Last night I had the chance to discuss Disney Interactive Studios’ Ultimate Band with Tim Huntsman (senior producer), Mark McArthur (development director) and Mike Thompson (art director) from Fall Line Studio. The game is launching November 25th on the Wii and DS. In case you don’t know, it’s a rhythm game with no peripherals but with actual songs to play.
The team at Fall Line Studio set out to make a performance based game to take advantage of the unique controls schemes offered on Nintendo’s platforms. Development began back when the Wii was still called the Revolution, Rock Band didn’t exist, and Wii Music was still a budding idea in Shigeru Miyamoto’s head. The game was designed for tweens and teens in mind, especially boys, so this appeals more to the younger generation.
ATV racing games took a prominent spot in many people’s gaming libraries around the the PS2 days with ATV Offroad Fury. Motorstorm took everything to the next level this generation on the PS3, and now Disney looks to enter the foray with Pure. With some nice controls, cool graphics, and customization options for your ride, Pure provides a good racing game for your Xbox 360.
The graphics in Pure are pretty darn good. Backgrounds looks terrific and the tracks themselves are nice. Characters are okay and the ATV’s are very detailed. I expected a bit more in terms of mud splatters and such, however the track deformation with tire tracks looks good. I also noticed a big of screen tearing during a few races and in cut-scenes. On the sound front, Pure does a pretty good job with ATV effects and a solid soundtrack that matches the game’s style. Character voice-overs are decent, but they get repetitive when you pass people or pull off a good trick.
In an already crowed rhythm game market, Disney looks to capitalize on the family friendly and younger gamer segments with Ultimate Band. Coming this Holiday for the Wii and DS, the game looks to simplify the genre to get everyone involved and keep things a little safer for the young ones.
Ultimate Band for Wii allows players to live the life of a rock star, by advancing their music careers and popularity from playing in a neighborhood garage to performing in front of an international audience at a world famous venue. Ultimate Band utilizes the innovative Wii Remote and Nunchuk™ to give fans the ability to play the drums, bass guitar, lead guitar, or take on the role of the front man. Players can also create and customize characters that reflect their own unique personalities and attributes. Along the way, players will unlock new songs, venues, and accessories that can be used to customize their band members.
Ultimate Band for Nintendo DS is a rhythm-based music game with a built-in recording studio. Players can jam to current and classic songs using the drums, lead guitar, bass guitar, or rhythm guitar. Players can also create their own original songs using the DS touchscreen and stylus to lay down tracks for each instrument and apply creative mixing effects. Ultimate Band for Nintendo DS will also include DGamer functionality which will allow players to engage with others in a secure online community via their DS (Wi-Fi or ad hoc) or computer.
No word yet on how exactly the gameplay mechanic will work on both platforms or what songs we can expect in the game. I’m interested to see how this all plays out with only using the Wii-mote and Nunchuk or the DS stylus.
Slated to be released in Spring of 2008 Disney Friends sounds to be a take of NintendDogs but with Disney characters. You can interact with Stitch, Simba and other Disney characters as you deprive them of food and excercise. This game boasts to take full advantage of not only the DS touch pad, but also the built in mic, so looks like you will be able to yell at your Disney characters as well.
From the press release:
Disney Friends welcomes players into the worlds of favorite Disney personalities with helpful tips and guidance from the feisty, fun-loving fairy, Tinker Bell. Using the Nintendo DS’ touch screen and microphone with voice recognition, players influence the actions and unique emotional behaviors of the game’s characters and join them on fun adventures in an array of character-specific environments.
D-Gamer is an online community for the Nintendo DS created and supported by Disney. Disney says this community will allow people to chat with other players across the nation and create different avatars as well. To me this looks to be a fancy instant messaging service geared to just kids, but I think Disney needs to be careful that grown weirdos don’t jump into this service and cause some havoc. This service should bomb fairly quick though.
Nintendo has announced their anticipated launch schedule to keep us gamers busy during our long hot summer. Of greatest interest have to be the Wii titles: Metroid 3 in August and Mario Strikers in July. There are also a gigantic DS lineup announced, of greatest note are the 3 versions of the Mega Man title, sly devils and their different versions, as well as the SimCity EA game coming to a hand held near you. Can’t wait to see the distribution of Wii and DS titles become a bit less lop sided.
Wii
July 30 Mario Strikers Charged Nintendo
Aug. 20 Metroid Prime 3 Corruption Nintendo
September Battalion Wars 2 Nintendo
Aug. 14 High School Musical: Sing It! Disney Interactive Studios
Aug. 14 Madden NFL ‘08 EA
August Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘08 EA
August Space Station Tycoon Namco Bandai
August Brunswick Pro Bowling Crave
August Dave Mirra BMX Challenge Crave
August Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection Crave
September Brothers in Arms Ubisoft
September Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal Warner Bros.
September George of the Jungle Crave
Fall Boogie EA
Nintendo DS
July 30 Picross DS Nintendo
Aug. 20 Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day Nintendo
Sept. 10 DK Jungle Climber Nintendo
Sept. 24 Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol Nintendo
July SimCity EA
We're like Spaceballs... we're making Loot Ninja everything. Coming soon we'll have hats, shirts, hoodies, possibly banana hammocks if one Editor has his way...
Check out the shirt prototypes here and the hats here
Slated to be released in Spring of 2008 Disney Friends sounds to be a take of NintendDogs but with Disney characters. You can interact with Stitch, Simba and other Disney characters as you deprive them of food and excercise. This game boasts to take full advantage of not only the DS touch pad, but also the built in mic, so looks like you will be able to yell at your Disney characters as well.
Nintendo has announced their anticipated launch schedule to keep us gamers busy during our long hot summer. Of greatest interest have to be the Wii titles: Metroid 3 in August and Mario Strikers in July. There are also a gigantic DS lineup announced, of greatest note are the 3 versions of the Mega Man title, sly devils and their different versions, as well as the SimCity EA game coming to a hand held near you. Can’t wait to see the distribution of Wii and DS titles become a bit less lop sided.
