Sean Valesco, lead designer of a boy and his blob for the Wii, wrote up a four-page piece for GamaSutra discussing what went right and what went wrong with the project. The title was WayForward’s first boxed game for the Wii, which itself caused trouble – their tools and workflows weren’t set up to handle such a major undertaking, and poor coordination of outsourced teams caused delays. At the same time, trying not to think too big worked to their advantage – a small team kept bureaucratic nonsense out of the equation and forced individual team members to be strong. A small team also helped ensure a common vision of the end product. Interestingly enough, the decision to release the game as a boxed title rather than WiiWare was the biggest turnoff for me, as a consumer. For me, this changed the game from a release-date-buy to a whenever-I-get-around-to-it title. The whole article is worth a read, full of insight into the process of developing such a game, and seems potentially useful to anyone just getting started in video game development.

GamaSutra

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Someone must have spoken with Nintendo about their string of poor digital download offerings because the last two weeks have been truly exceptional.  On WiiWare today, we will receive Bit.Trip Void, the third installment in the hectic pong-like rhythm title. For farming enthusiasts comes Harvest Moon: My Little Shop. For the strategic battle fan comes Little Tournament Over Yonder.  Lastly for WiiWare is the brain training game for children ages 3 to 6, Learning with the PooYoos: Episode 1.

This week’s Virtual Console is what it’s really all about.  After being released in Japan ages ago, Super Mario Kart finally makes its debut stateside. Also released is the original NES classic, A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia.

For DSiWare we’ll receive Castle of Magic, myNotebook: Blue, Electroplankton Luminarrow, Electroplankton Sun-Animalcule, Electroplankton Lumiloop, Electroplankton Marine-Crystals and Electroplankton Varvoice. For the full Nintendo press release, view below.

WiiWare

BIT.TRIP VOID
Publisher: Aksys Games
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 600 Wii Points™
Description: The third installment in the retro-arcade BIT.TRIP saga is a synesthetic exploration of rhythm and music as they pertain to our everyday lives and moods. With a control scheme that’s new to the series yet wholly familiar to gamers, players have complete freedom to move about the screen wherever they desire, interacting with the music in brand new ways. The classic game-play aesthetic remains as color – and the absence of color – are explored to the fullest. Trip out in four-player co-op and get lost in the beat with a friend. See if you can survive the onslaught of Beats and further your own BIT.TRIP.

Harvest Moon: My Little Shop
Publisher: Natsume, Inc.
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 1,200 Wii Points
Description: Welcome to Clover Town, where you’ve just taken over your grandparents’ farm and shop. The town has fallen on hard times, though. People are leaving, businesses are struggling and the magic of the Harvest Sprites is gone. Can you turn Clover Town’s fortunes around and restore its missing magic? Raise crops and animals, then use what you farm at your shop. Keep your customers happy by making wild fruit juices, towering ice cream cones and extravagantly decorated eggs in a series of fun and fast-paced activities that use the Wii Remote™ controller to its fullest potential. Chop vegetables in midair, shake your Wii Remote controller to match your cow’s moves, roll eggs through tilting mazes and more. Use your hard-earned money to buy new crops and animals or expand and decorate your shop. Along the way, you’ll meet and befriend lots of new and interesting characters, as well as several familiar faces from the Harvest Moon series.

Little Tournament Over Yonder
Publisher: Gevo Entertainment
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Cartoon Violence
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: In the world of Little Tournament Over Yonder, play as a young Prince or Princess and lead your team through numerous battles. Plan and deploy your units to gain strategic advantages. Launch real-time battles between units and fight hard, fast and smart. Build your team, hire new units with different powers, then groom them with battle experience to gain level. With strategic planning and real-time, fast-paced fighting, this game is for the complete warrior – one who works his mind and his muscles. Go for Single-Player Tournament glory or challenge your friend in a 2-Player Versus match.

Learning with the PooYoos: Episode 1
Publisher: Lexis Numérique
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: EC (Early Childhood)
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: Welcome to the world of the PooYoos, the first fun, poetic brain trainer for children aged 3 to 6. With the PooYoos, a merry band of adorable baby animals, children will have fun while learning the developmental basics: numbers, letters, lateralization, shapes, colors and more. Children get to dance with their new friends and enjoy lovely interactive rewards. There are two levels of interactivity, so children can play according to their age and level. This game has been designed for use by children who have not yet grasped reading.

Virtual Console

Super Mario Kart
Original platform: Super NES™
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: Get in, sit down, buckle up and experience frantic kart racing in the game that started it all. Select one of eight characters from the Mario series – offering a variety of driving styles – and take on three championship cups in three different kart classes. Win enough and you’ll unlock a fourth circuit: the ultra-tough Special Cup. Crossing the finish line in first place isn’t an easy task, though, as each track has unique obstacles to conquer. Racers can obtain special power-ups that boost them to victory. For a different kind of challenge, take on a friend in multiplayer races or go head-to-head in a Battle Mode arena, where the object is to pop your opponent’s balloons before you lose your own. With more than 15 tracks to master and nearly endless replay value, Super Mario Kart is classic gaming with some banana peels thrown in for good measure.

A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia
Original platform: NES™
Publisher: Majesco Entertainment
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: Blob has come from the distant planet Blobolonia in search of an Earth boy to help him save his world. Join him on this fantastic adventure, searching for treasures in mysterious caverns beneath the earth, then traveling to Blobolonia to battle the evil emperor. Discover Blob’s amazing appetite for jellybeans and the different transformations that occur with each flavor. Use these shapes to overcome even the most outrageous obstacles. A Boy and His Blob is a fantastic journey filled with constant surprises and humorous characters.

Nintendo DSiWare

Castle Of Magic
Publisher: Gameloft
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Cartoon Violence
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points™
Description: Be prepared for anything as you try to save your friend from the clutches of the horrifying magician Nefastax. Stand up to wild monsters in environments that directly influence your movement. As you navigate this universe, the ground will make you stick, slide, sink, swim, levitate and even walk on the ceiling when gravity disappears. A never-before-seen use for the Nintendo DSi Camera application lets you transform yourself into powerful new forms. Visit an in-game Photo Cabin and search for a real-life object that matches the color of the character you want to transform into. Take a picture of a blue object with your Nintendo DSi system and…presto, you’re transformed into a swordfish. You can customize game items – from coins to enemies – with pictures of your choice. Our cute hero’s adventure is just too big and immersive for one screen, so he’ll have to jump between the top and bottom screens of your Nintendo DSi system. Ready to dive into the adventure?

myNotebook: Blue™
Publisher: Nnooo
Players: 1
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: myNotebook allows you to take notes wherever you are. Just pop open your Nintendo DSi system and jot down your thoughts. Make a list and cross it off or play your favorite pen and paper games (games not included). You can even personalize your notebook by drawing on the cover and changing the paper type with 18 unlockable paper styles. Use the pen or pencil to make notes or doodles, then erase the bits you don’t like. With five ink colors, you’ll always be able to make your notes and doodles look stylish.

Electroplankton Luminarrow
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Luminarrow plankton are famous for their habit of perfectly following arrow-shaped formations. The plankton spin as they move, changing directions as soon as they come in contact with an arrow that’s pointing in another direction. The pitch of the sound they make will change depending on where the arrows are positioned. There are four types of Luminarrow: red, yellow, green and blue. Each type floats at a different speed and makes a distinctive musical tone. The four types of Luminarrow drift together to create beautiful melodies. Completely alter the direction of the arrows to change their sound dramatically.

Electroplankton Sun-Animalcule
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Sun-Animalcule plankton get their name from their tendency to emit light in a sphere around them. The plankton begin as eggs and gradually grow, emitting light and fascinating sounds throughout their entire life cycle. The sounds they make will change as they grow from infancy to maturity, growing very quickly until they disappear completely. Sun-Animalcule plankton only emerge in the morning, noon and evening. They lose strength as the night wears on; that’s when the crescent-shaped Falcato plankton take their place. The pitch of the plankton changes depending on where they grow.

Electroplankton Lumiloop
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Lumiloop plankton are curious, donut-shaped aquatic creatures. While stationary, they have the ability to spin at a very high rate of speed. As they spin, the Lumiloop emit unique sounds and a fascinating ring-shaped glow. Lumiloop plankton seem to always grow in clusters of five. They produce sounds at different pitches as they spin together, creating a beautiful harmony. This is called a pentatonic scale. Depending on where they live, Lumiloop plankton that produce several different sounds have been identified.

Electroplankton Marine-Crystals
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Resembling delicate snow crystals, Marine-Crystal plankton float elegantly on the surface of the water. The plankton get their name from their distinctive snowflake shape. They grow in clusters of 35 and line up in very orderly formations. When stimulated, Marine-Crystal plankton spin and produce vibrant sounds. While the plankton do grow in size if they are repeatedly tapped, they gradually return to their original size over time. They are born in four polygonal shapes: triangle, square, pentagon and hexagon. The ends of the crystalline protrusions also take on the same shapes. The tone of the sound they make will change depending on the shape of the Marine-Crystal plankton’s body.

Electroplankton Varvoice
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Varvoice plankton memorize the sound of human speech and repeat it over and over. They accomplish this amazing feat by oscillating the long flagellum that extends from their heads. By resonating the vibration with their water-droplet-shaped body, the plankton produce sounds that closely resemble the human voice. The body can expand and contract at will. By changing shape, they can easily manipulate the sound of the voice. Words that the Varvoice memorize and play back in reverse have a particularly strange ring to them. Researchers refer to this phenomenon as Varvoice inversion.

Nintendo

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Majesco Entertainment has announced the release of A Boy and His Blob for Wii.  The hand drawn, stunning beautiful game is a reimagined version of the original title, which released 20 years ago.

After the inhabitants of Blobolonia are taken captive by an evil emperor, one blob manages to escape in search of help only to crash on Earth and find a young boy. Together the boy and his new blob friend work as a team to solve 40 levels of challenging side-scrolling adventure featuring hidden treasures, deadly monsters, perilous dangers and boss baddies.

The game follows the same format as the original, as you’ll be equipped with a slew of jellybeans that can transform your blob friend into useful items such as a Licorice Ladder, Apple Jack and Tangerine Trampoline.  New jellybean items will include Cream Cannon and Bubble Gum Bubble.

The game ships today for just $39.99.

Majesco PR

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With the release of A Boy and His Blob just weeks away, Majesco has provided a slew of desktop backgrounds to use at your disposal.  Whether you prefer the more action-adventure oriented backgrounds or the sweet hug between the two friends, the choice is yours.  Check them out after the break.

ABAHB

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Since fans of the original A Boy and His Blob on the NES haven’t had a true console sequel, Majesco has announced the start of ‘Blob Month.’  ‘Blob Month’ will serve as a celebration and countdown to the release of the reimagined new iteration of the series, of the same name, set for Wii October 13th.

As part of the celebration, Majesco has released some concept art for the direction the developers WayForward they first saw. Check out more of this concept art below the break.

Blob

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Just when I thought Wayforward’s remake of A Boy and His Blob couldn’t possibly get any cuter, Flickr user Appy went and molded a rendition from Sculpey polymer clay.

The models are startlingly accurate, and if they catch the light just right the Blob looks an awful lot like a Peep. A soft, sugary, delicious Peep, just waiting to be snatched up by yours truly some kid and gobbled down. Only 263 days until Easter!

Flickr
via GameSetWatch

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The latest Nintendo Power reveals a new Boy and His Blob game for Wii. The magazine refers to it as a “reinvention of the property,” which likely means it’s a remake. More information is expected to be available when the issue is released on the 17th, but the game itself is definitely 100% confirmed. If any subscribers happen to get their hands on the issue early, feel free to let us know.

UPDATE: The game is being developed by WayForward, the company responsible for Shantae and Lit.

GoNintendo

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