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Namco Bandai Signs Outpost Kaloki X Follow-Up For Wii
by David Jenkins
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February 28, 2007
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Officials from Japanese publisher Namco Bandai have announced a new game for the Wii from Wahoo Studios, developers of the popular independent title Outpost Kaloki X for Xbox Live Arcade. The annoucement marks the first time a developer has moved a similar concept from Xbox Live Arcade to a retail product on another home console.
The new game is named Space Station Tycoon and, although not an official remake or sequel, reuses many of the same concepts and features, as players take control of a range of unlikely looking space stations. The game will make extensive use of the Wii remote in one of the first PC-style strategy titles to use the controller for mouse like manipulation of game worlds and option screens – with the nunchuck peripheral not being needed for basic play.
Speaking in an interview with consumer website IGN.com, Wahoo Studios designer Jeremy Throckmorton was asked to compare the Wii remote to the control systems of the PC and Xbox 360: “Given the nature of the remote as a pointer, it's much closer to what you would expect with a mouse. This has obviously allowed us to explore gameplay mechanics that wouldn't be easily accessible using a standard controller."
He continued: "That being said, we had to approach the controls on the Wii from a different perspective - what are the key actions the player must have access to? What kind of feedback do we put both on screen and the controller? Just how much functionality can we invest in motion sensitivity?”
The game is due for release this summer as a standard retail product. According to the IGN interview, the game has been created in a period of ten to twelve months, when it began as a small downloadable title, with the team size varying from five to sixteen staff.
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