MehWare: Ubisoft reveals Protothea

by Eric Caoili { May 6th 2008 at 9:45AM }

Ubisoft has finally announced its first contribution to Nintendo's forthcoming WiiWare service, and it's a remake of 2005 PC shooter Protöthea. Supposedly, there are a lot of additions, but whatever Argentine developers Sabarasa (Mazes of Fate) and Digital Builders added, it hasn't made the game interesting.

It's not just the laggard enemies and humdrum soundtrack that have us yawning -- even the heads-up display is enough to put SHMUP fans to sleep. But that's alright, as the last thing we needed was more must-buy WiiWare games.

Protöthea is scheduled to debut with WiiWare's launch on May 12th alongside (more interesting) shooters Star Soldier R and Gyrostarr. Ubisoft will be asking 1,000 Wii Points for the game. Bring a pillow and blanky past the break for another Protöthea video and a list of new features for the remake.

New additions for the Wii remake:

Ship is maneuvered with nunchuk analog stick, shots directed with remote
100% 3D engine instead of 2D/3D mix
Ten missions instead of seven
Four wolds instead of two
50 enemies instead of 40
Two new power-ups, the destructor and absorb, added over the original's phantom and UFO items
Power-up for slowing down time
New ground weapon

Tags: protothea, sabarasa, shmup, ubisoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jayenkai @ May 6th 2008 10:13AM

Wow! I've never found a shoot em up so boring to watch!

LV426 @ May 6th 2008 6:40PM

Ubisoft... is anyone here suprised? Anyone at all? No? Didnt think so.

Orion @ May 6th 2008 10:30AM

Yea, I saw the video at IGN. They seemed to be praising it there, as did the peopel who commented... when honestly, it went REALLY slow, and the only things the guy seemed to be shooting at where large columns that were blocking the way, with the enemy fighter ships just a part of the background...

and for 10 dollars? Sorry.. I think High Voltage's games as well as Lost Winds, FF, Sam and Max, and Strong Bad beat them in every respect.

Sisyphus @ May 6th 2008 10:34AM

I want a shooter that requires the use of two Wiimotes as pointers. One for clicking to move and the other for aiming shooting. :)

koehler83 @ May 6th 2008 10:38AM

Am I alone in thinking that the "pointer" is far and away the worst use of the Wii Remote?

I plug in my classic controller just avoid pointing my way through the Wii Menu.. its just horrible. The cursor is shakey and imprecise and is constantly drifting off screen.. Hate it!

Orion @ May 6th 2008 11:11AM

What do you have.. Parkinson's?

Yea, I think you are pretty much alone. If you don't like the pointer (a large part of Wii gameplay), why do you even own the system?

Thats like buying a DS but hating touch screen play.

Metayoshi @ May 6th 2008 1:53PM

Is your sensor bar set up correctly? I remember my roommate saying the my sensor bar was broken, but then it was just because the sensor bar was moved backward so that the Wiimote couldn't see it easily. Are you sitting at a good distance from the screen? The farther away, the better, as long as your Wiimote can see the sensor bar's IR LEDs. Have you updated your firmware? The shakiness on the Wii Menu (for me, at least) was when the firmware was still at version 1.0. The first system update took care of it long ago in 2006.

directive0 @ May 6th 2008 2:07PM

Yeaaaah. The Wii's pointer is 1x1, so if it's shakey and crappy either you fucked up setting up the bar, the light in the room you play in is effecting it, or you have absolute shit for eye/hand coordination.

While I'm sure you're not alone, point'n'click is pretty much the reason I bought a Wii. Not the lame motion sensing that is dodgy as all hell, and not the classic controller. If I wanted to use sticks like it was 1987 I would've bought one of the other two far superior systems that sport them exclusively.

RyGy @ May 6th 2008 11:10AM

Maybe it's just me, but I'm more interested in this than Gyrostarr, although both look really cool. I'm a big fan of schmups, although I haven't played many. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on some through Wii Ware.

AzaMcWazza @ May 6th 2008 12:20PM

Shit. I thought you guys were just being dickheads, but no, that game looks so damned boring!

Alex @ May 6th 2008 8:41PM

I remember playing the demo for the PC game, and yes, it's much slower than your average SHMUP, although the first level is pretty hard as you can easily get outnumbered. Thanks God, they don't sell this for 30 dollars, as judging by the zero quality control in Wii games, I've even seen full-priced games with 2D graphics or games that are even more boring than this.