Project H.A.M.M.E.R scrapped!

Rumour mill

Sources close to NST allege that the studio' s first-party Wii game Project H.A.M.M.E.R. has been canceled, IGN reports. The team has apparently moved on to one or more " expanded audience" projects -- more minigames? The ill-fated action romp was previewed during E3 2006 (in playable form), and then dipped below the radar, stamped with a " TBA" date on Nintendo' s press site. IGN speculates that a supposed initiative to redesign several " traditional" titles to cater to casual players forced Nintendo to rethink Project H.A.M.M.E.R. And perhaps the Ninty think tank deemed the hack-n-smack unfit for mainstream tastes.

Nintendo has yet to issue an official statement or change the " TBA" status of Project H.A.M.M.E.R. on its site. Despite the corny plot -- hammer-wielding cyborg saves U.S. from " killer robots" -- Project H.A.M.M.E.R. was (is?) expected to provide a relatively unique gameplay experience (like, um, some actual violence) for Wii owners.

Now i havent taken too much notice of the project, it is forboding that Nintendo is scrapping unique gameplay expriences as well as a whole new IP. Especially if it means my recycling, which nintendo is best at (and not just in a good way)

Please nintendo, show us something great which we havent seen before!

Shame. I was looking forward to seeing more of it.

Oh well. I wasn' t really all that interested in the game in the first place.

The team has apparently moved on to one or more " expanded audience" projects

Buzzword Bingo for another half-assed minigame title. Lord knows we' d all rather play duck-hunt clones and family oriented pancake-flipping games than something that takes more than 3 seconds to master.

That Blue-Ocean innovation strategy is sure paying off Nintendo.