In an interesting turn of events, it seems that the Nintendo Wii and Wii U are getting another new game in 2020! Shakedown: Hawaii from VBlank Entertainment is a retro-inspired game released last year across a number of platforms including Nintendo Switch. The game coming to the Nintendo Wii and Wii U is an interesting tale, it appears that it was just a fun case of can it be done.
According to VBlank:
“Like most of my ports, Shakedown: Hawaii on Wii began one Friday night on a whim of curiosity. Perhaps a jolt of Wii nostalgia rushed through me that evening, but I suddenly wondered... how long would it actually take to port? How would it feel to play with a Wii Remote? How would it look in 4:3? Would it hit 60 fps right off the bat, or need optimization? I had many questions, but as soon as I held that Wii Remote and started playing, I knew I wanted to take it to the finish line.”
The fact that the game has been ported to these systems isn’t the crazy part of the story though. No no, the crazy part is that they are being released and even getting physical copies! As you all know the Wii eShop shut down completely making digital releases for the system impossible. In the absence of the eShop VBlank was able to secure a limited print run through Nintendo of Europe to get 3000 Wii disks produced. Sadly no such deal was able to be made with Nintendo of America. Because the Wii is region locked even managing to snag one of the PAL region disks won’t be of much use on unmodified systems. The Wii U on the other hand still has an operational eShop in most markets and the game can still be released in North America.
Both versions of the game will support a number of output options including 4:3 and 16:9 aspect rations and both PAL and NTSC broadcast standards (50Hz and 60Hz). every controller option the Wii and Wii U supported will also be supported with Wii motes, classic controllers, and GameCube controllers working on Wii and Wii motes, classic controllers, Pro controllers, and the Wii U gamepad supported on Wii U. The Wii U version also supports off screen play making it very versatile. The Wii version of the game is currently set for a July 9th release date so be sure to sign up for the mailing list to be notified of when the sale starts. Again this print will be limited to 3000 copies so it’s going to be very limited. The Wii U version will be released in August alongside a new Steam port.
The game looks reminiscent of GTA2 and one I wasn’t aware of before today. While new releases for older systems are nothing new really, these are official releases approved by Nintendo themselves and that is nuts! I mean come on, the Wii has been replaced by 2 different consoles at this point nearly 14 years after its release.
Are you going to try and snag a Wii copy of Shakedown: Hawaii?
