Actually the developers pay the game companies a licensing fee to produce a game on their platform.

Hmm, I believe when it's an exclusive deal (i.e., the developer agrees not to develop the same game for other gaming platforms), as is being reported with this game, that changes. The developer needs incentive not to cross-develop, and that would come in the form of some sort of compensation from the console company.

They may just get a break and pay a lower licensing fee to be exclusive to their platform for a set timeframe.

I used to work at a game developer - but it's been a while.

Sure, I can see how that would make sense, if the fee is based on units sold. I imagine it has to be one heck of a price break to convince a developer to give up 2/3 of its potential market (okay, 2/3 is probably an over-estimate considering that Nintendo's sold significantly more consoles and considering the number of people with more than 1 console. But still, it's gotta be at least 1/2 the market they're giving up).

But either way, the basic reasoning still stands - if a company offers a good enough deal (whether they pay the developer whether they just discount the amount that they're taking from the developer), then the developer will cross platforms.

Have you heard or seen any of the supposed uproar that the zombies are black- so claims of racism are starting up. :rolleyes:

I'm Christian, not offended- could care less. People are idiots- doesn't change what I believe.

Oh good I am not the only one who thinks that.

My game playing has suffered lately-been spending most of my time playing Mario Party DS. Last thing I played on the Wii was a Mario Party 8 game with the kids-have not picked up Galaxy for weeks :blush:

I am hoping for more play time with the holidays coming up.

Are you serious?? So we can have Spanish villains (Re4), German villains, South American Villains but somehow African villains are off-limits? Video games can't be set in Africa? (And, if Re4 continues on the theme of the not-zombies that are create by infestation with the Las Plagas parasite or by other means, the villagers are actually victims controlled by another entity).

But to play devil's advocate, if there was a parasite/zombie infestation of a Jewish settlement and you ran around killing zombies there, I might not look at it the same way.

haha ok cool, I just saw that and went.. woah! So wrong!

There's a Ray Harryhausen flick called "20 Million Miles to Earth" where there's a group of Italian villagers who stumble upon a creature brought to earth from Venus -- and they all have that ridiculously stereotypical Italian accent. I just wanted to strangle them.

Look-a ata da ting-a we-a found-a inna da watah!

Cripes.

I was thinking of getting Mario Party 8 because I don't really have any good party games per se. I popped in Rayman's Raving Rabbids 2 last night and while I haven't checked out the multiplayer mode yet, it is definitely not as good as the first one. I mean, the rabbids are there, and they are funny as heck, but they made some missteps as far as how the game is set up and the quality of the minigames. Honestly, there are too many minigames where you cannot pay attention to what is happening on the rest of the screen with the rabbids, because you're staring at a corner trying to match your Wiimote/nunchuck motions to little icons. That didn't happen in the first one... and a lot of the mini games arent satisfying as a result.

Also, they basically took out the storyline. So far it is all just series of mini games, which the first one was too, but at least it seemed like you were working towards a goal. AND they took out stuff like, even the titles aren't as good -- something in RRR1 which would be titled "Bunnies don't like to drive cars" would be titled "Car Race" in RRR2. Descriptive, yes, but not cutesy.

There are "rail shooter" sequences like in the first one, except that before it was moving thru CG sets with quick reloads, and you could grab and throw bunnies that got too close. Now, you have rail shooter sequences thru real video settings, with the bunnies jumping out at all directions, it takes a few seconds to do each reload, and you can't grab the bunnies. It is more difficult, less cute, and less fun.

Maybe the party game stuff will be fun, but honestly, the single player mode isn't recommended (whereas I would definitely recommend RRR1). Worth a rental, perhaps, but not a purchase.

Was that Mario Party 8 we were playing on Saturday? That was cute.

Yep!

So, I'm guessing that getting 100 coins in a galaxy nets you a star, a-la the previous Mario games. But what about getting all the coins in the rolling hamster ball level? Would I get a reward for that, or will I just go batsh!t insane trying?

You'll go batsh*t insane. Don't bother with coin collecting (unless you're running low on health). You'll know when you've gotten all the stars in a galaxy because the game will tell you that you have (if you haven't gotten the Luigi stars or green stars or other secret stars then you won't see that little crown next to the galaxy).

There ARE "collect 100 coins" levels, which are the purple comet levels that only appear after you defeat the final Bowser and return to the game. And some of them will, indeed, make you insane ;) Some of them have 100 coins scattered throughout a level that you have to find; in others, the coins are right there in your face but you need to collect them and get the resulting star with a short time limit. There's one in particular that I simply cannot for the life of me figure out how to do...