Awesome.

Um, OK? All of their games have bombed (which is why Grin shut down). Not all of Grin's games were bad, so I would like to see them make some WiiWare or DSiWare games.

Bionic Commando Rearmed gets made for PSN and Live, we asked for it on WiiWare.

Bionic Commando flop-reboot gets made for PS3 and 360, we asked for it because it would work with the Wiimote.

But no, GRIN decided to be assholes and give us the middle finger. Then they went bankrupt. Karma is so hilarious it hurts.

If you are gonna re-make a franchise, for nostalgia reasons, and market it to the current generation of gamers on current generation of consoles, you'd think you might want to include the console audience that the game originally appeared on.

It would be kind of funny for Blaster Master to have shown up exclusively for XBLA when the Xbox generation at large isn't really made up of nostalgic gamers that grew up on games that first appeared on Nintendo consoles. It should be no surprise if that game would've flopped since no one would catch the connection to the original.

GRIN had an anti-Wii vibe despite the fact we bitched at them and made a valid point (which you also made Black).

And... I like Blaster Master more then Bionic Commando. True fact.

I'm willing to bet all you folks talking bad about Bionic Commando (2009) both:

1) never played it and are basing your opinion on review scores more than anything

2) have very much enjoyed a Nintendo game that's gotten similarly bad scores


My point is that I played the hell out of that game, and after about 4 hours (learning how to use the arm), I loved every minute of it.  I only wish it was longer and more polished, but the swinging mechanic was awesome.  Long story short, the game is 20 bucks now and anyone with an open mind ought to check it out.

Probably hard to find in this thread, Rize.

I don't see what the negatives are here.  The crew that made Bionic Commando: Rearmed has re-formed to make games of a similar ilk, which is a good thing, regardless of what console you own, support, or troll.

I didn't play the major release, but I played the everloving crap out of Rearmed, so anything that they make in that vein is getting my dollar, no doubt about it.

If you own a 360 or PS3 and don't have Rearmed you're missing out.  Its probably around 5 bucks by now.

It's still $9.99/800 Microsoft Points (I just checked the PlayStation Store and xbox.com).

I loved Rearmed, and tried to get into the retail game but couldn't. I understand where Rize is coming from, you really need to try it before you diss it, but the grappling mechanics never hooked me (get it?).

Regardless, I'm so psyched to see the Rearmed team get back together. I think the chances of them doing things on Wii are slim, but every nostalgic gamer should cheer for this.

I bet it'll go on sale again soon.  I bought it for 5 on a sale on psn about a year ago, and they do a lot of Spring and Summer sales.  If it had trophies I'd say its worth 10, but so sadly, it doesn't. 

I've been waiting to see the PS3 version of the retail game drop to $9.99 for a while now.  I think the lowest it went was $14.95 and by the time I found it it was sold out.

I have Rearmed on PS3, and apparently having that unlocks some content in the retail game, so that's why I'm not getting it on 360.

I liked the grappling in the PC version (got it for 8€, seen it for 5 at TRU) but the makeover it got was pretty bad. Multiplayer seems like it would be fun in a LAN setting but online it's too laggy.

The console versions were always $10, it was the PC version that was $15.

D_Average, the game got patched last summer to include trophies.

Oh swEEEET!  Gonna boot that up tonight then, thanks for the pro tip!

No problem. There are 12 trophies (7 bronze, 4 silver, 1 gold):

Meet with annihilation (bronze)
Kill all foot soldiers and enemy trucks on a Meet With Enemy sequence.

The Emperor’s New Clothes (bronze)
Obtain the Shin Guards, the Bulletproof Vest and the Helmet.

Private Arsenal (silver)
Obtain every weapon and weapon upgrade.

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet (bronze)
Block 100 projectiles using the claw.

One Dozen Yashichis (silver)
Collect all twelve hidden Yashichis – one from each of Area 01 – 12.

Clean as a whistle (bronze)
Clear Area 02 without touching a slime blob.

Pacifist Pride (bronze)
Clearn any of Area 1 – 12 without firing your gun.

Cat burglar (bronze)
Get to the boss of Area 05 within one minute and thirty seconds.

A Real Challenge (gold)
Acquire at least one star in each of the Challenge Rooms 1 – 56.

H4><0rz (bronze)
Hack through all the hacking games on Hard.

Intel Collector (silver)
Acquire all database logs.

Elite Commando (silver)
Clear the game on Super Hard.

exactly, I own the retail version, got it out the bargain bin for 5 bux. Once you learn that arm, your killing and cursing, but it takes a special kind of gamer to do that, like the kind aforementioned by Rize and noted by Lindy....."Open Minded"

I'm glad this crew could get back together and I hope they learned from what they did Good and bad on their previous attempts.

Any time new studios are opened is a good time for the industry we love....

I had been somewhat interested in the HD Bionic Commando for a while, and I ended up trying it out in the Console Free Play area at PAX. I really liked it, and bought it when I got home. The grapple mechanics take a while to get used to, but once you get the hang of it it's a solid game.

What makes you think that it was GRIN that had the final say for which consoles they developed for? Maybe you should question Capcom...

GRIN never developed a Wii game and had no desire to. Whether it was Capcom or GRIN that made the Wii refusal, the fact still stands: they acted like asses, they miscalculated the 'fans' they were attempting to cater to, it blew up in their faces.

I played the rearmed demo, it was pretty good. I miss the awful translation of the NES game though. It was hilarious.

They made good games. No studio that makes good games deserves to close, no matter what platform they make them for.

I'm not jiving with all this hate towards GRIN saying that they "burned the Wii." Unless I'm mistaken, they never publicly hated on the Wii. They could easily just be a team that knew 360/PS3 hardware better and focused on that.

Not every third-party developer is maliciously against the Wii.

Yeah, somebody find me an article that shows GRiN saying they hate the Wii.

Unless somebody can show me that, it's just more Vocal Minority Whining.

But the cool kids say I have to drive a VMW to be cool like them...

/lame pun humor

No proof is needed!  It has been reported by someone who knows this guy that GRIN made derogatory statements towards the Wii under the breath.  Seize them!!

So apparently there's another dev that was formed from former GRINmates called Fat Shark, they made Lead and Gold recently and are now working on ReArmed 2.

This makes sense in theory but I think that's how it works.  A lot of franchises associated with Nintendo systems moved to the Playstation during the 32/64 bit era and from then on were no longer associated with Nintendo systems.  Though Bionic Commando wasn't exactly an active franchise so that doesn't really work with this example.

Still it isn't like the same audience stuck with Nintendo the whole time and that every new player in the consoles wars attracts a new audience.  What I would call the general console gamer audience bounces around.  They went from Nintendo to Sony and now would likely own an Xbox 360.  It is only Nintendo fans that have stuck with Nintendo consoles this whole time.  The general console gamer follows the games and thus follows third party support.  Capcom also makes the HD consoles their main platform so one could assume that Bionic Commando fans would have followed Capcom over the years.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/episode-49-invisible-walls/46982

Peter Wanat, producer of Wanted: Weapons of Fate, goes on a batshit insane anti-Wii rant. He compares the power of the Wii to the Genesis, among other things.

But no, no, you guys are right. Nobody in the industry has an irrational hatred of the Wii.

Is he having a temper tantrum...?

I would never claim that there aren't people in the industry who hate the Wii; I just wouldn't jump to the conclusion that every single developer who doesn't exclusively support Nintendo hates the Wii.

"Hate" is a strong word. I agree with your statement, but most of these developers, when it comes to Wii mind you, seem to automatically talk out of their ass and not only insult us, the audience, but basically turn away would be customers.

Instead of "hate", I call it "Overstuffed Egos".

Or "Pride".

I think it is more like "indifference," it seems most developers simply aren't interested in creating Wii games. It's usually publishers who end up sounding condescending because they're the ones who have to come up with excuses for the Wii not getting certain games and such.

You can't fault developers for having a preference.  It like getting made at Van Halen for ignoring rap.  Let the artist do, what the artist wants to do.

But then it's okay to laugh when Van Halen goes bankrupt and rap music sales are up 2,000%, right?

I don't get why you're upset at the developer. With very few exceptions, these decisions are made by the publisher; the developer has little to no say in it.

More like ignoring CDs because they lack the "warm" sound of vinyls.

That's another reason the Wii ends up with so many poor-quality games, because the developers are forced to make products they have no passion for.

You'd think all that whining about a lack of innovation in big name titles would translate to passion for making a Wii game but instead it seems they're now only caring about story anymore and forgetting that all their games play the same.

I don't think anyone /hates/ the developer.
It's just amusing that they fail to support the current market leader in any form (console or handheld), then their company fails.  Everyone else is all "boo-hoo" - yet there's some of us who can just look at this situation and say "Duh."

Agreed.  They're just not interested in what the Wii offers them as a developer.  All it offers is the remote.  If you don't want to make a motion controlled game the Wii is just not going to be that enticing for a developer compared to the other consoles.

I don't think publishers hate the Wii either, they're just dumb jackasses.  They saw that the Wii was popular with casuals and typecast the Wii as such.  None of their really talented devs want to make casual stuff so it all sucks.  And the sucky stuff doesn't sell and they're all "uh, what?"

The attitude of the publishers also affects the devs.  If you make a PS360 game you can potentially make the game you want to make.  You make a Wii game and you're going to be told it's for this audience or that audience and that it should use this controller and you just think "eh, fuck it".  I get the feeling that no publisher just lets you make the Wii game you want.  It has to be for the "Wii audience" so you get tons of corporate interference.

But if GRiN had made a Wii game, you know what it would be? Just Dance Rearmed.

Watch what you wish for.

Probably wouldn't have gone bankrupt then...

Yeah.  How depressing is that?

Not at all, really.
I'm willing to bet all you folks talking bad about Just Dance both:

1) never played it and are basing your opinion on review scores more than anything

2) have very much enjoyed a Nintendo game that's gotten similarly bad scores

Yeah, like Mario Kart 64. It got a 6.4 from GameSpot.

Let's also not forget how Game Informer review Paper Mario 2.

If thats the review I'm thinking of, then I refuse to acknowledge it as such. It is a poorly written preview. Didn't they make the review almost a year before the game came out or something?

No, but the reviewers admitted that they based their scores on what they thought the readers would rate it. I guess no one told them that the whole point of a review is for the reviewer to give us their opinion, not try and guess what the reader thinks. Here is what they wrote on their official forum after the controversy (and what took away ay credibility the two reviewers had, and hurt the credibility of the magazine's editor-in-chief):

"GI-Jeremy wrote:

Lisa and I both knew that our Paper Mario scores were going to cause controversy. Yes, we know that many people out there will love it. We also know that it is a well-made game. However, it also WILL NOT appeal to many people - I would safely say that more people will dislike it than like it. Why? Like we said in the review, it's a very kiddie game - it's target audience is clearly young gamers - I would say 10 and under. For that reason, we had to score it low. Remember, we aren't scoring games strictly on our personal opinions, we're also scoring them based on how much we think THE GAMING PUBLIC will like them. We've all played games that we personally disliked and scored them well because we've known that most people will like them, and we've also scored games low that we love, because most people won't enjoy them.

For example, I really like the bizarre frog golf game Ribbit King, and I gave it a 7, because it's just not for everyone. Paper Mario 2 also scored low because it's just not for everyone. If you think it's a 10 in your book, it's a ten in your book, and that doesn't change if we disagree. We're here to guide you on what games to pick up, but ultimately your personal opinion is what will make you buy a game or not.

I hope this helps."

Yeah, I never understood that one.  Every other reviewer loved the shit out of that game.  If I recall it was weird nitpicky stuff.  It's like when some super hardcore fan of a game hates a sequel because some tiny small change no one else notices ruined the game for him.  Only it was a professional review, not some user review from Mr. Super-Mario-Kart-Expert who doesn't like how the feather isn't in the sequel.

Wow...that's sad. Rate a game low because it is 'kiddie'. At least some other sites will rate them properly despite who they appeal to. So parents looking for good games for junior is sunk (the people most in need of reviews I would think) since every 'kiddie' game is rated poorly.

Yeah, it was a vague and also short review. The complaints were that there wasn't enough depth, that the single-player was too easy, and that the battle arenas were too large. The reviewer doesn't really give reasons to validate these claims, with "lack of solid play design" being as close as they came. It does kind of feel like they wrote the review with the intention of trolling the Nintendo 64, since it ends with a line akin to "It's a Mario game so you're going to buy it no matter what." They also never mention the controls, which I feel are terrible and are the main reason I didn't like Mario Kart 64.

The only part of that review I would agree with is that the battle maps were too large (especially if you only used two players). I can't tell you how bored I got playing Block Fort and Double Deck because it was very easy to stay far enough from the other players that you can play 10+ minutes matches before you pop all balloons from other players.

Hey, I'm not dissing Just Dance.  But it seems like any smart developer has to have a Just Dance, or an EA Active, or a Deca Sports, or a Cooking Mama before they make any money.  God forbid they make something a core game.

Having played Just Dance, it's a really crappy game. It's just straight-up broken.

However, I can attest that it's mildly fun if you get a room of people to play along.

I am a solo gamer (I don't have anyone else to play with in person), so I probably would not enjoy it.

Just dance got an average ranking of 48%.  I can't think of any game I've played and enjoyed with a score that low.

How about Pokemon Dash or Magical Mirror: Starring Mickey Mouse?  You reviewed both games and gave each of them a 7.0.  Pokemon Dash has an overall rating of 49.21% and Magical Mirror has an overall rating of 48.26%?

"Oooooooooooo!............."           
                "Oh no he didn't!!"
                                "Unh Hun guurl!!, he went there, brought it back and served it fo dinna!"

      Ahem....Sorry, that was uncalled for....