Wii’s Lineup For 2009: Return of the Hardcore?

Let’s be honest, if you are a Nintendo-exclusive “hardcore” gamer, 2008 probably wasn’t the best year for you. Yes, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, arguably two of the best, must-have Wii games currently on the market were both released early in the year but the latter half of the year was, to be blunt, severely lacking in “hardcore” content; gamers got Wii Music, Wario Land: Shake It, and Animal Crossing: City Folk as their big holiday titles. Here’s the good news though: after playing many of the Wii’s upcoming 2009 and early 2010 games at this year’s E3, it looks like the “hardcore” audience will finally be given a feast of games to savor.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers

Winter 2009- Crystal Bearers is a single-player action RPG from Square-Enix that takes place a thousand years after the events of the original Crystal Chronicles. Not only was it shown off during Nintendo’s Press Conference at this year’s E3 but it was also a cornerstone of Square-Enix’s showing at this year’s show. This attention is justified though as the demo I played on the show floor at Nintendo’s had a fantastic amount of variety. I was piloting an airship through a canyon one minute and throwing enemies around with my telekinesis the next. Not to mention, this game has a feature that a lot of major game sites haven’t really touched on but the developers have clearly put a lot of work into.

The aforementioned feature is that Layle, the main character in this Wii-exclusive epic, can utilize his telekinetic abilities to interact with the civilian environment and the civilians actually react as they should. For example, if Layle picks up the child of a city-goer, the civilians may knock the player away with force, gather back-up or run away for help depending on the situation. This “reaction AI system” in which different creatures react in unique ways to other creatures nearby and to the player’s attacks is something  has never really been fully explored before in a Final Fantasy game. Add that on top of gameplay variety, gorgeous graphics and a deep story and you’ve got one heck of a game for this winter.

Red Steel 2

Q4 2009- A prime example of how to do a sequel, Red Steel 2 outshines its Wii launch title predecessor in every way imaginable. The graphical style is gorgeous, it runs at a solid 60 frames per second, and it utilizes Nintendo’s 1:1 motion control peripheral to finally give players the precision they’ve been begging for when it came to sword-fighting on Wii. In the demo I played at E3, I was taken through three different levels. The first of these served as a tutorial for the game where the awesome spaghetti-western samurai cowboy protagonist was hacking and slashing at scarecrows and I was introduced to the controls, the second dropped me into a full level of play and the third was an intense boss battle with a enemy wielding an enormous hammer.

Moving a sword feels exactly as it should due to the precision of the MotionPlus which, aside from being bundled with this summer’s Wii Sports Resort, will also be bundled in with Red Steel 2. The gunplay also feels quite good utilizing the IR pointer on the remote to aim at your enemies. Another really cool thing about Red Steel 2 is that the player now has the ability to switch between their gun and sword for use in combat on the fly and fights no longer restrict you to using one or the other. The game also utilizes the speaker in the Wii Remote for tasks like cracking open a safe and projecting the clanking of swords in an intense bout. This was by far the best shooter on the floor at Nintendo’s booth.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Fall 2009- A game that’s being touted as the “re-imagining” of the original classic Silent Hill, I can confirm that this reboot is not a port, features an all-new soundtrack by the highly-acclaimed game composer Akira Yamaoka, and makes full use of the Wii’s motion controls. Even the classic characters of Harry Mason and his daughter Cheryl have been completely re-designed to give the game a fresh feel. Much in the same vein of Dead Space, the developers at Climax Studios wanted to focus on keeping the player as engrossed in the game as possible. For example, Harry’s cell phone acts as the user interface, which acts as a story telling device, map, puzzle helper, and camera that provides seamless flow with no interruption in gameplay. Players can also use it to zoom in on the environment, as shown to me in the demo on the E3 floor.

One of the coolest things about the game though is that the developers have eliminated one of the series’ players’ big complaints: combat. And, while a combat-free game may seem strange at first, I can assure you that its exclusion from this iteration of the series is a very good thing and that having to evade monsters actually makes the game THAT much scarier. On top of all this, Shattered Memories is one of the best looking Wii games I have ever seen. Everything from the light coming out of Harry’s flashlight to the snow falling from the sky is rendered beautifully and actually takes full advantage of the Wii’s hardware for the better. The demo was one of the most impressive things I played at E3 and will certainly be a contender for “Wii Game of the Year” when it is released this fall.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

September 2009- If you’ve read any Wii-related stories this past month on Gaming Vice, I’m sure you’re already well aware of this gorgeous action game by the developers of Odin Sphere; it’s no secret that the staff here is absolutely head-over-heels for the game. If you haven’t already read my in-depth hands-on of Muramasa, the game is published by Ignition Entertainment. Muramasa takes place in Feudal Japan and stars two young ninja: Kisuke, a young man who remembers nothing of his past and is fighting to re-gain his memory, and Momohime, a hime who has been possessed by the spirit of Jinkuro, an evil swordsman.

The game is really everything that a hardcore gamer could want from a third-party effort on Wii. Based on the demo at E3, the action was solid and very-well paced, the combos were visceral and fluid, the hand-drawn graphics by master artist George Kamitami (who I also happened to meet and photo-op with at E3 during our private showing of Muramasa) are breathtaking, and the original Japanese voice acting is all intact. I cannot wait to finally get my hands on this game again come September.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Holiday 2009- Yet another game that I’ve already done a hands-on for! Really though, what more is there to say about this awesome four-player co-op 2D Mario title for the Wii that I didn’t already mention. It was one of my five nominations for “Best Game of E3″ this year, it’s being developed under the watchful eyes of master game creator Shigeru Miyamoto and is essentially Zelda: Four Swords crammed into a Mario platformer. Plus, it’ll sell a ton and it’s definitely something that will satiate the mainline Nintendo franchise craving fanboys come this Holiday season. Here’s a trailer for it if you really have no idea what this game is:

Oh, and did I mention the Koopa Kids from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World are appearing in this game as mini-bosses after more than fifteen years out of the limelight? That should be reason enough for you to go out and pre-order New Super Mario Bros. Wii as soon as you can.

Dead Space Extraction

September 29, 2009- A prequel to the hit 360/PS3 survival-horror game, Dead Space, Extraction takes place directly before the events of the original game. Also, it’s an on-rails shooter. However, before jumping to conclusions, it’s actually worth noting that after playing the demo at E3, the game is one of the best if not the best on-rails shooter for the Wii. Extraction, which can be played alone or co-op with a friend (the version I played on the show floor was co-op) is also one of the prettiest games on the system and the developers I talked to mentioned that they have really worked hard at capturing the look and feel of the original game in this Wii iteration.

It’s also worth noting that the combat ideas cemented in the original Dead Space have been fleshed out quite well in this Wii prequel. “Strategic Dismemberment” is still alive and well in this game and while many of the weapons that players fell in love with in the original such as the Plasma Cutter and the Hydrogen Torch Flamethrower have returned, new weapons have been added as well along with the return of the “stasis” mechanic from the original. Plus, the demonstrator on the floor hinted to me that the game would feature characters from the original Dead Space too, though he wouldn’t specify who would be returning. Extraction, for all intents and purposes, looks like it’ll be one hell of a ride when it launches on Wii this September.

Tatsunoku vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars

Q4 2009- Here’s one that I know our huge fighting game audience will be drooling over and after playing the game at Capcom’s E3 booth (despite having to wait in line for about a half hour) I can safely say the game is arcade-perfect. Originally released in Japan last December, many people thought that the game would never hit U.S. shores due to the ridiculous amount of licensing issues needed to get all of the rights to the Tatsunoko characters but, somehow, Capcom managed to surprise us all and pull it off sparing Americans only one character from the Japanese version, Hakushon Daimaō.

While the game is not at all a balanced fighter (but really, neither are the previous Vs. Capcom titles), it is still remarkably fun. Each player has a team of two, and players can switch their characters at any time, with the exception of Tatsunoko’s Gold Lightan and Capcom’s PTX-40A due to the fact they take up an entire side of the screen. And, despite the exclusion of one character from the Japanese release, Capcom has stated that the U.S. version may add new features to the game, including possible additions of several new characters from both Capcom and Tatsunoko (here’s hoping for Servbot, Amateratsu, and Dante from Capcom and Speed Racer and the Samurai Pizza Cats from Tatsunoko) as well as online gameplay! This a fighter you will not want to miss come this Holiday.

Metroid Prime Trilogy

August 24th, 2009- Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption with an achievement system, the fantastic Wii controls of Corruption re-worked into the two previous Prime games in the same vein as the “New Play Control” games Nintendo has recently been churning out, the multiplayer mode from Echoes, 480p and widescreen support, and a MSRP of $49.99? This is without a doubt the best deal of the year and is a much better approach to re-packaging the Prime games than releasing them seperately like Japan is doing. Honestly, if you missed out on the first two Metroid Primes on Gamecube for whatever reason, whether you didn’t like how the FPS controls felt on a Gamecube controller, or you were just never into the genre or the Metroid series, you still owe it to yourself to pick this package up and at least give the series a try. Plus, when you consider that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption alone is still priced at 49.99, this is seriously a real bargain.

Players can now set up profiles using their Miis, and all of their progress in each game will be stored to their personal Mii profile. At any time, a player can now pull up their progress, completion percentage and the location of their save file as well as an option menu that affects all three games. Basically, if you change your control settings in any one of the games, they will carry over into each of the other games and default to your personal controls each time you boot up the game. And, as if all of those tweaks weren’t enough, the achievement system from Corruption has now been worked into the previous two games and players will be able to share their achievements with their friends using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. As if you couldn’t already guess, I am super excited for this re-release and can’t wait until it’s finally unleashed come late August.

Little King’s Story

July 21st 2009- After being reminded by my fellow NeoGAF brethren that I left out this gem of a game from my list, I knew I had to go back and add a section on it. For those who don’t know (which is probably a great deal of you), Little King’s Story, published by Marvelous Entertainment in the U.S., is a simulation RPG where the player controls Corobo, a young man who has found a mysterious crown that gives him the power make people follow orders. And, since it his duty as king, Corobo, makes it his goal to expand his own village and make his new loyal subjects happy. Little King’s Story, however, is not your average kingdom building sim game due to the fact that real-time adventuring and questing makes up the majority of Little King’s Story‘s gameplay.

King Corobo must explore the land outside of his kingdom in order to advance the plot, gather treasure and conquer the other kingdoms around him. Corobo’s problem however, is that he is a relatively weak fighter. So, using his newfound power, he makes others do all fighting for him. All of his kingdom’s civilians and Corobo possess a set amount of life and just like in any other strategy game, should a fighter lose all of his he will die, and if Corobo dies, the game ends. In order to regain their health, the player must search for hot springs to replenish their life. It’s also worth noting that the game is quite funny and, in a world filled with grim and gory games, Little King’s Story acts as a nice change from the norm. Not to mention, the game has already received rave reviews by media outlets the world over garnering a 9/10 in the highly acclaimed EDGE magazine and a 9.1 from IGN’s Australian affiliate making the wait for this game that much harder!

***

Keep in mind all of the fantastic games I listed above are coming in the fall and winter months of this year and I have excluded a large amount of great games that I already covered or that are coming out very soon from it. For example, Wii Sports Resort, which I recently put a fairly large hands-on preview of up on the site was excluded from the list due to the fact that it’s coming out in late July and soon-to be WiiWare classic Cave Story, a remake of the original done from the ground-up for Wii, along with High Voltage software’s Wii technology-pushing FPS, The Conduit, were excluded because they are both scheduled to be released within the next couple weeks (or this Tuesday in the case of The Conduit). Add to that the fact that the WiiMotion Plus perhiprial just launched and we already have two extremely high-quality sports games using the technology, Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’10 and Grand Slam Tennis, the long-anticipated Punch-Out!!!, which I reviewed last month, has finally been released and a constant stream of new WiiWare and Virtual Console games are being released every Monday. I also excluded Wii Fit Plus because while I’m sure it will sell extremely well when it is released this fall, I know the majority of the hardcore could care less about it (though really, if you read my E3 impressions of the game, you’ll see it’s actually pretty fun). Oh, and since I decided to only cover Wii-exclusive titles, I also excluded Beatles: Rock Band and DJ Hero despite the fact they will probably sell best on Wii this holiday season.

Plus, don’t even get me started on what 2010 will bring to the Wii. With Super Mario Galaxy 2, a sequel to the 2007 Game of the Year, Metroid: Other M, an all-new Metroid game from Nintendo and highly-acclaimed developer Team Ninja that focuses on a more-action packed, story driven Metroid experience, Monster Hunter Tri, the third game in the Japanese best-selling Monster Hunter series which will be releasing in Japan on August 1st and arriving on American shores in March of next year, and Sin and Punishment 2, a sequel to the niche cult-classic N64 game that I was able to try out at E3, 2010 already looks like it will be a stellar year to be a Wii owner.

Simply put, 2009 is going to be, and already is, a fantastic year to be a Wii gamer and no matter what your taste, there looks to be something for everyone this year on the Wii.

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1. 2010 Nintendo Media Summit Roundup
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3. Sales Vice: July 2009 NPD Results
4. Sales Vice: June 2009 NPD Results
5. Vice Recap: Nintendo E3 Conference