NitroBike

[Yoshi]

Or it could be that they realize that you can get Ridge Racer 7 for $10 less or Burnout Paradise for $10 more.

[magnifiedplaid]

Most of the reviews complain that the course design is way too narrow in this game; in Excite Truck you could be really loose with the control and still have tons of fun because the tracks were so wide open. Do you guys feel that NitroBike's control is accurate enough to make up for the narrow courses? The reviews do sound a bit like whining from people that don't have the hand-eye coodination to play a semi-challenging skill-based game.

Yes, I think the control is accurate enough to make up for the narrow courses. All you need to do is tap the 1 button while going into a hairpin turn, and it allows you to navigate some fairly narrow and windy roads with ease. So, you can pretty much be turboing into a wall and then hit the 1 button and your bike will slide through the turn...

My only real complaint so far is with some of the later courses. They start to litter the courses with junk to crash into, and its really difficult to see some of these items due to the subpar graphics, all the dust flying in the air, and just because you're going too fast half the time. This really doesn't become an issue though once you play a track a few times and memorize the track layout. It can just be annoying at first though, because it does tend to cause a few pile ups from time to time.

[Melf]

Here we are well over a year after the Wii's launch, and developers still are either giving you decent-looking titles that play like shit or crappy-looking games that play well. When are they going to learn to do both?

Or are they "still taken by surprise by the Wii's success" and "getting the hang of developing for it?"

[Yoshi]

The best third party game for the Wii will forever be Resident Evil 4. No one is going to give a damn enough to beat that one.

[magnifiedplaid]

Here we are well over a year after the Wii's launch, and developers still are either giving you decent-looking titles that play like shit or crappy-looking games that play well. When are they going to learn to do both?

Or are they "still taken by surprise by the Wii's success" and "getting the hang of developing for it?"

This is sad, but very true. I think the only games on the Wii that have actually acomplished LOOKING AND PLAYING good are Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3. Even Twilight Princess was a slightly fugly game.

Its a shame, because the Gamecube was capable of putting out some truly beautiful looking games...so the Wii should at least be able to put out games that look as good as the best Gamecube titles.

For now though, it looks like I'll just have to settle for games that look like crap but play well. If I want a good looking game, I'll just have to play my PS3 or 360.

[Melf]

I'm hoping that Factor 5 - whose GC games still look better than 90% of what's on the Wii- will show 3rd parties how to make the Wii sing. I doubt they're going to revisit the Star Wars well once more, but hopefully they'll put together a great engine and actually give the console a 3rd party game that both looks and plays great. So far the only ones that do that are Zak & Wiki and RE 4.

*EDIT* It looks like they may be on to something...

We reported last week that Factor 5, developers of the amazing Rogue Squadron series for the Gamecube and the nightmarish Lair for PS3, has rekindled their relationship with Nintendo, and are currently working on an unnamed project exclusively for the company's home console. According to gaming site Kombo (and their anonymous inside source), the project is a brand new Kid Icarus game, designed from the ground up for the Wii. Given F5's renewed partnership with Nintendo, and the Kid Icarus buzz already in the air due to protaganist Pit's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it's a definite possibility. However, until we hear something from the new lovers, this is just hearsay at best.

Source.

Sounds good. It's just a rumor, but I hope it's true.

[Giga Power]

How many times are we going to hear the Icarus rumor?

[SpoDaddy]

It seems like Factor 5 hit a point of diminishing returns with their graphics whoring and decided it'd be more fun to just embarrass other developers by making great-looking Wii games. I don't believe we're getting another Kid Icarus game ever. I don't really care either, because Kid Icarus wasn't that great in the first place.

[Giga Power]

And if I remember correctly, they were one of the developers giving the Wii hell when it was first released. Funny.

[SpoDaddy]

Yup, they said they left Nintendo because the Wii was just an overclocked GameCube and they wanted to do cutting-edge graphics.