Free Radical’s David Doak discusses the possibility.
In the massive build-up of anticipation surrounding the release of Halo 3 next week, it’s easy to forget that FPS gaming on consoles was originally kicked into hyperdrive on the Nintendo 64 with Rare’s 007 Goldeneye. David Doak, one of the original team members on Goldeneye, has since moved on to Free Radical, the company responsible for the popular TimeSplitters series. In a recent interview with Game Informer Online promoting the upcoming release of Haze for PlayStation 3, Doak discussed the possibilities of bringing future Free Radical games to Wii, including the next iteration in the TimeSplitters series.
Specifically, Doak said that early stages of development have officially begun on TimeSplitters 4. “It is in development, but it’s not at a stage that would look like development if we showed it to someone," Said Doak. “We’re looking at engine things that we might need to tweak for it and deciding what are the features that we really want it to have." Doak went on to acknowledge the sequel will continue in the heavily satirical vein of the first three games, spoofing both movies and video games. A small sampling of the humor was forthcoming in Free Radical’s release of the series trademark monkey placed in the center of a blood-red COG symbol made famous by Epic Studios' Xbox 360 game Gears Of War.
Moving on to the topic of Wii development, Doak said, “I think it’s a good thing to do, and I think we want to put [TimeSplitters 4] on the Wii." While the game is still without a publisher and remains in a preliminary stage of development, Doak seems convinced that the TimeSplitters style of gameplay can be adapted to the motion controls made possible by the Wii Remote. On the subject of developing games based around motion controls, Doak was critical of using too many gesture controls just for the sake of being ambitious. “It’s better to make a game that’s enjoyable to play than a game that’s got features that don’t work."
As a parting tease for Nintendo fans, Doak touched on the subject of a remake of Free Radical's 2004 psychic-action game, Second Sight. “If you want to start a petition for remaking Second Sight on Wii, I’d like to see that as well." These days, it’s certainly not unusual for developers to opine about bringing versions of their games to Wii, but given Free Radical’s track record and past support of Nintendo consoles, these preliminary thoughts could well translate into something more than rumor and speculation.
For the complete transcript of the interview, including some discussion of Doak’s thoughts on Metroid Prime 3, be sure to check out Game Informer’s website.