So does Nintendo have a hand in developing this or not?
I would figure as their first non mini game M+ supporting title, they would want it to be as good as possible.

That makes me think a Western release is more likely than I would have thought before.

How do you make a game that supports both Motion+ and the Classic Controller?  It seems to me that if the controls can be easily assigned to the traditional design of the Classic Controller then you really can't possibly be making good use of Motion+.  Ideally if you're going to support Motion+, to really use it right, you should design the game specifically for it, to make use of its strengths and uniqueness.  If you can do that then I don't think you should be able to reassign those controls to buttons and analog sticks.  With just the remote I can see it since not everyone has a Classic Controller so you pretty much have to have SOMETHING working with the remote but Motion+ is an optional add-on.

It seems pretty obvious to me that sword fighting would work a lot better with Motion+ than the plain Wii Remote, and games of this type have been done before with dual analog. More controller options are never a bad thing. You just have to complain. You'd complain that there was no Classic option if there weren't one because games like this have been done before with those controls, you'd bash the concept of the remote if it were Classic only, and you're complaining that you have an option to choose between the two.

Right analog stick controls the sword. This is Sandlot we're talking about, they've done that before. Probably more comfortable to use the M+ though.

Maybe you hold the wiimote with one hand and then the classic controller with the other?

Then again, RE4 had classic controller support as an alternative to the wiimote controls, but really the motion controls were so much better for it that I never messed with the classic controls. So what I'm saying is even though motion controls might make sense and be the superior road, classic controls might still be provided as an option for the few who disagree.

Just based on the game's description, I have a feeling this game exists as just as another trial balloon for the upcoming Motion + Zelda title.  Here's hoping it's good, then.

I'm thinking of the past when the analog stick debuted.  It was a new concept that Nintendo put on their standard controller and at first the idea was kind of out there.  But you sat down with Super Mario 64 and it became immediately apparent that this new analog stick was perfect for the game and was absolutely essential.  And it proved to be essential for so many games that followed it.

One could at a glance have said "why don't you just have a run button like in the old Mario games"?  But once you used it you knew that wasn't possible; one would need to dedicate multiple run buttons for various different speeds.  It just wouldn't work and Super Mario 64 DS tried offering a run button and it was a mess.

Maybe the analog stick just raised my expectations so high but when Nintendo says stuff like "this is going to be the new controller standard" those are big words and they've got to prove that to me.  That's just for the regular remote.  Motion+ is another step up and it requires an additional purchase.  One would assume that Motion+ would provide certain control possibilities that would be impossible to implement with a traditional controller or even the bare-bones remote.  Otherwise it just seems so pointless to me.  If you're going to make it work with traditional controls as well it suggests to me that you're not fully exploring the possibilities that Motion+ should provide.  And if we're buying this controller add-on shouldn't we expect them to go for broke with it?

I'm not looking for a different way to do the same thing a traditional controller already does.  It was never broke, so I don't need it fixed.  When you're talking about new standards and innovation, sorry, you have to provide me with something truly substantial.  Otherwise you're full of shit and you're just a flim-flam con-man trying to rip me off.

I think it has to be a "this could not possibly be done any other way" situation and in that case you just couldn't offer the traditional option.  It wouldn't work.

Well, technically it's possible to play Lemmings with a d-pad...

Chozo Ghost's example of RE4 is a good one; it includes a Classic Controller option, but you're never going to want to use it once you've played with the remote. Pro Evolution Soccer is including a Classic Controller despite the whole hook and reason for playing it on the Wii is the RTS-soccer hybrid that the pointer makes possible. Including the Classic option doesn't mean playing it that way works anywhere near as well, it just means that it works that way and some crazy people may want to play it that way (kinda like dual-analog in FPSs).

I can beat Mario Kart 64 Mushroom Cup 50cc with one hand.  Serious.

Yeah a western release seems more likely now.  So far, all of these low profile games from Nintendo have bombed terribly in Japan.  I'm sure Nintendo realizes that this game could easily bomb too and so the fact that it's going to require Motion+ and Classic Controller support which would further limit the appeal makes it look like they don't really care about this games Japan sales.

Which points to Nintendo aiming for higher sales in America and Europe.

I'm not so sure, one thing aout Sandlot is that they make games dirt cheap so even weak sales can be profitable.

From NeoGAF:

So Nintendo has nothing to do with this title other than publishing in Japan?

I don't think anybody really knows how much involvement Nintendo has (I'd guess at least funding) but Sandlot can do awesome without help so I don't care.

Another bit on NeoGAF:

Hiring name VAs doesn't seem that uncommon for Japan, I don't expect that to hold true for the rest of the world if it ever gets released there.

I don't think there is a topic about this in Nintendo Console.KDR you should make one.

There was one, it got closed because there's a talkback thread now.

There is a topic about this game in Nintendo Console?

yes

Well to be fair, that wasn't a thread about the game, it was a thread with a link to another site that had a story on the game. The thread had no mention of what the game was or any info about it at all, it was just an ad for pixlbit and FoC should have known better than to try that.

Yeah that is my point KDR. There seems to be enough info about the game that it can be given a proper topic.

I'm curious to hear more about the game.  From what KDR's posted, it seems interesting.

Like Ian, though, I'm hesitant to hear the Classic controller is supported as an alternative to the Motion Plus.  I hope it does result in the comparisons brought with RE4 and the rest, it easily could.

As I said, most likely it'll translate the right analog stick to sword movements.

Looks like there are scans now so I'll start a thread.

Just because something can be done with traditional controls doesn't mean its the best way to do it. For example, look at Pikmin. Those games were on the GC originally and obviously they worked with the standard controller, but just because they did work with that doesn't mean it was the best way to go. Having motion controls and an onscreen pointer makes Pikmin so much better and easier to control on the Wii.

So again, it can be done with traditional controls, but its just not as good.... the same is true with RE4. A lot of games do have the motion controls tacked on and rely on gestures and the like, but in RE4 you can actually aim your gun with the wiimote and that makes it a million times better. Again, you don't have to do it that way, but it makes it a lot better.

Okay, so this game has optional classic controls? That's fine. I'm sure you can get by with that, but maybe just maybe it will be a lot better to do it with the wiimote and M+. So the classic controller support may be there, but maybe it will be unused because everyone prefers to do it the other way. There may be 1% who prefer the classic controls though. We won't really know until the game comes out, or at least until we start hearing reviews and so on.