Sure, rumors that the iPhone was prepared to take on Nintendo and Sony may have been scoffed at in the past, but is anyone laughing now? Sega recently premiered a demo of Super Monkey Ball (perhaps their best creation post-Dreamcast) running on Apple’s iPhone. Developed using the iPhone’s new software development kit (SDK), the game is controlled using the tilt function of the device. Wait, so the iPhone is basically a Wii and DS in one? Uh oh.
Electronic Arts’ Skate was one of the big surprises of 2007. Many had challenged Tony Hawk’s dominance of the extreme sports genre, but Skate was the first to really deliver a knockdown punch with its innovative controls. Now, in the face of being outsold two to one, Activision has plans to innovate with the Tony Hawk franchise.
Speaking with USA Today, Activision Senior Vice President Will Kassoy referenced the “Tony Hawk Innovation Plan,” but refused to elaborate. What could this plan be? The easy speculation is a move toward a new control scheme akin to Skate’s. However, with Activision’s success with the Guitar Hero franchise and now Call of Duty 4 online, one should not rule out the move to a more multiplayer friendly setup. And yes, Tony Hawk Wii featuring the Balance Board seems inevitable. (more…)
Sports games love their complicated controls. Sure, everyone loves to have a little more control for a little more realism, but at some point this has got to stop. MLB 2K8 is the latest game to take a simple idea (button timed pitching) and turn it into something perhaps overly complicated. The above video attempts to explain the new control scheme, and it doesn’t seem too daunting. Still, does every game need to require a tutorial video for every feature? Wasn’t the success of the Wii supposed to end this?
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