Late Night Consoling

Konami sent out postcards on Wednesday with details of the company's pre-E3 press conference on May 9. It reads "The REVOLT begins, Tuesday, May 9. It's the battle for E3," and is emblazoned with the words "RETURN," "RESPECT," "REGALE," "REBIRTH," "REARM," and "REFINE" over a backdrop of the Kojima Productions logo. In each word, the letters "RE" are set in bright red. GameSpot has a scane of the card, as well as an idea of what it could mean: that Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima plans to unveil his Wii (aka Revolution) project at the conference. Kojima announced last October that he was working on a Revolution title, but has released no details about the game's story or gameplay.

Kojima is notorious for the use of puns in promotional materials for his game, but why would he riff off of the name "Revolution" when it was recently changed? Well, the postcards were sent out before Nintendo made its announcement just yesterday, and there was surely plenty of lead time from when the cards were designed and printed, as companies have major E3 game announcements worked out long in advance. GameSpot seems pretty convinced, but of course Konami isn't saying a word about the matter officially. As usual, we'll just have to wait until E3.

Japanese publication Famitsu has details on Konami's first officially announced title for Nintendo's upcoming system Wii, no relation to the Kojima project. Entitled Elebits, the game is part of a new franchise being produced by Shingo Mukaitouge of the Guitar Freaks and Drum Mania games. It seems heavily focused on exploration of a fantasy world populated by small impish creatures called Elebits. At first, the description seems somewhat similar to the concept of Nintendo's Pikmin games, but while those titles are essentially realtime strategy games, this seems more focused on the actual hunting of the creatures. The visual design, too, is very different; no screenshots have been released, but the concept art in Famitsu indicates a darker, more surreal world than Pikman's exaggerated reality, and the Elebits themselves are stylized and slightly demonic in appearance. As far as gameplay goes, it's hard to tell until Konami presents the game more fully. Expect to see it at E3 in some form.

When Nintendo unveiled its controller for the then-named Revolution at last year's Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft executive J Allard was critical about its ability to handle certain game genres. "I don't think it's the way you're going to play Madden," he said. "I don't think it's the way you're going to play racing games." This week, Electronic Arts announced a Wii-specific version of Madden, and today Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime apparently let slip mention of a racing game for the system to be unveiled during E3.

According to Trigames.net, Fils-Aime's hint was revealed during his visit today to the Nintendo World Store in New York City. "I'm going to give one little secret," Fils-Aime said. "Only one little secret, and hopefully I won't lose my job. We're going to show a racing game at E3 where you use the core controller in a very different way. That will answer all the questions to how you'll play a racing game." Nintendo has several well known racing franchises--Mario Kart, F-Zero, and Wave Race--though Fils-Aime may be referring to a third party project.

Shacknews has confirmed with Nintendo that all of the company's games at the show--for all three of its current systems--will be playable or viewable on the show floor, a big change from recent treatment of Wii demos which have been entirely behind closed doors up until now.

Sega's fourth E3 game announcement came at midnight last night, and it's a new iteration in the long running Sega Rally series. Sega Rally Revo will be coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC and is being developed by the newly formed Sega Driving Studio. "SEGA RALLY REVO shifts into high gear with revolutionary track deformation technology, skill-demanding gameplay and dazzling graphics on the next-gen systems," said Sega's Scott A. Steinberg. "We're redefining the genre with SEGA RALLY REVO, using next-gen power to guarantee our place in the winner's circle." The game will feature deformable terrain, a variety of environments, and online play as well as single-player and split-screen.

Sega Driving Studio's Sega Rally Revo will ship for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in 2007. The game will be present at E3.

Publisher Koei today has revealed its game lineup for E3. Unsurprisingly, the company will have a strong showing of its flagship Dynasty Warriors franchise, but hey--Gitaroo-Man!

- Samurai Warriors 2 (PS2, X360)
- Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War (PS3)
- Fatal Inertia (PS3)
- Dynasty Warriors DS (DS)
- Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 (PSP)
- Gitaroo-Man Lives! (PSP)

Krakow-based developer Nibris unveiled its new website today, as well as sending out a press release explaining the current activities of the studio. Nibris has two games in development: Raid Over the River, a vertical shooter for Wii and Nintendo DS, and Sadness, a gothic horror title in development for Wii. Today's release revealed that the Wii version of Raid Over the River is not under heavy development, and will be on the back burner until the release of Sadness. However, a separate team is actively developing the DS version of Raid.

In regards to Sadness specifically, the title was confirmed as final and not a codename. Some confusions about the game were also clarified. Sadness takes place in the pre-WWI era in a Slavic country, and its black and white visuals are intended to evoke classic cinema as opposed to a comic book or comic book movie. Nibris has been approached with the possibility of a film based on the game, but nothing has been signed and such a project would not begin until well after the game's release.

IGN has an interview with EA's John Schappert about the company's Wii-specific Madden game. He also reveals that EA Canada's Wii dev studio consists of multiple teams and is working on several current projects, though none were mentioned by name.

GameSpot has a developer interview on Level 5's Rogue Galaxy (PS2).