Nintendo Buys Rights to Fatal Frame Franchise + Fatal Frame 4 Announced

Finally!  A reason for me to be excited about owning a Wii.  Today, it was announced that Nintendo has purchased the rights to the Fatal Frame franchise which would make the next entries to the series wii exclusives.  Along with this announcement, Nintendo confirmed the existence of Fatal Frame 4 which will be sub-titled "Mask of the Lunar Eclipse" (roughly translated).  Whats even more surprising is that Suda 51 of "Killer 7" and "No More Heroes" fame will be co-director on the project.  This is some of the best Wii news i've heard in awhile.

First and foremost, Fatal Frame has always been a very dark and disturbing game to play so this franchise will hopefully prove that there is room for more mature content on the platform. For those who have never played the games, Fatal Frame is a horror game that is developed in Japan that puts the player in the shoes of various girls as they explore haunted locales with their enchanted camera as their only defense against the angry spirits.  Some of the games locales are based off of real locations in Japan that are said to be haunted which really does add to the creepiness factor.  The first 3 entries on the PS2 pushed the power of the PS2 enough to produce some of the best looking graphics on the console.  It is pretty safe to say that as long as they stay on track with previous entries, this will be one of the prettiest games on the Wii.  It is kind of hard to say though, they may mix it up a bit with Suda on the dev team but so far the screen shots look pretty standard for the series.  The look and the feel of this franchise is something that has always sent chills down my spine and I can't wait to see how it makes the transfer to the Wii.

With the premise of the game being that you take pictures of ghosts with your mystical camera, there is obvious room for added wii controls.  Luckily, it is a premise that I think has potential in the wii control department.  This also begs the question as to what other Wii controller functions could find their way into the game.  Last week, we talked briefly about the speaker in the controller and some of the interesting possibilities that it opens up for developers.  I would be willing to bet money that some "creepy shit" (for lack of a better term) will be coming from that speaker in this game.  

There have been no offical announcements as to story, controls, or release date but I will be sure to keep everyone posted in the coming months for sure.  You may also have heard me say that I never beat the third Fatal Frame which means that now I definitely have a reason to go back and do that sometime soon.... anyone care to join me?  I won't be doing that alone for sure!

-Nick