Along with the usual batch of marginally interesting WiiWare titles and DSi crap, last week’s Wii Virtual Console release is a rare gem: Super Star Wars. If you missed this one back in the Super Nintendo’s heyday, be sure and give it a download. It’s completely worth the 800 Wii Points.
As with most SNES games, there may be some nostalgia clouding my memories. But as I recall, Super Star Wars is a brilliant sidescrolling action game with (believe it or not) some very well-done vehicle levels mixed in, and a finely tuned level of difficulty. The SNES certainly had its share of crappy platformers and cart racers based on less-than-stellar licenses (did somebody say Shaq Fu?) but this one is a gem.
The release of Super Star Wars comes at an interesting time for licensed IP in games. Eidos and Rocksteady Games dropped the demo for their eagerly anticipated Batman: Arkham Asylum last week, as well. In case you’ve been away for the last… 15 years or so, Batman’s historically been a poster child for terrible games based on a great license. It rose to the top of Xbox LIVE downloads immediately. Surprisingly enough, it plays exactly like a Batman game should, and is awesome. It makes you wonder how all these other development teams have gotten it so wrong on so many occasions.
Batman's a terrific character, but he's been in some truly awful games
Last week also saw Swedish develolper GRIN announce they were closing their offices and filing for bankruptcy. It was a short trip from the stars to the gutter for GRIN – they toiled in relative obscurity handling racing games and a few PC ports until they became critical and commercial darlings in 2008 with their faithful Bionic Commando re-imagining, Bionic Commando Rearmed.
Unfortunately for GRIN, their 2009 slate consisted solely of the true 3D Bionic Commando sequel (an iffy concept at best), and two movie licenses: Wanted: Weapons of Fate and Terminator Salvation. It’s not GRIN’s fault that both movies fell short of expectations, but it certainly didn’t help that Wanted missed its release date, launching a full 6 months after the movie left theaters. And Terminator? It might have helped GRIN’s cause had it been more, y’know… good.
Based on the strength of their licensed game, we’ll all be waiting with bated breath for what comes out of Rocksteady next. Based in large part on the weakness of their licensed games, the guys from GRIN will be looking for employment.
