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Disney Guilty Party review: Waggle, She Wrote
Oh great, a Wii game with "Party" in the title. Do we really need another one of these? I mean, we've already got Raving Rabbits TV Party, Pool Party, Game Party, Babies Party, Mario Party 8, Boom Blox: Bash Party, and ... trust me, I could go on. Wait a second. What's that? Disney Guilty Party's actually fun? It doesn't look like the developers were locked in a closet throughout the design process? Oh, fine. I guess I'll give it a shot. %Gallery-86428%
Meet the detectives of Disney Guilty Party
They're not exactly an intimidating bunch -- we've got a masked brat, a soft-spoken granny and a let-himself-go gumshoe in here -- but the investigative attendees of Disney Guilty Party look like they can crack a case and hook some crooks with flair on August 31. See the new trailer after the break.
Amazon offers credit on Metroid: Other M, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, more
Amazon's list of bonus offers is a good resource for people who like to receive free money for basically no reason when they pre-order games. Metroid: Other M is among the latest to be bundled with Amazon credit as an incentive, to the tune of an extra $20. Other notable recent additions include L.A. Noire, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Disney Guilty Party (all three offering a $10 credit) Amazon is continually sneaking new offers in among the ones like Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops that have been available for some time. Which kind of makes sense, since new games continue to be announced even during the pre-order period for other games.
Disney Guilty Party flees into August
A new video for Disney Guilty Party offers some insight from Wideload Games staff about the flow of gameplay in the mystery-solving title. It includes footage of several of the activities, including fingerprint analysis, lockpicking, and ... suspect tickling ... as well as a bit of information about some of the personalities involved, including our first look at the villainous Mr. Valentine. It also serves as the vehicle for an announcement of a delay. Along with this trailer, Disney revealed that the release date has been bumped from July 27 to August 31, where it "now kicks off the holiday season on August 31st, 2010." We've got our first mystery to solve: finding the person who moved the holiday season to August.
Interview: Wideload Games' Patrick Curry talks Disney Guilty Party, life after 'Stubbs'
Some of the most fun to be had during multiplayer video games isn't actually in the game itself -- it's outside of the games, where players chat with each other for fun, break down a strategy during co-op, or trash talk in-between deathmatches. You don't usually get XP for taunting over voicechat or telling your team where the enemy is, but there's a reward nevertheless, a social bonus completely independent of the code that developers write. Wideload Games has done a great job of focusing on that gameplay in Disney Guilty Party. I got to play the same co-op Party Mode as Randy at a pre-E3 event this week, and while it's definitely a family game, it competently serves up custom-made mysteries for families to take on. In hunting down and accusing various colorful suspects, that out-of-game conversation and interaction becomes just as important and fun as the in-game button pressing and Wiimote waggling. Game Director Patrick Curry was my partner-in-crime-solving, and since we have common roots in Chicago (I used to work in the same building, one floor below Wideload's studios), we had a quick chat about the studio's direction towards family games, and its acquisition by Disney Interactive.
Disney Interactive reports increased revenue, $55 million loss
Disney has posted earnings for its second fiscal quarter ended April 3, 2010, and there's good news and bad news. The good news is that revenues are up in its Interactive Media segment (which houses Disney Interactive Studios). Specifically, Interactive Media revenues are at $155 million, up from $129 million in the same period last year, a 20 percent increase. The bad news: the Interactive Media segment still reports a loss of $55 million, though that loss is an improvement over the $61 million loss reported during the same quarter last year. Disney pins the improvement on growing Club Penguin subscription revenues as well as "lower video game inventory costs." The company added that gains were offset by "higher internet product development and sales and marketing costs." The report makes little note of Disney Interactive's prospects for the rest of the year, though the publisher has more than a few big projects on the horizon. Split/Second is only a week away, while Toy Story 3, Disney Sing It: Family Hits, Disney Guilty Party, a new Pirates of the Caribbean and Disney Epic Mickey are all on the horizon this year. And let's not forget Marvel -- which Disney owns -- has a title or two on the way, as well.
You're invited to Disney Guilty Party on July 27
Click to solve "The Case of What's in the Gallery"Wideload Games' "Clue meets Guess Who meets adventure game" for Wii, Disney Guilty Party, will be available for investigation (and also purchase) in North America on July 27. The game lets up to four players use their Wiimotes as magnifying glasses, fingerprint kits and other detective tools as they rush to solve crimes orchestrated by the diabolical "Mr. Valentine." Along the way, players must gather clues about the identity of the culprit in each particular case, through investigation and investigation-themed minigames. While you wait for the July release, feel free to take a magnifying glass into our gallery and see what can be deduced from the new screenshots. %Gallery-86428%
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: Media Summit 2010 redux
This week's Nintendo Channel update features a lot of trailers for all of the big news items out of Nintendo Media Summit last week. If you haven't had a chance to check out the new trailers and our hands-on impressions, hit up this post here. Otherwise, boot up your Wii and enjoy all of the new videos for Super Mario Galaxy 2, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor and Disney Guilty Party! %Gallery-86430%
Hands-on: Disney Guilty Party
On my list of games I expected to see from Stubbs the Zombie dev Wideload Games, "multiplayer mystery game" ... well, wasn't on my list. But I have to say that I was excited by what I saw (and played) of Disney Guilty Party during the Nintendo Media Summit. It was funny, clever and, simply, different. Though it will support four-player cooperative (and even competitive) mystery-solving (think: Clue meets Zack & Wiki), the session I participated in was a two-player affair. From levels that include a train, mansion, aquarium, and other settings, I ended up playing the gumshoe character on a cruise ship that was missing its wheel and anchor. Along with my partner in crime ... solving, I came pretty close to solving the whodunnit (you need to find evidence as to the perp's hair length, sex, shape, and height, before accusing anyone) as I used my allotted moves and turns to investigate the dollhouse-like cut-away of the ship. Special cards came into play (the over-arching story's villain might, for example, lock off a room -- there's a card that counters that) as did some ... err, unique "interrogation" mini-games, including "staring" into a suspects eyes, paying a bribe and tickling the truth out of an NPC using the Wiimote. The writing's sharp and funny, the classic adventure game underpinnings are noticeable, and I'm eager to play more. %Gallery-86428%
Disney Guilty Party: A Wii detective game from Wideload
Click to investigate What's Disney doing with Wideload Games, the development studio it acquired last year? It's going to take some detective work to find out. No, really, if you want to play through Disney Guilty Party, the new game from Wideload, you'll have to do some sleuthing. Because it's a detective game, you see. Never mind. Disney Guilty Party is slated for release in the second half of 2010. %Gallery-86428%
