Well, so much for "the entire first party slate is announced", Disaster will indeed be coming this year.
Official Press Release from Nintendo:
"2nd September 2008 –
Earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption, flood, hurricane... and the small matter of an ex-military terrorist group with their hands on some nuclear weapons – and all in just 24 hours! Welcome to Disaster: Day of Crisis, the action adventure game on Wii from Nintendo and Monolith Soft., sweeping across Europe on 24th October 2008, guaranteed to bring out the survival skills in everyone.
Stepping into the shoes of Raymond Bryce, a traumatised but highly decorated retired US marine and former operative of the International Rescue Team, you’ll prepare for a day like no other. Called back into action to deal with the threat of SURGE, an ex-military terrorist unit led by former elite forces specialist Colonel Hayes, Ray must overcome personal tragedy and numerous devastating natural disasters to prevent the threat of nuclear warfare.
Wracked with guilt over the loss of his best friend in the line of duty, Ray finds out that SURGE has kidnapped a leading seismologist and his assistant in order to predict the arrival of an earthquake, which will act as a diversion for their plan to seize the nuclear weapons. However, upon finding out that the assistant is his lost friend’s sister, Lisa, the mission turns personal and offers Ray the chance of redemption he’s been craving for.
Disaster: Day of Crisis is a dedicated single-player, all-out-action adventure, blending a variety of exciting gameplay activities around an intense and absorbing 23-stage storyline. In addition to vanquishing the SURGE threat, players must come face-to-face with a series of daunting natural disasters and take full advantage of Ray’s survival expertise to rescue stranded civilians left helpless.
As the story unfolds, the player’s skills are thoroughly tested as Ray finds himself in increasingly hazardous situations. Gameplay varies from exploring devastated city streets for survivors to thrilling shooting sequences, as well as driving, swimming and intense quick-time events all intuitively controlled with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Players are awarded Survival Points and Battle Points which are vital for improving Ray’s abilities and ensuring he has the skills needed to overcome the game’s hard-as-nails bosses, survive the effects of each disaster and, ultimately, rescue Lisa.
Along the way, Ray will face adversity from SURGE, at which points the game automatically switches into combat mode. Similar to an on-rails shooter, the action becomes fast and furious where players use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to dispatch enemies with a variety of lethal weaponry including handguns, automatic weapons and shotguns. Once every hostile is taken down, Battle Points are awarded and can be used to purchase new weapons or tune current equipment to perfection.
Even after the main storyline is completed, there are numerous incentives for players to keep coming back for more. With additional modes such as a shooting range, a stamina campaign and a wealth of hidden content from unlockable weapons and costumes to the extra-hard ‘Real Disaster Mode’ difficulty, Disaster: Day of Crisis will keep gamers entertained for many months to come.
So are you ready to step into the shoes of an action hero and emerge victorious after one hell of a day? If the answer is yes, then Disaster: Day of Crisis is crying out to be rescued from your nearest retailer across Europe on 24th October 2008."
Stepping into the shoes of Raymond Bryce, a traumatised but highly decorated retired US marine and former operative of the International Rescue Team, you’ll prepare for a day like no other. Called back into action to deal with the threat of SURGE, an ex-military terrorist unit led by former elite forces specialist Colonel Hayes, Ray must overcome personal tragedy and numerous devastating natural disasters to prevent the threat of nuclear warfare.
Wracked with guilt over the loss of his best friend in the line of duty, Ray finds out that SURGE has kidnapped a leading seismologist and his assistant in order to predict the arrival of an earthquake, which will act as a diversion for their plan to seize the nuclear weapons. However, upon finding out that the assistant is his lost friend’s sister, Lisa, the mission turns personal and offers Ray the chance of redemption he’s been craving for.
Disaster: Day of Crisis is a dedicated single-player, all-out-action adventure, blending a variety of exciting gameplay activities around an intense and absorbing 23-stage storyline. In addition to vanquishing the SURGE threat, players must come face-to-face with a series of daunting natural disasters and take full advantage of Ray’s survival expertise to rescue stranded civilians left helpless.
As the story unfolds, the player’s skills are thoroughly tested as Ray finds himself in increasingly hazardous situations. Gameplay varies from exploring devastated city streets for survivors to thrilling shooting sequences, as well as driving, swimming and intense quick-time events all intuitively controlled with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Players are awarded Survival Points and Battle Points which are vital for improving Ray’s abilities and ensuring he has the skills needed to overcome the game’s hard-as-nails bosses, survive the effects of each disaster and, ultimately, rescue Lisa.
Along the way, Ray will face adversity from SURGE, at which points the game automatically switches into combat mode. Similar to an on-rails shooter, the action becomes fast and furious where players use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to dispatch enemies with a variety of lethal weaponry including handguns, automatic weapons and shotguns. Once every hostile is taken down, Battle Points are awarded and can be used to purchase new weapons or tune current equipment to perfection.
Even after the main storyline is completed, there are numerous incentives for players to keep coming back for more. With additional modes such as a shooting range, a stamina campaign and a wealth of hidden content from unlockable weapons and costumes to the extra-hard ‘Real Disaster Mode’ difficulty, Disaster: Day of Crisis will keep gamers entertained for many months to come.
So are you ready to step into the shoes of an action hero and emerge victorious after one hell of a day? If the answer is yes, then Disaster: Day of Crisis is crying out to be rescued from your nearest retailer across Europe on 24th October 2008."
-Nintendo
So, does this mean that the United States will be getting it before the end of the year? And what of Japan? I haven't seen an official release date for them yet.
Time will tell, as we also need to see some gameplay videos of this game someday.
And last but not least, some new(at least to me) screenshots of the game.
Screens:
IGN has a small interview with one of the creators, along with one or two more images. Just think an evil Pikmin with lots of dark humor and you have a pretty good picture of what Overlord is all about.
Now that's style, we need more games that look like this on any consoles.
If they manage to replicate these in-game(I assume these are cutscenes), then we have a very good looking game on our hands right here, lets hope Ace Combat team can pull it off.
That last screen doesn't look half bad, but Harry's face is deformed in the others...and thats just sad.
The new characters worth noting are:
