inXile To Bring Line Rider Flash Game To Nintendo DS, Wii

[wraggster]

via gamasutra

Officials from inXile Entertainment (The Bard’s Tale) have announced that the company has acquired the console development rights for the popular Flash game Line Rider, and that versions for both the Nintendo DS and Wii are expected to ship in Spring 2007.

Described by inXile's chief executive officer Brian Fargo as “a fully animated Etch-A-Sketch”, Line Rider was first launched on the internet on September 23, 2006, and has since gone on to attract over 15 million viewers and become the source of over 11,000 video posts on popular video community site YouTube.

"I have been around the interactive entertainment industry long enough to have seen similar phenomenon like Tetris and Bejeweled become massive international hits, and Line Rider has all the elements to do the same," noted Fargo, who added that the game “will be perfect for the Nintendo DS and Wii.”

According to the title's original creator Bostjan Cadez, Line Rider is a "toy" that allows players to construct their own track filled with as many ramps, hills, and jumps as they can imagine utilizing a pencil tool. Once the player is done creating their course, they can send a virtual sledder down the route until he wipes out.

"Line Rider began its life as a project I did for illustration class," commented Bostjan Cadez, who created Line Rider in his native Slovenia. "As much as people see it as a game I think of it as a toy because there is no score and no one wins or loses while playing Line Rider. I'm looking forward to working with inXile entertainment on the new Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii versions as they will bring added gameplay and features."

[SwordOfZork]

What, are they kidding? They can't seriously want to publish a simple flash game, can they? *remembers elf bowling for DS* Oh yeah...

Why bother publishing it for the Wii when you can use the Wii's browser to play it for free? This seems like a really silly move. You might have been able to get away with publishing games this simple back in the 8-bit days, but that doesn't fly today.