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This wearable MIDI controller can control Zoom calls too
Now you can control Zoom and Powerpoint with Genki's wearable MIDI controller.
'Wave' ring is the latest to turn your hands into MIDI controllers
Ring-shaped music controllers aren't anything new. IK Multimedia released the iRing back in 2014, and the Enhancia made its debut at CES this year. Now we've got the Wave, an adjustable MIDI controller ring that can adjust sounds and effects with gestures and taps. Genki Instruments has a working prototype of the device, and is looking to fund a final version on Indiegogo.
Disney's Spectrobes find a new home on Wii
Disney Interactive's Spectrobes series, the company's action-RPG take on Pokémon featuring creatures that must be excavated from the ground, is expanding to Wii this fall with the upcoming release of Spectrobes: Origins. In an interview with IGN, producer Kentaro Hisai revealed the Genki-developed project, which is more action-oriented than its DS predecessors, will be "[shifting] the focus away from the RPG genre while still using some beneficial RPG elements." In Origins, players control series regular Rallen, who is now directly involved in combat and controls only one Spectrobe at a time, who acts as a support character. The assisting Spectrobe can be switched out at any time. The new game is being designed for new players, expanding on the story found in the DS games while catching players up with the use of flashback sequences. %Gallery-45449%
VC Friday: Lonpos finally leaves Japan
Oh goody, Nintendo slashed the price of a WiiWare game in PAL regions. Oh, it's ... Lonpos. The only neat, semi-interesting thing we can bring ourselves to write about Lonpos is that it was a launch title for the Japanese WiiWare service (but for 1,000 Wii Points), and that buying the starter pack and downloading all of Lonpos' extra content would cost you 5,300 Wii Points. We kid you not. Good luck with that, Genki. Lonpos -- WiiWare -- 800 Wii Points There's a video after the break of the game in "action." In short, it's a tangram puzzler, in the vein of Neves. Anybody else detecting a lack of excitement in our tone?%Gallery-19077%
Super Punch-Out!! and rare Ogre Battle rated by ESRB
That copy of Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen you stashed under the mattress to partly fund your early retirement just got a whole lot less valuable. The ESRB has rated the rare Enix RPG for a Virtual Console release, along with another, more widely known SNES gem: Super Punch-Out!!. Is Nintendo planning to release the classic pugilist title alongside its modern Wii equivalent, as it did in the case of Super Metroid and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption? Perhaps!Those aren't the only surprises in the latest ESRB ratings: Lonpos, a launch title for the Japanese WiiWare service no less, has also been classified. As it's been a while, here's a reminder of what it looks like:%Gallery-19077%
Lonpos hates your wallet
While you already know our stance on Lonpos's downloadable content, you probably didn't realize how much wallet maiming would actually be going on. In Japan, nine puzzle packs were released this week. While that might seem like good news at first for the puzzle lovers in us all, it's not. Each puzzle pack costs 500 Wii Points (or $5, if you will), meaning that all nine packs come to a total of $45. Let's not forget the $10 to download the starter pack of Lonpos to begin with.A puzzle pack includes twenty-five puzzles, which means that all nine packs would admittedly be a lot of content, but this still doesn't sit right with us. At the very least, the initial gimped version should be cheaper to download off of WiiWare. With this much DLC at these prices, we'd have preferred that Genki released a disc-based game instead. Think about it: if you don't think you'd like Lonpos, you won't want to download it in the first place. If Lonpos interests you, though, you're going to want as many puzzle packs as possible, and feel completely deflated by the money Genki is asking for. It seems that Genki has gotten the concept of nickel-and-diming down to a T. Gallery: Lonpos
Lonpos may be bad for your blood pressure
Lining up beads in a tray sounds easy, yeah? Don't be fooled. While we can't read the text that pops up in this video after every instance of failure, we can take a guess at what it says. "Damn," maybe, or perhaps, "Son of a-- stupid beads," or even "SCREW THIS GAME!" Only, y'know, in Japanese.That's the forthcoming Wii Ware title Lonpos, in a nutshell. Or, rather, in a tray. See for yourself, if you've never tried it, in the video above and the screenshots below.%Gallery-19077%
Microtransactions coming soon to Nintendo Wii
And the infernal circle is complete. Microtransactions will finally be making their way to the Nintendo Wii, largely by way of the upcoming WiiWare service. The Wii was the last of the three major consoles to not support microtransactions, and now no consumer is safe from the incessant nickel-and-diming for minor content.IGN reports that WiiWare developer Genki will be selling an add-on pack for its puzzle game LONPOS. The expansion will cost 500 Wii points, half of the launch title's entire cost. Meanwhile, Siliconera is reporting that another puzzle game, Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Wii, will be selling additional puzzle stages for an as-yet unknown price.As if that weren't enough to grind your gears, Madden creator Scott Orr spoke with Develop Magazine about his WiiWare title, Spogs Racing. According to Orr, the title will feature purchasable "racer packs," including cars parts and new tracks. Orr doesn't come right out and define these as microtransactions, however, instead masquerading the upgrades as "episodic downloadable content" (which it ain't). Looks like we're off to a great start already.Read - WiiWare microtransactions priced [IGN]Read - Go online with WiiWare and Mojipittan Wii [Siliconera]Read - Madden creator on WiiWare episodic and user-driven content plans [Develop]
