Real World Golf, Wii
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Forum Name: The Locker Room
Forum Discription: Discuss anything and everything related to videogames here.
URL: http://www.sportsgamingnation.com/sgnforums/forum_posts.asp?TID=1549
Printed Date: 04-26-2024 at 7:36am
Topic: Real World Golf, Wii
Posted By: Mike_S
Subject: Real World Golf, Wii
Date Posted: 02-11-2008 at 4:53pm
I finally got around to hooking up Real World Golf this weekend
(suggested to me by some of you on this site) and had some fun with
it. It was decent, definitely not bad. Hitting the ball was
fun, though putting was frustrating. It also felt like if some
developers with experience had polished the game a bit, it would have
been a lot better than it was.
Anyway, I'm again wondering if you guys -- hardcore gamers,
particularly sports gamers -- are generally going back and
playing games with specialized controls. I know everyone is
playing guitar hero and rock band, so I'm not really talking about that
-- more about The Wii stuff, Karaoke games, etc.
Are these games typically "play once or twice and then put away
forever", or are you actually going back to play through the whole
game, master the controls, etc. ? And even for games like this
that you like (say, Wii Bowling), do you find yourselves playing a lot
of 1-player mode to get better or are you only playing them socially
with friends ?
Also, do you guys with Wii find yourselves getting as many new games for that as for PS3 or XBox 360 ?
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Replies:
Posted By: JasonSGN
Date Posted: 02-12-2008 at 10:19am
This is not Wii-related but I recently bought my first "specialized" controller - the Microsoft Racing Wheel.
On the other hand, my wife and kids got a chance to play the Wii and loved the bowling and tennis.
------------- http://profile.mygamercard.net/JasonSGN">
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Posted By: Derek
Date Posted: 02-12-2008 at 2:38pm
Hmm...how to answer this in the best way to steer Mike back into developing console baseball games....
For me, Mike, it all comes down to the strength of the games. I think that the specialized contols are by nature somewhat gimmicky- they usually generate quite a burst of fun in the beginning that fades rapidly...if the game that you are playing with them is somewhat shallow. As far as the Wii goes right now, I think that is largely the case...you have a bunch of shallow games.
That doesn't HAVE to be the case, though. If the game is solid and deep enough, I'd continue to play in a heartbeat. For example, I love Wii sports, but I've always considered the games within as little demos of what would be possible with 'full-length' titles. I played them all tons in the beginning, but very rarely now, and then usually - as you said- with others in a social setting. But would I continue to go back to say, a Wii Golf that controlled similarly to the version in Wii sports but had multiple courses, tournaments, and online play? Youbetcha! I also have gotten some good replay out of the Indy 500 game out now for the Wii.
As far as buying Wii games, again, I feel that it comes down to the individual game. I have far more Xbox 360 games than I do Wii games, but in the last month I've bought more Wii titles than 360 for the first time in a while, maybe ever. (No More Heroes, Mario Strikers, Endless Ocean), simply because they were the games I wanted to play. I got them for the games themselves, not for any 'controller' appeal.
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Posted By: Mike_S
Date Posted: 02-12-2008 at 5:47pm
Web: Thanks for the response. Just FYI, my dream/goal is to develop
higher-profile sports games for sports fans again someday, so no steering is really needed. I have lots of ideas on how to
buck current trends and make things more fun and satisfying for sports fans. May or
may not be console. Just has to be the right time and place so that I
can do everything the right way creatively; unfortunately that means not right now.
For now, the best I can do is suggest you check out
some cell phone sports games I worked on that may or may not be
available on your carrier. All are better than you'd probably
expect, with high fun-factors:
- Nicktoons Mini Golf (recent, should be available on many carriers, surprisingly fun)
- MLSN Sports Picks (prediction game, may still be available, can become addicting)
- NCAA Hoops '05, NCAA Hoops '06, City Basketball (older, Cingular only)
- Baseball Heroes of the MLBPAA (very old, old Verizon handsets only mostly)
BTW, if anyone cares, supporting and spreading the word on Digital
Chocolate games will indirectly be the best way you guys can help put
me in a position to doing higher-profile sports games for sports fans
again!! :-)
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Posted By: K_Mosley
Date Posted: 02-12-2008 at 8:43pm
Forgive my ignorance, here, but since you're in the cell phone game business, how does it work, exactly? I know I can call up games on my Verizon phone, and hook in to the network. From here, I can make a purchase. I haven't gone very far, but are all games available on all services? Or, can I only download games that have some kind of contract with my provider?
And, just out of curiosity, how does the quality (in general) compare with something like GBA games?
Thanks,
Kevin
------------- http://www.middleagedgamer.com - MiddleAgedGamer.com
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Posted By: JasonSGN
Date Posted: 02-12-2008 at 10:33pm
Originally posted by Mike_S
BTW, if anyone cares, supporting and spreading the word on Digital Chocolate games will indirectly be the best way you guys can help put me in a position to doing higher-profile sports games for sports fans again!! :-)
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Mike, feel free post any info and news about Digital Chocolate here.
Do any of your games run on Blackberries with T-Mobile service?
------------- http://profile.mygamercard.net/JasonSGN">
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Posted By: Mike_S
Date Posted: 02-13-2008 at 4:50pm
Thanks for the interest!! Mobile games on your phone are definitely worth checking out.
Sorry in advance for the length - I put a lot of info into the rest of this post.
How to get games: It differs on every carrier. For Verizon, you
have to choose "Get It Now" from your main menu, then (on my phone)
choose a shopping cart to shop for new applications and games. On
most carriers though, once you've gotten to the shopping point, you
have to navigate through lists of categories and games (which is not
always too user-friendly). The big problems are finding a game
you want, and knowing something about it; most of these lists have a
two-line description of the game at most, so it's buying blind most of
the time. Some carriers have a "Search" feature so if you know
the name of a game, you can type it in and go right to that game.
Our sales guys have to sell the games individually to each of the
carriers, so some games are available on some carriers but not
others. Additionally, not every game is made for every handset
(we try to, but it doesn't always make sense). Know that when I
worked on High Heat 2004 we did 6 versions the last year and we thought
it was hard -- XBox, PS2, Gamecube (never finished), PS1 (finished but
never shipped), PC, and GBA. For some of the Digital Chocolate
games, we have to do more than 1000 versions to support nearly-all
handsets worldwide!!! :-) :-) :-) So you can only get games
that your carrier has chosen to take, that also are made for your
particular handset.
Quality: Varies TREMENDOUSLY from game to game. Games tend to
have less strenous arcade interaction than GBA (think about phone
controls vs. GBA controls as the main reason), and quality of
graphics/sound/presentation depends on what phone you have.
Graphic-style tends to be similar to GBA though, and cleverly-developed
games can be quite good. I have an old Gameboy and never use it,
but I play mobile games a lot (outside of work) because of the
convenience of firing up a game on your phone while I'm waiting in a
restaurant, sitting in the airport, can't sleep in a hotel, etc.).
Also, mobile games tend to be way easier to pick-up-and-play, and often
in less-hardcore-game categories, than even what you'd get on
GBA. And the best ones still have good replay value.
All that said, the quality of games is a very-mixed bag. Most licensed
games are ridiculously poor and not fun at all. Most games that
are a modern video game license on the phone are also ridiculously poor
and not fun. Some older video games licenses (like Tetris or
Frogger) are decent on the phone. Most of the games developed by
Digital Chocolate are honestly extremely fun-to-play, and typically
well polished. Gameloft is another company that generally puts
out quality games. But you have to know which games you're
looking for before downloading, or else I'd say there's a 2/3 chance
you'll be disappointed.
BTW, the prices tend to be super-low for these games (like $5 or so
usually) so it's not like your taking a big risk by downloading a game
or two. Additionally, when you find a good, replayable mobile
game, it clearly has way better value-for-dollar than almost all
console games (I've played probably 400+ 10-minute games of Baseball
Heroes on my own time over the last 4 years, for example...what value
for $5!!). On the other hand, the worst thing for us at Digital
Chocolate is when someone downloads their first-ever mobile game, gets
some licensed game that has terrible quality, and decides that all
mobile games suck and never tries another game.
Carriers/Handsets: We have games on all US carriers (as well as many
European and other carriers), and support most handsets, even the
really low-end ones when we can. I know, for example, that
Nicktoons Mini-Golf is out on T-Mobile; not positive if we're available
for the Blackberry or not.
Here's a list of some good Digital Chocolate games to check out that should be currently available for most handsets/carriers:
Arcade-ish: Tower Bloxx, Johnny Crash, Tornado Mania, Roller Coaster
Rush, Fantasy Warrior, Mafia Wars. There's a Facebook version of
Tower Bloxx out there as well if you're a Facebook user.
Sports: MLSN Sports Picks, Nicktoons Mini-Golf. (Baseball Heroes
and NCAA games I mentioned above are likely no longer available 'cause
they're so old, but you can look...trust me, you'll have a lot of fun
with them if you can find them)
Word: WordKing Spelltris, WordKing Poker (I worked on both of these titles, they're fun)
Other: Cafe series (Sudoku, Solitaire, etc.), Brain Juice,
The game I'm primarily working on now, which is really cool and unlike
any other game I've ever seen, is called AvaPeeps: FlirtNation.
It's currently only available on Boost Mobile, but should be out on
most other carriers fairly soon. Keep your eyes open...
Lots more titles out there that DChoc did...our website is mostly outdated, but you can check DigitalChocolate.com for more info if you're interested.
Sorry again for rambling, hope at least a few of you find some unexpected pleasure with some of these games!! :-)
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Posted By: TedSGN
Date Posted: 02-13-2008 at 6:06pm
I saw Baseball Heroes on your website and it did look like something I want to play. I'll probably be picking up a new cell phone in the next month. Do you have any recommendations for something that I would be able to get most of these games on?
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Posted By: Mike_S
Date Posted: 02-13-2008 at 8:02pm
For games purposes, the Motorola RAZR with AT&T as the carrier
probably has the widest variety of game choices for a common
handset. It is not the most powerful phone game-processing-wise,
and as such doesn't always have the very-best-looking versions of
games, but it's pretty good and has a huge userbase, meaning that all
games would typically be made and available for that handset.
A stronger handset (for better graphics and polish) with a good
selection would be any Nokia series 60 phone (I am working on a 6630
for one of my current projects) also under AT&T. Most of the
Boost mobile Iden handsets are also very powerful, and Boost typically
has some edgier, "cooler" product. Verizon has some high-end
handsets that support many 3-D games; these are not always the best
gameplay experience, but they are more arcady and often appeal to
console gamers.
Unfortunately regarding Baseball Heroes: It is Verizon only, and as far
as I know only available for very old handsets...and only a few of
those, as it was one of our first-ever products and we didn't support
all handsets yet. Worse, Verizon often takes old games out of
their sales deck and that game was published in mid-2005. So it's
possible that even if you somehow got a handset that supported the game
(like a VX6000 or T730), you might not be able to find it and purchase
it from Verizon (and hence would have no way to get the game onto your
phone!) :-( If you are really interested in that
particular game, you should contact Verizon and ask them about
the game and see if there's any way you could still get it, and if so,
on what handsets.
Sorry about that, it's a really fun game. The personal cell phone
I carry is significantly outdated and broken down, but I keep it
specifically to have and occasionally play that game!! (32-16
with Boston currently in a 144 game season on All-Star difficulty!!)
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Posted By: JasonSGN
Date Posted: 02-13-2008 at 8:05pm
Originally posted by Mike_S
32-16 with Boston currently in a 144 game season on All-Star difficulty!!
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I just all respect for you Mike .
------------- http://profile.mygamercard.net/JasonSGN">
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Posted By: Mike_S
Date Posted: 02-13-2008 at 8:27pm
Hey, you should know I'm a displaced Bostonian -- I'm just living in California "temporarily". :-)
Seriously, I've been here almost 15 years now, but Boston will in most ways always be my home.
Also, Baseball Heroes features MLB Alumni players not current
players...so the Boston team features many of the players of my youth,
including Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, Louis Tiant, etc. plus many old-time
legends like Johnny Pesky. And same thing for the opponents --
It's tough when you have a righthander pitching against powerful
lefties Roger Maris, Oscar Gamble, and Graig Nettles all in a row in
the middle of the New York lineup!! But there's nothing
sweeter than getting them one-two-three with offspeed stuff from "The
Spaceman", Bill Lee!!
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Posted By: K_Mosley
Date Posted: 02-13-2008 at 9:17pm
Thanks, Mike. I'm going to check it out. I have verizon with a Motorola phone (not a RAZR, though).
Kevin
------------- http://www.middleagedgamer.com - MiddleAgedGamer.com
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Posted By: K_Mosley
Date Posted: 02-13-2008 at 9:23pm
FYI - it's a Motorola M385. If I can't get Baseball Heroes, I think I'm going to check out the Mafia game. That looks pretty cool!
Kevin
------------- http://www.middleagedgamer.com - MiddleAgedGamer.com
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Posted By: Mike_S
Date Posted: 02-14-2008 at 2:28pm
Good luck Kevin. The Mafia Wars thing is actually a series of
games, so I'm guessing at least one of the games should be available
for that handset.
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