Nintendo saved the best—or at least the newest—for last at its media summit today in San Francisco with a look at a couple of titles that will be appearing on the WiiWare download service. While there are a host of WiiWare games that will be playable at the event, Nintendo took the opportunity to focus on two titles that seem to epitomize what WiiWare hopes to provide. First was a look at Telltale’s newest episodic game, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, followed by 2D Boy’s World of Goo.
Seeing Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People in action came as a bit of a surprise, seeing as to how Telltale only formally announced it yesterday. As members of the press filtered into the conference room and saw the game’s splash screen displayed at the front of the room, it was clear that it was probably a good surprise. Nerds like Homestar Runner.
Telltale’s Emily Morganti started off the presentation with a quick recap of what the company’s been up to. If you’re not familiar with the developer, they’ve been working on one of the most successful examples of episodic gaming with the popular Sam & Max series. Morganti said that Homestar Runner has essentially been producing episodic animated content since its debut in 2000, and that its creators thought it was important to work with a company that had a proven track record in delivering games on a regular schedule. Telltale fit the bill, and as Morganti pointed out, it was a good fit for all involved.
The game puts players in the red shoes of the masked Strong Bad. As he explains in an introductory song, nobody can “handle his style.” It’s up to players to at least try. Over the course of the episodes, players will get a chance to see the world from Strong Bad’s perspective, interacting with familiar characters and visiting places that fans are sure to recognize.
As with other episodic games, each installment gives players a small goal that fits into a larger storyline. In the first episode of SBCG4AP, Homestar Runner has been charged with indecency, and has crashed at Strong Bad’s pad. This doesn’t sit too well with SB, especially with Homestar Runner moping around and feeling sorry for himself. Players have to find a way to convince Homestar Runner that the charges have been dropped, so that he’ll (hopefully) go away.
The game is in a 3D world, and it looks like it plays much like a traditional point-and-click adventure game. Using the Wii’s IR tracking, players move a white dot across the screen. When it lands on a point of interest, it gets a blue center. Using that interface, SB can talk to other characters (tormenting his room-bound brother, for example) or opening boxes. Keeping with his character, SB can also use his computer to receive e-mails, which can open new areas or storylines.
Fans of the series know that Strong Bad is a fan of retro gaming, and that aspect of his personality is represented in the game, too. We saw a short look at a game called Snake Boxer V, a top-down boxing game which pits a snake against a boxer. It looked very simple, very stupid and absolutely perfect for the game’s world.
Telltale said that the entire first episode will be playable at the event, so be sure to read our hands-on impressions next week.
While Strong Bad and crew demonstrated how the Wii can be a destination for episodic-based gaming, World of Goo showed how Nintendo hopes to court smaller indie developers. The game started out as a Tower of Goo on the Experimental Gameplay Project’s Web site. World of Goo takes the core physics-based construction action and builds upon it impressively.
In World of Goo, players manipulate little blobs of goo with an on-screen cursor. They start out in geometrically linked clusters, and by selecting and pulling individual nodes away, larger structures can be built. (The blobs leave trails behind them, which form lattice-like shapes.) In the levels we saw, players had to lead their blobs up to mysterious pipes suspended high in the air. When structures were built high enough, the blobs were sucked in to who knows where.
Well, we know where now. In the demo, 2D Boy’s Kyle Gabler explained that the pipes lead the blobs into the Goo Corporation, where their essence is extracted and they’re converted into soda, exfoliant or personal lubricants. Yes, bubbling beneath its cutie-pie exterior is a surprisingly sinister storyline.
Towers aren’t the only thing players can build. We saw other types of blobs, including some that are lighter than air, which can be tethered to clustered groups and used to lift them away. Vine-type blobs can be placed and then replaced later, allowing players to creep up narrow passageways.
We got quick glimpses of several of the game’s levels to show off sample goals. One had players build a bridge out of a frog’s mouth across a yawning chasm. To make matters more complicated, it was lined with spikes. Fortunately, players had access to those balloon-like blobs, allowing for some delicate maneuvering; build horizontally, while ensuring that the structure doesn’t flex down too much or get lifted too high. Another level incorporated the ivy towers, tasking players with moving from the inside of a creature’s stomach up through its esophagus. Pleasant.
The game supports a Super Mario Galaxy-style co-op element, giving other players a chance to pitch in. Or, as Gabler explained, “they can f___ you up.”
World of Goo has a great art style and simple, but flexible-looking gameplay. We’re particularly interested to see how the co-op element works. We’ll give you our full impressions on it and plenty of other WiiWare games next week.