THE GAMES OF 2008: WII

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Couldn't find if it's posted or not, so here it goes:

 

By Joe Keiser

The Wii comes into 2008 with incredible momentum, but it’s the top tier games that will ensure the console’s continued success. Today, we take a look at the best prospects for Nintendo’s little white box…

2007 was a great year for the Wii, and with 2008 beginning there are still no signs that the system is losing favor in the eyes of the casual game-buying public. Nintendo has been handling the surprise success well, but one decision does threaten to derail the console: the number of cheap budget games that get the Nintendo Seal of Approval. While such products are all well and good in a honeymoon period where both consumer and game creator are excitedly testing the waters, as a long-term plan this will make developers complacent and consumers apathetic. Instead of allowing more such schlock onto the Wii, Nintendo should be focusing on games of the sort highlighted here. As all of the games are works in progress, release dates and some details are subject to change. Sales estimates are for the first three months of US sales and only take into consideration the Wii version of the games. Estimates were calculated by reviewing the sales of a 2008 game's previous franchise installment (or a similar game, if it's a new IP) and increasing that amount by the expected percentage of growth of the console's installed base. Other factors such as consumer buzz, release dates, expected retail price and expected marketing push were also taken into consideration in our estimates. Also check out Next-Gen's Xbox 360 Games of 2008 and PS3 Games of 2008. We'll be publishing PC Games on 1/9 and handhelds on 1/11. Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law Capcom High Voltage Software January 8 Est. 3-mo. Sales: 100K-300K Harvey Birdman may be a licensed game based on a TV show, but this is not some cheap, quick-buck platforming game. Instead, the superhero’s court-based crime-fighting antics are being captured with gameplay similar to the adventure style of the Phoenix Wright series. It’s a thoughtful fit for a caped crusader whose only power is the power of attorney. Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity SEGA Sonic Team January 8 Est. 3-mo. Sales: 100K-300K The original Sonic Riders did well at retail despite lukewarm critical reception, but this racing offshoot of Sonic the Hedgehog was meant more for the kids than the hardcore anyway. Zero Gravity looks to continue that trend, polishing up the mechanics a bit while adding motion controls for the more hyperactive player. It might be largely more of the same, but the marriage of Sonic and racing has always excited a large contingent of young players. Nitrobike Ubisoft Left Field Productions January 8 Est. 3-mo. Sales: 200K-400K Nitrobike is for the gamers who felt that Excite Truck wasn’t enough of an homage to NES classic Excitebike. Ubisoft’s racer is being developed by the same studio responsible for the critically hailed Excitebike 64, and will include online play and some of the controller innovations made by Nintendo’s truck-based entry. In other words, it’s as close as one can get to an Excitebike without actually having the license. Endless Ocean Nintendo Arika January 21 Est. 3-mo. Sales: 100K-200K Endless Ocean is exactly the sort of product that is indicative of a healthy, vibrant console ecosystem. A SCUBA diving non-game, Endless Ocean is by Everblue creators Arika—a studio that has as much diving game expertise as any in the industry—and will feature non-threatening undersea exploring with little story and direction. The enthusiast press has already written it off as “boring,” and it’s certainly not going to set any charts on fire, but Endless Ocean is exactly the sort of charming niche title that only a truly popular console could support, and the select few that do want it will love it.

One Piece: Unlimited Adventure
Namco Bandai
Ganbarion
January 22
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 200K-400K

Anime licensed games are a sure sign of a console with a vibrant youth audience, so One Piece: Unlimited Adventure should find its audience among the eclectic group that are Wii fans. Developer Ganbarion has been making the One Piece games for some time, though the games have only reviewed well among journalists that are familiar with (and are fans of) the source material—an appropriate response that should see out this game as well.


No More Heroes
Ubisoft
Grasshopper Manufacture
February 5
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 400K-600K

Suda51’s crazy game about the life of a workday assassin is just as eccentric—but more ambitious—as his last work Killer7. But this avant-garde Tarantino-meets-Jackass game is also (ever so slightly) more culturally acceptable than the schizophrenic stylings of Killer7. As one of the Wii’s few exclusive M-rated titles, it should find a hungry audience who would like nothing more than to mow some lawns before taking out a hit.

Super Smash Bros Brawl
Nintendo
Nintendo
February 10
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 1.5 million-2 million

Nintendo’s massive fighting/party game is the current Next Big Thing for the Wii—Smash Bros Brawl is a huge first party offering that nearly everyone, casual and hardcore alike, is excitedly waiting for. To fuel this fire, Nintendo has thrown in a seemingly endless array of characters, weapons and scenarios that come from not just the history of Nintendo, but from other major franchises as well. If there were any Wiis in stores to move, this game would move them.

Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
Square Enix
Square Enix
February 26
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 300K-600K

Though it shares its name with the big in Japan RPG series, Dragon Quest Swords isn’t Dragon Quest. Instead the game eschews its franchise’s deep, familiar RPG mechanics for a more simple linear game with motion controlled sword slashing. It’s an accessible format with an intuitive gimmick, and its Dragon Quest roots give the whole affair a charming visual style; this game will likely find this venerable series a cadre of new young fans.

Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed
THQ
Locomotive
March
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 100K-300K

Big Willy Unleashed isn’t Destroy All Humans! 3 (Path of the Furon has a stronger claim to that title), but you wouldn’t know that by looking at it. Pushing the franchise into the 70s, the game makes incessant fun of the decade’s disco-centric pop culture. But the primary new wrinkle in gameplay comes from Big Willy, a fully controllable giant fast food mascot that eats brains right out of people’s heads.

Mario Kart Wii
Nintendo
Nintendo
Q1
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 2.5 million-3 million

Another huge first party release, Mario Kart Wii likely won’t mess much with the (extremely) tried and true Mario Kart formula. What it will add is Wii-oriented controls—the game will come with a steering wheel attachment for the Remote. Online play will also at long last become a reality for the franchise with this installment, and motorcycles will join the standard karts as a vehicle option. They’re all little changes, but nobody expects or wants a revolution with this one—they just want to race.




Samba De Amigo
SEGA
Gearbox Software
June
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 300K-600K

If hardened SEGA fans can thank the Wii for one thing, it’s that the console has given new life to the publisher’s catalog of quirky classics. The most recent example of this phenomenon was December’s Nights: Journey of Dreams, and 2008 will see another revival of a long-dormant property—the maraca game Samba De Amigo. Gearbox’s version probably won’t be much different from its seven-year-old precursor, but that’s fine—there hasn’t been anything like it since, and the Wii controllers certainly have the potential to be fine maraca emulators.

LEGO Indiana Jones
LucasArts
Traveller’s Tales
Q2
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 500K-800K

There hasn’t been a lot revealed about the LEGO Indiana Jones video game, but there almost doesn’t have to be. It’s LEGO, it’s Indiana Jones, and it will sell incredibly well upon its release, which will likely coincide in some way with the upcoming Indiana Jones film. It hasn’t been announced for any specific platforms, but it’s not a stretch to expect it to come out on Wii. Unfortunately, that same silence on specific platforms means that speculation on motion-controlled whip cracking, while pleasant to think about, remains unconfirmed.

 

Okami
Capcom
Ready At Dawn Studios
Q2
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 400K-700K

There’re a lot of budget remakes and ports of older games on the Wii, but Okami does not deserve to be counted among that ignoble number. As one of the PS2’s most beloved works of artistry, Okami screams for broader audience recognition—but the original game also had an integral brush-painting mechanic, one that Wii controls promise to make even more realistic and immersive. Okami is a game that deserved better than it got in the PS2 market, and can hopefully find a home among the Wii’s open-minded owners.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
LucasArts
Krome Studios
Q2
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 400K-700K

While Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a multiplatform product, the Wii version does have one leg up on competing versions: the use of the Wii remote as a lightsaber. The fact that this game has the one feature that gamers have been asking of a Wii game since before the system launched should make it a huge hit among kids and Star Wars fans alike—and if they get to learn more about Darth Vader’s mysterious history as they slice their way to victory, all the better.

Mushroom Men
Gamecock
Red Fly Studio
Q2
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 100K-300K

Mushroom Men tells the bizarre story of the battles spores fight beneath the feet of men. The visuals are surreal and the weapons will come from regular household objects, but beyond that not much has been revealed about the game. And yet the curious project is charming, perhaps because it’s so unlikely—a young development house collaborating with a young publisher on a strange, stylized new IP about fungus is almost the exact opposite of business as usual for the industry. If anything, that’s reason enough to pull for Mushroom Men.



Civilization Revolution
2K Games
Firaxis
September
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 200K-400K

Civilization Revolution is coming to the Wii after it gets to other consoles, which means that any system-specific information for this version is nonexistent. It’s a shame, since the Civ franchise has always appealed to more than just a core gamer audience and should be right at home with the Wii’s audience. Fortunately, the general information that is known—that the Civ gameplay remains intact, that the interface is streamlined and combat is revamped, and that Sid Meier has said that this is the game he has always wanted to make—is enough to get anyone excited about this game, regardless of where it appears.

 

The Dog Island
Ubisoft
Yuke’s Media Creation
TBA
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 100K-300K

The Dog Island is best known among gamers for a teaser trailer so adorably saccharine it would kill a diabetic. But this unbearable cuteness is precisely why it could find an audience among very young Wii owners, who surprisingly don’t have very many dog games to choose from. It’s not a pet sim—it’s closer to an action-adventure, albeit a completely nonviolent one—but that doesn’t matter. This is not a game for a consumer that cares about trivialities like “genre”.

Disaster: Day of Crisis
Nintendo
Monolith Soft
TBA
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 300K-600K

With so few disaster survival games out there, it would be nice for a first party-published game like Disaster: Day of Crisis to come out and help push the genre along. The fact that it’s one of the few announced Wii exclusives with a more adult orientation is also heartening; the fact that little has been heard about the game recently, however, is not. It’s still slated for release and looks different enough to continue to wait for, though.

Wii Fit
Nintendo
Nintendo
TBA
Est. 3-mo. Sales: 600K-900K (Who knows?!)

Nintendo’s flagship first party release for 2008, Wii Fit is an indicator of how far the company is willing to go from the status quo in order to woo that elusive non-gaming consumer. Wii Fit is a product that turns a daily training regimen into a game, combining a structure somewhat similar to Brain Age with the pressure-sensitive Wii Balance Board peripheral to make working out fun. It’s clearly not meant for your typical Halo nut, though they’d probably get as much out of it as anyone.

Wii Music
Nintendo
Nintendo
TBA
200K-400K

Wii Music has been on the back burner for a while now, as Miyamoto has been focusing on other projects like Super Mario Galaxy and Wii Fit. But with Galaxy now out everywhere and Wii Fit finished for Japan, he should be able to get back to this long awaited casual game. The last time it was mentioned, Wii Music was said to include plenty of instrument-playing simulation as well as the orchestra conducting elements—even though it’s been beaten to market by the currently Japan-only Nodame Cantabile: Dream Orchestra, Wii Music remains a welcome and unique Miyamoto production.



Source:

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8504&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0