One more thing. The game features fencing as one of the events. If they do a decent job it will be the first good sword fighting game on the Wii, there is at least potential for that.
Honestly I'm not sure, its being released at the right time to hit the attention of the Olympic Crowd, it will draw the Mario and the Sonic fans (Yes there are still Sega fanatics running around) and people who are excited about doing athletic stuff on the Wii will probably buy it.
It will be interesting to see how this stock performs but I don't see any reason it couldn't hit 1 million sales, especially at the rate the Wii is selling.
anyone found an event list for this? Are we looking at basic track sprints, hurdles and simple jumps or are we going to have some of the more advanced field events, Discus, Pole Vault, Triple Jump etc...
This game looks extremely intriguing and an great accompaniment to wii sports.
"The game is easy to get into...There are 20 events planned for the final game including archery, fencing, gymnastics, skeet shooting, and many, many others. The controls are simple enough for anyone to get into. Most of the games use a combination of nunchuck/Wiimote controls, though there are a few that use only the Wiimote, and the game is planned to support up to four players....The developers spoke that they are looking into the possibility of utilizing the Wii Zapper for the skeet shooting game, though they would not confirm it. There is also planned connectivity with the DS version that will release alongside this Wii version. Only 8 characters were in the demo, but 20 are planned for the final. They are also planning on having support for online Wii leaderboards featuring best times and scores........controls are waaaaaaaaay overly-simplified. A lot of the games just boil back into a glorified waggle fests, much like a next-gen Track & Field...game will not support any kind of story mode...plans for any kind of online play"
IGN recently asked famous Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto whether or not the publisher had thought about internally developing a sword fighting game with one-to-one controls - something Wii fans have been clamoring for - and he hinted that some talks had taken place. In fact, judging by the phrasing of his response, Nintendo may already have a game underway.
"We haven't announced anything, so I can't speak about any particulars, but we do have a lot of ideas about how we could potentially use the Wii remote for something like that," Miyamoto told us.
He also pointed to Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games as a project that may potentially include such a feature. "There will be some fencing in Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. I don't know if I'm supposed to say that, so if I'm not, I'm very sorry, SEGA," he said, laughing.
I don't claim to be an expert, but I'll put in my $0.02.
I guess we can break it down into 3 areas - Mario, Sonic and sports game.
Mario, certainly a Nintendo favourite. Just looking at all the games that have Mario's name on it, everyone is predicting way above a million over its lifetime. No doubt Mario will have a huge impact on sales.
Sonic, the Sega's mascot. I think the Sonic name has faded somewhat over the years, but it still has a huge fans base. It might not have the same selling power as Mario, but Sonic will appeal to those who still remembered the Sega era.
Sports game, that, I think, is the big question mark. I don't have figures, but I don't believe the Athens Olympics game sold anywhere near a million. Unlike other Mario / Sonic games, this game will fade away faster as Olympics comes to a close.
So I think even with Mario's and Sonic's drawing power, the majority of the games will be sold before and during the Olympics.
There has been some discussion on the boards looking for more 'personal' and 'first hand' input on some titles.
I am not a Wii/Nintendo/Mario kind of guy but from afar I can's see this game missing given its focus on Mario and Sonic and its timing making it a huge tie in to the Olympics.
Could someone with a penchant for analyzing Mario based games take a look here and give us a crystal ball look...have their been similar Mario titles? What is the impact of Sonic? etc etc...
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One more thing. The game features fencing as one of the events. If they do a decent job it will be the first good sword fighting game on the Wii, there is at least potential for that.