Topic: New features for Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis Remakes

[Flames_of_chaos]

For Pikmin, the new feature mentioned in Famitsu concerns saving. When you save, the game stores day-by-day records of your play. You're free to restart play from the day of your choice.

For Mario Power Tennis, Nintendo has made the game fully Wiimote compatible. You can now swing the Wiimote like a tennis racket to control your swings, performing forehands, backhands, tosses and smashes by swinging the Wiimote as you would a normal racket. For spin shots, you simply change the angle of the Wiimote when swinging. To perform special shots, you press buttons during the swing.

Mario Power Tennis will support play both through the Wiimote on its own and through a Wiimote/Nunchuck combo, the latter presumably allowing you to control your characters on the court.

Famitsu lists Camelot as developer for Mario Power Tennis. It's unclear if the studio is working on the Wii update or if the Famitsu listing is just in reference to the original.

Pikmin hits Japan on December 25. Mario Power Tennis follows on January 15. Both are priced at 3,800 yen.

[Kairon]

Someone pull Camelot off of sports games? I mean, they don't do bad work, but they're being typecast when we all know they can do so much more and create a bigger splash if challenged a little!

[Bill Aurion]

It's not like they are being forced into making sports games...Hell, they did Wii Love Golf completely on their own...

[Flames_of_chaos]

It's not like they are being forced into making sports games...Hell, they did We Love Golf completely on their own...

Fixed

[Bill Aurion]

Oh whoops, that's not the first time I've done that... =(

[Mikintosh]

They created the Mario sports franchises; it's a positive they're still the developers, not a negative. If they're commissioned to do a Golden Sun for the Wii or whatever, I'm sure they'll do it, but I'm sure the employees don't want to just be sitting around doing nothing until they're sufficiently "challenged."

[Ian Sane]

It's not like they are being forced into making sports games...Hell, they did Wii Love Golf completely on their own...

So in other words they're in a self-imposed rut, most likely because a sports game requires less effort and is easier to make a buck at.  Good business sense but dull as dirt from a creative one.  Nintendo ought to assign them something with more challenge to it to make use of their full potential.  I know that sounds like an unrealistic artistic attitude towards games but it's not such a bad idea business wise.  Mario sports titles can likely be made by any old dev.  But if you make full use of talented devs at your disposal you can get a better game out of it which can then become a new cash cow.

But this business model is more for the old market.  Encouraging a dev to make their magnum opus for your console isn't so necessary to attract the blue ocean crowd.  Case in point these Wii-makes.

[Spak-Spang]

Mario Power Tennis becomes an instant Rebuy if the Wii Controls work...here is hoping that they got to use Wiimotion plus for the game...but probably not.

[Bill Aurion]

So in other words they're in a self-imposed rut, most likely because a sports game requires less effort and is easier to make a buck at.

Well, it's also easier to do when your team is made up of only 30 people... =)

[Flames_of_chaos]

It's not like they are being forced into making sports games...Hell, they did Wii Love Golf completely on their own...

So in other words they're in a self-imposed rut, most likely because a sports game requires less effort and is easier to make a buck at.  Good business sense but dull as dirt from a creative one.  Nintendo ought to assign them something with more challenge to it to make use of their full potential.  I know that sounds like an unrealistic artistic attitude towards games but it's not such a bad idea business wise.  Mario sports titles can likely be made by any old dev.  But if you make full use of talented devs at your disposal you can get a better game out of it which can then become a new cash cow.

But this business model is more for the old market.  Encouraging a dev to make their magnum opus for your console isn't so necessary to attract the blue ocean crowd.  Case in point these Wii-makes.

Well Ian Camelot wanted to work on a PC golf game that didn't work out so they went back to consoles. I guess they didn't want to associate the golf game with another Mario Golf game but more in the vein of the first Hot Shots Golf (yes Hot Shots Golf 1 was made by Camelot before Clap Hanz took over) so they went to Capcom and boom We Love Golf happened.

[Adrock]

Camelot should make Shining Force 4 or at least remake 3 so people who don't like spending $65 on a used Saturn game can not only play the game, but play the the last 2/3 of it.

[White Mage]

I'm actually really excited for the Mario Power Tennis wiimake.  I never had a chance to play it, but if it's anything remotely like Mario Tennis for the 64, then it's going to be an instant buy for me.  As for the Pikman do-over, I'm okay with just owning the Gamecube one.  I really enjoyed the game a lot, but just don't see it as a rebuy.  I still have an unopened Pikmin 2 game waiting to be played.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Mario Power Tennis was a solid, finely tuned console game for its time, with or without power shots.  Daisy was better than ever, and continued to destroy everyone else.

[Spak-Spang]

What was great about Mario Power Tennis...is you could turn all the Power Shots off and play the game more traditional...and it was like a very finely tuned Mario Tennis for N64.  But, you could play with the Power shots if you wanted something more zany.

I hope for new mini games, perhaps a new hidden character or 2 as well.

[Mop it up]

On my way home from work today I bought Mario Power Tennis. I haven't played it yet, but as soon as I had it in my grubby paws I ripped off the shrink wrap and reversed that ugly box art.
Is anyone else planning on picking this game up?