Author Topic: Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare  (Read 3960 times)

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Offline Jonnyboy117

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Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
« on: September 29, 2008, 11:47:49 AM »
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=16753

  Regular readers will know that we have been critical of Nintendo's WiiWare support.  Before today, their only releases were a bland port of Dr. Mario and the mostly useless Pokemon Ranch… and neither was developed in-house.  With no more WiiWare games announced, we didn't expect any first-party downloadable titles until at least 2009.    


That outlook changed in a big way with today's release of Orbient.  It's an expanded remake of Orbital, one of the Bit Generation games released only in Japan for Game Boy Advance.  Bit Generation was a series of six simple, stylish games designed to launch with the fashionable Game Boy Micro, though they played on all GBA and DS systems.  Skip (creators of Chibi-Robo and Captain Rainbow) developed five of the games, while the sixth came from Q-Games, now well known for their PixelJunk brand on PS3.  Many Nintendo fans longed for a worldwide release of the Bit Generation series, and it seems we may finally be getting it, albeit it in a completely unexpected way.    


Along with the out-of-nowhere release of Orbient on WiiWare, with extra levels and a price of only $6, Nintendo has also created a new sub-brand called Art Style.  For now, I can only assume this is a rebranding of Bit Generation, although there may be some brand new games planned for the series.  With two more Art Style games headed for WiiWare in October alone, chances are good that we'll see even more of the "lost" Bit Generations games on our TV screens this year.    


I just want to say to Nintendo: good job on delivering a fantastic surprise to your "hardcore" American audience.  The irony is that Bit Generation titles are mostly casual-oriented, but the origin of these games and their bizarre gameplay ideas will not go unnoticed by your long-standing fan base.  Keep 'em coming, and I'll keep downloading.

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Offline KDR_11k

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Re: Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2008, 02:30:07 PM »
Which one was made by Q-Games?

I think I'd buy even the two I own (Digidrive, Boundish) on the Wii again. I wonder what enhancements the other games will get...

Offline vudu

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Re: Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2008, 02:43:22 PM »
I'm psyched about these released.  I honestly don't know too much about the Bit Generation games.  They always seemed interested to me, but were never worth importing.  I'm going to have to pay attention to the reviews for these.

Speaking of which, is NWR going to start reviewing WiiWare (and VC) games again? 
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Offline Yoshidious

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Re: Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2008, 02:46:06 PM »
This is the breakdown of the Bit Gen games as I recall:

Skip:
Boundish, Coloris, Dialhex, Dotstream, Orbital, Soundvoyager

Q-Games:
Digidrive

So the total is actually 7, of which I own 4 (Digidrive, Dotstream, Orbital, and Soundvoyager). Boundish is based on Pong I think, with Coloris and Dialhex both being puzzle games. Of the 4 I own, Orbital's probably the best, but they're all cool in their own way.



 
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Offline Nick DiMola

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Re: Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2008, 02:56:25 PM »
Yeah, I'm totally pumped to see these come stateside in some form. I was contemplating importing the whole lot of them which would've cost me a fortune. This way I can get them all for under fifty bucks and play them on the TV (where I would've played them anyway). Well here's to hoping they re-release them all and even set us up with a few new ones.
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Offline Kairon

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Re: Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2008, 08:39:27 PM »
I <3 dotstream. How are the bit generations games casual? They harken back to a simpler, purer era of gaming... and that seems to me most hardcore.

I wonder if Nintendo will also run student created games through WiiWare? I know that in Japan they had some sort of wall of student created GBA experimental games didn't they?
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Offline Jonnyboy117

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Re: Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2008, 09:22:59 PM »
I think they have a casual appeal (due to their simplicity) overlying their traditional gaming roots.  For instance, Orbient looks like the kind of thing you might see in a browser game (not to downplay its quality or value), yet the strategy and SWEET, SWEET MATH inherent in the game design are more likely to appeal to the super-nerds who invented computer games in the first place.

Sorry about getting the number of BG games wrong.  That's the difference between a news article and a blog post!  I just spewed this out in five minutes after reading this morning's press release, and there was no editing process to discover the error.  But I'm not concerned with it, either.  ;-)
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Offline Infernal Monkey

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Re: Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2008, 10:03:12 PM »
Like KDR, I've got DigiDrive and Boundish (only because they were on sale :tpg: ). I'd like to see Boundish remade, I got pretty addicted to that. Always wanted to play Dot Stream, so hopefully that hits WiiWare too!

Also guys, please don't try and shove them in either of the silly 'casual' or 'hardcore' memes. ;__; The industry has already suffered enough brain damage this generation trying to seperate video games. That'd be like trying to decide who Space Invaders was for.

Offline Djunknown

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Re: Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2008, 11:33:33 PM »
Quote
Nintendo has also created a new sub-brand called Art Style.

Games are art now?  ;)
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Offline Jonnyboy117

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Re: Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2008, 11:35:22 PM »
Games are art now?  ;)

Speaking of gaming memes that should go extinct...
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Offline KDR_11k

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Re: Welcome to the Bit Generation… on WiiWare
« Reply #10 on: September 30, 2008, 07:27:32 AM »
I <3 dotstream. How are the bit generations games casual? They harken back to a simpler, purer era of gaming... and that seems to me most hardcore.

That's the expanded market, as opposed to the core market. When you complain that Nintendo needs more core games you are saying they should NOT do this and focus on expsnive, complex blockbusters instead. When Nintendo goes for the expanded market that means they do MORE of this. Hardcore and casual are meaningless dickwaggery labels anyway that imply a dichtomy that does not exist (a person can belong to the expanded and core market at the same time, casual and hardcore puts a strict either-or division into place).