The first title from Platinum Games has arrived. A producer gave us the things we’ve got to try in the ultra-violent action game exclusive to the Wii. Read more…

The reviews are in for “Resident Evil 5.” The box art review, that is. The game might be awesome but see if its cover made the cut. Read more…

The best thing about Sega’s “MadWorld” is it’s potentially Wii-best graphics, but now that I’ve played it, I can finally say something about its controls and gameplay. Read more…

We’ve got fancy Nintendo DS game boxes and Sega fortune cookies in today’s Lunchtime Video, but the most important thing is that I show you how I played the Wii game “Madworld” (and how a Sega rep wears her Wii remote). [NOTE: Sorry about the video problem earlier today. It should play fine now.]

(Videos not viewable by users logging in from Canada or the U.K.)

Nintendo has moms and Mario/Zelda fans locked up.

But, since the Wii launched in 2006, the company has had a hard time attracting the hardcore gamers who enjoy things like “Halo,” “BioShock” or “Call of Duty.”

Nintendo itself, former publisher of “GoldenEye,” hasn’t even made a game for that crowd since, arguably, the summer of 2007 when “Metroid Prime 3: Corruption” was released.

Is Nintendo not seeking that “Halo”-loving customer?

Nintendo executive vice president of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway told me last week that the company can get those gamers and has software coming in 2009 that will do the trick: Read more…

All day long we’re presenting Patrick Klepek’s favorite games of last week’s Nintendo of America media summit.

We don’t need a “Sin City” video game. We already have one: “MadWorld.”

“MadWorld” might be one of the most ridiculous games I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. I mean that in a very good way.

Platinum Games and Sega seem ready to deliver one of the most unique (and violent) action experiences ever — Wii or not.

Sega still won’t let us play “MadWorld,” despite the interface and motion controls already looking great. But you can garner much from observation. “MadWorld” doesn’t look deep, but that’s not what the game’s about. “MadWorld” wants you to embrace its absurdity and laugh as you dismember an enemy with a chainsaw.

It remains to be seen whether “MadWorld”s hooks hold up over a few hours, but Sega did show me a brief vehicle level that hints there’s more to the game than what we’ve seen so far. Now, I just need to play the damn thing!

Is the Wii great for motion control? Some say yes.

Is it great for casual gaming? Sure.

Is it great for black-and-white gaming? Shigenori Nishikawa, developer of 2009’s violent “Madworld” told me last week that the Wii is perfect for that.

“The Wii is the ideal console to express white and black graphics,” he told me during the announcement of the partnership between publisher Sega and the Platinum Games studio where Nishikawa, formerly of Capcom, now works. “For consoles like the 360 and PlayStation 3 the level of high-quality graphics is so extreme. I wanted things to be simpler than that.” He said he had been told that he needed to make a Wii game. “We thought about ‘What can we do that’s new on the Wii?’ And we came out the white and black graphics.”

Since its debut last week, “Madworld” has drawn comparisons to “Sin City,” the famous graphic novel that was also rendered primarily in black-and-white. Ishikawa says the comic was just one inspiration for the game. “‘ Sin City’ is really what graphic novels and American comics represent,” he said. “So, yes, ”Sin City’ was one of the graphic novels we looked at. But the direction ‘Sin City’ goes and ‘Madworld’ goes are completely different.

One direction that is shared between comic and game is extraordinary, unusual violence. I wanted to know more about that and got some colorful answers…

Read more…