Surpriise!

A couple of surprising tidbits have come out about future Wii games that I'm pretty excited about.

The first is that EA is making a Dead Space game for the Wii. This is surprising because Dead Space is a fairly mature title, and these aren't always considered prime Wii material. The 360 and PS3 versions were well reviewed. Whether the Wii version is a port of that game, or something completely built from the ground up, I hope they put the same level of quality into it. We're already getting a stripped down version of Dead Rising (completely unrelated), so I hope Dead Space isn't too toned down on content.

The other thing that has me a little giddy is this announcement that the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings game will contain a bonus game: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Anyone who played PC games back in the day will remember Fate of Atlantis as one of Lucasarts' classic point-and-click adventure games.

I've been calling for more point-and-click Wii action for a while. The recent Sam & Max game was pretty good (though not nearly as good as the Lucasarts original), and Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People is a must for Homestar Runner fans.

Hopefully Staff of Kings with be worth purchasing so I can enjoy Fate of Atlantis all over again. And if the port is well received I hope Lucasarts considers bringing some more of their old adventure games to the Wii, either as a standalone collection or on the Virtual Console. Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Sam & Max Hit The Road, Grim Fandango, and The Digg are all games I wouldn't mind playing again. Maniac Mansion was even on the NES, so that would be perfect for a Virtual Console release.

Lincoln Smash!

Needing to take a break from politics I thought I'd write a little about video games. They've been under-represented here lately.

This comes out this week:


Pure joy for fans of the old school Sam & Max game for PC.

Also, if you have a Wii I hope you've been checking out the WiiWare store lately. There had been a dirth of real quality games on the service since the launch. But suddenly the last few weeks have exploded with good stuff.

Most recently Bomberman Blast and Megaman 9 have added some fantastic retro flavor. Bomberman Blast is particularly exciting since you can play online against up to 7 opponents. Also, the first two episodes of Strong Bad's game are available, and the third should be out sometime this month. I also picked up Groovin' Blocks a unique take on the falling blocks puzzle genre in which you try to clear blocks to the rhythm of the music. It's challenging, and the electronic music is good.

There are some exciting games on the horizon. I'm most looking forward to MaBoShi (although I'm not even sure there's going to be an American release for this one), World of Goo, Tetris Party (more online action), and Cave Story.

Sam & Max

A while back I stated my hope that the episodic Sam & Max games from Telltale would be ported to the Wii. Then there were rumors for over a year that this would happen, including a mysterious German press release that seemed to confirm it. Now, finally, Telltale is officially announcing Sam & Max for the Wii.