14 DAY TRIAL // A new Silent Hill is going to be out and in gamers' hands on December 8, as Konami has announced a new installment in the series. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories will be brought to the Nintendo's Wii, but PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable users will have to hold their breath a little longer. Unfortunately, at the rate the games usually get delayed, along with Konami's generic statement that the title would be "following shortly," these Sony gamers might end up all black and blue.
In the company's eyes, Shattered Memories isn't really a remake or a simple port to the Wii. It would rather see it as a far more artistic accomplishment, and has titled it a “reimagining” of the original game. Still, dogging Harry Mason, the game's story will have players trek through the unsettling town of Silent Hill, in search of Mason's daughter.
The “reimagining” part of Shattered Memories will be brought by what Konami promises to be “an interactive user interface,” as well as a different approach to the puzzle system. Most likely, they will both imply, in one way or another, something that goes out of its way to make use of the Wii's motion controller.
Reminding us that, in 2008, Silent Hill: Homecoming was released for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Konami pointed out that Shattered Memories was the first title in the Silent Hill franchise to come to the Wii. The game will support the Wiimote for actions such as controlling the flashlight, as well as the cellphone, both of which will be part of the clue-finding process.
For some reason, developers try more and more to remove the Wii from that snuggling corner in which it placed itself as a family console. Electronic Arts tried it before with Dead Space Extraction, and we all saw just how that turned out. The title barely sold any copies and came only to prove what we all knew about the Wii. With the dedicated games that Nintendo released for its console, the Wii Sports and all of its brothers and sisters, along with the new-tech controller, the console was pretty much separated from the hardcore gamers and meant to be embraced by the casual and the younger ones. In no way is a survival horror addressed to either of them, so, most likely, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories won't perform any better than Extraction.