Related Sections: Strategy Games Wii
Anno 1404 coming to the Wii with the less Latin name Dawn of Discovery
Ubisoft announces that it's bringing the "Anno [insert year here]" series to the Wii, but minus the Latin word in the name that might scare off Wii owners worried about, say, having to read subtitles or care about boring history. The Wii version of Anno 1404, the next game in the series, will be called Dawn of Discovery, which is a name everyone can get on board with. Who wouldn't want to discover something bright and early in the morning?
Although these games have tended towards cutesy graphics, they've been serious city-builders all along, requiring no small amount of micromanagement and fiscal responsibility. And based on having played SimCity Creator, the Wii is ideally suited to city builders like this. Kick back on the couch, muck around with the Wiimote from time to time, and watch the city thrive. If SimCity Creator had a better interface, it would be one of my favorite Wii games.
Unlike SimCity with its finicky PC roots, Dawn of Discovery's gameplay is a good fit for the Wii. You build cities from fairly large manageable buildings and roads. It's all about dropping blocks on the map and letting an economy grow and prosper. Hopefully, there won't be too much micromanagement with moving goods around from island to island, which has been a sticking point in the last few Anno games. New for the Wii will be a co-operative mode that lets a second player control a cursor to clean and paint houses or blow on the sails of ships to make them go faster. In other words, give this to some nearby little kid to keep him entertained while you actually play to game.
Dawn of Discovery will ship this summer for the Wii and Nintendo DS.
By Balance of Power at 11:03 AM ON 02/27/09
If Anno 1404 is anything like Anno 1701 (and I believe it will be) then it can *stay* on the Wii for all I care.
A typical city builder, but I hated the economic model of the game. It seemed counter-intuitive and illogical (i.e. you run out of chocolate and your Aristocrats start rebelling), passive AI meant you never had to worry about invasion, trading was a chore. It was about as fun as spinning plates on poles - only instead of plates you're using landmines (in other words completely unrewarding gameplay).
Am I alone in this opinion? I believe it's popular in Europe, small wonder they've made a million of them...
What about you Tom - you ever give the Anno series a whirl?
Speaking of strategy games - I wish you'd bring back Tom vs. Bruce - by far one of my favorite features which I looked forward to every issue of CGW. It was in many ways more informative (and fun) than a typical review of a game.
Any chance you can bring it to Fidgit or some appropriate gaming website? Pretty Please? :)
By Tom Chick at 4:37 PM ON 02/27/09
Mr. Power, yep, I've certainly played some (maybe even all?) of the previous Anno games. They certainly were demanding, but I think if you're open to various kinds of city-builders, there's room for the more punishing among them like Anno. However, my complaint tended to be that the challenge level would have been fine if only the interface were better at helping you manage it. They've come a long way in that regard. I'll be curious to see how much more relaxed it is on the Wii, since I doubt they plan on just porting over the PC level of challenge.
Thanks for the kind words on Tom vs. Bruce. I miss being able to do those and I know Bruce does as well. Unfortunately, despite our attempts to get it picked up after Games for Windows Magazine closed, the series remains homeless. :(
By Balance of Power at 2:03 AM ON 02/28/09
That's a shame really, but I do hope it'll get picked up again some day. You guys were great! :)
In the meantime I'm content to read your insights on Fidgit. Keep up the great work!
By Tyjenks at 9:57 PM ON 02/28/09
Does this not seem like an incredibly weird match? European economic strategy game on the Wii? Don't get me wrong, I am interested and own all three PC versions. In each one, you bump up against a part of the game where continuing seems kinda pointless, but I, generally enjoy the ride.
If this starts a trend of strategy games to the Wii, I am all for it.
I was curious about SimCity Creator, Tom, but I just assumed it would be a tired, dumbed down version of SimCity and that it would be too shallow to pull me in.
By Handle at 9:34 AM ON 06/18/09
"Am I alone in this opinion? I believe it's popular in Europe, small wonder they've made a million of them... "
Dude get out of your country and expand your closed mind my god on websites and online gaming your countrymen come off so backwards. we are living in a modern world grow up.
Handle:
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