The Tingler

What... the... hell? So it's not going to be a cheekily-bizarre and humorous platform game? Which is what I expected and thought looked quite fun? Instead it's just a big Minigame Collection?!? Remember that Official Trailer? You know, the one with the strange spiky-haired girl in it? At no point in that trailer (which is playing in game stores up and down the country right now) does it suggest "minigame collection". It looks like a big adventure, not loads of little party games. I thought those minigame videos were, well, minigames! Fun additions to the main game, like Super Monkey Ball! Not the whole thing!! Dammit, this has just fallen off my wishlist. Michael Ancel, creator of Beyond Good & Evil, deciding that what the Wii didn't need was a fun and surreal platform game that redeems the Rayman series, and instead gives us another minigame collection for Wii. Just what it needed. Great, now I have to think of a new third launch title to get after Zelda and Red Steel.

The release rather sprang out the door, so it probably caught most places by surprise - either that or they're waiting for Part 2 to complete the game. Most of the improvements between the DS and PC versions are technological ones, but that massively improved the game. The controls are 100% better, the city looks like more alive and looks somewhere between Grim Fandango and Beyond Good & Evil in style, with a large dollop of Psychonauts... and of course, full voice acting and more cutscenes, which really makes the humour funnier and the story better told. There's a lot more to examine in the adventure sections and a few tweaks to the levels, but the level layout is mostly the same. I'm really enjoying it, and I've already played the DS version. Just don't get it on GamersGate. I've never known a more fiddly downloading scheme to navigate.

No, they just don't give a rat's ass. Admittedly all games companies are like this (here I go again, playing Sony Advocate - I hate the bastards!), and we've only just barely got the Wii for 2006. The Xbox 360 has already got quite a firm hold on the market - another year's wait might consolidate that.

Well, I live outside of the US/Canada, so I can't get it even if I wanted it. The Last Express is a true classic of the adventure series and is an absolute bastard to find nowadays (let alone run), so that's definitely a good choice. And Planescape: Torment is the finest, darkest and funniest Black Isle/Bioware RPG out there - and this is from the developers who between them made two Baldur's Gates and two Knights of the Old Republics, four already superb games. Most games I saw on it though were easily available on Emulation websites for Genesis/MegaDrive or SNES.

Okay, now I'm REALLY confused. Is this actually an adventure/platform game or a big minigame collection? On one side we've got CVG, the other Planet GameCube. One's played it, the other's got an interview with Michael Ancel about it. Both are a bit contradictory.

I guess it's just disappointment in that it's not what I wanted from this game. There's a Mario Galaxy-sized hole in the Wii launch, something non-serious that you can play about with yet still has a broad storyline. I don't mind games like this for most of the reasons you guys suggested (even though I prefer them on handheld), but as I suggested at the end, hasn't Wii already got plenty of minigame collections?

It's usually with taxes that price. The GameCube ended up even cheaper than the announced price over here in the UK. $250 converts to about 195 Euros, or £130. We'll find out exactly what the European price is tomorrow.

Yeah, I don't get why the GameCube is coming out later, considering it's been finished for months (that's not guesswork on my part, Nintendo have admitted it - all the extra time has been fine-tuning for the Wii version). Maybe because they're worried a lot of people were going to be buying the GameCube version just to play it with the old-style control system. I know I was. Nah, don't call me a luddite, I just like being able to move the camera in third-person games! I'll get the Wii version (on day one, of course), and I'll play it until the GC version comes, then if I don't like the control system I'll swap them. Of course, I might not even be able to find the GameCube section. It's small enough now and places like GAME and GameStation, and I'm prepared to bet that with the PS3 and Wii coming out this year it'll disappear altogether...

You know, you can actually still find the toys in my local Toys R Us!

Interesting question. Most recently my response would be Batman Vengeance, which got slated (as all Batman games do), but I'm actually enjoying it because the story's quite interesting. And they've got the full Animated Series voice cast, too!

Fair enough. I wonder what TT will do with a Lego Batman game? Base it off comics or films? Maybe even one of the several Animated Series? Should be fun, though!

Not quite the same thing, though, is it?

With any luck I might be able to con my parents into getting me one this Xmas, and this'll be top of my list of games with it.

Why, thank you Tingler, I was waiting for someone to answer me.

It's being released in November.

Anyone know when this is actually going to be released?

Just played Counter-Strike and was rubbish, so I'll wait 'til later to play it again. Glutton for punishment. Battle For Middle-Earth II is charged and ready for a replay - hey, I bought the Collector's Edition and I'm going to damn well play it into the dirt. I know it's not got much game in there, but the game that is there is gonna be played! Monkey Island 2 is a dead cert, mostly because I'm still Pirates of the Caribbean-jazzed and they took so much from it (Voodoo Lady in the swamp, cannibals, tiny pathetic little island with the ultimate treasure buried on it, Norrington dressed just like Guybrush...). Call of Cthulhu I'm storming ahead on - surprised just how good it is, really!

I've also got a Megadrive/Genesis and all of the original versions too. And all of them emulated. Oh for the days when you could only buy Sonic on a Sega console... (nah)

Nice, but why just Sonic 1? Why not Sonic 1, 2, 3 & Knuckles? That'd be a perfect pack. I'll probably still buy it. Any excuse.

Not at all. Steam and the 'you must have an internet connection to play' came way after it. You must have a really fast internet connection. I just have a fast internet connection. It took me over 2 hours until I could play Half-Life 2: Episode One. And I do like playing games after I've finished installing them. So it was a bit of a bugger.

To be fair, you'd have to update ANY online game before you could play it, and some servers might be on a completely different version - at least Steam makes sure everyone in the world is using the same version. I still hate Steam however. I hated it from the very start, back when it was just a paranoid reaction from Valve to being hacked and having half their game stolen - so they made sure that they watched everyone who played their games. I hate it because: 1. You have to have an internet connection, even to play a single-player game you've bought from the shops. No other game does this, for a reason: it's utterly stupid. Yes, most people have 'net access on their computers, but there are plenty of people who don't. Like families who have one computer for gaming, and another for internet. Not everyone plays online games. 2. And now you have to have a incredibly fast internet connection. I bought Episode One from the shops, and I couldn't play it for about three hours because it was updating. Updating? They only just released the damn thing! 3. As I just said, you have to patch a game for hours before you can play it. Great for online games like CS, but Half-Life 2 worked just fine for me without it. 4. It over-complicates an already complicated gaming system. - With consoles it's just turn on, stick disc/cartridge in, play. - With PCs it's turn on, wait for Windows to start, insert disc, click 'Install', get through all the waffle like licensing agreements and DirectX, wait for game to install, start game, set up video and control options, play. - With PCs + Steam, it's turn on, wait for Windows to start, insert disc, click 'Install', get through all the waffle, wait for game to install, start Steam (not the game), click 'Games', click 'Activate a product on Steam', enter CD-key, start game, wait for game to update for 3 hours, set up video and control options, play. And that's if you've already got Steam set up correctly. What if lose your password, like [MaSQuE]? 5. It removes the second-hand gaming scene. You cannot buy any Steam-related CD preowned, because that CD-key is bound to your name. 6. Steam is not a choice. It should be. I didn't want Steam, I just wanted Half-Life 2. 7. Valve does not like, listen to or trust its own consumers. They only made Steam, as I mentioned, to make sure they could keep an eye on us every time we use their game. It's not for us, it's for them. You can do that with any game. Just remember to bring the CD/DVD. And you wouldn't have to wait hours for those games to download or update, either.

I see what you mean! Even the bloody 'Continue' noise! Does he have a Sonic 2 one on there? Always preferred the music from that.

I'll give this guy his due - he's a bloody good pianist! Loved the metronome moment. Although it must be said, some of his music choices for the video were a bit dull. I'm annoyed that he didn't include the Scabb island opening campfire tune - one of my favourite pieces of music ever, that. Anyone watched his other videos? They're pretty cool too. ("Zelda!") I dabble with all the games now and again. I almost got roped into playing Sam & Max Hit The Road again after watching the recent trailer. But Grim... now that might happen again soon.

Noticed him a while ago now. He's right at the start too - at the docks, as you get ambushed and dive through the floor, immediately turn around, jump in the water and swim a little bit. Dopie's just floating there.

Olimar! Of course! Genius idea. Here's also hoping for a new Pikmin game (on either DS or Wii, both would be great). Here's a quote from Official Nintendo Magazine by Masahiro Sakurai (the Smash Bros director) which you may or may not find interesting: "Will there be other non-Nintendo characters in Brawl?" "A lot of people have been interested in the introduction of other characters into the Smash Bros game and Sonic has been brought up several times. Part of it is that you have to have somebody you can trust to take care of your character so we're looking at different possibilities. There are possibilities for other third-party characters as well, and it may be that even now there are corporate discussions going on about what other characters to use..." I would like to confirm that the interview did indeed end with the mysterious "..." trailing off. Another interesting point that everyone seems to have overlooked is that castle in the video that's being bombarded. Could it be a spoiler from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess?