Wii Sports Resort might not be the only title to showcase the Wii MotionPlus when the dinky add-on launches next spring. GameSpot went hands-on with The Conduit at PAX 2008, and revealed that the shooter will feature MotionPlus support. The Conduit is currently set for a March launch, so has this new information also inadvertently dated Wii Sports Resort and the MotionPlus?
Whether it has or not, MotionPlus for The Conduit is Pretty Big News -- so much so, that we're afraid it may overshadow some of the other eye-catching details in GameSpot's report. These include:
In the final game, High Voltage hopes to have a completely customizable head-up display, in which any HUD element can be dragged and dropped to different parts of the screen.
There will be nine missions in total, with the singleplayer campaign lasting "about ten hours."
Cut scenes won't be used; rather, the story will be developed through news or radio broadcasts, much like the Half Life series.
Some projectiles can be guided using the cursor, which sounds a lot like the Nikita launcher in Metal Gear Solid, automatically making it ZOMGAWESOME.
So The Conduitlooks and soundsextraexplositastic, but how will it play? Answer: probably really nicely. First-person shooter controls are something the Wii has excelled at -- both Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 boast buttery-smooth gameplay, and The Conduit looks no different.
This video, narrated by lead game designer Rob Nicholls, talks us through everything we'll be able to meddle with in the game's control settings. Tweakable stuff includes turning speed, running speed, cursor sensitivity, the ability to turn while your cursor is off-screen, and the auto-center settings. The best bit of all, though? Adjusting your dead zone as you play. Very nifty.
In the year 1997, with Sylvester Stallone's Demolition Man still fairly fresh on our minds, developer Shiny took the opportunity to name one of their games after an abbreviated phrase that was mentioned several times in that film. Under the assumption that MDK stood for "Murder, Death, Kill" and the fact that you run around as a guy whose head is a sniper rifle, the Playstation generation couldn't wait to get their hands on it. As it turned out, the game was not the gruesome murder simulator many people expected, but a humorously quirky action title like most of the prior games Shiny was known for. In the sequel, the main character from the first game, Kurt Hectic, would share the duty of saving the earth with Doctor Fluke Hawkins and the four-armed, gun-toting, cigar-chomping robotic dog, Max, the other members of the game's titular trio. It's the crazy sort of stuff that keeps gaming fresh, and with its recently-announced comeback in the making, I can think of no better place for the franchise to make a killing than on the Wii.
Wii Remotes eat batteries. It's a fact we've long granted as simple, stark truth -- but what to do about it? Wii owners have a lot of solutions at hand, from simply sucking it up to elaborate rituals with charge stations, rechargeables, and even voodoo rituals (or so we heard). Got a Balance Board? There's a whole new battery dilemma for you ... and with Wii MotionPlus on the horizon, and its battery-destroying potential, if you don't already have a plan in place for handling the coming battery power crisis, it might be time to consider some options.
Don't worry -- we're here to help. We've explored several solutions in the past, and now we're back with a look at an all new charging apparatus: Penguin United's 4X Quad Charge Station. PU is so proud of being able to charge four remotes at once that they boasted of the ability twice in its name!
Jokes aside, it's a solid option that comes at a price some might consider hefty. But hey! It charges four remotes at once.
After taking a second, head-shaking look at the Wii Sqweeze prototype, and also thinking about Wii MotionPlus, we had to take a moment to stop and ask a serious question: just how much motion do we want? Lately, we've been down in the mouth about all the games that aren't going to include Nintendo's new motion-plus peripheral, but how much 1:1 control do we need? Swordfighting will be awesome, yeah, and sports games have amazing potential, but at what point do we just put down the controller and go participate in the actual activity? Or is a move closer to a virtual reality game better, no matter what?
While we're still waiting for that leopard skin Wiimote wrist strap of our dreams, Nintendo will shortly release green, blue, pink, and white straps in Japan. Other than helping to distinguish Wiimotes between multiplayer sessions, we can't really think of a compelling need for these non-threatening, pastel accessories, but perhaps they're a sign that matching controllers are on the way? That's probably a long shot, but it would be nice.
For those of you with an interest in importing, these are scheduled to appear next month for ¥300 ($2.80) each, or you can snag the four-pack above for ¥1,000 ($9.25). For those of you who are too cheap for even that, you can make your own for nada.
What do you get when you cross a device designed to track IR light and a computer-controlled missile-launching toy? A Wiimote covered in impossible-to-remove tacky duct tape residue! And also a fairly cool auto-aiming missile launcher.
It looks like a simple enough project (now that someone else has written all the code): just tape a Wiimote to the sort of USB missile launcher found at ThinkGeek (for example), connect the Wiimote to your computer using Bluetooth, and use the GlovePIE code found in the tutorial. Your turret will then aim at any IR light source! It's at your discretion whether or not to pelt that light source with foam darts.
We've talked a little before about the placement of buttons on the Wii Remote, but what about the number of buttons? Do you think there should be a few more? What about fewer? That would probably mean more actions performed with gestures. Does it seem like buttons are still essential for most games? Waggling through menus doesn't really seem too appealing, after all.
Ubisoft rather likes money, and therefore is enamored by the best-selling Balance Board. Perhaps this is why the range of Balance Board-compatible minigames in Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party has been stretched, to the point where half of the 75 games will feature Balance Board support -- previously, that figure was one-third. We guess Ubisoft really wants to see you playing with your butt more, amirite lol?!
"Hilarity" aside, offering greater Balance Board compatibility makes perfect sense. There's a gap in the market for Balance Board games that aren't Wii Fit right now (only We Ski is currently on store shelves), and Balance Board owners are probably looking for something else to play, now they've perfected their Sun Salutation.
What is it about Castlevania that gamers have found so appealing for more than twenty years? Is it the story? The atmosphere? The visceral sense of fulfillment from whipping all manner of damned creatures back to the infernal depths? Is it the one-on-one arena battles in Boy George makeup, steam-punk corsets and leather-daddy fetishware? Yeah, it's probably not that last thing. We had in mind a traditional sidescroller for Castlevania on the Wii, with waggle-enhanced whip cracking, so that's why this week, I've set out to capture that fun that we've so desperately desired.
Njoy's "G-Board" Balance Board will become the first third-party Balance Board released to market on September 12th, yet not many of you were bowled over by it.
A prohibitive price probably didn't help in that respect (Njoy's Board is just £5 less than Nintendo's own Balance Board, which comes with Wii Fit), but where do you stand (har) in general on third-party controllers and peripherals, be they Zappers, Balance Boards, or Wiimotes? Several gamers we speak to tell us how they'll only buy first-party, the logic being that the original manufacturers of any console will always make the best and most suitable controllers for it. Is that an idea you subscribe to?
Mega Man 9 will feature the graphics, sounds, and gameplay of yesteryear, and Capcom has now confirmed that it will be playable with virtually any old controller that can be slotted into the Wii.
This means that the Classic Controller and GameCube pad are both fair game, but here's the best bit: purchase the appropriate adaptor, and you'll be able to die repeatedly while using an original NES controller. As if Mega Man 9 wasn't already looking like the kipper's knickers, it just found a way to get even better.
The panicked consumer is a predictable beast. Upon hearing that the Wii's Classic Controller might be withdrawn from sale in the near future, more and more customers have been scurrying to pick up the sleek, Virtual Console-compatible pad. Sales at Amazon have shot up by 207% after a court threatened to ban further sales of the $19.99 peripheral unless Nintendo coughed up a bond.
As the Classic Controller is still on sale around the 'net, we can only assume that Nintendo did indeed pay up, though the company isn't out of the woods yet: Nintendo will be taking its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where it will hope to prevent an outright ban.
While we lack the skills (and free time) it takes to do anything other than blog, folks are out there, doing crazy DIY projects. This is one of them. Now, we don't condone the use of illegal emulators and ROMs, but cramming an entire NES experience into the NES controller is impressive nonetheless.
We mucky commoners have known about the Wii MotionPlus add-on for just over a week now, but don't go thinking it's any different for third-party developers. At E3, Game Informer approached several third-parties about the peripheral, and were repeatedly told that the accessory was news to them -- as they understood it, Nintendo simply hadn't told anybody about the MotionPlus, prior to it being revealed last Monday.
In other words, we can safely not expect a flood of third-party releases supporting the peripheral. On top of that, the developers doubt they'll be able to implement Wii MotionPlus into upcoming projects, such was the secrecy that surrounded the project. Not clever, Nintendo.
Wii Remotes 
We've talked a little before about the 
