After EA shuttered the Australian arm of Mercenaries dev house Pandemic Studios, a few projects were lost to the ether. A game based on the enormously popular film Dark Knight for 360 / PS3 as well as an “open-world Nintendo Wii game” were both rumored to be on the way from the Brisbane, Australia-based studio.
Australian Gamer has apparently found footage of the Wii title — said to still be owned by ex-Pandemic Australia employees — to be called either “The Next Big Thing” or “No Limits Racing” (depending on your interpretation of the footage). The trailer (found after the break) teases a handful of pseudo-celebrity appearances, the ability to turn existing Miis into in-game characters, and show off your high scores on advertisements in friends’ game environments.
EA confirmed to us yesterday that the Australian arm of Pandemic is closed, and said of the trailer, “On any given day, there are a lot of great game ideas under consideration at EA … not all of them go all the way to market.”
Here, Australia and New Zealand, take a few long, hard breaths into this paper bag, because everything’s going to be okay. Capcom has moved to quash fears that the collapse of Red Ant, Capcom’s distributor down under, would delay Capcom releases in the region.
The good folks from Capcom PR just mailed us to say that Dead Rising: Chop Till You Dropwouldn’t be moved from its original Aussie and Kiwi release date of February 27, and that future Wii titles such as MotoGP and Neopets Puzzle Adventure would still be released “in line” with other PAL territories.
The distributor of Capcom, Konami, Midway, and (arguably less relevantly for Wii owners) Bethesda games in Australia has officially gone into receivership.
According to this page at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission website, Red Ant has been crushed underfoot by the giant, hulking boot that is the ongoing global economic crisis.
Sad news indeed, and a development that casts doubt over the speedy arrival of future Aussie releases from the aforementioned companies, unless somebody else steps in. It’s not as though Australian gamers have it easy tobeginwith!
We called it, and now those lovely 2D Boys have confirmed it: World of Goo will be rocking Europe, Australia, and New Zealand’s WiiWare service this coming Friday, a.k.a. tomorrow! Eeee!
You may recall that the puzzler endured a rocky road leading up to its Euro/Aussie debut. At one point, plans were afoot to launch the PAL version in something known in the olden days as a “box.” Fortunately, the outcry over that decision caused 2D Boy pair Ron and Kyle to opt for a WiiWare release, and we’ll be reaping the benefits of that noble decision in just a few hours!
An anonymous source has informed Kotaku that Rock Band (remember that North America/Europe?) will finally launch in Australia this October, a whopping eleven months after the game hit the U.S.
But EA isn’t done sticking the boot into Oz just yet. According to the mole, the game won’t be available as an all-in-one package in Australia, but instead will come in two separate parts (the game itself, and an “Accessories Pack” containing a guitar, drums, and a mic), all of which will cost — wait for it — the equivalent of $350.
Obviously, because we all get paid about six million a year and spend our evenings lighting cigars with a wad of Benjamins, we doubt our resident Aussie will be too deterred. But man, we feel for the rest of you!
Speaking with the local paper merchants, Nintendo Australia’s Rose Lappin seemed to like Wii Fit’s chances against the current everywhere-but-Wiijuggernaut Grand Theft Auto. After starting out with standard banter concerning the Wii and DS dominating Aussie sales charts, Lappin confidently talked up the ability of Wii Fit to snag the majority interest of gamers over the long-term.
A bunch of sweaty Australian fitness fanatics have already been doing push-ups (read: smashing guns) for almost three weeks now using Wii Fit. During that time, the Balance Board of Justice stole the top sales spot away from GTA IV (irony is funny), and it hasn’t been able to reclaim its crown.
Lappin reassures us that Wii Fit will be supported for a long time, and is also pleased to see some physical education programs in local schools using the package to transform John Q Kid into Lil’ Rambo. We’re sure this is music to the ears of many parents in Australia, who would love to keep their chil’n away from Niko Bellic and his array of misadventures.
The Australia & New Zealand release of Assassin’s Creed is delayed by one week, meaning it’ll ship on Wednesday, November 21st.
The delay is “due to manufacturing and freight difficulties during this time of year, Ubisoft Australia & New Zealand were unable to receive their full allocation of Assassins Creed stock required to fulfill all Day One orders,” publisher Ubisoft said in a statement. “In an effort to treat all retailers and consumers fairly, Ubisoft will wait until the balance of stock is received in our warehouse before we ship the game.” This delay has not effected any other release dates for the game, and you can pick up Assassin’s Creed in North American stores today for Xbox 360 and PS3.
So far Assassin’s Creed has received excellent reviews across the board which is great news. For those poor souls in Australia and New Zealand though who have to wait a bit before they can get their hands on the game, this beautiful new launch trailer is for you.
As if further proof was needed that Nintendo regards Australia as the red-headed stepchild of the global games market, word reached our ears today that our friends down under will be missing out on a host of first-party and second-party Wii titles in 2007.
Sydney-based studio Nnooo (pronounced "No!" as in, "No, our game doesn't really have much to it.") announced last night its plans to develop an all-ages Wii Ware project titled Pop. Playable by up to four people on the same console, Pop "challenges" you to quickly burst bubbles and rack up points with chains and multipliers. Judging from the trailer embedded past the break, the game's design and mechanics are about as simple as they sound. If you're looking for more depth, you might want to hold onto your Wii points and play with a sheet of bubble wrap instead.
Australia has more than the Hanabi Festival to cheer about, when it comes to the Virtual Console. Like Japan and, reportedly, the U.S., Australia's download service will be home to Neo Geo games. The likely first candidate, as revealed by the OFLC ratings board, is Art of Fighting.
We best know Art of Fighting from its weird zooming camera that makes the sprites look absolutely massive, and from being the origin game for many future King of Fighters characters including Robert Garcia, Ryo Sakazaki, King, and others.
Even if Art of Fighting isn't your favorite Neo Geo game, it is a Neo Geo game, and is therefore great news for Australian fighting fans.
Canceled Pandemic Wii title wanted to be ‘The Next Big Thing’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
