WiiCoffin

Dreaming of a time without shovelware...

So, in case you missed it, Ubisoft held their press conference this week and Beyond Good and Evil 2 was not only officially confirmed, but we got a teaser trailer complete with Uncle Pey’j, the snorting of insects, and our fearless, female protagonist hidden behind a parasol. But in case you missed it, you can find it here and here… and here. The biggest surprise was perhaps the fact that many in the gaming community felt the game would be confirmed for the Wii, especially with the picture taking and Zelda fighting aspects behind the game. But alas that was just one of the many wildest dreams from Nintendo fanboys. (That and Magic Kingdom Hearts… please god please!) And while the platforming genre is forcing its head out from the depths of gaming obscurity, one question must remain: has the choice of placing BG&E2 on the PS360 put the final nail in the coffin in 3^rd party Nintendo “hardcore…iness”?

As they always say, there are multiple nails that are smashed into a coffin before it is finally buried. The first nail I can think of in the 3^rd party coffin was the complete and utter failure of Red Steel. The game did not only fail commercially, it failed in the hearts of every gamer around the world. And by that I mean… THE GAME SUCKED. It was rushed, poorly executed, and just overall bad. There was so much promise with the game; after all it was the first Wii game we saw in pictures. As the first big “hardcore” third party game we saw, the game was set to make or break the Wii. Other companies, including Ubisoft who published it, watched how it sold and based how well hardcore games sell on the Wii.

The game sold just sort of a million copies which surprisingly is not that bad. But the companies still gambled all their moneys on prettier graphics and boring play control. Beyond Good and Evil and Psychonauts have always been intertwined as two highly received games that sold like the opposite of hot cakes (cold cakes?). And now both their sequel, BG&E2 and spiritual sequel, Brutal Legend are coming out exclusively for the PS360, there seems to be final nail in the Wii 3^rd party hardcore coffin. Other nails include No More Heroes, shovelware and a lack of hard drive support.

So will the Wii ever have hardcore games? Will The Conduit save us all? Will the only games on the Wii be Nintendo made, ports of PS2/GCN games, and shovelware? The world may never know. Oh and that trailer for BG&E2 can also be found here!