Well, it looks like we can now collectively stop expecting Silicon Knights to turn out above-average products anymore.  This game has looked mediocre since it was announced, has had almost no advertising that I've seen, and now that reviewers can finally talk about it the impressions are pretty negative on it.  It's a pity, because I've been waiting for a good X-Men game since the first X-Men Legends (which , upon reflection, wasn't that good of a game either), and aspects of this game looked like they could be interesting.

And it's not like we can blame the comic license on this one, not when the Batman: Arkham Asylum series has turned out as well as it has and even Beenox turned out the generally-good Spider-man: Shattered Dimensions last year.

I still need to add a game that starts with X to my collection, but I don't think it will be this one.

Just make it Xenoblade Chronicles and be done with it.  Sure, you'll have to import the game, but at least you'll have your "X" game.

I think Silicon Knights needs someone to guide them like Nintendo or Konami. They are talented, but they would be best suited as a 2nd or 1st party development house for a company that knows how to bring the best out of them, like Eternal Darkness or Twin Snakes.

Either that or X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Only 4 Wii games start with X (the fourth was a video game based on The X Factor).

The game has an interesting idea and I was intrigued at first, but the recent gameplay videos killed interest in it for me.

I'm still banking on Nintendo releasing XenoBlade in the US, however unlikely it may be. Since I think the Wii U will be launching in November 2012, I would think that Nintendo would want to fill that gap with something. They don't believe that Zelda will be enough to hold over for one year, do they?

...Do they?

It's NoA.  They're not releasing Virtual Console games on Wii anymore, are barely releasing WiiWare titles, and they're barely releasing Wii retail titles anymore.  What do you think?  Aside from Zelda (and Kirby, I guess), NoA's given up on the Wii.  It's all 3DS now.  I wouldn't bank on them doing anything sensible until the Wii U arrives, and even that's sketchy.  It's not like Nintendo's a stranger to having years with no game releases on a console while its successor is preparing for release.

To be fair, any company can put out a good game if Nintendo foots the bill and holds their hand through the development process. At that point, they're just soldiers following orders. I don't think that necessarily makes that company talented. I like Denis Dyack's philosophy of video games, but Silicon Knights has yet to develop a game on their own that is amazing. If you look at a game like Too Human, there are a ton of questionable design choices that Miyamoto never would have okayed.

I have to disagree, I think they are a talented company, at least when it comes to good ideas, it is just that the execution needs some work. They are a company that is far better suited to being a 1st or 2nd party company. They need a filter for their ideas, that is all. No doubt many companies Nintendo has as 1st parties require the same, where they have the talent and the ideas, but need a filter to implement them into a quality product. Dyack needs a Miyamoto to tap him on the shoulder and tell him "no" when something isn't quit coming together. It wasn't just NIntendo or Miyamoto that made Eternal Darkness great, it was also Dyack, the lead designer, and the Silicon Knights team as well.


Eternal Darkness is a game Nintendo would have never dreamed of making without Silicon Knights. There are other games out there with NIntendo's helping hand that turned out to be average at best as well, including Geist. So it is unfair to not give Silicon Knights a sizable chunk of the credit as well.  I think Dyack tends to have Peter molyneux syndrome and tends to take on tasks way too big for him and his team to handle, so the whole product suffers. They need someone to tell him "No" where appropriate.

Silicon Knights hasn't made a good game on their own. They make average games. Nintendo's input on Eternal Darkness made it a good game. I don't mean to say Silicon Knights is without talent entirely but I hesitate to call the company as a whole talented because despite having some good ideas, they lack the ability to toss out broken ideas or the skill to make them better.

Actually Xenoblade should have a decent chance of coming to North America now since it's actually been successful in Europe.  People have to remember that NOA will bring over games they think can sell.  Since the American and European markets are very similar in terms of games that are successful to Nintendo, having Xenoblade actually sell well in Europe, especially with a lot of that success coming from good word of mouth, makes it a lot more likely to come over here.

Right now, all the Nintendo games that have come out in Europe but not North America, bombed in Europe.  Xenoblade is now the first Nintendo game to come out in Europe but not North America to actually sell well.  So I wouldn't rule out Xenoblades chances just yet.

Plus in 2012, NOA still has Rhythm Heaven and Mario Party 9 scheduled for release, with Mario Party 9 being a huge title which shows the Wii still has some life left in it next year, so releasing another Wii game like Xenoblade isn't that hard to believe.