The Wii Gets Friendly
30 Aug 2007 - After a year of restless waiting, 3rd party online games are finally appearing on the Wii. Heres a quick roundup of some of the games you could be playing with friends across the globe soon.
What do Red Steel, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Metal Slug Anthology and a whole catalogue of other Wii titles have in common? They were all highly anticipated 3rd party games that had gamers envisioning themselves playing against opponents from all over the world. Many a Wii-mote had been drooled on, and yet not one game delivered where gamers really wanted it most the online arena.
True, most Wii gamers dont really care so much for scaling to the top of leaderboards or unlocking achievements that proclaim them World Champion. But still, we ARE gamers and we DO want to play games against other living, breathing human beings, just like us (on a side note, the last time I invited strangers over to my place for a Wii-session, my mum told me I was crazy, changed the house locks and didnt give me the new keys. I mean, was it really my fault? The Wii wasnt online-multiplayer enabled. What other choice did I have? Anyway, point of the matter inviting strangers over for a Wii-session isnt going to go down too well with the folks. Dont do it).
Earlier this year, after SNKs uncharacteristic outburst at Nintendo for not allowing 3rd party developers into their realm of online gaming, the entire Nintendo gaming community was on edge. Would online gaming truly come to the Wii? Or would it be a haven reserved ONLY for Mario, Samus, Pikachu and some quirky brain examinations?
We soon received an answer though, as soon as Nintendos marquee game, Pokémon Battle Revolution was released, much to the delight of every 3rd party publisher the world over. Finally, everyone else now had permission (so to speak) to release competitive online-enabled games. 2006 and most of 2007 has been a drought for online games. The tail end of 2007 though, will be the beginning of an avalanche.
By now, most of us already know what Nintendo will be offering in the world of online gaming racing plumbers, sexy space marines and brain-teasing exams. But what about the competition?
Below is a list of some of the online-enabled games arriving Down Under in the near future. The online features will be a mix of whats already been officially announced and speculations on what we hope to see implemented in these games.
Sports Games
These are no-brainers, arent they? No other games need online support as much as this genre of games do. Why? Well
Sports are in essence, games. Games that are played
with other people. Games that are played with other people with the intention of having
FUN (sounds familiar, doesnt it? I seem to recall a little white box which was made for exactly the same purpose)
The EA Stable Madden 08, Fifa 08, NBA Live 08
Kicking off our lineup is the collection of EAs sports games. Like the sands of time flowing through a bottomless hourglass, EAs annual updates (usually only discernable from the previous years incarnation by looking at the year written in the title) continue to stream from the gates of EAs production houses in what must be hailed as the most non-innovative, yet successful of all franchises.
This year though, marks the 1st year EA is bringing competitive online modes to their sports games on the Nintendo Wii, and boy, do they look like theyre ushering in the online-era with a BANG.
While the following may not be applicable to all of the upcoming EA Sports titles, the section below should at least give you an idea of what to expect as EA dives headfirst into the world of online gaming on the Wii.
While Nintendos strict protect the innocent policy will almost surely rule out voice chat (if you play games on Xbox Live like I do, youll realise this is a blessing adults like me really need to be protected from foul-mouthed kids), EA still have lots of other tricks up their sleeves, especially since they already have the experience of producing 2 years worth of online-enabled games for the Xbox 360 (and 1 years experience on the Playstation Network).
Online lobbies and real-time leaderboards will make their appearance for the first time on a Nintendo console. Also, statistics such as win/loss records, defensive percentage, overall ranking and reputation scores will give you the ultimate thrash talking rights or a kick up your butt to let you know how much you have to improve if you truly wish to call yourself a national champion.
ESPN ticker updates will be available, giving you the latest scores and news from ESPNs offices. While this sounds great in practice, it should be noted that when I played Fifa 07 (a football game) last year, the ESPN updates kept broadcasting audio clips of NBA and Baseball news to me, making it more of a fad than a genuine source of information (football news was available through a pile of menus that took a really long time to load, making that quite redundant as well).
EAs instant messaging system will be available, which is a more troublesome but reasonable alternative to voice chat.
Also, Virtual leagues have been announced for Fifa 08, making online play mean more than just one-off matches against random opponents.
The most welcome feature though, would be roster updates. Yes! Its great to know that our sports games will no longer be outdated the moment the next transfer window for sports clubs open (in the football world, thats as soon as January 2008).
Nitrobike
The spiritual (but hopefully more entertaining) successor to the N64s Excitebike, Nitrobike certainly sounds like a title worth looking out for. Racing junkies have had to survive far too long on Mario and Diddy Kongs outings on the DS and even then, neither of them truly satisfied bike lovers (Diddy seemingly knew how to drive a kart, fly a plane and even pilot a hovercraft. But a bike? Sorry, too difficult for a monkey).
The games developers have hinted at the game supporting anywhere between 6 to 10 players racing simultaneously. I dont know about you, but the idea of racing against real human opponents sure beats jostling for position with the IQ-less AI vehicles in Excitetruck.
Early videos of Nitrobikes down and dirty racing action look promising. With the added replayability value of challenging rivals online, this game should be enough to tide us over at least until Mario Kart Wii makes its fashionably late arrival in 2008.
Hand-to-Hand Combat
Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
Looking exactly the same as Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2, the 3rd iteration of the Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series is the first to offer online play, and best news yet, online battles will be exclusive to the Wii.
So far, the following 6 online modes have been announced.
1. Custom battle: Battle using customised characters
2. Normal Battle: Battle using regular characters
3. Friend Battle: Battle against a friend
4. Ranking Battle: Climb the online leaderboard in an attempt to be World Champion
5. Ranking: World and National classifications (cant be the best in the world? Settle for being National Champion instead)
6. Shop: Online shop.
Apart from point 6, everything else just means, well
. Online fighting. Still, with the ability to prove to the world how kickass our fireball blasting, mountain destroying, punch-and-kick-10-times-a-second skills are, this is one game where the addition of the online battle feature itself could be well worth the asking price.
A slight worry though, might be the number one enemy of many I-couldve-been-great online games - lag. Dragonball Zs extremely fast paced action doesnt seem to lend itself well to the world of sometimes inconsistent internet performance. Still, Ill give this title the benefit of the doubt, just because I liked the previous game so much.
If they get the online code right and youre lucky enough to have friends living in the same state as you playing this game, Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 could well end up being the most intense online experience on the Wii in 2007.
War Games
Battalion Wars 2
Battalion Wars 2? You mean there was a part 1?
Yes, I heard you. The original Battalion Wars was a promising title that went rather unnoticed by gamers in general when it was released on the Gamecube. An action-based RTS game, this war game looked anything but. Featuring cartoon-inspired artwork and a cast of characters that looked more suited to The Cartoon Network than the History Channel, Battalion Wars had its fair share of die-hard fans nonetheless.
The sequel is arriving on the Wii and thus far, 3 online multiplayer modes have been announced.
1. Assault: Instant Combat
2. Skirmish: Tactical Depth
3. Co-op: Work with Friends
Seeing how amazing popular military-based RTS games are on the PC, and how easy controls will be using the Wiimote, Battalion Wars has a lot going for it as long as it avoids getting lost amidst the hysteria of AAA titles Metroid 3 and Super Mario Galaxy, also touted for release in 2007.
Medal of Honour Heroes 2
Unlike the Xbox 360 and PC, the Wii has thankfully not been bombarded with an overabundance of World War II-themed games. Thus, Medal of Honour Heroes 2 on the Wii DOES stand a decent chance of surviving this holiday season (which is chockfull of system sellers in other words, games that youll buy an entire console for) with decent sales maybe.
Helping in its quest to be the first World War II shooter to be successful on the Wii is undoubtedly its promised online capabilities. Fancy going online against up to 4 opponents? Meh
Thats a pillowfight. 8 opponents? Decent
. For a school playground fight. Well, hold your horses, here it comes folks
Because, for the first time ever on any Nintendo console, Medal of Honour Heros 2 will support a whopping mayhem-provoking, heart attack-inducing, 32 players online!
Now THATS a WAR.
Rockers Choice
Guitar Hero III
The Guitar Hero series looks set to announce its arrival on Nintendos platform in a big way (finally!). The worlds favourite music game is finally going to land in our grubby, music loving hands (weve already proven we love music games and all things quirky. Just look at the sales of Osu! Tatakae! Quendan. We dont understand a word of text or byte of audio but we still snapped it up in droves) and the first time we get to savor a taste of Guitar Hero goodness, its going to be ONLINE. Heck yeah!
Thus far, cooperative as well as competitive modes have been announced. We can only hope downloadable content (ie. new songs) will be headed to the Wii Shop as well.
How much of a difference will these few online features make? Lets just say, while rocking out alone is already enough of a blast to last for hours, rocking out with a buddy online is sure to make Guitar Heros entertainment factor jump from drunken fun to ecstasy-induced delirium.
Just the Tip of the Iceberg
The above was just a preview of what could be in store for us in the near future. Weve waited long. Weve waited impatiently. Now, its time for Nintendo and its 3rd party developers to show us the path to online glory.
It may take a while, but Nintendo have the advantage of learning from 2 more developed systems, the Xbox Live service and the Playstation Network. Plus, Nintendo generally have a more tolerant and forgiving audience than their competitors, meaning as long as basic multiplayer features and matchups work as they should, Nintendo fans will be praising the big Ns name to the sky.
To the internet
AND BEYOND!