Continue reading Revolutionary: 3rd Party Control

Revolutionary: 3rd Party Control originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Revolutionary: It Ain't Mii

Revolutionary: It Ain't Mii originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Pure Excitement

Revolutionary: Pure Excitement originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Wave of the Future

Revolutionary: Wave of the Future originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Nintendo fans have been practicing parkour with their very own platforming princess since the 8-bit days. Now it seems another traceuse is stepping in on the territory Samus pioneered. On the surface, it doesn't seem as if Mirror's Edge has very much in common with the Metroid franchise. Yet,the respective series heroines' exploits can be experienced and enjoyed in either first person 3D or 2D sidescrolling viewpoints.

Mirror's Edge 2D is currently in the beta stages of development with its destined platforms still unannounced. It hasn't yet got any of the fascist oppressors seen in the 3D version, but they'd only get in the way of the acrobatics that are on impressive display here. Rarely do we get to control such fluid and graceful 2D animation, and it makes the treat all the more delectable when you get to do it with a Wii Remote.

Continue reading Revolutionary: On the Edge

Revolutionary: On the Edge originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Gun Sights

Revolutionary: Gun Sights originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

hertz (hûrts)
n. pl. hertz
Abbr. Hz
A unit of frequency equal to 1 cycle per second.

Arcade kings like Sega and Namco packed some cutting edge hardware inside those cabinets to draw and redraw complex scenes up to sixty times a second. Some of the companies that designed that hardware also had military contracts and built the simulators used to train soldiers and pilots on vehicles and weaponry. Most of those simulations look like cuts from a Dire Straits video compared to the detailed characters and vistas in our video games, but one thing they had going for them was extremely high frame rates.

Arcade CRT monitors didn't have the ghosting and low response times of today's mainstream LCDs, so when they were refreshing graphics at 60fps, the rapidly flashing screens were enough to turn your head and keep your eyes affixed to whatever was running. In the home, there's no need for the games we already own to attract us, so 60fps rendering has got to have some other merits to make it a selling point worth advertising. In this week's Revolutionary, we'll examine why 60fps is so desirable.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Hz So Good

Revolutionary: Hz So Good originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"Let me tell you about the game I played when I was still young..." Growing up, I was familiar with the name Bionic Commando, although I'd never played it for myself. I've had lots of conversations with friends about old games, and they'd reminisced about some game with a guy that swung around on a grappling arm. Yet strangely enough, none of my friends could remember what the game was called. When it was announced that Bionic Commando was to receive a re-imagining, I finally was able to match that game my friends loved, with the title. With the hype for the new game, I caught my first glimpse of the old 8-bit classic in promotional videos, and I really felt like I'd missed out on something special. But my disappointment quickly turned to anticipation when it was later revealed that the game would also be remade in 2D for download on all the popular home consoles!

(raucous cheering)

But not the Wii!

(sound of crickets)

Long-time Nintendo fans love to remember the old times, but we don't hold dear the memories of being repeatedly snubbed out of multiplatform ports. With GlovePIE running and Wiimote in hand, I turned to the PC version of Bionic Commando: Rearmed.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Go Go Bionic!

Revolutionary: Go Go Bionic! originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Game controllers have come a long way since we were holding a box with a protruding stick and tapping a single button. Now they're so packed full of cutting edge (yet inexpensive) tech, I'd half expect to see a Wii Remote and Nunchuk in the cockpit of the space shuttle* as a cost-cutting measure. As advanced as the Wiimote is, a lot of us have found a thing or two that could be revised about its design. I've gone to the most extreme reaches of my imagination, and come up with a design concept that I believe is about as radical a step beyond our current Wiimote, as that controller is beyond every console controller that came before it. And just like Nintendo's own design, my perfect controller would be based around technology that is already being used today in different applications.

*Warning: The Wii Remote and Nunchuk's accelerometers will not work in space. NASA engineers, be advised to wait for the MotionPlus.

Continue reading Revolutionary: The Perfect Controller, part 2

Revolutionary: The Perfect Controller, part 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

How many times in your history as a gamer have you felt that your console's controller couldn't be any better? Every time I've gotten my hands on a new game controller, there's been something I wished could be different. The NES controller could have been rounder. The SNES controller could have used some more face buttons for Street Fighter. The N64 controller needed speedier room service.

The Wii controller is built with expansion, flexibility, and upgrades in mind, and with the addition of a third party accessory, I've been able to mate the Wiimote with the Classic Controller to form a Voltronic gestalt of a controller that should be capable of great things. But is it perfect?

Continue reading Revolutionary: The Perfect Controller, part 1

Revolutionary: The Perfect Controller, part 1 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Most Deceptive Kontraction

Revolutionary: Most Deceptive Kontraction originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This week, graphics professionals and enthusiasts flocked to SIGGRAPH to share and discuss the latest technologies and techniques for making gorgeous computer graphics. The focus of the convention is mainly offline rendering (the stuff that we see in print, movies, and television that's too complex to be rendered in real time), but as computers and game consoles become more powerful, many of these methods and effects make their way into the realm of realtime rendering. Ten years ago, the opening cutscene for Super Mario Galaxy would have needed to be rendered by a cluster of computers and converted into full motion video.

Even though the Wii is not pushing graphical fidelity the way this generation's HD consoles are, we've still come a long way and there's much to be appreciated. There are all sorts of graphical effects that, over the years, have been added to the game artist's palette, and in this edition of Revolutionary, I'd like to draw your attention to a few of them.

When games like Super Mario Galaxy come along, we find ourselves questioning how it's possible for them to look so good, while most other Wii wares have the appearance of games designed for a much weaker platform. It's easy to forget that the Wii's hardware comes from the strong pedigree of Gamecube when much of what we're looking at reeks of Playstation number two.

With multi-platform shovelware, and even a few high profile titles that didn't get any special consideration on the Wii (Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band, I'm lookin' at you!), developers often drop assets and effects to a lowest common denominator. In the class which Wii is placed, the Playstation 2 has the lowest and most common specs, so our Wii graphics are brought down to its level. The PS2 has had its share of beautiful games, but the methods for making them so beautiful are uncommon enough that they're largely ignored when making games that will have to be replicated on another console in the same class.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Special Effects

Revolutionary: Special Effects originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Whip it good

Revolutionary: Whip it good originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We've been waiting since E3 '06 to hear details regarding Wii Music, and the anxiety brought on by rumors of an MMO Animal Crossing has been unbearable at times, but despite those big reveals at E3 '08, the biggest Wii news was the announcement of the Wii MotionPlus. Because most of us had nearly given up hope for Wii games with a 1:1 ratio of motion-sensing responsiveness, it's quickly become known as "the 1:1 adapter."

The news of this unexpected device is so exciting, I've pushed back the topic planned for this week's Revolutionary to instead talk about what the MotionPlus is, and what it can do to further revolutionize gaming.

Continue reading Revolutionary: More Motion

Revolutionary: More Motion originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This week I wanted to take on scripting for an indie game, and one that came in high regard was Synaesthete. I didn't know much about it when I first tried it out, except that it was a cross-breed of rhythm games and action shooters, and I was hopeful that it would lend itself to the Wii experience as well as the last rhythm hybrid I tried out. One level was all it took to start the script-writing cogs turning in my head, and after much experimentation, I wound up with a script that dynamically changes what makes this brilliant game so fun to play.

At first, nothing about Synaesthete makes it scream out that it was born for Wii, but ultimately, the addition of Wii controls has made this game my new addiction. I truly believe that a Wii port of this title would be hailed as the "next big thing."

Continue reading Revolutionary: Synaesthetic

Revolutionary: Synaesthetic originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The training wheel project got me thinking about what more it would take to create a Wii racing rig that's as comprehensive as a traditional wheel and pedal gaming setup. The Wii Wheel provides analog control for steering, but not throttle and braking. The Wheel shell also blocks off the expansion port, so you can't use a Nunchuk's analog stick. It seemed like there was just no way to build a full set of racing controls around the Wii Wheel, but then I got my Balance Board and the wheels started turning in my head. How about a Wii Racing Xperiment?

Continue reading Revolutionary: WRX Stage 1

Revolutionary: WRX Stage 1 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rev your engines with WRX originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Unlike most people, when I brought Wii Fit home for the first time, I didn't head straight to my Wii and slide the disc in to play. Instead, I tore apart the packaging to get at the Balance Board, which I then attempted to "hook up" to my computer. It took a while and a change in my method of operating, but I eventually got the thing connected and working in GlovePIE. It was at that point I started realizing what the Balance Board was really capable of, and this week I'll be sharing with you a few things I've learned about this new peripheral, so that you can start scripting for it and letting your imagination run wild.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Balance and Options

Revolutionary: Balance and Options originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

One thing that's been brought up countless times in DS-related discussions is "if only it could be used as a PDA." Well, with the right combination of hardware and software, it can! But just how well does it stand up to other devices with that classification? Read on as I take the DS through its paces to see how it performs as a personal digital assistant.

Continue reading Homebrew: Using the DS as a PDA

Homebrew: Using the DS as a PDA originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 22 May 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Wii Wheel was supposed to make racing easy enough for anyone to jump right into a session of Mario Kart Wii with no prior experience with either traditional game controllers or the Wii Remote. When used properly, it works as expected. The trouble is that it's not always used properly. Watching your parents try to get through Wario's Gold Mine, you'll notice that they're sometimes holding the Wheel the wrong way, and it's making them drive off the track into chasms of eternity. This observation led me to examine how Mario Kart Wii's steering works and come up with a solution for keeping n00bs on track.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Mario Kart Training Wheel

Revolutionary: Mario Kart Training Wheel originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 21 May 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A compact box that's already inexpensive to produce (and continuously remains in greater demand than supply can keep up with) may not cry out for revision, but there are a few bits that can be nipped and tucked to enhance the appeal and value of the Wii. This week Revolutionary goes Revisionary.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Dreaming of Wii 1.5

Revolutionary: Dreaming of Wii 1.5 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 May 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every other week, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

If you're smitten with the Virtual Console, one thing we're sure you aren't in love with is having to swap games between an SD card and your Wii's internal memory, or even worse -- deleting games to be re-downloaded later. WiiWare is on its way and it's hard to imagine My Life as a King demeaning itself to share its estate with less noble games. And certainly not with it bringing microtransactions to the royal ball. And wouldn't it be dandy if some of our multiplatform ports had somewhere to store that downloadable content that everyone is raving about on other consoles?

We want need more storage, and some of you have gathered to plead with Nintendo to sell a Wii Hard Drive. It appears that your cries just fall on deaf ears because they seem hardly driven to provide one. In this edition of Revolutionary, we'll examine why Wii can't have a hard drive.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Wii can has hard drive?

Revolutionary: Wii can has hard drive? originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) week, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Segueing from last edition's topic: you've just built a sick Smash Bros. Brawl level, and you're ready to share it with the world. You upload it to your website and throw up some pics from the game's handy built-in photo mode. Everybody can see your creation without needing to first go through the trouble of downloading the level, putting it on an SD card, and loading it up on their Wii. Of course, your level looks like so much fun, they won't be able to resist trying it for themselves. But what if, like so many other games, there was no photo mode? How would you display your masterpiece? Or maybe seeing a still pic isn't enough to really sell the dynamics and spirit of your build. Then what? Read on as we delve into the art of video capture and photo composition -- for games!

Continue reading Revolutionary: Capturing the Moment

Revolutionary: Capturing the Moment originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Custom level creation in console games has come a long way. It used to be, if you wanted to share a track that you built in Excitebike, you had to invite friends over to play your creation on your cartridge, until you powered off your NES and the track was lost forever. Nowadays our levels can be saved to internal storage, and shared by removable media, or across the internet to survive for posterity.

It's a feature that's fully supported by all consoles this generation, and big games are highlighting it amongst their bullet points. System sellers like Halo 3, LittleBigPlanet, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl are trojan-horsing the concept of custom level creation into the consciousness of the console-consuming collective. Former Sony exec Phil Harrison popularized the term "Game 3.0," but we'll be taking a look at how it is playing out on Nintendo's platform.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Playing. Creating? Sharing!

Revolutionary: Playing. Creating? Sharing! originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

The rhythm gaming genre, while relatively young, is already on the verge of becoming stale. Hitting buttons in time with a visual cue only remains as fresh as the accompanying song. But there's a new game that's set to turn the genre on its ear and destroy your preconceived notions of what a rhythm game can be. Today we'll be giving Audiosurf the GlovePIE treatment.

Continue reading Revolutionary: A Musical Revolution

Revolutionary: A Musical Revolution originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Fans of Midway's Ready 2 Rumble Boxing series are no doubt anticipating the spiritual successor in EA's Facebreaker. When you're madly swinging Wiimote and Nunchuk in abuse of cartoony pugilists, you probably won't give any thought to how you could have been doing this nearly a decade ago. While our Nintendo allegiance may make it easy to dismiss claims that the Wii concept was outright "stolen," in Iwata's own admission, it was built from technologies already in existence. And some of those technologies had even used for gaming prior to the Wii. Read on as we examine how the Wii carries on a legacy of hardware past and dreams cast.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Precursor Legacy

Revolutionary: Precursor Legacy originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Some of you may have wanted to see the Wiimote and SIXAXIS dropped on an island with explosive collars around their necks, forced to fight a deathmatch, but Battle Royale this is not. Nintendo and Sony would happily accept you placing both consoles in your entertainment center, because they offer up different experiences. Getting a DVD player doesn't require the discontinuation of cable TV service, nor does it render your iPod obsolete. But they are similar in that they are gaming input devices, so there will naturally be some overlap in possible applications. It's for that reason we're interested in seeing which controller is better at what. So with no further ado: Round 2. Fight!

Continue reading Revolutionary: Controller Showdown, Round 2

Revolutionary: Controller Showdown, Round 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

So you've tuned in to Revolutionary expecting to see the dramatic conclusion of the Controller Showdown. Well, as I was evaluating games to use in the matchup, I found myself revisiting old scripts I'd put aside, and building new scripts for games which wouldn't be fit to judge the motion sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote and SIXAXIS. I realized that because of the recently updated build of GlovePIE, my passion for scripting has been re-ignited!

You see, the latest version of GlovePIE supports the SIXAXIS, Xbox 360 control pad, and standard PC control pads, on top the already robust support for Wii Remotes and attachments. There's also a new function which allows you to easily write scripts for any and all of these controllers universally. So, before we commence with Round 2, let's take a look at the GlovePIE update that will figure heavily in the big battle.

Continue reading Revolutionary: GlovePIE v.30, The Great Equalizer

Revolutionary: GlovePIE v.30, The Great Equalizer originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Nintendo has recently been accused by a former game developer of copying the idea for the Wii's central point of interest, but whether or not Nintendo took inspiration from this industrious engineer is not the topic of today's Revolutionary. There have been many motion-based game controllers to precede the Wiimote, but none have been so well-received that they can pull double duty as the gearworks of a money printing machine. For the Playstation 3, Sony took a page from Nintendo's playbook and ran with it, so we'll be putting the SIXAXIS through its paces to see how it measures up.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Controller Showdown, Round 1

Revolutionary: Controller Showdown, Round 1 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

It is the year 2008 and we've all got jet packs to carry us from our front door to the flying car in our driveway. Our friends can leave us telepathic thoughtmails when we're summering in seclusion on the dark side of the moon. Skynet fought back and the treacherous Decepticons have conquered the Autobots' home planet of Cybertron. Everyone is basking in the realer-than-reality goodness of their HD television sets. Wait a minute ... scratch that last bit. Not everyone's got an HDTV or even a DTV, so that broadcast switchover to digital transmission that the FCC mandated for the years leading up to 2007 wound up getting postponed until 2009.

Nintendo engineers are patting themselves on the back (no doubt with fat stacks of cash) for predicting the relatively slow transition to HD, which allowed them to keep production costs down on the little white wonder. It's a point of contention to some, but seniors, girlfriends, your parents, and most Wii fanboys aren't giving it a lot of thought. Many people aren't even aware that it's not an HD console, so this edition of Revolutionary is intended to clear up any misunderstandings about the Wii's resolution ... -ary.

Continue reading Revolutionary: New Year's Res

Revolutionary: New Year's Res originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

The holidays are a time of giving and love, and it's high time we give the Wii a little bit of tough love. I've thrown criticisms at the console and the big N more than a couple of times, and so far, it looks like most of my gripes are being addressed. This time I'm picking nits for the most stubborn issues many of us are hoping to see rectified, but seem to be on the bottom of the power players' to-do lists.

Continue reading Revolutionary: 10 Things I Hate About Wii

Revolutionary: 10 Things I Hate About Wii originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

I guess it could be said that my favorite game genres are rhythm and racing. My racing wheels, bongos, dance mats, drum kit, and guitar collection stand as testament to that being fact. So, while brainstorming new uses for my Guitar Hero III Wii Guitar, it struck me that racing might be the peanut butter to the guitar's chocolate.

Yeah, I'm sure that doesn't make any sense to you, as I got the 'WTF face' plenty of times when explaining my plan to friends. But read on and I'll tell you how to shred. How to shred down NFS ProStreet.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Speed Metal

Revolutionary: Speed Metal originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

In this first year since Nintendo unleashed the Wii upon the masses, we've gotten a better understanding of how it plans to change the way the world feels about gaming. In this edition of Revolutionary, we'll examine some of the strides they've made and what they can do to make year two even more spectacular.

The Wii has turned out to be the sleeper hit of the gaming world, following in the footsteps of its portable predecessor the DS. In the face of heavier spec'ed competitors with multimedia features up the wazzoo, Nintendo stood firm on its plan to deliver something different and focus on the fun. It has obviously paid off, with the Wii having done the unimaginable and plucking the #1 spot away from the Xbox 360 which had a 1-year head start into the now-gen.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Year One

Revolutionary: Year One originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Within a few days of Guitar Hero III's release, the scripting community was already at work picking apart the Les Paul guitar shell that came bundled with it. What they discovered was that it basically functions as a remolded and remapped Classic Controller. The obvious application of this new-found knowledge would be to write scripts for Guitar Hero clones on the PC, or to even use the controller with the soon-to-be-released PC version of Guitar Hero III.

With script in hand, courtesy of Mario Valenzuela, I thought I'd introduce a friend to my old favorite GH clone, Frets on Fire.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Guitar Heroes are made, not born

Revolutionary: Guitar Heroes are made, not born originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Metroid Prime 3 has proven indeed that a Wii Remote and Nunchuk is the next best thing to a keyboard and mouse for first person shooting and action. Although we have few FPS titles being developed and released on the Wii (relative to party games and family-friendly content, or the main attraction of a certain other platform), the genre is among the most popular in the scripting community. This is naturally so with FPS being a favored genre among hardcore PC gamers and hardware enthusiasts.

With the recent release of the demo version of Call of Duty 4 and its imminent final release, I felt it was time to pick up arms and serve you a script for this spectacular shooter.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Answering the Call

Revolutionary: Answering the Call originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Thought of by many as the "Disney of video gaming," Nintendo has crafted themselves an image of family-friendly entertainment. But to certain generations and classes of gamers, the term "family-friendly" is synonymous with "kiddy," and immediately sparks disinterest. But ever since publishing Rare's Killer Instinct, they've been working on broadening the public's perspective. Trying to appeal to the bloodlust of the Mortal Kombat crowd didn't give them any headway, and as generations progressed and they've garnered more "mature-themed" titles, they still haven't been able to shake the "kiddy console" stigma.

Even after snagging the exclusivity to the Resident Evil series for a generation, Nintendo was largely overlooked by the Playstation-bred gamers that were brought up on the series. How much more will it take for Wii to be regarded as a platform that can satisfy the tastes of mature gamers?

Continue reading Revolutionary: This Revolution Hasn't Been Televised

Revolutionary: This Revolution Hasn't Been Televised originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

We are all aware that the Wii prints money, but while it's filling Nintendo's coffers, it's also spitting out greenbacks for game publishers and peripheral manufacturers. The expansion aspects of the Wii extend beyond anything we've seen before in a Nintendo console, and some companies are making a killing by exploiting that.

Will the creativity of these peripheral companies be put to use in creating innovative products for enhancing our Wii gaming experiences, or will we be stacking up more R.O.B.s in the closet to collect dust?

Continue reading Revolutionary: Shells 'n' Cheese

Revolutionary: Shells 'n' Cheese originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Ever since the motion sensing ability of the Wiimote was revealed, Star Wars fans have been pleading for a game that would let them live out their Jedi fantasies, swinging the Wiimote in command of an onscreen light saber. Well, Lucasarts recently announced that the Wii will be getting a version of the multiplatform title, The Force Unleashed, a game that's expected to fulfill all your fantasies of being an power-infused enforcer with a luminous sword.

But Lucas & Co. haven't always given us just what we want. In 1999 they released the first chapter of the long-awaited Star Wars prequel trilogy, The Phantom Menace, to an audience that was expecting something more, well ... Star Wars-y. Jar Jar, midichlorians, and a pre-pubescent, mop-topped future-fascist didn't quite make for the hit we were hoping for, and the most exciting moment in the film was not a war or a fight scene, but a race. Lucasarts seemed to agree and developed a game based around that scene (albeit, filled out with more tracks and worlds). In this week's Revolutionary, we'll be using GlovePIE to see if the Wiimote and Nunchuk can keep up with the Jedi-like reflexes you'll need to stay in the lead in Star Wars: Episode I Racer.

Continue reading Revolutionary: This is Not the Star Wars You're Looking For

Revolutionary: This is Not the Star Wars You're Looking For originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Traditionally, consoles have had to carry over hardware from previous generations in order to offer backward compatibility. This can be thought of as a burden, as the costs of including that hardware might be better used increasing the specs and features of the system for the benefit of new games.

This generation marks a change in the method of operations in providing backward compatibility. The Xbox 360, Playstation 3 (in select models and territories), and Wii use a process known as software emulation to provide backward compatibility with their predecessors, so that they don't have to include that old hardware. What emulation does is allow one set of hardware to mimic the functions of another set of hardware. Emulation isn't a new technique, and it isn't exclusive to consoles. In fact, many people have been using it for years to play games on hardware other than for which it was developed.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Emulation-ary

Revolutionary: Emulation-ary originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

When I first tested my balance board, I was in a bit of a hurry to find a suitable game with which to demonstrate it. I found a demo for a snowboarding game called Stoked Rider, but in my haste, I failed to realize that this was the long-outdated original version, and there had since been a sequel entitled Stoked Rider: Alaska Alien. Sporting far better graphics, and a more advanced gameplay engine which encorporates detailed physics, it seemed like it could give me reason enough to dust off the balance board and see what more could be done with it.

Continue reading Revolutionary: Progress Wiiport, Part 2

Revolutionary: Progress Wiiport, Part 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.