Silent Hill: Shattered Memories announced for Wii

2 April 2009

2 Comments

Posted by:Josh

Konami has announced Silent Hill: Shattered Memories exclusively for Wii in a Nintendo Power worldwide exclusive (the game will be on this month’s issue).

“Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a reimagining of the first Silent Hill,” explains producer Tomm Hulett. “It’s not a remake or a port. That’s an important distinction. It really feels like a new game.”

In the game you will still play the role of Harry Mason like in the original. You are still looking for your daughter and players that played the original Silent Hill (which isn’t very large I’m sure, that game is nearly impossible to find nowadays) will recognize a lot of familiar elements. However the elements have been changed and updated, or as Hulett described, “you’ll see familiar elements, but they’re all twisted to betray your expectations.”

One of the coolest features of Shattered Memories is the fact that the game “watches” your behavior throughout and how you play will determine when you’ll meet certain characters, which scenes you’ll witness and “a variety of other factors”. To quote Hulett, “In Silent Hill games, the town always gets inside the protagonist’s head. But now, it’s getting inside YOUR head.”

Naturally, in Shattered Memories you’ll be using the Wii Remote to interact directly with the environment with puzzles based off the idea of interaction. “You’re not just hitting buttons to choose things.” To improve things some, the solutions to puzzles will not be far away from the actual puzzle and the developers are also working hard to cut down the backtracking that Silent Hill fans are well accustomed too.

“Longtime fans of the series will also be delighted to learn that there’s a way through every locked door; no more checking dozens of entrances only to find that 90% of them are permanently barred shut.”

WHAT A RELIEF! That was one of my major criticisms in my Silent Hill 2 review.

Here are a few more features of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories:

* Harry is moved using the control stick, the Wii remote is used to aim the flashlight
* When you look at something Harry will vocally respond
* No load times
* The Wii remote acts as your cell phone, and the static noise comes out of the Wii remote speaker
* Combat has been removed from the game, you can only flee. (WHAT?! Craziness . . .)
* When the monsters chase you the Z button will allow you to break through doors, climb fences, through windows etc.

Overall I am VERY excited to hear about this new Silent Hill game and Wii owners should be dancing in the streets at this news. This is a MAJOR pick-up for Wii and sounds like it will do the Silent Hill name justice. I can’t wait to play it.

Thanks to GoNintendo for the screenshot and info.