In 1993, director Jon Turteltaub brought Cool Runnings to the silver screen. A story of hopes and dreams, Cool Runnings followed the inspiring (and hilarious!) story of the first Jamaican Bobsled team’s rise to greatness.

Word straight from Gaijin games is that their new-retro classic Bit.Trip Beat is finally being released on Europe’s WiiWare service this Friday. Europeans have been complaining for a while that they haven’t gotten the game yet, as they enjoy their fine teas and jellies, not to mention all the games that Nintendo of America will never release in the United Says like Disaster: Day of Crisis and Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Ruppeeland.

Thing is, this is WiiWare we’re speaking about, and WiiWare is notoriously unreliable when it comes to release schedules. Nintendo of Europe may have told Gaijin Games that Bit.Trip Beat is coming out on Friday, but they still have two days to suddenly change their mind. Those poor Europeans will just have to wait until Friday to know for sure.

That’s quite a long wait. Hope you guys got plenty of jellies!

Toribash isn’t like other videogames.

It’s hard to even say what genre it’s a part of. As far as gameplay goes, all you can do is alter the angle and position of the body parts of a Vectorman-looking dummy. Doing so will determine the strength and type of attack the dummy will carry out once you give it the go-ahead begin to moving. Attacks potentially lead to large levels of Van Damme-age. Heads and limbs being ripped off, with a spray of red and purple paint, are absolutely the norm in the minimalist, violent, and bizarre world of Toribash.

You really have to see it (or play it) yourself to comprehend. Hit the jump to see a vid of the game’s nearly completed WiiWare port in action, or download the game (for Mac of PC) right here, and then tell me; is this the kind of game that’s worth buying on a home console, given that it’s already free on personal?

[via Gonintendo]

source Destructoid

There are certain games that barely need to be reviewed. A easy “If you like this sort of thing, you’ll like this game” is all anyone really needs to know. I’m talking about games like Halo 3, Rock Band 2, Mega Man 9; games that fans of their genres will completely love, but non-fans just won’t.

Rune Factory: Frontier is almost that kind of game. If you like the time/resource management, farming, and dating stuff that has made the Harvest Moon games so successful over the years, you’ll really like this game. If you hate Harvest Moon, well, it’s not likely that Rune Factory: Frontier will be for you.

This review is for the people in between, those that sometimes like Harvest Moon, but other times hate it with a passion. People like that might still get into Rune Factory: Frontier for its sizable amount of action/dungeon crawling. Sure, the game is still about watering turnips and getting the local girls to marry you, but it’s also about cleaving goblin’s heads open with a broadsword. For me, that’s a big deal. I’ve always wanted to enjoy the Harvest Moon games, but I just couldn’t. The series’ signature combination of passivity and constant responsibility just doesn’t jive with my inherent need to be completely lazy and violent at all times.

Were these action elements enough to get a non-Harvest Moon fan to like a farming sim? Hit the jump to find out.

Rune Factory: Frontier (Wii)
Developer: Neverland
Publisher: Marvelous Entertainment/XSeed Games
Released: March 17, 2009
MSRP: $49.99

I’ve been trying to get this review finished for weeks. It’s probably been the toughest assignment I’ve done for Destructoid yet, both due to the game’s big size, and also due to a certain indescribable quality the game possesses. Just last week I was telling Anthony Burch that reviewing Rune Factory: Frontier is like trying to review the Television show Friends one episode at a time. It’s all technically above average, all a tiny bland, but most of all, its body of work is so nondescript and inoffensive that it’s really hard to even speak about.

Rune Factory: Frontier is a game about a slightly girly amnesiac (clich

Did you hear that Monster Hunter D Wii sold something around 100,000 duplicates in its first day of release in Japan? Crazy sales for a Wii port of a PSP port of a PS2 game.

Chances are that these sales have less to do with Japan’s interest in a four-year-old PS2 game, and more to do with the demo of Monster Hunter Tri that comes with it. Ever since last year’s Tokyo Game Show, it’s been clear that Monster Hunter Tri might be the game in Japan for 2009. Though I haven’t played the demo myself (yet), I’m extremely curious about it. Capcom rarely fails to please in the third-person action game department, and the game’s graphics are pretty much the ideal the Wii has seen yet.

It is becoming more and more clear that Capcom doesn’t think it can possibly release the original Resident Evil enough. The game’s been updated and revamped more than Joan River’s face and they aren’t stopping. Next up is the Wii port of the game Resident Evil: Archives which just got a Japanese teaser trailer. The budget game will feature remakes of Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Zero that have already been released before as separate games in Japan.The trailer itself is pretty much useless on all fronts as it doesn’t show any new content, but does proclaim proudly that the game will be on the Wii.

Archives is scheduled for release in the US this June at the low price of $29.99 and will feature some added Wii Remote controls that include shaking for readying weapons and other fun motion stuff that we’re sure will add an entire new layer to the game. The game looks to be nearly exactly like the GameCube remake except for the motion controls shoved in so there isn’t much new to see here, especially because it doesn’t even look like widescreen will be thrown in for a variety of reasons. I’m just going to pop my GameCube version in my Wii and save $30.

Back in the 90’s there was a brief explosion of games that used claymation. It was awesome. Anyone who lived through that era can tell you that playing a claymation videogame is sweet. In fact if you haven’t played The Neverhood I would advocate taking off your gamer badge and turning it in to your local chief of gamer police. Also released in this spurt of clay gaming glory was ClayFighter, a cartoony fighting game that rocked many clay socks.

I haven’t played this game in years as it really is one of those fighters that is good, but not so great you bust it out regularly to relive the memories. However, that could all change as the ESRB has listed the game for the Virtual Console. If you’ve never gotten a chance with the game it’s worth a download if it actually does come out as it is by far one of the most creative fighters ever made as far as artistic style goes — fighting wise it’s basically Street Fighter in clay. If you want to get irrationally excited then let’s all hope that this means the struggling Interplay is hoping claymation gaming will once again bring it top sellers as it did in the 90s with ClayFighter and the Claymates series and is thus planning an all claymation line-up.

source Destructoid

I’m almost positive that my glasses are beyond RetRose tinted on this one, but I’m going to state it anyway: Mad Dog McCree was the greatest arcade light gun game ever made. Here me out here. Not only was the game a light gun game (a basic stipulation to be the ideal light gun game ever made), but it was also live action! You shot some real person and then he’d fall after the proper cinematic loaded. It was awesome! It was like being in a movie I tell you! And the acting in these things was amazing.

Plus, at the crappy arcade that was attached to the Putt-Putt golf course I went to it was the only light gun game around. That instantly catapulted it to a far superior standing than any of the other light gun game in existence. That place also had the 3D holographic game. Did you ever play that? Soooo cooool. I’m sure it had a name too. Man, arcades were awesome. Oh, and remember how in Mad Dog McCree you could shoot a guy on a balcony and then he’d fall off — classic western.

Ummm, there was a reason I started this post… oh, yes! Mad Dog McCree and most likely its sequel are coming to the Wii in the form of Mad Dog McCree: Gunslinger Pack. The ESRB has a rating for it and everything. Now I can have the feeling of the arcade at home and all I have to do is figure out a way to charge people 100 tickets for these little plastic Army Men I have sitting around. Since I wasted most of this space on stream of consciousness writing you’re going to have to hit the jump to read the ESRB’s description of the game.

In this console generation, “hardcore” gamers — especially sports gamers — have completely dismissed and ignored the Wii (you know, like many Destructoid readers dismiss and ignore sports games). Their disdain for Nintendo’s wildly successful console might not approach Chad Warden levels, but you might hear this familiar refrain: “real gamers play on 360/PS3.” The higher-horsepower systems have always produced the best experiences, and that’s where most people play.

How ironic, then, that EA’s first-ever foray into the tennis sphere, EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis, might provide the most realistic, accurate simulation of the sport ever seen — and it’s on the Wii. I got my grubby paws on the game at EA’s Season Opener event yesterday afternoon, and I’m here to tell you all about it. Follow me to the jump, kiddies!

EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis (Wii)
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: EA Sports
To be released:
June 12, 2009 (UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Australia)
June 15, 2009 (North America)
June 26, 2009 (worldwide, with exceptions listed above)

Since Grand Slam Tennis happens to be a Wii game that takes some time to get the hang of, it includes a helpful tutorial mode. There, you’ll learn how to manipulate your swing and master your timing. Without the Wii MotionPlus add-on, the game takes care of your backhand, and you use the D-pad to control shot types. But ball placement is up to you. For example, if you’re a righty and you want to hit the ball across your body to your left, swing slightly before the ball gets to you. To hit it straight, swing when it reaches you, and to hit it to your right, swing a bit late. This gives you all the tools you need to be a tennis pro — but adding MotionPlus forces you to up your game.

Wii MotionPlus allows for a true 1:1 correlation between your motions with the Wiimote and what you see in the game (which is, of course, what we all thought we were getting with the Wii in the first place). When I state “1:1,” I mean it: if you hold the Wiimote out to your right, and then bring it across your body to your left, that’s what your in-game player will do. Rotate the Wiimote in your hand, and the player will rotate his/her racket. It’s totally unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a videogame from an immersion perspective — aside from wearing tennis shoes and standing on an actual court, you might as well be holding a real racket in your hands, because that’s how the Wii Remote functions with MotionPlus attached.

MotionPlus ups the ante on the realism front and on the difficulty front; when that little dongle is plugged into your Wiimote, you have to be acutely aware of how you’re holding the controller — even a slight twist will totally change a shot. With MotionPlus, the shot type depends on the angle at which the racket strikes the ball (i.e., the rotation of the Wiimote), and the stroke itself (your arm motion). Ball placement is dependent upon where you finish your swing. Looking to bury the ball in the back left corner? Bring the controller across your body from right to left. To hit it off to the right, stop your swing on your right side. For a slice, bring your arm down with a high-to-low motion; to give the ball some topspin, go from low to high. In essence, treat the Wii Remote like a tennis racket. [For more information, see the video below.]

Because the game focuses so much on nailing the swinging aspect of the sport, player movement is controlled entirely by the personal. In my (admittedly brief) time with the game, I didn’t find that to be an issue; the game automatically moves you toward the ball (though of course, with MotionPlus, you’ve control over whether you hit a forehand or a backhand). Still, the way producer Thomas Singleton talked about MotionPlus was this: “It’s a different experience — one’s not better to the other.” He told me that he doesn’t have a particular preference toward either control scheme. As he explained it, sometimes, he’s just not up for paying attention to how he’s holding the Wii Remote. Even without MotionPlus, you can still get an authentic experience.

Grand Slam Tennis offers online play, but that wasn’t being shown at the event. Instead, I took on GameDaily’s Chris Buffa in a few games. He played as Pete Sampras; I selected cover athlete John McEnroe. The two-player competitive play is split-screen, which I really liked; the camera zooms out far enough to keep all the action on each player’s half of the screen. Like all Wii games, there’s a slight delay between your movements and the on-screen game, so both he and I whiffed a few times on shots (we either swung too early or too late). But I really enjoyed myself; tennis is a sport that plays very well to the Wii’s very special strengths. As for graphics, the game doesn’t aim for realism in the visual department; instead, it succeeds with a neat, stylized look, and I saw no frame rate drops.

From a gameplay standpoint, EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis genuinely appears to be the most true-to-life simulation of tennis yet, and it’s specifically because of the Wii’s control mechanism. Part of me would like to see EA Canada go the extra mile and grant you to control the movement of your player with the Nunchuk, but to their credit, they’ve nailed what’s present. Keep an eye on this one, Wii owners.

source Destructoid

State it with me: “It’s about God damned time.” Revealed as downloadable content last freakin’ year, the classic Jane’s Addiction album Nothing’s Shocking is coming to Rock Band as downloadable content next week. The best news? It’s coming to all three platforms, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii.

The following tracks — along with “Mountain Song,” which already appears on the Rock Band 2 disc — will complete the album: