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Shenmue 3 would rock your Wii

Shenmue failed for a number of reasons. I’d argue it was too awesome for normal people, but others insist it was slow-going, chock full of stupid “That day it rained…” plot, and ultimately boring. The Shenmue games also cost huge amounts of money to develop – many reports approximated a cost of $20 million (Wikipedia simultaneously claims $20 and $70 million) and the first game in the series was supposedly entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most expensive game that had been yet been produced.

Sega would presumably allow development of Shenmue 3 if it weren’t such a huge risk. A costly game that sells poorly is never an attractive prospect to accountants. Deciding the MMO format may make them a profit, Sega has dashed hopes of Shenmue 3. Shenmue Online, if it is ever released, will likely not be what rabid Shenmue fans want. And when Shenmue Online also bombs, it will likely signal the end of the series altogether.

Yu Suzuki should follow the four Wude by doing what is right – releasing Shenmue 3.

But consider the following: If Shenmue 3 were developed on the Wii instead of the PS3 or 360, the game would only cost Sega something like five million dollars. This is a huge difference from the 30 million it’d cost on a competing console (cost approximations from Bloomberg) Even at triple the cost of an average Wii game, Shenmue 3 would cost Sega less than the original game did six years ago. Add the Wii’s worldwide success thus far and the lack of big name third party titles on the platform and Shenmue 3 seems like a sure hit. Developing on the Wii should give risk averse Sega little risk to even be averse to.

Critics of the Wii have often focused on the system’s weak processing power. It is also a fact that the first two Shenmue games were beautiful. These two statements seem to indicate that the Wii is the wrong home for Shenmue 3. This stance seems valid, but the series was beautiful not because of just sheer polygon processing. Shenmue was unique because of the excruciating attention to detail. There have been a ton of games that look better than the Shenmue series but few have a similar visual impact. There is something special about watching the fountain outside the Hazuki dojo fill with water then spill it back into the pond below, or wandering around a Chinese warehouse and opening every single door just to see if you can.

Most of the game mechanics would translate fully to the Wii control scheme. Wandering around China or Japan (or maybe even Canada…Nazomi!) could easily be done with the nunchuck ala Twilight Princess. The Virtua Fighter battle system the game employees consists really of only three buttons. Combinations of button presses were mapped to the Dreamcast controller, but they are unnecessary. The Wiimote could have punch and kick mapped to A and B and Z on the nunchuck could be used for guarding. Attack and defense being separated may be odd at first but it’s at least an easy psychological separation.

Why would anyone want to simply tap right when they could spastically throw their body to the right to perform the same action?

Then there are the ways Shenmue 3 would actually be improved because of the Wii hardware. Virtual console games in the arcades Ryo visits, Mii figurines for purchase in toy machines and weather that responds to the forecast channel would all be cool, but motion controls are by far the most exciting prospect of a Wii Shenmue. The Quick Time Event scenes in Shenmue are always fun to watch, but simply tapping buttons does little to assuage the feeling you’re basically watching a movie. Punching, jumping, and diving side to side would be significantly more engaging if the player actually needed to do these things to control Ryo. It’s very likely the re-release of Resident Evil 4 will tie motion controls to the QTE scenes in that game. The idea is too obvious and good to ignore. It’s almost hard to imagine how titillating moving books and catching leaves would be on the Wii.

Shenmue 3 on the Wii would not cost Sega much and would be available to a rapidly growing market of over six million consumers. The combination of rock solid Virtua Fighter fighting mechanics, new and immersive motion controlled QTE and traditional Shenmue style story telling all in one package would likely cure most major diseases, end wars and alleviate famine. Let Sega know they have a duty to the planet to produce Shenmue 3 on the Wii.

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Richie
15 years ago

Fuck it shove it on the Wii in among all those pretentious “cult” titles on Nintendo’s inbred retard of a console. All the fanboys that still maintain that crap graphics make a good console will lap it up. Leave the real games for proper systems.

Sega are dead to me, constant drivel such as, virtua figter, endless Sonic rape cash-ins, half assed 3/10 titles that nameless 3rd party Developers would be ashamed of.

Well we can always wait for Seaman 2… Maybe play some real games in the mean time.

Cunzy1 1
15 years ago

Richie: Well why don’t you go and play Call of Doody and all those other ‘hardcore’ hand-holding corridor shooters and leave the proper gaming to everyone else?

james
15 years ago

For seven years i been waiting 4 SHENMUE 3 to come out!

Gary
Gary
15 years ago

Sadly I don’t think Shenmue 3 will happen. It is a more thoughtful game than GTA, and has no bald space marines, which means its not commercially viable. The cost of making games these days is why they have become so generic (grey, grey ,grey).
Shenmue was made in the days when Sega was a prolific developer. Ever since Sammy took over Sega, Sega have become more of a publisher than developer.

Sega’s internal studios make hardly any games these days., and Sega’s new darling, Nagoshi, has eclipsed Suzuki with his Yakuza franchise.

Cunzy1 1
15 years ago

I think the best you are going to get is the cameo in Sonic Kart.

Ricko Thornton
Ricko Thornton
15 years ago

Hi I Would realy like if sega can make shenmue Plese Plese ! For the

jin
jin
14 years ago

xbox is not the best graphic. it is ps3 because it is blue ray. study more before u put shit up. and i do hope their is shenmue 3. like someone down there said i will still buy it if it has the same graphic.

Cunzy1 1
14 years ago

I think they have plan for different graphic.

samuel n
samuel n
14 years ago

Shenmue was the first game I bought and now have almost grown out of playing video games. I don’t think there’s anything almost in the world I loved more than shenmue I almost looked up to ryo hazuki as my hero the longest and im 23. If shemmue ever did come out I would play it and would only get like 2 hours of sleep every night. It would not only sell millions of copies it would also make room for another fanbase for previous shenmue games. Please make shenmue 111 even if it was 100 dollars iLd buy it and any other serious shenmue fan would as well.

bk
bk
14 years ago

the first game was te reason why i got my dreamcast.
and when i heard that shenmue 2 also got out on the xbox i went to the store to get the xbox.
so when it comes on wii ps3 or 360 i get to the store to get te console.
thats how we do it in holland!!!

Tyson
Tyson
14 years ago

Like I was telling ya, just get Yakuza 3. :P

Duku
Duku
14 years ago

it was a good game not an extraordinary game but…..theres a good story to be told….but it really needs some improves to compite….whit all games out there!! though ill be cool to play shenmue 3

shenmue
shenmue
14 years ago

shenmue its the best game ever

shenmue 3 for wii the perfect game for the best …

silverdragon
silverdragon
13 years ago

shenmue is an extraordinary game…i’m actually surprised there are people who say its boring,i mean not even grandtheft gives you as much freedom…the fighting system is awesome and the plot is definetly one of the best ever.i think with careful planning and proper promotion sega will not regret developing it.SHENMUE ALL THE WAY!!!

dela
dela
13 years ago

shenmue is prolly my most favorite game of all time and i am going to be so pissed if they dont release #3 because i have been waiting forever haha i have literaly beat 1 and 2 dozens of times