Windows sucks

Nintendo Japan shared a Disaster release date seemingly out of nowhere last week. Today, it got around to following up with new gameplay details via an official website update. It also shared new screenshots, which we've added to our media collection below.

First announced in 2006, Disaster promised to put players' survival skills to the test as they dealt with natural disasters while also fighting off ruffians. The title drew much attention due to its developer: Monolith Soft (Xenosaga, Baten Kaitos), now reborn as a Nintendo subsidiary.

The official site describes Disaster as a game where you attempt to survive disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, floods, and hurricanes, all the while dealing with members of an armed group. You play as Raymond Price. Once a member of a rescue battalion, Price quit after failing to save his partner and old friend Steve during a disaster.

One year later and Raymond, now a city worker, hears of another potential disaster, this one involving an armed group who's kidnapped a girl. That girl happens to be Lisa, Steve's younger sister. Raymond heads out to save Lisa and ends up encountering earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, floods, and hurricanes in "the worst day of his life."

The site introduces three major areas of the game: surviving natural disasters, saving victims, and combating the armed group that's kidnapped Lisa.

The survival part of the gameplay involves dealing with landscapes that change following fires, tsunamis, and earthquakes. You'll have to make skillful use of the Wiimote and nunchuck here.

Monolith has given Raymond a number of motion-based moves. When your clothes catch fire, you shake both the Wiimote and nunchuck to free yourself of the flames. You can also tilt the Wiimote to reach out and grab victims who are hanging for life from a building ledge. This tilt move is also used when under water as a means of avoiding incoming obstacles.

Wiimote and nunchuck shake is also used for quick timer-style events. When earthquakes and tsunamis strike, you shake the devices as if you're running. Doing this makes Raymond run away from falling obstacles and incoming water. In some sections, you'll be prompted to raise the devices up in order to make Raymond leap over chasms.

The Z button appears to be somewhat of a hot key, which performs context sensitive actions. After inhaling too much smoke from a fire scene, you press Z to take a deep breath and restore your life. You also press Z to call out and see if anyone in your area needs help. An icon on the bottom-left side of the screen shows what action Z will perform in any given circumstance.

As you deal with the various disasters that strike, you also need to help victims. Doing so earns skill points, which can be used to build up Raymond's abilities.

Nintendo has come up with a new use for the Wiimote here: giving a heart massage. When someone has gone unconscious and you're trying to bring them back, you hold the Wiimote sideways and push down and up in time with onscreen prompts.

The game's combat system for when facing off against members of that armed group appears to be quite robust. You aim at enemies by directly pointing at the screen with the Wiimote. This puts the game into a first person aiming mode, complete with a targeting icon. You then fire with B. During combat, you can press Z to hide behind obstacles.

It's not all just shooting, though. The game also has car chase sequences in which you use the Wiimote in steering wheel mode to race through the city. A is used for your hand break, with 1 and 2 used respectively for break and acceleration.

For a look at some CG footage from the game, see Nintendo's official website. The site also has a few short gameplay clips in the player action section, highlighting the various moves detailed above.

gamingeek said:

That's because you got vista now and not a few months ago when it was bugged to hell, memory intensive to the point of crippling and just a plain old pain in the ass. It seems to have massive updates each week too. It's gotten better, but it was hell for a good few months.

My toshiba cuts out because of overheating, I have to run it at 25% with a cooling tray. It's crap. Good to see you BTW. How you doing? Now you're here and Dvader is here, why dont you check out my retro blog? You're older than me so I'd like to know what you grew up watching.

I'm glad Microsoft finally fixed Vista then. I really hate Microsoft's "ship it now, fix it later" business approach. If I had more money, I would've purchased a Mac instead, but the cheapest Mac laptop was nearly 3 times the price of my Toshiba. I couldn't justify that kind of expenditure right now.

Sorry to hear that you're Toshiba doesn't work well. Damn, that would suck to have to run it at a quarter of its speed.

I'm doing well. Been quite busy lately. I left a responce to your retro blog; that sure was a blast from the past.

Morning from Melbourne all.

Beautiful day outside. The news of King of Fighters XII coming out next year (May in the US) makes me happy.

phantom_leo said:

I don't understand, GG? Did the VC fix not work?

Just hit the Home Button, go into the Operations Manual, Hold Z on the Nunchuk, press "2" on the Wii-mote, and listen for the tone.

That puts the Wii into a special interlacing mode so HD TV's will run games properly. That should be universal and works on any Wii system, anywhere in the world.

What are you talking about, I never heard of this.

darthhomer said:

Morning from Melbourne all.

Beautiful day outside. The news of King of Fighters XII coming out next year (May in the US) makes me happy.

Strange to wake up to sunshine and warmth.

Last night was pretty warm too, actually. Nice night to pip Adelaide, too! Did you go to the game?

I've made it to Ponc'tan in Okami...what a cool looking place. I feel the end is near. This game would have been a 9 IMO if they had balanced it better and cut out the boring shit in the first half. 35 hours in.

ravenprose said:

Sorry to hear that you're Toshiba doesn't work well. Damn, that would suck to have to run it at a quarter of its speed.

I'm doing well. Been quite busy lately. I left a responce to your retro blog; that sure was a blast from the past.

Cool, I need to hear this.

dvader said:

Oh yeah, game playing update, still playing Oblivion but now I am in the Shivering Isles. Its amazing! The world is about 1/5 the size of Oblivion, still sizeable with two big cities and plenty of towns, camps, forts, caves, etc. There are quests everywhere, seems I could play this for another 30-40 hours.  The world is gorgeous, its Morrowing like with giant mushroom plants.  All new enemies, all new dungeons that don't look like the ones in Oblivion, and I new items and equipment. Oh and even a new voice actor or two, its really good stuff so far.

Great. Thanks for that

So the shivering isles are like an island you sail to from cyrodil?

phantom_leo said:

I don't understand, GG? Did the VC fix not work?

Just hit the Home Button, go into the Operations Manual, Hold Z on the Nunchuk, press "2" on the Wii-mote, and listen for the tone.

That puts the Wii into a special interlacing mode so HD TV's will run games properly. That should be universal and works on any Wii system, anywhere in the world.

Oh I thought it was a special thing that only worked on Neo geo games? Will this work using the classic controller and not the nunchuk Z button? Does this only work on VC games that are component interlace compatible? Where did you hear about this trick?

Dvader, I can't seem to run VC games on my HDTV at all, even ones with this special interlace mode, so Phantom is helping me out.

edgecrusher said:

I've made it to Ponc'tan in Okami...what a cool looking place. I feel the end is near. This game would have been a 9 IMO if they had balanced it better and cut out the boring shit in the first half. 35 hours in.

I guess that's past Oni Island? I got to get cracking, but I haven't been playing any games other than Wii Tennis for the past week, I use it to keep me entertained while I exercise. Oh and I'm replaying Hotel Dusk slowly thanks to Dvader. I have agree, now it's my 3rd time through, it starts really slowly. It's not till you hit that revelatory scene with Louis Denonno that things become great.

iga_bobovic said:

Done todays updates. See you guys later!

Great stuff iga.

edgecrusher said:

And Iga once again comes through with a masterful job of updates. Have GG's babiez.

WHAT????!!! A compliment from Edge! I am used getting compliments from GG, but Edge!!

*Looks out window

Nah, I am just messing with you! Keep the compliments comming

edgecrusher said:

No, you don't sail there. A door appeals in Nipon Bay or whatever its called, you go through there and its a portal to the Isles of Madness. Pretty cool.

Yeah, its the next part of the game after Oni Island. Really awesome looking, almost looks like a Wii game. Okami, at least IMO, has a very off graphic level throughout.....its like some areas look total crap, then other area's are just awesome looking. Get back to it and finish it man.

Have GG's babiez.

Yeah, I agree with you. I heard so much about how majestic Okami looked that when I first turned it on I was wondering why I had been fed all the BS. It looked blurry and there are quite a few almost N64 textures in there. But then there are areas which are stunning and colourful with great art, that contrasts against the bland areas.

What did you watch growing up Edge? I just watched 3 episodes of King arthur and the knights of justice. I'm going to do impressions in a few minutes on the blog.

phantom_leo said:

This works on any VC game with HD issues. It MUST be the Nunchuk; you need to specifically press the "Z" button on the Nunchuk for this to work. Just swap the Nun for the Classic Controller after you input the code. This will be saved once this is done, so you don't have to do it every time you want to play the game. Try it and let me know the result.

Oh cool. So do you have to do it once per game? So for instance I use it for Super Metroid and it remembers it. But will I have to do it again for Gunstar Heroes? I will have to try it next week when I have the wii with me. Thanks a bunch Leo. What kind of programs did you watch growing up BTW?