We will, of course, be recording Episode 9 of Rebel FM tomorrow night. On this week’s episode, former MTV Multiplayer writer and former boss-of-Phil-Kollar Patrick Klepek will be joining us once again along with another special guest who I won’t name yet. Here’s a hint though: The topic this week will be music and videogames, beginning with a discussion of the trip Anthony and I took to see Video Games Live this weekend in Oakland. We’ll also be doing some talk about WonderCon and also on what games we’ve been playing. Not all of the games below will be covered this week, but as a teaser, here’s a look at everything the Eat-Sleep-Game crew picked up in a recent new game shopping spree:

(Not pictured: copies of Star Ocean: The Last Hope and Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360 and a digital copy of Dawn of War 2 I got on Steam.)

Also user Ronin478 sent us this completely awesome Rebel FM background that we wanted to pass on to you. We’re not sure what it all means, but as an English major, I can certify that this image is chock full of symbolism and hidden meaning. Study it carefully.

Nintendo sold 981,000 Wii units in the US during November according to the NPD Group, but according to James Lin, senior analyst at the MDB Capital Group in Santa Monica, Calif., “they could easily sell double what they’re selling.” Along with other industry analysts and retailers, Lin believes Nintendo could be set to lose out on more than $1billion this holiday, not including missed revenue opportunities from associated software sales that won’t materialize.

Man. That sucks for Nintendo. They could be taking over the world, but because they can’t make enough systems (wink, wink) they won’t make nearly as much money as they could be. So sad! Hang on. Where’s my tissue? For all you people looking for a Wii, head to Bestbuy and grab the one I won’t be buying. Its waiting on you.

[via NextGen]

Jayslacks.

“There is no secret plan to store Wiis in a warehouse to spur demand. The company, after all, is trying to reach out to women and 40 and 50-year olds who aren’t avid gamers. They aren’t going to sleep outside of a store overnight or visit a retailer five or six times. It is literally a missed opportunity,” he said.

So there! The Wii might be using some old school tech, and it might be dvd-driveless and without a harddrive. But those damn things are hard to make. Wiis hold the magic of the innocent. Do you know how hard that is to capture? Do you?

[Via Games Industry]

Jayslacks

Down to business…SMG is a great game. I have only played through the first galaxy, but I can already tell that the game is solid; it’s beautiful, it has mechanics to it that keep it fresh, and the music–sweet jesus, the music–is awesome. More than anything else, the score has been the thing that makes me want to keep playing.

The Wii remote mechanics are fun–though I do tire of waggling my wrist about. Really though, this game shows what a game that is truly designed for the Wii–to take advantage of all its pros, and hide its cons–can be like. The controls take advantage of both the movement and pointer sensors of the Wii remote, and somehow manage to never feel intrusive.

Ultimately though, just from my early impressions of the game, I already feel safe in saying that if you hated Mario 64, you might hate this game, too. The game isn’t the same, but it still relies on a lot of the same things that made that game fun (what else would you expect from Nintendo?).

I’ll have to play more of the game to find out if it makes it into my top releases of the year, but I can already tell that I could never argue with anyone who said it was in theirs.

Chufmoney

All hail, Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure.

This is the best looking Wii game out. Hell, I’ll go so far as to say that until Mario Galaxy comes out, it will be the uncontested leader in Wii graphics. No, it doesn’t push the boundaries of what looks “realistic,” but it does have the best style of any game on the Nintendo Wii.

In case you can’t tell, I really, really like the game. I like the game so much that I wish I could give you all 40$ to go out and buy it — even if you don’t have a Wii. After all, how many of you are going to be playing yet another fucking sequel? This is a new IP, and you should support it.

For those of you that have no idea what the game is about, let me break it down: Zack is a pirate, Wiki is his helper. Together, the duo solve various puzzles — a la all the classic SCUM games — meet some funny and unique characters, and go on an epic journey. Seriously, the game would have been interesting to me even if it was just a quirky puzzle-platformer; but it also has an interesting main story. Don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking this game is for babies.

The game is only 40$ — a budget title for the Wii — and is going to be one of those, “I wish I had bought it way back when” games. Don’t let the chance pass, bitches. Wipe the dust off the Wii, put in some fresh remotes, and let Zack and Wiki be your Wii palate cleanser prior to the launch of Mario.

Chufmoney

“Somebody asked me what I thought next generation meant and what about the PlayStation 3 was next generation. The only next gen system I’ve seen is the Wii – the PS3 and the Xbox 360 feel like better versions of the last, but pretty much the same game with incremental improvement,” Wright told Guardian Unlimited. “But the Wii feels like a major jump – not that the graphics are more powerful, but that it hits a completely different demographic. In some sense I see the Wii as the most significant thing that’s happened, at least on the console side, in quite a while.”

Wright also talks about his undying love of the PC, and how the PC is the ultimate gaming machine and the mouse being the most amazing input device, like, ever. Me? I’ve never had enough dough to build a PC that can even send email proper, let alone play a game. And, you know what they say. Once you go Mac, you’re uh…broke? Hmmm..

[via NextGen]

Jayslacks

“We’re working very hard to make sure that consumers are satisfied this holiday, but I can’t guarantee that we’re going to meet demand. As a matter of fact, I can tell you on the record we won’t. What I can tell you is that typically, our inventory is lasting a day… The issue is not a lack of production. The issue is we went in with a curve that was aggressive, but the demand has been substantially more than that. And the ability to ramp up production and to sustain it is not a switch that you flick on.”

Raid the stores! Head to Bestbuy now! If we don’t hurry up, we won’t be able to play any Wii-sports! Even though I have personally seen Wiis stacked on top of each other,, even though I know for a fact that you can get one right now, it may be too late! They could walk off any minute. Instead of a family buying two Wiis just in case, they might have to settle with the one! Its not fair. Its just not fair.

[Via NextGen]

Jayslacks

But the idea of The Force Unleashed hitting the Wii — a system which pales technologically to the other current gen systems — strikes me as a bad decision. So much of The Force Unleashed is going to be about physics and how the game looks. I mean, you’re using the force, after all. The Wii is not a terrible system, I just don’t think the game is going to be very good –in comparison with the other versions of the game — if it has a sub-par physics and graphics.

As for lightsaber fighting, I am again skeptical. While I think a game where the development team focused entirely on the one-to-one sword fighting motion controls that we all dream about could be good, I am predicting that The Force Unleashed Wii lightsaber controls will come down to little more than waggle.

I know this is will probably seem overly critical, and I hope that LucasArts makes me eat my fucking Wii remote.

Chufmoney

This also brings us to the bad news, that being that this is online multiplayer on a Nintendo console, which means Friend Codes. While stats will be tracked for battles with friends, strangers are unranked games, which makes this a Bizarro world version of matchmaking based multiplayer in the console world: ordinarily, games with friends are unranked, and games with strangers are what really count. Oh well. At least it’s there right? Right?

Personally, I didn’t really enjoy the previous installments in the series (I know, I know), but I know a lot of people did (given that it’s the best selling Gamecube game pretty much ever I believe), and this should sort of give them what they want. Besides, in its own way, Smash Bros Brawl is a party game, there for when you have friends over to slap on the shoulder and call unprintable names when they knock you off the stage. Again. So online multiplayer is just a bonus really. Hope you all kept those Gamecube controllers.

-Aegies

“The good news is we’re flowing more and more product into the marketplace, and the amount of Wii hardware that will be in North American stores will be unprecedented—substantially more than the launch and substantially more than has been seen to date,” Fils-Aime assured. “The bad news is that given the level of demand, and given the fact that the more we put in, the more we sell, it is still going to be difficult to get hands on the Wii.”

So when they say they will have substantially more, what they mean is they will have one. Maybe. Instead of going into the store and not seeing one at all, you might see where a Wii was. And if you ask the clerk if they have Wiis, he might say they had some last week, instead of saying that they had some last month. If you go to some stores, he might say he has one Wii, and then point to his pants. Ha! Over a year old and Wii jokes are still funny.

[Via Nextgen]

Jayslacks

Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (PSP, Wii)

Kane and Lynch (360)

Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron Hands-on Multiplayer (PSP)

Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (PSP)

Jam Sessions (DS)

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness Episodes I (PC, 360, Mac, Linux)

So, as you can see, I have been busy. Lots of meetings, talks, travels to game companies. All in all, it’s been amazing. Either way, just wanted to share, some of these games are looking pretty good.

Chufmoney

Me and another guy just stood in absolute amazement. That has to be more Wiis seen at one time than anywhere in the history of the world.

“Wow,” I said.

“I think I might buy one,” the other guy said. I was about to, too, and then I thought, Why? Well, hey, the Wii is a great system. Don’t start flaming on me. But the only reason I wanted to buy one when I saw that amazing pile was because they are close to impossible to find. I guess someone feed some coal into the Nintendo machine. Want a Wii? Head to Wilmington, NC. There might be two or three left.

Jayslacks

Regardless, dry your eyes, Nintendo faithful, and know that it will be ok.

-Aegies

Our prayers might soon be answered. At the final Hollywood & Games Summit panel Lucasart’s Jim Ward said, “internally we have already played a lightsaber game on the Wii. It’s a lot of fun, and we’ll get there.” Gamasutra, who released the information, speculates that this might be referring to the upcoming Wii release of Lego StarWars: The Complete Saga. The game does say that the player will use the Wii’s unique controls, so who knows?

Really LucasArt’s Jim Ward has just left many of us on an epic cliff hanger. We all want to fight the epic lightsaber battles from the movies, acting like a total douche in our bedrooms. Perhaps soon we will have the chance to see just how jedi like we can be when we’re sweating in our boxers. Please don’t fuck this up LucasArts.

Chufmoney

[via Gamasutra]

First up, his predictions on console numbers are pretty high: 100,000 for the PS3 (higher than the 82,000 units it moved in April), 225,000 for the 360 (versus 174,000 in the month prior), and a ridiculously high 400,000 units for the Wii, which is actually the lowest increase percentage wise for the three if it holds true (though it’s still around 12 percent higher than April’s 360,000 consoles sold). But really, when demand has been as high as it has been for the Wii, there’s little room for it to grow as much as the other two consoles.

While I’m not the type to jump down Pachter’s throat, as many in the gaming sphere tend to do, I’m curious as to his logic on such a huge across the board increase in sales for all three consoles. First, I was not under the impression that the Wii was any less supply constrained in May as it was in April, as the console continues to be next to impossible to find. As supply seems to be the only current limiting factor for the Wii, a lack of increased stock, even one as anecdotal as my own, would indicate that sales are probably going to be flattish. Unless, of course, Nintendo really is trickling out just a tiny bit more Wii out every month to maintain month over month increases, something I don’t believe to be true after speaking with sources inside of Nintendo.

As for the PS3 and the 360, while I’d like to see sales increases for both consoles, I don’t see much reason for that to be the case; the killer app on the 360 last month was a beta, tied to a title that already had its big sales in February and March. The Halo 3 beta was fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know of a lot of people who picked up the system for that. Forza 2 is great, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t see it moving an appreciable number of systems, and the Elite remains backordered and largely unavailable, which prevents it from making any appreciable impact. And the PS3? What released last month? Major titles continue to be no-shows or are consistently delayed (I’m looking at you Ubisoft), and while I understand that it’s hard to imagine the PS3 selling less than it did in April, I don’t see any reason for sales to have increased by 25 percent in May. Software sales will certainly be up, especially after the dismal release list from April, but I just don’t know where Pachter’s hardware enthusiasm is coming from. The system I don’t see him mention that definitely will see an increase would be the DS, which appears to be non-supply constrained for the first since Christmas. It’ll be interesting to see how it does post-Pokemon. What do you think? Is there a reason for the console numbers to go up, outside of the Wii?

-Aegies

This fall is going to get really, really interesting.

-Aegies

This very itch washed over my entire household over the weekend.  We all watched the StarCraft 2 trailers about a week ago and have had visions of zealots dancing in our heads while we dreamt for days now.  This culminated in the semi-epic search for four copies of the original StarCraft Battlechest.  We tried to call around to the local GameStop/EB Games but unfortunately they were sold out (some people were suffering from the same issue).  In the end we drove out to our local Fry’s Electronics and acquired our four copies.  About four hours later we finally all got together and played some LAN games.  Epic battles ensued, lives were lost, and the bloody glory of the Zerg was known throughout the land.

The above is just one example of how nostalgia has prompted strange video game outings.  Other times it has been an eternal search for a used copy of Indigo Prophecy for the original Xbox, or an immediate search for Star Wars:  Republic Commando when it was made backwards compatible.  The point is that amongst gamers this seems to happen a lot lately.  GameTap is a testament to this idea as well.  GameTap is almost entirely for those of us who are feeling nostalgic or simply want to become, as Shawn Elliott from GFW magazine said, “game literate.”  

Though technology is moving at a rate where game systems can easily improve within a few years we have seen an increase (with the exception of the 360) of systems that have a focus on backwards compatibility.  The DS plays the entirety of the Nintendo hand held catalog and the Wii not only has the virtual console but also the ability to play any GameCube game.  The PS3, at least the current American and Japanese versions, has the ability to play pretty much any PlayStation or PS2 game (CURSE YOU GUITAR HERO!). 

In my opinion the reason that backwards compatibility is becoming so important as we leap into new generations is because games have not taken such a revolutionary step that they make our old library seem insignificant.  What I mean is that besides graphics and some improved controls there isn’t that much that has changed between the original MGS and MGS3.  Unlike when we as gamers made the jump from 2D to 3D there hasn’t been a significant enough change to drive us to move away from our old games in masses.

The Nintendo Wii’s early success is relevant to this point.  The Wii did not go leaps and bounds, or even hops, above the previous generation of hardware but still sells incredibly well.  While some might be quick to point out that the reason the Wii sells well is because of its revolutionary motion controls I would say there is more to it.  Not that the controls are not a driving factor, they most definitely are.  The point I am trying to make is that the Wii proves that people are no longer seeing the vast differences between gaming console generations that they used to; and they are willing to accept this if the idea that compelling games will be there. (Editor’s Note:  The PS2′s continued success in the face of an entire new generation of hardware is pretty evident of the above as well).  

This is why backwards compatibility is so important!  Because games are, as far as interface and graphics are concerned, moving at a slower rate than they used to.  People might not have had all the money to afford the vast library of PS2 games but now are purchasing them because they are so cheap, still filled with compelling game experiences, and still look relatively good.

Hopefully we’ll see backwards compatibility continue to be the norm.  I think software emulation works great because it can allow for the up sampling of games, but it is inevitably much more problematic than enabling hardware backwards compatibility.  We have all seen how slow and limited the backwards compatibility of the 360 and the European PS3 can be when you have to dedicate resources to coding for games that probably make the console company very little money any more.

The real question that waits to be seen is how far will backwards compatibility reach?  If there is a PS4 and beyond will they continue to keep the full backwards compatibility of the PlayStation name?  Gamers certainly care about this and hopefully the hardware manufacturers continue to do so as well.

Chufmoney

This comes as great news to the many Wii owners who are simply buying virtual console games because there hasn’t been any great games released lately.  While it still bothers me that within the first year of the console’s life I feel like the only games really worth buying after launch are first party, it does give me hope that I won’t have a reason to continue to feel the Wii-regret that strikes my heart every time I see my little white dust box.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved WarioWare:  SmoothMoves as much as the next person but it is a little played out for me.  I want my Wii to be more than a mini-game machine.  I want compelling single player experiences god dammit!

Whew.  Sorry about that…it’s hot and I guess i’m a little anxious at the prospect of having some great games to play for the Wii soon.  Until the fall, where I shall inevitably be eating poorly to support my gaming addiction, I’ll have to content myself with Mario Party 8 (curse you mini games!!!!!).

Basically Capcom chose to dumb down the game because they want the money.  And not just the money of the hardcore.  They want your parent’s money and your uncle who was dumb enough to buy a Wii’s money(dumb because he was sucked into the hype even though he wasn’t a gamer, not because owning a Wii is dumb).  And so, to appeal to the inept Wii audience Capcom decided that the gaming public was largely incapable of moving and shooting at the same time. 

The transition of Umbrella Chronicles from a RE4 styled game to a light gun release speaks to me as a horrible truth about the Wii.  Developers are becoming trapped by the expanded audience.  While one could argue that the inclusion of both casual and hardcore gamers into the Nintendo Wii console community allows developers to create games for both, it thus far appears to have stagnated the Wii’s ability to produce unique, mature, and compelling content.

Developers are struggling to get a piece of the Wii cash machine and thus realize that to do so in a manner that is cost effective they have one of two options.  Either develop something that can appeal to all of the millions of Wii owners out there, or simply release a port for a last-gen system; or worse, release a port that looks worse and was originally released as a hand held game.

For the more hardcore gaming audience I suspect this is not a problem.  Most gamers that I have met that play games at a level that borders addiction usually own an additional gaming platform besides their Wii.  The Wii gives these gamers a system to play with their friends, and a way to revisit older console games.  Their other gaming platform provides them with the more “complex” and serious gaming experiences. 

But I did not purchase a Wii because I wanted it to sit unused while my friends were not around.  I purchased a Wii because Reggie and Miyamoto-san made me a believer that this was going to be Nintendo’s most compelling console yet.  I pictured myself spending hours on my Wii playing all the games the original IPs that were going to be released.  I believed that this time around Nintendo really was not going to allow a drought.

I’ll step down from the soap box now.  But what I want to create a discourse about is whether or not you think Nintendo’s casual gaming audience is holding the system back creatively?  Is the larger more inclusive audience that the system derives its name from pigeon holing the complexity of the game selection?

Chufmoney