PAX Hands-On: Hudson

Hudson, otherwise known as “That Bomberman Company,” has been a household name for decades in our industry. Lately, they’ve been most noteworthy for their incredible support of both the Virtual Console and WiiWare. If Nintendo gave their own service the same kind of attention that Hudson has been giving it, the Wii would be my most-played system.

I tracked down the Hudson crew at PAX and took a peek at two of their upcoming WiiWare titles – Bomberman Blast and Alien Crush Returns- as well as Wii retail release Fishing Master: World Tour. Full impressions after the cut.

Bomberman Blast

I’ve played Bomberman, you’ve played Bomberman, we’ve all played Bomberman. It’s up there with Tetris in the “most ubiquitous game” category. They just keep making the things and they keep selling. I guess the reason why is pretty obvious. The Bomberman formula, while simple as hell, makes for some awesome multiplayer.

Bomberman Blast, the new WiiWare edition, remains just as fun as ever. Don’t expect anything revolutionary. The main meat of Blast is in the good ol’ multiplayer mode, which pits up to four players locally – up to eight players online – against each other. You can form teams and compete or just jump into a free-for-all. There are a few new items, like a spaceship that lets you fly around the map and a shield to deflect explosions. This time around, you can even play as your Mii (and blow up your friend’s Miis).

Don’t have enough controllers? Not a problem, the game supports both the Wiimote (held sideways) and Gamecube controllers. Blast also supports 480p and widescreen for those of you with big fancy TVs. Bomberman Blast is already out on WiiWare in Europe, and will hit the Japanese shop on September 30th. A US launch is expected in the next couple of months, with an asking price of $10 or less.

Alien Crush Returns

The three of you who owned a TurboGrafx-16 should have fond memories of Alien Crush, a pinball game slathered with an aesthetic straight out of H.R. Giger’s sketchbook. I’m not quite sure how this WiiWare sequel got the greenlight, were Virtual Console sales of the original that high? Regardless, I’m glad that it did. Alien Crush Returns is a fantastic treat for pinball fans.

The controls are simple, the B button on the Wii Remote and the Z button on the nunchuk serve as your flippers. If you shake the remote, you can tilt the table. At times, you’ll gain special power-ups that can be activated using the A button. Some of these powerups include a speed boost, a push back in the opposite direction (great if your ball is about to go down the hole), and multiball mode. Enemies can also affect your ball. In my demo, one enemy covered the ball with a layer of slime that made it slide around all over the place.

In addition to the classic arcade mode that you’d expect, there is also a full-blown story mode. You still play pinball, you just have distinct stages and goals. You might have to take out a boss or defeat a certain number of enemies. The art style remains faithful to the original, that is that the stages look like the pinball of your nightmares. The enemies are grotesque spiked insect-like creatures. It’s awesomely gross.

Aline Crush Returns is already out on WiiWare in Japan. It should hit the US and European stores sometime in the next couple of months. No word yet on price, but it should also be somewhere in the $10 range.

Fishing Master: World Tour

Fishing Master: World Tour takes the motion-controlled fishing of the first game and moves it to a world stage. The premise is fairly simple – you pick a character, travel to exotic locales, and fish to your heart’s content. You can compete in different towns to improve your overall ranking, and earn money to buy new equipment.

The controls in Fishing Master are obviously the main draw, and they do work incredibly well. The Wii remote takes the form of your rod, and the nunchuk is your reel. You swing the remote to cast out your lure, then crank it back in by rotating the nunchuk. You can also shake the remote to shake your bait.

Fishing Master is incredibly casual, a nice relaxing experience. Collection enthusiasts will have fun filling out their fish encyclopedia (and seeing what crazy trash that you can fish up). If you want to fish with your friends, a four player local multiplayer mode has been included. Fishing Master will hit retail stores this winter.