Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh - Kotaku Comments

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Fatass of Kickassness — Sun, 04 May 2008 08:23:19 MDT

@mistersneak: "a lot of the Wii games that look really nice have you in little corridors (Metroid), or they don't render full 360 degree environments (Smash Bros), etc. So maybe cut the Wii port a little slack for some low-res environments."

Um, did you play Super Mario Galaxy? The draw distance was godly (for what they were working with) and the visuals aren't too shabby (at all). I think it's more an issue on lazy portwork - maybe, if it was a bigger title, I'd be more inclined to agree with you, but it's a budget port of a lame game. Don't try and blame it on the Wii.

Fatass of Kickassness

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Abno — Sat, 03 May 2008 08:06:59 MDT

@Dir_en_grey: Alright, I can give you that. This game would look better than a non-existent Afrika. ;D

Plunkett made a post back in december 2007 saying it's still on the way. They're just being ridiculously secretive about the whole thing and gave no indication when to expect it.

[kotaku.com]

Abno

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

SupaPhly — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:45:18 MDT

>:3

SupaPhly

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

hrabbit — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:08:54 MDT

this article somehow reminds me of "Hey you pikachu" :D that totally needs to be made into a ds game or something ahaha *ahem* back on topic, I played the demo on pc and I think my little sister will love it

hrabbit

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

ThreeLeafIvy — Fri, 02 May 2008 22:09:51 MDT

Bringin' the average score of Wii games down again, I see...

ThreeLeafIvy

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Salen — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:56:39 MDT

Holy S***! Its a Lion! GET IN THE CAR! XD

No, seriously, I wanna see cameraman mauling. It would be Grand Theft Lion, only instead of stars, you earn lions, lions who want to chew on your head.

Nomnomnomnom!

Salen

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

VakeroRokero — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:26:38 MDT

I didn't know africa had such blurry earth! I bet you would trip on a stone and not even be able to see it!

VakeroRokero

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

rubadub — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:22:29 MDT

I dont know how the controls work, but this seems like it would be fun to mod for use with the Wii Gun and the addition of some blood.

rubadub

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

TheNocturnalSun — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:27:42 MDT

still waitin for that Afrika

TheNocturnalSun

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

baxterpunch — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:01:07 MDT

@mistersneak: See? Now that just gets me interested. Looks like you live in Seattle, where the company is based out of. Quick search of the company's website basically only lists James Thrush, but boy is his name all over that site. His personal email addy is also the support addy? Strange, but reveals that the studio is very tiny. So, James Thrush....and maybe a couple other dudes? And those dudes are more than likely contract or really good friends?

I'm gonna go with James Thrush or a very close friend of his.

Oh, and congrats on the IGF awards!

baxterpunch

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

mistersneak — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:42:17 MDT

@baxterpunch:
I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

mistersneak

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

baxterpunch — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:36:01 MDT

@mistersneak: Sooooooo, I'm guessing you either worked on this game or are related to someone who worked on it?

baxterpunch

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Dir_en_grey — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:35:56 MDT

@Abno:
@electroshockwave:
Anything looks better than something non-existant... well I thought Afrika got canceled or something.
Yeah I have the demo vid on my PS3. Never hear anything on it so I thought it vanished into thin air or was just another tech demo that never really ran on PS3. I actually wanted the game just because it looked "realistic" at the time. It should've been a launch title cuz the graphics looks pretty generic now by today's standards.
Good to know they are still working on it though, but it's a meh for me now if it is infact just a pokemon snap (Kinda figured that was the case when they show the guy w/ camera), unless they can blow me away w/ the graphics again.
Anyway I was harsh on the Afrika demo cuz I was angry at the game never came out =P

Dir_en_grey

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

mistersneak — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:30:03 MDT

@skink and others:

The scene of the male lions is not actually in a game. They must be using an early version of the game, as that lion pride only has two males in it.

@nmlss:

Zelda's graphics weren't very good either.

href="#c5503680">CockroachMan:
Not that I'm defending the graphics. Yeah there are no shaders and sometimes the textures look muddy, but remember this is a PC game that's been ported to the Wii.
Of course a platform specific game is going to look better for its only platform than a game that has to dumb down to the Wii hardware.

As for laziness, do you have any idea the amount of time that was taken to make the port? Don't assume that the time between PC and Wii releases was all spent making the port.

mistersneak

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

BruzeWayne — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:08:28 MDT

Just when I thought wii-isms were deader than dead...
Best one yet, good job MF.

BruzeWayne

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

nmlss — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:03:53 MDT

Why the FU*K did the developers make shit like this??? They think this is good for Wii or what????? Come on, make more games with graphics like Zelda or Mario Galaxy or Metroid.... are Nintendo the only ones who made good graphics for the Wii?? FUC*!!!!.... This kind of shitty games make me angry....

nmlss

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

CockroachMan — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:45:14 MDT

@mistersneak: Nops.. that's mostly laziness from the developers.. just take a look at Mario Galaxy

CockroachMan

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

lonecow12 — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:38:12 MDT

@ZombiePuppy:

Actually I was trying to make fun of Fanboys on both sides.

The irony of my post was lost.

lonecow12

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

ZombiePuppy — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:29:40 MDT

@lonecow12: Are those ban monday things still going?

ZombiePuppy

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

lonecow12 — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:07:34 MDT

I was about to say "HA HA AFRIKA's GRAPHICS ARE CRAP!"

Then I realized it was for the Wii. So sad.

lonecow12

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

karasu is my homeboy — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:49:34 MDT

@Scorpi: This could be the reason that they don't review it. Some people would complain that the opinion was swayed.

Or maybe they just don't feel like it. Kotaku reviews are pretty random.

karasu is my homeboy

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Gordon_Shumway — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:22:55 MDT

All I want to know is - can you be killed by the lions?

Gordon_Shumway

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

electroshockwave — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:15:02 MDT

@Dir_en_grey: Yeah, it looks way better than Afrika: [www.gametrailers.com]
/sarcasm

electroshockwave

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

timb18011234 — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:13:03 MDT

I thought the PC version was a lot of fun.

timb18011234

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Asper — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:05:07 MDT

Was this game reviewed because Kotaku was tired of waiting for Yahtzee to do it?

Asper

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Scorpi — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:59:17 MDT

I'd rather play more Endless Ocean, thanks.

By the way, is it just me, or is there no Kotaku-review for World Ends with You? I mean, the game apparently bought you guys pizza, you might as well throw it a bone (if there were bones in said pizza)

Scorpi

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Ess — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:58:10 MDT

So Kotaku publishes a review for about 1% of all games and you pick this?

Huh?

Ess

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

ajay42 — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:56:01 MDT

@mistersneak: "you'll notice that a lot of the Wii games that look really nice have you in little corridors (Metroid)"

I thought the outdoor sections of SkyTown were some of the best looking parts of the entire game and those weren't remotely in cramped corridors; they were really vast vistas.

ajay42

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

skink — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:54:03 MDT

You'd never see a group of male lions snacking down on a kill together. Prides of lions only have one or two males, and anything a male ever kills itself it never shares.

just sayin :P

skink

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Abno — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:53:55 MDT

@Dir_en_grey: If you're talking about the graphics and animations, you must have some awful vision if you think this game looks better than Afrika. It's not even close.

Who said they stopped making Afrika anyway? It's still all over the developers website.

Abno

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Dr.Chocobo — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:48:24 MDT

The picture on the top is making me laugh so hard. There's only usually one or maybe two male lions in a pride as they are very territorial. NOT FIVE!

I wonder what else they screwed up in this game? Time for a rental...

Dr.Chocobo

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

baxterpunch — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:46:33 MDT

@ Mike Fahey: I totally loved Endless Ocean, can you make any comparison to it?

baxterpunch

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

mistersneak — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:42:27 MDT

@bobtheduck:
Hard to compare the Wii's hardware with the PS3's, don't you think? Though I guess if you have both, you can have that luxury.

mistersneak

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

mistersneak — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:39:39 MDT

The graphics are actually far worse for the Wii version than they are for the PC version. You can blame some of that on the Wii's hardware, but for another part, you can blame the game's open landscapes. The game renders a lot at once, and you'll notice that a lot of the Wii games that look really nice have you in little corridors (Metroid), or they don't render full 360 degree environments (Smash Bros), etc. So maybe cut the Wii port a little slack for some low-res environments.

As for the mini-games, I'm surprised you didn't find any of them at least a little fun. The Vulture Pilot game lets you do something on the Wii I haven't seen yet.

Either way, it's a good point that this is a game for a specific audience, but at the same time, I think there's plenty of fun to be had.

In terms of gameplay, I think the Wii version is superior. In the 11 minigames there's bound to be a few that you and your buddies might fight over the high score for. And while the co-op isn't what everybody would like to see, it's better than nothing when you're playing a game with your kid brother in the room, right?

mistersneak

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

zanzibarlegend — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:38:45 MDT

u had me at "A-Wiimoweh".

zanzibarlegend

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

dry-roasted-peanuts — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:37:19 MDT

Too bad. I've played the bejesus out of Eternal Blue and was thinking a land alternative might be interesting.

dry-roasted-peanuts

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Mikey G — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:36:30 MDT

Mmmm, wildebeest.

Mikey G

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Zegridathes — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:36:15 MDT

When I first saw that screenscreenshot thumbnail, I thought this was about a DS game.

Zegridathes

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

pandafresh — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:34:36 MDT

it'd be more interesting if it was you photographing nerds in their prime nature. the caption could be like "Benny fapping to anime girls" or "Dennis crying over a RROD" that'd be fun!

pandafresh

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

t0yrobo — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:31:06 MDT

Huh, what the hell just happened here?

t0yrobo

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

3inst3in — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:31:03 MDT

awiimoweh....BWAHAHAH!!!

3inst3in

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Dir_en_grey — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:30:10 MDT

Heh, looks better than PS3's Afrika... Took them long enough now the Afrika promo looks like crap compared to everything else now.
Maybe Afrika was the same concept, of taking pictures, that's why they stopped making it?

Dir_en_grey

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

bobtheduck — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:25:50 MDT

Um... Afrika, anyone? And Afrika will look a lot better, provided they just work on that darned water...

bobtheduck

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

mr_dimsum — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:22:04 MDT

I clicked on this article hoping to find some conning little jokes poking fun at the game, but that had an epiphany.. Why am I reading a review on this game in the first place?

mr_dimsum

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

karasu is my homeboy — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:20:26 MDT

I would actually give this a shot because it's different and I like Pokemon Snap and animals.

However, these N64 graphics complete with MS Paint's spray can effect for the lion's manes is a real shame.

karasu is my homeboy

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

Glasseater — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:19:38 MDT

lol, pokemon snap for the wii

Glasseater