Wild Earth: African Safari for Wii Take photos of exotic animals in this new Wii effort from Majesco. Info and pics inside.

by Matt Casamassina December 13, 2007 - Third-party publisher Majesco Entertainment on Thursday revealed that is planning to release Wild Earth: African Safari for Wii. The title puts players in the role of a photo journalist sent on an adventure through Africa's Serengeti National Park to photograph and chronicle 30 different exotic animals, from elephants and hyenas to rhinos.

The title, which appears to be an enhanced port of an earlier PC version, is developed by Super X Studios. A summer 2008 release date has been set. "Wild Earth: African Safari encompasses several great passions -- photography, travel and the outdoors -- and combines them into a fun and informative interactive experience," said John Merchant, marketing manager, Majesco Europe. "With exclusive new features found only in the Wii version, Wild Earth: African Safari lets people experience one of nature's most complex and diverse habitats, without needing their passport or inoculations."

Players will wander the African territory and take pictures in order to put together "informative magazine-quality pictorials." Nabbing the best photo will have to be balanced against drawing too close to the animals. According to Majesco, the Wii remote will begin to rumble as players near and frighten animals, making the picture photo much more difficult. There are two new features exclusive to the Wii build of the game, including a three-player cooperative mode and a Safari mini-game in which "gamers can play the animals' perspective using intuitive gestures via the Wii remote." Talking Drum Records has additionally provided an atmoshpheric soundtrack for the console game.

Full features at a glance: Complete 11 picture-taking missions with both primary and secondary objectives. Investigate the bold hyena during a midday thunderstorm. Observe gentle giraffes in the hidden valley from the aerial view of a helicopter. Meet a family of elephants as they take care of their young, etc. An exclusive new Safari Mini-Game mode only for the Wii lets you use the Wii Remote to play from the animal's perspective in 11 different games Includes more than 30 African animals including: cheetah, crocodile, crowned crane, elephant, flamingo, frog, bat, gazelle, giraffe, hippo, hyrax, leopard, lion, ostrich, oxpecker, pangolin, rhinoceros, suricate, tortoise, trout, vulture, warthog, wildebeest and zebra.

Brand new cooperative multiplayer mode gives players the choice to drive the vehicle or snap photos while playing with anywhere from 1 to 3 friends Photos collected are placed into an animated slide show presentation of informative articles. In addition, players can select their own favorite photos to keep in their portfolio. The Impact Meter tracks how much of a disturbance you are to the natural habitat. If you disturb too many animals or get to close to them, your Wii Remote will rumble at varying degrees, making it harder to take a steady picture. If the Impact Meter becomes completely depleted, you fail the mission. Experience accurately presented flora and terrain from the Serengeti National Park in Africa, at different times of day and in varied weather. Grasses, shrubs, flowers, kopjes (rocky outcroppings), streams and lakes provide a life-like experience and terrific photo opportunities. Features hours of inspiring soundtrack from the world music label Talking Drum Records in Santa Monica, CA We've posted some first screenshots in our media section.

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I'm loving Endless Ocean, but I think this one could really be a much better game.  The graphics look REALLY nice--a little pixelated, but beautiful.

Now, what do you think will be a better game, African Safari for Wii or Afrika for PS3, since they're the same genre in the same setting with the same goal of taking pictures?

Afrika:

-Much better graphics, meaning it will look much nicer and add to the atmosphere

African Safari:

-Taking pics with the Wiimote

-3-player coop (online or splitscreen, do you think?)

-Minigames where you play as the animals.

It looks like Endless Ocean is killing itself tbh. Which is kinda a shame, it looks like most game critics can't stand games without either screeching wheels or guns (or swords at the very least).
I don't see good sales for it either, perhaps African Safari will be all that EO is not? One can hope!

@Mummelman

Lol. Next topic: Endless Ocean: The Endless Ocean killer?

hehe, its needs to be alive before you can kill it.

@Mummelman: by that logic, it's the reviewers killing EO, not itself.

Reviewers: Endless Ocean Killer?

Try the PC demo and see if you like it:

http://www.wildearthgame.com/ 

CASUAAAAAAAAAALS!!!: gaming industry killer?

Its funny how the term "games" have been corrupted over the years.

there's no Endless Ocean killer, since you can't die in the game. ;)

Still, I'm more excited about the PS3 version of the genre, Afrika

 OMG i couldn't agree more.  like this weekend i was on the train and these two girls behind me were playing the "i spy" "game" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_spy.   i was all like OMG all you're doing to looking out the window looking at stuff.  you're version of fun sucks and you're totally ruining the fun industry.

This'll probably just be the Wii's answer to AFRIKKKA on the PS3.

(Whatever happened to that game, anyway? I remember seeing some screens of it way back in 2006, but that's about it...)