps and bounds.
Re: Microsoft Befuddled by WiiWare
He does have a point. But then, look at it from the other side. XNA - smaller profit share, much larger pool, your little fish will never even be seen, let alone thrive... Weren't there already lots of reports about how the small developers much preferred WiiWare for just those reasons?
It's true, though. With XNA all you need is a computer and a dream. You and millions of others. TRY to get your game noticed. And if it isn't noticed, you get nothing.
Re: Nintendo Looking To Push WiiWare Via TV Promotion
It's most likely what they said originally - it's not in the budget. WiiWare is meant to be on the cheap, so massive TV ads and such are unlikely.
But then, there's really two companies behind every WiiWare title. Nintendo and the publisher. Just because Nintendo doesn't advertise doesn't mean the little gaming company can't do its share. Look at My LIfe as a King, they did that online flash game thing in addition to their official website. Look at Major League Eating. They've done... An event at the Nintendo Store, three "Meet the Eaters" press releases, one "Watermelon Eating Record Set" press release, have their website up and running... Though this shows the downside of the publisher advertising, they don't have any clue when their game will actually be released, so they can't really do targeted advertising, and end up doing a press release a week till it launches.
Re: Star Soldier R
Indeed, I'd have thought the short play style would've been a selling point, too. Apparently, it's not.
Re: Most Popular WiiWare Games in North America (18th June)
Interesting how the two new games debut two days after launch beating both Critter Round Up and Star Soldier R. Nobody wants those games, apparently.
Toki Tori should continue to climb a bit, I'd hope Family Table Tennis will drop now the Nintendo Channel tells you it's meant for small children...
I still don't get TV Show King, but then the success of Carnival Games was a mystery to me, too.
Re: Fischer Completes Spectacular U-Turn On Wii Storage
@BlackFira
We already have online storage. You can re-download purchases from the Wii Shop whenever you please. Nintendo's not likely to allow anyone else to store their property, especially since they already do it for you.
Re: Fischer Completes Spectacular U-Turn On Wii Storage
The real "Storage Solution" is a memory expansion for the Wii, no extra code, no extra anything, just plug some extra flash memory inside the unit and it'll be a much larger Wiifridgerator. Though there's the chance that the 3.3 System update will be able to protect against modified game files, allowing them to lift the encryption from the SD card and allow the backed up games to be accessed directly from the card.
Re: Get Even With Space Invaders On WiiWare
Looks... interesting. Graphics are great, seems like they're using the Wiimote well, but really, it all remains to be seen. I have high hopes, though.
Re: We Move: Pain Vs Pleasure - New Video And Information
I knew it! I KNEW this was a "lady of the evening" sim! I'd use the modern vernacular, but it's so overused it's lost its true meaning. Everything from mastering your strut to "disciplining" the Johns... What else would one expect from ex-Rockstar North employees? As an aside, yet another game were the previous victim gets to have some sort of spotlit revenge.
Re: 1080 Snowboarding Developer Working on WiiWare Project
"The interesting thing is that the games you would think would work well with the Balance Board actually don't."
Funny thing is, the only games I think would work are things like skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, and balance exercises like Yoga or Tai Chi. So is he saying this game doesn't work? Because it seems like a perfect fit.
Re: Review: Family Table Tennis
"In fact, the game’s simplicity would actually be perfect for children who find Wii Sports Tennis to be too difficult."
Heh.. The data from the Nintendo Channel confirms this. The only statistically significant results were filed under the <13 age category - meaning the person who enjoyed this game the most in 100% (+/- some error) of the cases was a child, probably a young one.
Re: Nintendo Channel Goes Stats Crazy!
I'd love a raw data dump from this update... It's fascinating, and one would never be able to find every little detail. It not only shows you Hardcore/Casual, Gamer/Everyone and Alone/Friends stats, but lets you filter those stats by age and/or sex. Which can give juicy bits of data like this:
All reviews of "Family Table Tennis" have come from the <13 age demographic.
Neat, huh? Most WiiWare hasn't got enough reviews yet, so submit your data!
Re: Block Breaker Deluxe
@StarDust
Alas, the art of writing efficient code and compressing file sizes is long dead. Both this and Cocoto are far, far too big for what they are. This one fits on a CELL PHONE, why is it so huge? All I can think is that Wiiware games are low budget titles, and all that optimization is time consuming and costly.
Re: USA WiiWare Update: Block Breaker Deluxe and Cocoto Fishing Master
Note we got two this week. Well... two games that aren't half as good as a normal game, so... really... More like 0.8 of a WiiWare game?
Any week with Samurai Shodown is a good week, though.
Re: Plättchen Twist 'n' Paint
So it seems. They planned on 8P local multiplayer with 4 Wiimotes and 4 Bongos, but Nintendo told them they can't do the Bongos, so they did 8P with "sharing of Wiimotes/Nunchucks"... Sounds like a great use for wireless nunchucks, but Nintendo's suing Nyko over those.... Guess Nintendo doesn't like Plattchen very much.
Re: Beer Pong Is Evil And Wrong!
Ah... It got ESRB Rated T for Teen... So it's more than just "announced", now... Moreover, they say it's coming to the US "next week"
Re: Eternity’s Child To Feature 4 Player Co-Op Mode
Hmm.. they said over on GoNintendo that it's one player controls Angel and the other three shoot stuff. Could work, and certainly better than most co-op's, "Your friend gets to draw lewd and disturbing things on screen while you're trying to play!"
As for the game being innovative, I think of Odin Sphere when I see this game. Nothing really new, but done really, really well.
Re: Review: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
Interesting.. They sell alternate costumes for the King and Chime, I suppose one could be a Queen... They gave Chime a bikini for one of her alternate costumes, after all.
Re: Oxygen Games Interview - Pirates: The Key of Dreams
1000 points, eh? Well, seeing how poorly the 700 and 800 point titles have been doing, probably better to charge the default price if you're not able to do 500. Looks like a fun game, but Pirates aren't my thing, so I'll be passing, as well.
Re: Wii Move To Bring Balance Board Fun To WiiWare
I still say it looks like a training game for.. um... "ladies of the evening". Strut simulation! I dunno... It's just.. scary.
Re: Eternity’s Child To Feature 4 Player Co-Op Mode
500 points for a gorgeous platformer, it should already be a no-brainer. I recall reading that there was a mode where one player controlled Angel and the other controlled the girl, I dunno how 4 player would work, but I'm sure it'll be fantastic.
Re: Otakugate – The Saga Continues
Ah, PR Spin... When I called you all Geeks and Otaku, I meant it in a GOOD way, honest!
Note he doesn't actually say he's sorry for WHAT he said, just how it was taken, nor did he say we're NOT Geeks and Otaku, in fact he says he's "like" that, but doesn't call himself such, mind... But hey, Geeks and Otaku are terms of endearment, honest!
Gotta love PR.
Re: RUMOUR: Mega Man 9 Coming to WiiWare?
Would be really, really nice... Here's hoping! After RE4, RE:UC and Z&W, it's certainly plausible...
Ok, according to the OFLC list, the applicant was Red Ant Enterprises, which is the company that brought Okami to the Wii. So... Yay? Of course, they're in Australia, so it could just be that Megaman gets different numbers down under... Hmm...
Re: Review: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
@BlackFira
Bakeries and Emporiums give Morale Spheres, beat the dungeons that give those and build them. Meanwhile, use your Morale to boost the Town and People so you get longer days.
Re: Xiotex Amazed By Reaction To WiiWare Rebuttal
hahahhaahah.. Remember, this guy has worked on Gamecube games. That's why he's backpedaling, if he didn't he might not get any more work from them.
Re: Strong Bad - Homestar Ruiner - Trailer #3
It's the Strong Bad demo... >dun dun-dun!< ...And that's about all there is.
Re: Watch Out For Crazy Legs!
@Yatesy
If you've ever seen a Looney Toon eat corn on the cob, you'd know what "typewriter" was.
Mastiff has been doing press releases every week since Major League Eating got snubbed as a launch title. They say MLE is a real sports league, and press releases like this would support such. But really, people only care when a record is broken and on July 4th, when the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is held. If this game doesn't come out by then, they're sunk... and possibly have a nice lawsuit against Nintendo for delaying their game's launch past the one day a year people actually care about Major League Eating. It'd be like releasing a Football game the week AFTER the Superbowl. Or Baseball after the World Series, and so on...
As far as the game goes, yes, online play, glorified pie-eating contest, it could resonate with the Wii audience quite well... if it's priced right.
Re: Big Blue Bubble Interview - Home Sweet Home
Yeah, the price point will make or break this title. Odds are it'll get the default 1000 point price and not sell very well, though.
Re: Most Popular WiiWare Games in North America (11th June)
Pokemon Ranch was #7 after 12 hours, #4 after 36 hours, and now, 48 or so hours after release, it's #3. It's a meteoric rise to #1.
Family Table Tennis is actually doing better than most, holding its position. (It was #4 at one point in the week.) Casual and 500 points = Epic Win, apparently.
I'm baffled that Protothea is beating Star Soldier R. Star Soldier's cheaper and has online high scores. But Protothea, you can play for more than 5 minutes... So it wins?
The price points are interesting too. 500 point games make the top 5 (er, 6.. ), while 700 and 800 point games make the bottom 5.
Nice chart and analysis!
Re: Blue Oasis - Fishy Fun For All The Family
@DanAran
The massive sales of TV Show King and Family Table Tennis contradict that theory. What's more likely the case is for every "core" gamer, there's a "casual" mother/father/grandparents who also use that Wii.
Re: Hands-On With Eternity's Child
Ah, it'll be a good'un. Can't wait.
Re: Blue Oasis - Fishy Fun For All The Family
More data, yum. 500 points for a game that has a non-gamer target audience. Will it crush Toki Tori, Pop, Lost Winds, etc..? Almost certainly.
I prefer either my real aquarium, or insanaquarium... But I recognize that aquarium sims sell fairly well, and this seems like a good one of those.
Re: Review: Family Table Tennis
I don't get it... 500 points for what's essentially a mini-game in Mario Party, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, WarioWare, etc.. etc... And it's selling? Better than everything but Defend Your Castle and branded games? How?
I guess the commercial's true, people love to eat $5.
Re: North American WiiWare Top 10
This is just baffling to me.. I hope they include these rankings with this week's, as a lot seems to have shifted. And... it's... odd. I was thinking the cheaper games were rising to the top, with Dr. Mario, Pokemon and Final Fantasy having the brand recognition to buck that trend, but... it seems that 700 or 800 is NOT 500... Anyway, the next list compared to this list will be fascinating.
Re: USA WiiWare Update: My Pokémon Ranch
Sorry to burst the bubble, but after only 12 hours of availability, My Pokemon Ranch is already the #7 most downloaded WiiWare title. (Beating Toki Tori, which is #8) By next Monday, I expect it will be #1.
On a side note, TV Show King is not currently #4, Family Table Tennis is. Is that better?
Re: USA WiiWare Update: My Pokémon Ranch
Er.. Go into the Wii Shop, go to Wii Ware, and look at Popular Titles, presto, the top WiiWare downloads, in order. Sites that show you movement from week to week generally grab their data from there on Wednesday or Thursday. You can grab it anytime, though. But without the context of what they were last week, it means little.
Re: Luc Bernard Talks Eternity's Child, Rose Princess and Uwe Boll
He really seems on the ball. 1000 is too much for most of these WiiWare games, 500 point games will likely rise to the top of the downloads and make these companies think twice about their pricing... Alas, Nintendo gets the final say.
His art and the 500 point tag will likely make Eternity's Child a mega-smash hit.
Re: USA WiiWare Update: My Pokémon Ranch
Anyone who's surprized at just one WiiWare this week hasn't been paying attention to the ESRB ratings page here. There were 9 games currently rated for US release. 4 Mondays in June, 8 games (Magnetica and Pokemon are both Nintendo, so only one can be in June) so if they did two a week then they'd out by July, whereas if they only do one a week till more get rated, then they've got two whole months. Never underestimate Reggie's Night Terrors of an "empty week".
Yes, there are 100+ WiiWare titles, but the vast majority of them haven't got a whole lot of code written yet - they're still mainly ideas.
Re: Nintendo Working On USB Devices – HDD Possible?
"Storage Device" being far more likely a thumb drive than a hard drive...
Still, "Official Nintendo Keyboard", "Eye Toy knock-off" and such are far, far, FAR more likely.
Re: Plättchen Twist 'n' Paint
1500 points is as expensive as WiiWare gets... For 100 levels of a puzzler? Well, I guess that's just 15 points per...
12 local player multiplayer? Er... How? Unless they have it one using the Wiimote and another using a Nunchuck... The Wii can't address more than four Wiimotes... I don't think the GC controller ports add another four, but even if they do, that still leaves four. Very bizarre...
Ah-ha! Wikipedia says the 12-player mode is ONLINE, not offline. THAT makes sense.
Re: Defend Your Castle
And here I thought there was nothing more to the game other than getting 901 Archers and putting the Wiimote down. Giants, gnomes, Catapults, oh my...
I was trying the "ultimate challenge" - Heroic Mode with NO archer tower. I had something like 1000 mages and 800 masons, then hit level 40 and the catapults wiped me out.
Anyway, fantastic game; can't wait to see what's next!
Re: Nintendo Barring Small Developers From WiiWare?
"Major League Eating" is from Mastiff, yes. And could do really, really well. TV Show King did well, MLE is basically a glorified pie-eating contest, and could do really, really well in the US.
It's interesting that Nintendo turned him down because he's not really a business, just a hobbyist. (Essentially, it would seem.) Smacks of protecting their proprietary secrets.
What's really interesting is that if he was denied because his game was no good, then Nintendo's exercising more quality control over WiiWare than they do with their disc based games. heh.