2008 was one of the best years for Nintendo games in recent memory, but the lineup for ’09 has it beat. In the coming year we’ll see mindless violence, classic platforming, new paths blazed in motion control and game design, cherished franchise revivals, and nostalgic throwbacks galore. Kiss your checkbook goodbye: it’s Infendo’s Most Anticipated games of 2009!
10. Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop
Despite poor reception at public showings, gamers stand by their love of mindless zombie mayhem, and the Zombie loving Nintendo fans have been waiting on this once for quite awhile. Trapped in mall with the undead, able to use anything as a weapon? Classic. If Capcom can clean up the visuals and up the zombie count, Dead Rising could be a certifiably undead hit.
9. Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers
Remember what I said about zombies and gamers? The same thing goes for bikini-clad Asian chicks with an attitude. Just the name “Bikini Zombie Slayers,” sounds ridiculous and awesome. It may be a ploy to take advantage of our love for sex, violence, and zombies, but it’s a conservatively priced ploy! Slated to be a budget title, Onechanbara looks to be a fun romp though rotting flesh in a skimpy outfit. It’s more appealing than it sounds.
THQ surprised us in 2008 with de Blob, and hope to do it again with Deadly Creatures. Said to be pushing the WIi’s graphical capabilities, Deadly Creatures sees players fighting their way up the food chain as either scorpion or tarantula, eventually facing the ultimate predator – Man. With characters voiced by Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thorton, Deadly Creatures could be a treat for gamers who aren’t squeamish about creepy crawly things.
A spiritual successor to Odin Sphere for the ps2, Muramasa: The Demon Blade continues VanillaWare’s legacy of beautiful 2D sidescrollers that fly right under the radar of most gamers. Taking place in Japan’s Genroku era, players fight to resolve a power struggle over a pair of cursed swords. With beautiful hand drawn graphics, smooth animation, and classic 2D action gameplay, Muramasa definitely stands out as a game to watch for in 2009.
6. Ghostbusters
Dead Rising and Onechanbara will give you a chance to save the world from the undead in 2009, but in Ghostbusters you’ll be saving the world from the just plain dead. This well loved franchise makes it’s heavily anticipated return in the form of a new video game, and the 1980s kid in me couldn’t be more excited! Use the Wii Remote as a proton gun, bag some ghosts, save the world? Count me in. Designed specifically for the Wii and featuring voice acting from the original movie cast, Ghostbusters is primed to rock our nostalgic socks off!
One of the curses of motion control is retrospect. It has you going back to classic games, telling yourself how awesome it could have been with Wii controls. Nintendo aims to make your dreams of classic waggling come true in the form of “New Play Control!!!” Gamecube re-releases in 2009. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition showed us how much Wii controls can add to a game, and New Play Control!!! games look to be a great way to enjoy some gems you might have missed the first time around.
4. Wii Sports Resort With Wii MotionPlus
Wii Sports introduced new generations of young and old to the wide world of Nintendo, and still stands out as having some of the best use of motion control on the Wii. Nintendo takes this follow up a step further by introducing the Wii MotionPlus peripheral, giving the player 1:1 motion control of everything that happens on screen – taking motion control to the next level. MotionPlus control goes far beyond basic swing mechanics or waggle button replacement, it gives your motions a real-time representation in the game – the gameplay potential is overwhelming, and this revolution starts with Wii Sports Resort.
3. MadWorld
It’s been said that 2009 is going to be a year for the hardcore gamer – and it’s certainly true of Sega’s MadWorld. In a dark alternative comic-book themed world, you’ll take place in a murder game show where the only color is blood. A grotesque, bloody, mature title in the most raw sense possible, MadWorld aims to bring a hardcore attitude to the Wii. The black and white world looks awesome, and renders the farthest draw distance seen on the Wii yet. Pushing violence, action, and graphics to the limit on the Wii, MadWorld is tailored to gamers who are looking for some serious gore in ’09.
2. The Conduit
With every first-person shooter release the Wii has seen, the controls have only gotten better – and the guys at High Voltage software aim to knock the bar up another notch. With a custom engine designed to push the Wii to it’s limits, Wii-Speak functionality for online play, and a developer that listens to and implements fan feedback, The Conduit is shaping up to be the best shooter yet for the Wii.
1. Punch-Out!!!
Classic franchise games like Mario Kart and Smash Bros. thrive on Wii, and Punch-Out!!! is the next big franchise revival to hit the console. It’s been over fourteen years since the last Punch-Out!!! for the Super Nintendo, and fans have been waiting. After teasing us with the Little Mac assist trophy in Smash Bros. Brawl, Nintendo announced Punch-Out!! for Wii in October for release in 2009. Not much is known about this revival, but we know Little Mac will be facing long time rivals Glass Joe, Von Kaiser, and King Hippo. The original Punch-Out!!! on NES still holds up today as a classic example of great, simple gameplay – if Punch-Out!!! for Wii can retain this feeling of simplistic pure fun, it’s sure to become an instant classic in the Wii library.
What are you looking forward to in 2009? Let us know in the comments.
I posted this in the forums>=)
where is sin and punishment 2? pikmin new play control? red steel 2? cursed mountain? fragile? house of the dead overkill? pro evolution soccer 2009? broken sword? FFCC echoes of time? little king’s story? fatal frame? thats all i can think off the top of my head. theres more i can’t remember. i would say #8-10 should be taken off the list and replaced by some of the mentioned games above. anyone else have any ideas what i’ve missed?
oh, i missed monster hunter 3, assuming it comes to NA.
#9…”It’s more appealing than it sounds.”… for young boys, only.
#4…Wii Sports Resort… Does anyone know yet if this will be online playable? That is the only thing that could make it all the more appealing.
I’m looking forward to all of them! It looks like a really nice line up.
Onechanbara, Ghost Busters, The Conduit, and Punch Out will be day ones if possible.
AC:
It was a pretty hard to come up with only 10, there is a lot of great looking stuff coming up next year.
Pikmin New Play Control falls under “New Play Control!!! Series,” any one re-release game would not be enough to make a most anticipated list, but the idea of it on a whole is very exciting.
sean, you are have solid picks 1-7. i don’t think anyone can dispute with any of those 7. not 100% about 8-10, but its a good list in general. i was just pointing out some honorable mentions, which maybe you can make a list of to keep them fresh on everyone’s minds. about wii sports resort, there is no doubt in my mind, wii motion plus is going to make a killing on wii. first of all its going to sell like crazy. secondly, i think this game is going to put some distance in the hardware race between wii and 360/ps3. people will truly start to realize they can’t go back to playing 2 handed dual analog sticks, and just how backwards that old way of playing is. i think the games that come out for wii motion plus are going to blow people away.
sean, i get what you’re saying now about the ‘new play control’ series, and you are right. the series itself should make it on this list as a single entry. i just hope nintendo come to their senses and give that treatment to luigi’s mansion. that game seems the most logical to remake on wii, alongside pikmin, mario tennis, chibi robo and metroid prime. its a shame that we haven’t heard about any plans for that yet. here’s hoping…….what’s your take on it sean? do you think they will do that for luigi’s mansion as well? and do you agree that would be a good game to remake?
No worries AC – like I said, there was a lot of great stuff to choose from, and i’ll admit that the higher numbered titles are a bit weaker – but it’s not a list of the best games to come in the next year, it’s a list of anticipated games. Even though Dead Rising, for example, is shaping up somewhat poorly, it’s going to sell well and a lot of uninformed gamers are waiting for it. Hopefully Capcom will clean it up and it’ll be okay, but only time will tell.
The New Play Control series has so much potential, especially if they keep price-point reasonable. I’m really looking forward to Pikmin and the Metroid releases. I hope they do Luigi’s mansion because it’s one of those games I missed – during the Gamecube’s reign I was living paycheck to paycheck, and I didn’t get a chance to pick up a ‘cube until near the end of it’s life cycle! (And then a few months later I left it in a hot car and the California sun melted the plastic housing!) It’s one of those games I’ve been meaning to go back and check out.
Don’t forget Little King Story, that has a ton of potential.
Tons of games to be excited about in 2009 & some surprises on the way too. To extend the list… Kizuna, Arc Rise Fantasia, FF:Crystal Bearers, “Spyborgs”, Fragile, House of the Dead Overkill, Pikmin3, Let’s Tap, Sonic & the Black Knight…
punch-pot game of the next year
Ghostbusters only @ 6? …what a crime.
Do you think we’ll have any money left?
This is like the year when the DS put out game after game of creative new awesome games.
don’t you people forget Arc Rise Fantasia, game looks great
I’m excited for MadWorld and The Conduit.
Needs more chanbara.
Looking forward to Fragile & Muramasa.
This is a pretty solid list. I am looking to get Punch Out, Conduit, MadWorld, Bikini Zombie Slayers, Pikimin new controls, Wii Sports Resort and will consider Dead Rising, Ghostbustera and Deadly Creatures.
Too bad no big RPGs coming any time soon though… but we’ll see.
XC warrior, look in the comment section, there’s quite a few quality rpg’s coming out in 2009.
i forgot to add Trace Memory 2 for Wii.
This list is absolute junk (except possibly Ghostbusters). I’ll save up for World Tour and get Little King’s Story. I’m looking forward to future Nintendo announcements.
Let me finish the “most anticipated games for 2008″ first, please!
From this list, I am actually looking forward to Muramasa, with some interest for Deadly Creatures…
Those people looking forward to Ghostbusters I’m afraid they will be sorely disappointed. The movie is actually not that good, once you see it again, and the game seems a bit of a cash-into nostalgia.
These top ten Wii games of 2009 lists desperately need more Klonoa. That game is a work of art that deserves way ore attention than it’s getting.
this list is horid, where the heck is my MH3 (still hopes it comes out for North America), and where the heck is my No More heros 2; i can justify not seeing Monster Hunter 3 (MH3) but WTF on not seeing No More Heros 2, NMH1 was one of the best, if not the best Wii games ever, well that and SSBB (super smash bros. brawl) or SSBX for some.
sorry for the rant!
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V:
No More Heroes 2 was featured in the first draft, but was removed when fellow Infendo staffers pointed out that NMH2 is slated for 2010, not 2009. Hopefully we’ll see it sooner, but I’ll be happy to wait until 2010 if it means a more polished final product.
Some games were left off because they fell in the “Rumor” and “May not be released in North America” categories – We don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up about something that may never arrive.
Two big omissions I’m arguably more excited for than anything on this list:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fighting- Game Arts, who comprised most of the Super Smash Bros Brawl staff, is developing this. They’re out to improve on many aspects of Brawl, most notably the online. For all intensive purposes, it’s Super Smash Bros 4. Supposed to be out by September this year.
Puzzle Kingdoms – Puzzle/Strategy-game hybrid by the Puzzle Quest team. Long before making puzzle Quest, these guys actually got the jump on Civilization with a strategy game called Warlords back in 1989 which introduced number of firsts to genre. So now they’re taking feedback from Puzzle Quest, and combining it with their original claim to fame. Definitely one to watch for.
Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers, hem. Just kiliing zombie, doesn’t meet the requirement of Unique Combat Style. I think Devil May Cry Series will crush this title.
Im dieing to buy a wii but damn!! when will they release CONTRA????
and other old school games on the wii instead of VC
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I’m going to buy Wii Sports Resort first day, I can’t wait to put my hands on that MotionPlus thing. Also, I’ll be following closely Punch-Out and MadWorld.
Harry Potter game sounds very cool.
New multiplayer dueling.
Quidditch on wii.
And, while its multi-platform, it has been originally designed for wii – a first for movie games.