I’m playing the Japanese version of Hudson’s Job Island: Hard Working People (or Help Wanted if you live in the US). The confusion over its title is not the only baffling thing about the game. Even by Japanese standards, this is completely off its box, and easily the maddest minigame mash-up on Wii since Taito’s Furu Furu Park.

The idea is that the planet is facing imminent doom in the form of a comet. You - playing as one of two androgynous siblings whose hair has curiously been styled into a spanner shape (though that’s nothing; there’s an old man who has a lightbulb at the end of his ponytail) - have to take on jobs to earn money, which is used to purchase items from a TV shopping channel which can either buy you more time or help destroy the incoming Extinction Level Event. You can also buy new uniforms which unlocks more jobs for you to tackle, though you’re best specialising in a few roles rather than spreading yourself too thinly, as you can level up each job to earn more money (though the games get harder as you progress).

The jobs themselves are wide-ranging - there’s a fun fishing minigame which sees you steering a boat with the analogue stick and casting your net with a remote flick (there’s a slight lag, so timing is everything) while another sees you taking photos of a skydiving team as you plummet towards the ground. Another sees you steering an injured man around a busy hospital on a gurney, tilting to guide him around wandering patients and picking up doctors who’ll help you pick up the pace. You can get bonuses for completing the tasks in hand within the time limit or by earning a certain amount of money, while the game throws you a few curveballs by giving you specific jobs to do on certain days, with success rewarding you with extra time before the comet hits, or bonus points to buy more items which can assist you in your daily tasks.

While the in-game graphics are fairly rudimentary, the cartoonish presentation is charming and entirely bonkers - once you’re rid of the first comet, you get a larger asteroid headed your way, which I got the old man to fend off by whacking a magical golf ball at it, which I purchased from the shopping channel. The asteroid was replaced by a gigantic bowl of ramen, which in turn is followed by an alien with a planet-sized Afro. The minigames themselves are hit and miss - as you might expect - but there are some thoroughly enjoyable tasks to complete, and you’re rarely forced into doing a job you’re not keen on.

I’ll bring you a full review soon once I’ve played some more, but I’ve quite enjoyed my time as a Hard Working Person and am looking forward to seeing what apocalyptic danger I’ll be facing next. It’s released in Europe on 31st March, with no concrete release date for its US debut.

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Subsonic has released info and pics of its latest two peripherals for Wii. The first is a lightsaber which no doubt due to copyright issues has to be referred to as a Laser Sword, which lights up either constantly or when you swing the remote. Nice idea, but to be frank the people who buy these things are imagination-free idiots. Though it’s maybe just about acceptable if you have kids. Maybe.

The second accessory is the Wireless Nunchuk Adaptor, which allows for “up to 50 hours of game autonomy” on 2 AAA batteries, which aren’t provided. It also makes your nunchuk about twice as big, so it’s a bit like holding two remotes. Considering half the appeal of the original nunchuk is in its ergonomic and lightweight design - and given that the cable between the two is plenty long enough for every game you’ll ever need it for (unless you’re doing some really bizarre and wrong movements while playing) - this has to be one of the most pointless peripherals I’ve seen.

Might be good for the one-handed control of Opoona, but then again you’ve got Nyko’s wireless adapter which is smaller and almost certainly better. Ah well.

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I was in absolute disbelief while reading the CBC article about Michael Rudder. Rudder is primarily known for his stage acting in Canada, as well as his list of voice acting stints.

Rudder was a victim of one of the terrorist attacks that occurred in Mumbai, India. In a Mumbai hotel, while dining with his friends is where the attack took place. Instead of explaining the story myself, here’s Rudder’s own words.

“We heard gunshots and, the idiot that I am…I went towards them thinking, what’s that? The staff shushed me back and said, ‘It’s just gangsters, sir, it’s not a problem, just go back to your table.’ And there was my sorta fatal error, really, because I did go back to my table and I said, ‘Apparently it’s just some kinda gangster activity and it’s no big deal.’ Five minutes later, we were just ripped to shreds by bullets.”

Rudder then went on to talk about his survival of the attack…

“I found myself in a Bruce Willis Die Hard moment…where my arm — had a lovely white shirt on — and it just exploded into red. And, while I was taking that in, I got a bullet in my leg. So I quickly got myself on the floor to get a bullet in the butt as I was going down — and then another bullet, still another bullet grazed my head. So I just laid there in utter shock.”

Playing dead worked until the terrorists started to use smoke grenades, then Rudder had to make a move…

“If I would’ve sat there and said, ‘Oh, I don’t feel well, I don’t think I’ll get up from the floor and watch the smoke come in and suffocate me,’ I think I would’ve been kind of an idiot…To tell you the truth, I followed the bloodstains…I just crawled out and got down to the service exit off the kitchen, walked out into the street, which was cordoned off, and one of those wonderful yellow-and-black cabs came roaring out of nowhere, bundled me into it. They zoomed us over here to the Bombay Hospital.”

Rudder then goes on to talk about comparing his experience with movies to the actual event. If you want to read the rest of the story, click the link above. I’m still in shock just reading his story. Coming so close to Christmas, it serves as a reminder of how lucky we truly are to have what we have. Luckily, Rudder should be able to make a trip back to Canada in time for Christmas to be with his family.

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You may recall that last week I posted a piece about the imminent closure of Imagine Publishing’s Nintendo mag NRevolution. You may also have noticed that the post has since been removed. I took it down at the respectful request of Imagine’s MD Damian Butt, who wished to make an official statement about the closure, which he promised to forward to me at the appropriate time. That appropriate time is now.

“The decision to suspend N•Revolution has been taken because it has become increasingly obvious that Nintendo’s strategy for Wii and DS is no longer in line with Imagine Publishing’s target readership, and has moved increasingly away from the hardcore gaming community that is our specialty,” Butt explains.

“With many new launches and especially acquisitions coming to fruition, we believe the resources and manpower are better spent in other markets where advertising revenue and PR support are stronger and sustained,” he continues. “Imagine will continue to drive purchases of Nintendo software with games™, Retro Gamer and our new multiformat videogames website, NowGamer.com, and we hope to work closely with Nintendo in the future on those magazines.”

It’s clear that NRevolution was no longer a decent fit for the company’s portfolio, with Butt further explaining to me that “[Imagine] just felt that the Nintendo market is getting younger and younger and Imagine specialises in magazines for males aged 24-35″. It’ll be interesting to see if Nintendo’s shift towards a more youthful and more mass-market audience will impact upon other publications or sites, but for now it seems NRevolution is the first major casualty of the casual. It shall be missed.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lJa__pn0sk

Regular readers of this blog will know just how enamoured I am with Wii Music. But that’s not to say that Miyamoto’s latest is without its flaws. On the contrary, there are some glaring issues which will almost certainly prevent it lasting as long on my current playlist as I’d like. What’s interesting is that most of these problems could be quite easily rectified, as you’ll see if you read on. So here are the five things I’d change about Wii Music, to not only make it a better game, but to substantially increase its longevity.

5. Overdub Omission

A bizarre one, this. Let’s say, for example, you’ve just finished the final part of a tune, but you want to listen to the song again before deciding whether it’s how you want it, or you’d like to remove one instrument which sounds out of place. Returning to the instrument selection screen, you finally get things sounding perfect and then you want to save your tune. Only problem is: you can’t. You’ll have to go through and overdub one of the instrument parts you’ve already recorded - either that or choose an instrument and then remain silent for the whole song before saving your music video once it’s over. Surely there should be an option to save without having to complete the final part of a song and then save. A patch to fix this wouldn’t be too much effort, I’m certain.

4. Handbell Hell

The Handbell ringing and orchestra-conducting minigames are hugely enjoyable - if lightweight - diversions that undoubtedly add to the fun of Wii Music. So why do we only get a choice of five songs in each? Opening these games up to cover a wider selection of music - if not the entire tracklist - would certainly make them more worth revisiting. But no - once you’re done there’s only high scores to aim for. Handbell remains entertaining every now and again if you’ve got friends round, but there’s little to keep the solo player returning once he or she has mastered each tune.

3. WiiTube

As you can see from the video above (and indeed the many similar ones featured on the site) YouTube is full of Wii Music owners videoing their performances to share with the world. It’s one thing to be able to swap tunes with Wii pals, quite another to be able to demonstrate to a potential audience of millions what Wii Music is capable of. It’s a tremendous advert for the game, so why can’t we just save YouTube-compatible vids for easy uploading rather than having to set up our video cameras for shaky and/or poor-quality footage of our best work? Games like Skate have proved it’s possible to do, and Nintendo would be wise to add a similar feature.

2. Battle of the bands

Mario Kart Wii has undoubtedly benefitted from regular online challenges and even the Check Mii Out channel offers competitions to inspire Wii owners to get creative. An excellent way to extend Wii Music’s lifespan would be to set regular monthly tasks - like performing the Animal Crossing theme in a jazz style, or tackling Material Girl only using wind instruments. There could be prizes on offer for the best examples, and the songs would be available for Wii Music owners to download and watch as further inspiration. Makes sense, no?

1. D.L.C.

Above all, Wii Music would be a much better and longer-lasting game if it offered regular downloadable content. I’m not asking for much - a new song or two every now and again to spark players’ imaginations into gear, the odd new instrument to master, perhaps even a new set of Jam Mastery lessons teaching you a whole new style, or the option to use the balance board for percussion instruments outside the special drumming mode. While fifty songs and sixty instruments sounds like a lot, there are bound to be tunes which people don’t want to bother with, and some of the novelty music-makers won’t be touched by those who take their Wii Music a little too seriously to bother with dog and cat noises. Given that Guitar Hero World Tour offers the opportunity to download tracks to an SD card, it’s not as if the lack of memory space would be a serious issue. At least think about it, eh, Nintendo?

© Shiny Media - visit Wii Wii for more great content.

Square-Enix today announced the forthcoming release of the next game in the Dragon Quest series. Based on the Japanese-only SNES RPG Dragon Quest V, Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride - released next Spring - is the follow-up to this year’s superb The Chapters of the Chosen.

The press release announces that the game is ‘considered to be one of the best games in the entire series’ but I’m sure Square-Enix said that about the last one, too. Though if it is as good as COTC, it’ll likely offer more excellent old-school role-playing with some amusing regional accents shining through in the written dialogue.

The story features three generations of the same family, with your protagonist starting the game as a child, following his father around the gameworld. You’ll get the chance to recruit monsters to your party to assist you in battle, and a new feature for this DS remake is the Exotica Net, which enables you to transfer items to and from other players wirelessly on your travels - a little like the ‘mingling’ system in The World Ends With You.

It’s the second of the so-called Zenithia trilogy, which concludes with the forthcoming Realms of Reverie, which could well be out before 2009 is over. Hardcore RPGers have plenty to look forward to next year, then.

Or 535,379 units to be exact, according to Kotaku. It’s a very healthy start for the new console, though it doesn’t quite eclipse its predecessor - in its first month on sale, the DS Lite shifted over 550,000 handhelds.

This means that the DS in its various guises has now sold 24,239,590 units in its country of origin, with some clear daylight now between the dual-screened portable and its nearest competitor, the (almost-)all-conquering PS2.

There’s still no confirmed date for the DSi’s appearance in Europe and the US, but then the DSL is still doing very well in both territories, whereas Nintendo acted quickly in Japan to halt the rise of the PSP. With Sony’s handheld comfortably behind the DS everywhere else, it could be quite some time before we’re messing about with pictures and music and downloading applications from the DSiWare service.

Ready 2 Rumble was one of the great games on the under appreciated, and much loved Sega Dreamcast. Since, many games have tried to emulate its formula, unsuccessfully. The sequel to the game didn’t fare much better than the knockoffs of other companies.

I just received this Press Release for the next Ready 2 Rumble game, coming to the Nintendo Wii. With Punch-Out! releasing next year, it looks like we’ll have plenty of boxing to go around.

NEW YORK, December 2, 2008 – The hilarious Ready 2 Rumble franchise is flexing its muscles and planning a major, star-studded return to the ring in spring 2009 with the launch of Ready 2 Rumble Revolution, the newest game in the much-loved series. Bringing the franchise to Wii™ for the first time, the game retains all the knockout features of best-sellers Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Round 1 and Round 2, while delivering a knockout punch of style and attitude. Tailored to take advantage of the motion-controlled realism of Wii, Ready 2 Rumble Revolution makes landing a punch more fun than ever.

“Ready 2 Rumble Revolution is poised to take back the title as the undisputed champion of arcade boxing games and we hope to reach an even bigger audience than ever thanks to the huge popularity of Wii,” said Phil Harrison, President of Infogrames, the parent company of Atari. “The outrageous celebrity caricatures paired with a fun boxing experience made even more over-the-top thanks to the Wii controllers will make the newest version of this famed franchise a must-have for all fans of boxing and physical fun on Wii.”

“Ready 2 Rumble Revolution will put the swagger back into the boxing ring and promote an adrenaline-boosting, positive will to win attitude in the hearts and minds of fans of all ages,” said Gaspard de Dreuzy, President of Stereo Mode and executive producer of the game.

Sure to satisfy newcomers and boxing fans alike, Ready 2 Rumble Revolution features a roster of 18 wildly caricatured cartoony boxers based on celebrities from the worlds of sports, music and movies. Celebrities enter the ring as larger-than-life “Rumble-ized” versions of themselves. Players will step right up and see if they can knock these super-sized egos down a peg or two!

The game is hosted by “The Voice of the Champions” Michael Buffer, famous for his “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble®” trademark call. Characters are brought to life with hilarious moves, detailed facial animations, damage textures and fighting techniques including special moves, combos, extreme knockdowns and special “Rumble” combos. An all new Championship Mode lets gamers create their own unique boxer and nurture his skills through mini-games, developing him as a fighter and creating a completely personalized Ready 2 Rumble Revolution experience.

Developed by AKI who bring their formidable fight game know-how to the franchise, Ready 2 Rumble Revolution brings a virtual boxing arena to the living room and delivers a fun and intuitive experience in either single player or multiplayer mode. The Wii controllers provide would-be pugilists with an intuitive and realistic feel. Using the Nunchuk™ controller as one glove and the Wii Remote™ controller as the other, players dodge, weave and throw the big punches to KO their opponents.

Virtual heavyweights can fight from the backstreet gym all the way to the big Las Vegas showdown with vivid new visuals bringing the five spectacular ring environments to life. The arcade experience is made even better thanks to advanced Artificial Intelligence allowing more strategic fights.

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Like the crows say in Dumbo, ‘I dun seen about everything’ , is how I felt after reading this article by Forbes.com. It’s the usual ‘Why The Wii Is Successful’ piece, but one interesting statistic popped out.

Nintendo is not only selling the most consoles of the big three (Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony), they’re making money off those consoles as well. This is a rather amazing statistic because generally speaking console makers lose money on hardware. Traditionally, the lost money on hardware is made up through accessory sales and software. Nintendo doesn’t have to worry about that route as they’re making $6 a unit for the Nintendo Wii.

So, let’s do some numbers. $6 x 35 million units sold = $210 million. While these are just analyst numbers, they are more than likely accurate. Because all you really have to do is figure how much the hardware components for putting together a Nintendo Wii cost.

It’s not hard to see how Nintendo is able to accomplish this feat. While Microsoft and Sony completely bank on technological behemoth hardware specs, Nintendo has tried a different approach. Lessen the specs, power wise, and make their console more readily usable to a larger group. Needless to say its paid off, as $210 million is quite a bit of money. That’s not even tallying up software, and accessory sales which have even a better margin than their hardware.

Bet you wished you would have invested in Nintendo stock during the Gamecube era? I know I do, I was just too poor then.

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