Tag Archives: video game

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings: What We Know

Posted on by
Reply

A couple years ago at an E3 conference, LucasArts announced an Indiana Jones on next-gen systems. While they have yet to live up to that promise, for a while now they have been working on Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, which they plan to release on the Wii, PS2, DS, and PSP this June. The thing is, for game that is to be released so soon, there is very little information available concering just what the game is like. But here is what we do know.

We know that Staff of Kings is an original Indy storyline that LucasArts themselves constructed. It features a variety of environmental settings and locations, which happen to be: Sudan, Istanbul, Panama, San Francisco, and Nepal. The developers have taken the films into account, and been sure to not only be true to the overall classic feel of Jones’ adventures, but have also inserted a number of homages to Indy’s past journies that fans of the movies will certainly get a kick out of.

We know that every version of the game is not a simple port, but rather designed specifically to suit it’s system. In fact, each version was built entirely from the ground up to suit it’s strength: the PSP’s being that of physics engine capabilities for puzzles, the DS being the touch-screen for combat, the Wii it’s motion sense for innovative whip control, and the PS2 for it’s Hot Set destructible environments.

The storyline itself received creative input from both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. It concerns the search for what is essentially the Staff of Moses, in which Indiana Jones and a new nemesis called Magnus Voller are opposed. The game features both singleplayer and co-op, each having seperate storyline elements. While the singleplayer storyline boasts a whole cast of entirely new characters, there is one character in the co-op mode that Jones fans have certainly seen before.

We know that the Wii version features many areas in which motion control is utilized, as well as unlockables such as a two to four-player versus mode and even the entire original PC game “Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis”. There’s actually quite alot of difference in content between versions, but the Wii’s appears to be the most significant.

We know that every single version of the game will be released simultaneously on June 9th.

Final Fantasy: Echoes of Time For Wii

Posted on by
Reply

You may have already heard that in an interesting turn of events, Square Enix, famed roleplaying game developer of the Final Fantasy franchise, has made a Wii port of the DS game Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time available. Owners of the Wii version will be able to play online with those that are playing the DS version, which is a pretty neat feature. However, the catch is that the Wii version’s graphics are nearly identical to that of the DS version.

Echoes of Time plays vastly similar to Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. It is an action RPG in which the player travels from place on his journey, completing quests, defeating monsters, getting stronger and acquiring better and rarer items. I guess you could say it’s Final Fantasy meets Diablo: which is actually a pretty good thing.

As I mentioned before, one of the big selling points has been it’s online, but in addition to the online multiplayer mode there is a singleplayer option, which may be more convenient if you just wish to play through and enjoy the game’s storyline. Either options are appealing and insure some good replay value.

But one thing you may be curious about is how they solved the problem of the two screens that are required to play the DS version. Simple: there are still two screens in the Wii version, side by side. You can customize each screen’s size, and use magic and switch characters and use items etc, by using the pointer on the extra screen where in the DS version players would use the stylus. You can also use the d-pad to switch characters and use magic; it’s your choice. This is one of the few notable differences gameplay-wise between the DS and Wii versions, one of which is that in the Wii version load times are pretty much nonexistent.

While it may have seemed a bit of a weird decision to port a handheld game to the Wii, it may be one that really pays off, at least commercially. Square Enix knows what they are doing. And anyways, if you are willing to forgive some lacking graphics for the sake of engaging gameplay and some features the DS version happens to be without, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time may be for you.