Between the Spaces

According to an interview with the Nintendo of America VP, George Harrison, the Nintendo Revolution will be released with around 20 game titles, not 50 as previously speculated. One third of these titles will be produced by Nintendo itself.

One of these titles, to be produced by Ubisoft, called Red Steel. This is apparently going to be a pretty violent first-person shooter. I have not yet confirmed these images, but they do seem to be images of Red Steel from the magazine Game Informer (in which the previous statements were made):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elmoco/124806829/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elmoco/124806830/

Source: NRgame

edit:
I was able to find one bit of information which claims that Ubisoft confirmed that the screenshots are indeed authentic. I have yet to find the actual statements by Ubisoft themselves.

A very interesting new title from the Polish company, NIBRIS has been announced for release on the Nintendo Revolution called Raid Over the River. Not sure if you remember the arcade game where you hop on a bicycle-looking contraption and you have to peddle it in order to make your character’s vehicle, which is a glider, go faster and higher in order to soar around the various environments.

This game does not seem to far off from that very idea! In fact, may people have been waiting for the Revolution version of Pilotwings, a game in which players fly and/or jump from airplains. There was a little more to it, but overall, it was a blast to play with the physics. This just might be a game that comes close to Pilotwings! We can hope right?

“The main character of the game is a 40 year-old veteran of the “Sand Storm” operation, named David McBride. He discovers, by pure coincidence, the plans of the “Molayarius” sect which wants to summon a demon by the name of “Bafomet” into existence. By co-operating with one of the members of the sect (who continuously sabotages their actions), David strives to halt Molayarius’ plans. To accomplish this task, he must go through a 10-level game, which takes place in different regions of the world, spanning different time periods.”

As you can see, the idea is pretty unique! One uses a flying vehicle (or various one, it seems) throughout incredibly varying situations! Sounds like a good time to me.

Source: Revolution Report

IGN has put together a very intelligent list of games that we know will be releasing with the Nintendo Revolution. I wrote a piece on this a few months ago that contained six of these. It’s nice to know that the list is at least growing.

What we know so far:

• Super Smash Bros. Online
• Super Mario Revolution
• Legend of Zelda Revolution
• Animal Crossing Online
• Mario Kart Online
• Metroid Prime 3
• Donkey Kong
• Battalion Wars Online
• Revolution Cooking game
• New IP
  

Yes, “cooking game.” If you had a chance to watch the original Revolution teaser video, you may have noticed that about a quarter of the way in, there are two guys, one of whom is performing some chopping and cooking motions. It’s not confirmed that this is what is going on, but it is a tad blatant. There has been much speculation since the release of this video; now we know. I suppose this is the first step in seeing just how revolutionary this console is.

Second comment about this list: What does “IP” mean in this context? I have no idea. If you do, please feel free to drop a comment with the answer. It was mentioned that the “last IP” was Picman, so … yeah - that clears things right up!

I appreciate this article most as it actually quotes its sources! I’m not exactly a huge fan of unproductive speculation. That is to say that speculation which leads and spurs on creativity is great, but: rumors != cool.

For anyone out there who likes playing console games online, but hates to pay for the use of the console manufacturer’s servers, this might just be the thing for you!

I just came across a very interesting website, Nullriver Software, which had a application available for download called Amaryllis. This allows anyone with a game system physically capable of online play to play games online using the Amaryllis server. No, you cannot play with people on Xbox Live and the others as they are entirely different servers, but this is pretty darned neat!

I don’t have the ability to test this, so if someone does, please let me know how it works out.

NintendoRevolution.ca reported today that Best Buy sent out “Pre-Order Updates” to all pre-order customers of the new Zelda title: The Ledgend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, revealing that the title will not be released until November 1st, 2006.  This is rather interesting considering that the Revolution has a well-known release date of around the same time (closer to the end of the month - but, come on - that’s a bit of a coincidence!).

Many are now speculating that the new Zelda title might be released with the new console as it’s lead title.  I think they have a point.  It would be strangely interesting to see how they turn a game originally announced for a last-gen system into the flag ship game for a next-gen system.

Source: NintendoRevolution.ca

I have no idea why I did not see this before, but I just found an article which was linked to from the official Nintendo Revolution site which talks about the basic look and feel of the revolution which really helps a lot when imagining what it will really look like:

• Sophisticated Design. The new console is approximately the size of three standard DVD cases stacked together, and it was displayed in a variety of prototype colors at E3. The console will come with a sleek silver stand allowing it to be displayed vertically or horizontally.
• Backward Compatibility. Revolution will play all of your favorite Nintendo GameCube games. An innovative self-loading media bay will play both 12-centimeter optical discs used for the new system as well as Nintendo GameCube discs. You can also equip a small, self-contained attachment to play movies and other DVD content.
• Huge Historic Library. Revolution will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
• Big Names. Nintendo announced that new franchise properties will be added to current super-star franchises including Mario, Zelda, Super Smash Bros., Donkey Kong and Metroid.
• Wi-Fi Freedom. A worldwide network of Nintendo players can gather to compete in a comfortable, inviting environment using Nintendo’s newly announced wireless gaming service, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

You can find even more information about the Revolution in this article.

It seems as though someone was able to grab a few images from a coffee-table-like book about the Nintendo Revolution which, if authentic, was obviously meant to be released after the Revolution was released. It seems to be a “history” of the product including the life of the controller in development. Very interesting!

Although we’re all used to fake images of console concepts and production, this one appears to be for real!

It seems as though all the speculation about a 2006 release has been confirmed by the Senior Marketing Director of Nintendo. They play to release the console in the United States, Japan and Europe all within a few weeks of each other. I’m frankly liking the fact that not nearly as many things are launched in Japan 6 months to a year before they are even seen in the United States. I hope this trend continues.

Source: NintendoRevolution.ca

I find it amazing how incredibly torn the world of gamers is regarding opinions on the next-gen platforms. I’ll find sites that have nothing but flames for the Revolution, then I’ll find something like this. According to 370 games, 113 ratailers and 47 developers, the Nintendo Revolution still has many people thinking that it will come out on top despite it’s lack of graphical and processing supremecy. The gamers placed the Revolution at 11.5% for the overall top platform while the Xbox received an astonishing 2.5%! The strange thing is that despite Sony’s eairy silence regarding the PS3, the PS3 received 40.3% of the votes! Something has to be rigged… Personally? I would have said Xbox, PS3 Nintendo just because that’s what we’ve seen in the past. But if we’re talking best sellers, I’d say Xbox, Nintendo THEN PS3. My logic? If Nintendo is trying to terrorize the market by reaching an insane amount of people, young and old, gamers and non-gamers, republicans and democrats ( … okay, so I just made that one up) then one might expect a heck of a lot more units to sell than a normal console who’s market is only appealing to hard-core gamers. I suppose only E3 will tell… but will Sony - that’s the question.

Source: Nintendo Now
(the same data, better organized: RevolutionReport.com)

Finally, we have a new bone to gnaw on! Blitz Games will be publishing a new game called Posession for all three of the next-gen platforms. Nintendo has always been known for releasing kid-friendly games almost exclusively until the GameCube came around. This game is a sign that the Revolution will most likely follow this track and become a console that has a healthy variety of game genres being created for it.

Posession allows a player to play as any of three roles:

“Fight as a warlord and lead an army of zombies in a bid to rule the planet, play as a zombie, or join the good guys, the humans, in stopping the Zombie onslaught.”

It seems as though Nintendo is gearing up to play with the big boys after all regarding content.
Source: Hexus