Oklahoma State Pokemon master heading to nationals
The Pokemon national championships in St. Louis in 2009.
Oklahoma State student Jonathon Giles is heading to Indianapolis this weekend for the Pokemon national championships. Nathan Poppe talked to the competitive gamer for NewsOK:
Video games have been a part of Giles’ life as long as he can remember. He began with the Italian plumber adventure Super Mario Bros. and the shooting game Duck Hunt and has stayed loyal to Nintendo since. Today, he owns a Wii and the hand-held Nintendo DS.
Giles said he remembers seeing commercials and hearing hype in 1998 for the Pokemon video games. He got Pokemon: Red Version and played nonstop.
Giles, 21, won first place in May at the south regional Pokemon video game championships in Dallas, thanks to his Pokemon monsters Kyogre, Hitmontop and Palkia. About 650 people competed in his tournament bracket.
Giles is heading to Indianapolis for a series of one-on-one rounds with about 190 contestants this weekend for nationals.
Click through for the entire article, and good luck at nationals, Jonathon!
- Matt Price
Nintendo Wii price to drop
The gaming system Nintendo Wii will drop to a $199.99 suggested retail price as of Sept. 27. This is $50 less than the current SRP of $249. This includes the motion-sensing Wii Remote controller, Nunchuk controller and Wii Sports software, along with the Wii hardware.
Nintendo’s not slowing down in new game releases for the Wii, either. On Oct. 4, Nintendo will release Wii Fit Plus, and on Nov. 15 the multiplayer title New Super Mario Bros. Wii will be released. This game will allow four players at once.
“Wii has reached more video game players than any game system before because it attracts everyone—both men and women, and people of all ages,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing, in a release. “Our research shows there are 50 million Americans thinking about becoming gamers, and this more affordable price point and our vast array of new software mean many of them can now make the leap and find experiences that appeal to them, whatever their tastes or level of gaming experience.”
- Matt Price
Paul Benjamin talks writing X-Men Origins Wolverine for Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2
X-Men Origins: Wolverine for the Nintendo Wii
Writer Paul Benjamin, a Putnam City North graduate who now lives in Austin, Texas, is a writer of comic books and video games. He was able to merge knowledge from both worlds recently, as the writer of the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii version of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Benjamin recently talked to The 
Oklahoman about the experience. Look for more from Benjamin in Friday’s Weekend LOOK section of The Oklahoman.
Matt Price: What kind of research did you have to do to write the game?
Paul Benjamin: Yeah, this is the worst part of my job. I had to read A LOT of comics. When people hear that I write comics and video games, they generally assume that I just sit around reading comics and playing video games all day. Mostly that’s not true, but when starting a new project I do have to do some initial research. I am, of course, very familiar with Wolverine, but before I got started on the game I had to make sure I really had his voice down. I read some of Marc Guggenheim’s Wolverine comics because all of the Wii/PS2 in-game movies (aka Cinematics) came from the version of the game that Marc had written. I also spent time with classic Wolverine comics, like the first Wolverine mini-series, his early X-Men appearances and Origin, the tale of Wolverine as a boy that is the basis of the beginning of the film. I also got to read a synopsis of 
the movie, though there wasn’t enough time for me to fly out to Los Angeles to read the actual script. It’s not unusual for film scripts to be held so tightly under wraps that you have to go to the studio to read it to prevent leaks.
MP: What types of changes have to be made when creating the Wii/PS2 version of a game?
PB: This can vary greatly depending on the project. In this case, the Wii/PS2 version was being developed by a different studio from the Xbox 360/PS3/PC version. Though both versions shared cinematics and followed similar storylines, many other elements of the game were taken in different directions. For example, because the Wii tends to be owned by more casual gamers and has a large family following, the Wii version is much more family-friendly. Where the Uncaged Edition on the other consoles embraces the extreme violence of the Wolverine character, the Wii/PS2 version adopts a feel that is more in line with Wolverine from the three X-Men movies. There’s still plenty of fighting, but there’s almost no actual bloodshed portrayed in the combat.
Also, the Wii team took the unique motion sensitive Wii controls into account when making the game. You 
use the Wii controller in a very kinetic fashion to throw doors open, for example, and to lunge across the room at an opponent in a way that is unique to the Wii. Because this version was developed separately with these considerations in mind, many of the story details end up being different as well. The game has to be fun first and foremost, so the story was tweaked and revised to fit the gameplay involved. Overall things are the same, but one console’s version may have more levels set in one location than on another console, creating differences in where the story goes and how much we see of one character or another.
MP: What’s a typical day of writing for a video game project entail?
PB: Writing video games is a very different exercise from writing for other mediums. For example, when I 
write a comic book or graphic novel, I’m creating a narrative that goes from beginning to end. When writing a video game based on a movie (and on another video game), much of the story is predetermined. In addition, the gameplay drives the story to a great extent. Some days I spent all my time writing contextual action sequences. Those are situations where a series of events happens and you press certain buttons to change the course of the action. For example, Sabretooth might be trying to throw Wolverine off a truck and a series of button presses will either allow Wolverine to toss Sabretooth overboard or result in Logan going under the wheels. It’s my job to write dialogue for both scenarios. Ideally, voice over is recorded for several different versions of the scenario in case the designers end up using the same set up more than once.
On other days, I spent all my time just writing lines of dialogue for various characters. For example, I might write ten different lines that a specific group of bad guys will say when they engage Wolverine, ten 
more for when Wolverine hits them, etc. This is a real challenge because you’re writing these lines in a vacuum. You never know how they will be applied. Those enemies could end up cut from the game entirely or they could end up being used far more than originally expected because they are fun to fight. You have to try to cover all bases. Ultimately, the fun of writing for games is seeing how the gameplay designers apply your words to the game. The coolest part of writing for this game was hearing Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber delivering my dialogue as Wolverine versus Sabretooth. That’s something you can’t get from writing comics!
Nintendo targets fitness as growth area
By Matthew Price
THE NEXT LEVEL
While some may criticize video games for encouraging sloth, Nintendo is attempting to give gamers a chance to play while improving fitness.
“Nintendo has really tried to reach out to a new gaming audience,” said Libe Goad, editor in chief at GameDaily, www.gamedaily.com. “They’re reaching out to moms; they’re reaching out to women … people who aren’t necessarily the hardcore gaming crowd.”
Wii Sports, which came packaged with the Nintendo Wii, encourages gamers to move around and play virtual sports. The upcoming Wii Fit takes it to yet another level. The game, which has been a hit in Japan, is a workout program done via the Nintendo Wii. Wii Fit is set for a May 19 release in North America.
“I think Nintendo is reaching out to that other market, people who play Wii Sports and really got into that, will have a chance to really get fit while playing Nintendo Wii,” Goad said.
Goad played the game in advance of the release, and said it’s a good workout, but a fun one.
“I was actually kind of winded doing some yoga on the balance board, which comes with the game,” she said. “We’ll see what happens to the gaming waistlines over the next few months.”
The game is played using a Wii Balance Board, a platform that connects to the Wii and records the gamer’s physical activity.
“It measures the pressure in your foot, and that’s how it measures how well you’re doing,” Goad said.
In addition to traditional exercises such as pushups, yoga and jogging, there are game-based workout activities.
“There’s a slalom game where you have to lean to the left and the right to avoid flags, there’s a game where you hula hoop, and you have to twirl your hips around to keep the hula hoops going on screen. There’s a lot of different, really fun activities they’ve baked into the game,” Goad said.
Goad said the “Wii Sports” and “Wii Fit” exercise games will help Nintendo reach a totally different audience — and help the overall health of the industry.
“Financially speaking for the video game industry, that’s how they’re going to make more money,” Goad said. “For the growth of the industry and the health of the industry, they need to reach out to this new audience.”
