Disaster: Day of Crisis is a unique and intense “panic inducing survival game” exclusively for Wii, developed by Monolith Software (Xenosaga, Baten Kaitos. Nintendo bought Monolith back in April of 2007) and published by Nintendo.
In the game you must survive a wave of natural disasters and save the the United States from a rogue group of special forces who seize a nuclear weapon by using all the capabilities of the Wii system including extensive motion controls that compliment the gameplay instead of hinder it.
The game is a hybrid of adventure, RPG leveling, shooting, driving, platforming, context-sensitive action, and arcade-like elements brought together with a story that Supa describes as a mix between the action TV show “24” and the disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow” where players race a car down a mountain to escape a lava avalanche, dodge toppling buildings during a devastating earthquake and swim for their lives during a raging flood. SOUNDS GREAT TO ME!
Sadly though, the game has not sold well and may not see a release in North America (it’s out now in Japan, Europe and Australia).
In an interview with Cubed3, developer Yamagami stated how the game may not come to the United States due to the combination of slow to poor sales and the fact that Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime doesn’t seem to be a big fan of the game. He went on to state however that “Regardless of the region, ‘DISASTER’ can be enjoyed by any consumer that loves ‘disaster’ style movies.”
Even though we may not get the Wii version, another of the developers stated that they would love to do a Disaster 2 sequel, stating that “…there were so many wonderful options [ in the game ]. We would like to see the possibility for them, if we have chance to develop the sequel…” and furthermore, that the sequel may appear on DS if enough fans request it.
Interestingly enough, a sequel is already in place . . . but may not see fruition. It all really depends on fan demand so be sure to let them know how much you enjoy the game and how much you want to see it come to North America!
And in other Monolith news, there would appear to be more than one project underway at the studio, including a possible new Baten Kaitos game! He said their team is “willing to start developing Baten Kaitos” when given the go-ahead. Which should be music to the ears of GameCube fans who got their RPG fix due to Baten Kaitos 1 and Baten Kaitos 2: Origins.
* Thanks to Siliconera for the Disaster Screenshot