Rockstar porting two games to Wii
Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 10:12am by David
We’ve received two reports this week about Rockstar porting their very strong titles Bully and Table Tennis to the Wii. While it’s great to see Rockstar getting behind Wii, some folks might be groaning that they’re “just ports”. Personally, I’m excited to play these games since I don’t own the systems for which they were originally released. Does it really matter which consoles a title is re-released for if it’s a good game? Sales of Resident Evil 4 for Wii seem to indicate a solid “no” answer to that question.
Do you mind that Wii will be getting even more ports? Or does the strength of these titles negate the bad stigma associated with ports?
July 20th, 2007 at 11:03 am
As long as these ports are a way for the developer to test the waters to learn about the machine and make an original IP then I’m all for it.
After playing The Godfather on the Wii, Rockstar’s gotta make a GTA or GTA-styled game making unique use of the Wii. It’s just too awesome an experience.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:14 am
I agree with Liraco. Godfather was a great game when I played it on the PC. It was even better on the wii because of the controls. Same with RE4. I own Bully for PS2, but I don’t own a PS2 console. It would be awesome to be able to play Bully again but with wii controls.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:15 am
If they make Table Tennis similar to Wii Tennis in controls I’ll be all for it. I read that a bowling game was coming out for the Wii and PSP and was “not” going to be the same controls as Wii Bowling….!
How can you make it any different than actually bowling?? Similarly how can you make a Table Tennis game where you aren’t actually swining the paddle?
As for Bully…I wasn’t interested in playing it for the PS2, so I am not too excited for the Wii edition. I echo the above statements though, if they are using these ports to test the water, hurray for them. Glad more attention is being paid to the Wii.
I still need to play Godfather. Damn my lack of funds.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Table Tennis needs to get somewhere between tennis from Wii Sports and table tennis on Wii Play. On both games the computer takes over some of the control, (on tennis it’s moving the character, on table tennis it’s swining the bat), whilst you do the rest. We definitely need a tennis game where you’re allowed to do both parts.
And if Rockstar’s Table Tennis stops me having to play “doubles” all the time, I’m all for it.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Ports of good games are still good games. I know I’d rather them get ported over then have to buy another system to play them.
July 20th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I think it entirely depends on the game being ported. Wii table tennis taking advantage of the Wii motion controls to improve the game makes perfect sense. The controls are a natural fit for that particular game and will likely improve the game over the original. Porting Bully is essentially getting the game for the Wii system at face value; there’s really no need to improve anything such as the control scheme and there’s nothing wrong with that.
The problem with porting and the potential for a game to decrease in value due to the port arises when a developer ports a game and gives it new controls just because they feel they have to. If motion controls aren’t a good fit for a game, don’t retrofit the controls when you port the game, just make use of the gamecube controller, the classic controller, the sideways Wiimote, or even the Wiimote/Nunchuk combo to provide the same (or as close as you can get to) control scheme as was used on the original platform.
July 20th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I’m not a fan of lazy ports with tack-on Wii controls and weren’t good to begin with.
July 20th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I absolutely welcome any ports to Wii of good games, especially PS2 exclusives that I didn’t get to play the first time around!
One of the very reasons I bought a Wii was precisely the opportunity to play some good games I had already enjoyed with the more immersive Wii controls. I don’t understand why people balk at ports for Wii, especially if they come from systems with similar graphic specs, if the game is good, and if the developer has the opportunity to concentrate on translating a new Wii-mote control scheme for the game. A good game you haven’t played on PS2 is still a good game you haven’t played on Wii, but with better controls!
July 20th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Godfather: Blackhand Edition is a great game. Not only does it treat the source material with deserved respect, the “tacked-on” motion controls are used effectively without being obtrusive. Beating on people never gets old in that game. A port done right.
I have been waiting for this Bully announcement for a while now. I would prefer this game to Manhunt 2. My PS2 was dead by the time Bully was released. I only hope Rockstar gives this Wii port the same care that EA did with Godfather.
I can’t believe am praising a PORT from EA, but it is truth. I am really enjoying Godfather. Between SSX Blur, Madden on Wii, Godfather and MySims, I am going to have to take back some of the nasty things I’ve said about EA in the past.
July 20th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
bully is great news- i thought of buying a ps2 to play it when it came out. i may pick it up on the 360 though.
table tennis: the videogame never really interested me.
normally i’m against ports. i was disappointed to hear that re4 was being trotted out again on another nintendo system, just like i was at hearing ninja gaiden return, um, again, for ps3. or seeing every RE game remade for the GC. that these seem to be the difinitive versions of the games tempers me, but only slightly, since i prefer to see new games and this often just sounds like developer laziness.
here’s hoping we see the definitive bully and table tennis come the winter, but either way, i’m looking forward to roughing up some math team members (virtually, of course ;-). The game looks hilarious.
July 20th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I think that adding to the Wii’s library is a good thing, and I pray that these are good ports. I agree with some earlier comments: if they are using this to test the waters for original IPs, then I’m all for it.
However, I’d like to add that I thought Bully was a pretty lame experience all around. Not only was it one of the ugliest games I have every played, but it was just kind of “blah.” Very repetitive and gimmicky.
As for table tennis, how bad could that be? I’m looking foward to it, actually.
July 20th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
They can keep that Bully junk.
July 20th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
The ports dont bother me. For one, I don’t own a PS2, so i never played either of those games. I had played through RE4 despite not owning it, but playing it on the Wii now is awsome. I dont mind ports, as it is a good way to test out the system for first making a game for it, 2 just to see how well a game of theirs on the system will sell. I have always been a fan of Rockstar games, and if they can make a great Wii experience out of Bully and Pingpong, sign me up for their next Wii title.
July 20th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
If they are good games, and take advantage of what the Wii can do, im cool with that!
July 20th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Normally, I frown on remakes, but these are a bit different. With RE4, the game was already playable on the Wii, so that seems a bit of a sham (although I’ll eventually buy it of course). But in this case, these are games that were never playable on the Wii, so I welcome them as I would any new game to the platform.
July 20th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Crap, I JUST got Bully for the PS2. I didn’t mind the ports before I owned the originals…
While Table Tennis sounds natural, I’m not sure how Bully will fare on the Wii. But I haven’t gotten into it yet, so who knows.
So when are we going to get GTA with motion control car jacking?
July 20th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Sweet. I can finally try Bully.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
I just can’t get that excited over ports of games from a last gen machine to the Wii. RE4 is good but if it were $50 there’s no way I’d pay for it. None of these ports should be over $30 IMHO.
It just seems very uninspired and lazy to me to see so many ports and is really seeming to go against everything that the Wii supposedly stands for. I fail to see what’s so “innovative” about slapping Wii controls on last gen games and charging $50 for it. Not to mention it’s hard to get excited over games we played 1-2 years ago already. Until the 3rd parties start putting original, Wii-specific games out, then I’m not buying all this hype about the increased 3rd party support.
July 22nd, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I agree with the “testing the waters” theory and also with the guy above about “charging $50″ for old games. I like playing ports because I don’t own other systems. I’ve been a nintendo person for a long time. I have a PS2 for some star wars games and that’s about it. It has dust all over it.
The ports are cool but these companies are taking advantage of the nintendo fans, and the Wii buyers. Everyone knocked nintendo when it was first introducing a remote instead of a controller. No one could understand what nintendo was thinking. Only the old nintendo fans were faithful that this would work out. The only reason the world knows how cool the Wii is because they saw or played it with someone who was a fan and bought it right away.
These companies put their money behind the 360 and the PS3. Not the Wii. And after spending $12-$15 million to produce “Top Notch” graphic games, they are stuck. $4-$5 million for a Wii title was always a good idea. 360 is doing well I guess and the PS3 is still stalled at the gate. The Wii is a runaway. So these companies are porting titles to Wii to recoup those lost monies and make profits. Ubisoft was there and they have done a really great job (atleast decent with a lot of their titles). EA and Rockstar didn’t spend $12 million on our Wii system. They aren’t spending the $4-$5 million for an original title. They are just tacking on the controls for us and selling us supposedly “Top Notch” games for the same $50 that they were charging the other system buyers. We are paying the price for the other failing and slowing systems. Ports should be no more than $40. If they put a new title out for 360, PS3, Wii, PS2 or whatever, then charge us $50. I’m happy. But when you want to port an old game to make some sales, that’s just crap. We were promised a lot from Nintendo. They have put in place price points for games that are immense in action and simple in nature. That’s why the Rampage game was priced low. That’s what should be done for these companies selling us ports of old stuff as NEW. I’ll be honest that I’ll pay $50 for the ports that I really want but I more often won’t buy one until it’s been out for a while and the price has dropped to less than $40. I’m not paying these people for backing the PS3 and then jumping ship to join us on the Wii “Life Raft”. These companies need to show us Wii buyers that we are just as much of an investment and the 360 and PS3 purchasers.
I think that’s my 3 cents.
July 23rd, 2007 at 5:12 am
As long as I don’t own the original game I’ll buy any decent wii-make that comes out. It is early days so I’m letting the dev’s slide on wii-makes for the time being.
Seeing as I have only owned Nintendo consoles I don’t have any problem with most wii-makes.
Of course RE4:Wii is the exception as I didn own this on the GC, but its. Just. That. Good.
July 25th, 2007 at 2:19 am
I don’t mind ports as long as they are good ports and above all, ports of games that were great in the first place. If it was a port of Tales of the Abyss or Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, or Silent Hill, or FF and KH games, then yeah I’d be very happy. Ports of games like Ninja Bread Man isn’t going to cut it. In few instances on the Cube I got the PS1 ports of RE2 and 3 and the DC port of CV, but that’s about it.
Unfortunately for the Wii, I can’t say there have been a lot of great (PS2/360) games being ported over. Godfather was good, RE4 was good, and so on, however, some games that I was looking forward to, like Far Cry, turned out so badly, while some games I don’t even care about, PS2 port or not. It wouldn’t be so bad if the original games coming to the Wii were great but there aren’t that many, at least as far as third-party developers are concerned (at least Nintendo has five or so games I’m interested in, I can’t say the same for other Wii developers out there). I see a couple of good efforts (not necessarily what I personally care for) but not as many as those going to the other systems. I’ve seen more mutliplatform games that look like a lot of effort going into them than the Wii is getting. Even the PS2 had more of this effort that I’ve yet to see getting to the Wii and frankly, I’m getting a little tired of waiting.