Wii owners must Escape the Museum

Hidden-objects PC game coming to Nintendo's console this holiday season for $19.99; Sierra sets Interpol after Xbox Live.

Casual games are invading consoles once again--and this time it's the hidden objects genre that's making the leap. Other casual games that have already come to consoles or handhelds in one form or another include Bejeweled 2 Deluxe (on Xbox Live), Cake Mania (now a DS game, and coming to the Wii), and Diner Dash (Nintendo DS, PSP, and Xbox Live).

Escape the Museum (no relation to the movie Night at the Museum) starts with protagonist Susan Anderson and her daughter Caitlin in the museum where Susan works. A major earthquake separates them, and she must work her way through the different exhibits by clearing the debris, rescuing priceless artifacts, and solving puzzles.

The game has 12 different "hunt and find" areas, and 25 graphic-adventure-style scenes, where Susan must combine and use items she finds in the area to get past an obstacle. Escape the Museum is developed by Gogii Games, and is coming exclusively to the Wii. It will be out in stores before the holidays for $19.99.

Hidden objects games, otherwise known as seek-and-find games, or I-spy games, are one of the most popular categories of PC casual games. The genre currently accounts for almost 20 percent of game downloads from casual portals such as Big Fish Games, Arcade Town, and iWin. Similar to the Where's Wally? [Where's Waldo? in the US] books, gamers have to find certain items on a list within a time limit. These items are hidden within a picture of a location which is also brimming over with other items.

In other casual gaming news, Sierra Online yesterday announced that it would be bringing TikGames' Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos from PC to Xbox Live. Gamers track the titular Dr. Chaos through a series of exotic locations in cities including Tokyo, Cairo, Paris, and San Francisco. The Live version will simply be called Interpol and will add a multiplayer co-op mode so four gamers can work together to find clues. Interpol is due for release this autumn, with a price and age rating yet to be decided.

42 Comments

  • DarkChaos08

    Posted Jun 22, 2008 2:22 pm PT

    I wouldn't play any of those games even if they were giving them away.

  • lcampoy

    Posted Jun 21, 2008 6:16 pm PT

    lol not much probably

  • AdrianMeg

    Posted Jun 21, 2008 5:08 am PT

    I wonder how much they payed GameSpot to have this on the news.

  • fkbwii

    Posted Jun 20, 2008 11:29 pm PT

    looks like im buying this along with the other boring games like Bejeweled 2 Deluxe, Cake Mania, and Diner Dash!

  • CVM_123

    Posted Jun 20, 2008 5:06 pm PT

    it sounds lame and boring at the same time...

  • Ahiru-San

    Posted Jun 20, 2008 11:13 am PT

    @lucrichard

    same here, i download casual games for mac also, they are limited to one hour of gameplay - and these hidden objects games are my least favorites...

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Jun 20, 2008 1:04 am PT

    My fiancee likes these kind of games. Made for casual gamers guys, we cant say anything.

  • hatieshorrer

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 9:54 pm PT

    @ chewygun

    You are so right. When the Nintendo Wii has more games then any other current gen. console only Nintendo manages to have more then two, (million sellers) on the Nintendo Wii because, the other developers only release games like this. For $19.99 Sonic or, Nights seems like a better buy at this point!

  • Pajuan

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 6:48 pm PT

    Don't get me wrong... but all those idiots that keep saying "don't get me wrong" when speaking of a functionality of any controller/platform are dumba$$es that are afraid of getting a thumbs down grade.

  • lucrichard

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 5:07 pm PT

    For what it's worth, I played the demo on a Mac and I wasn't that impressed. It got old fairly quickly, and I only had an hour on the game. Then again, I guess I'm not much for these types of seek & find games because others I have played I get the same impression: they get old pretty fast.

  • ChickenHounk911

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 4:54 pm PT

    This looks like something my Grandma might enjoy.... "Escape the Museum" oooooohhhh!!!

  • Serbine

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 3:51 pm PT

    Well it sound like an interesting game.

  • chewygun

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 2:19 pm PT

    Wii hardcore owners must escape "Escape the Museum"

  • Zeus-Guy

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 1:36 pm PT

    Just looking at this, I can see why it's $19.99. I'd like to see fewer casual games for the Wii by the end of 2008; I know what the developers are trying to do, but don't completly neglect the hardcore audience.

  • wookieeassassin

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 1:24 pm PT

    I agree with SoraLink. Nintendo needs to start focusing on some more quality titles such as a new Legend of Zelda, a new Metroid series, a new Mario series, new Donkey Kong series (should just take Rare away from Microsoft, I haven't seen Microsoft do anything useful with Rare so far...) and in addition to those get some quality games from third-party developers. Working on new software to incorporate more motion sensitive movements with the Wii remote and the Wii balance board are a good idea but don't make simple little mini-games just to use a little bit of those peripherals functionality. Make sure good snowboarding, skiing, skateboarding, etc. games with that functionality, not junk. They could even incorporate optional features of that sort of functionality into their big franchise titles (hrmm, unlike Mario Galaxy's minor use of the Wii controller).

    As for FPS games, they are very popular, but the Wii remote gets annoying while playing shooters. Holding your arm up and constantly having to move it is annoying and it makes my shoulder start to ache (that could just be because of my bad shoulder though...). And even then, FPS games aren't that great anyway. Most of them are pretty much the same thing: shoot stuff over and over again. Many of them don't really have anything going for them except (in most cases) excessive violence. Nintendo seems to have found the "casual gaming" market and now they are going to slack off on the quality titles. I don't know about any of you, but compared to Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess wasn't as good (it was still great, but there were parts where I didn't want to play it), Super Mario Galaxy felt like a bunch of extremely short, mildly entertaining areas thrown all over the place as opposed to Sunshine or Mario 64 where you had larger areas to do multiple things in, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was more of a shooter than a Metroid Prime title and I didn't really think it was near as good as Prime or Prime 2: Echoes.

  • Shomb22

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 12:52 pm PT

    solveing puzzles are cool.

  • SoraLink

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 12:51 pm PT

    the first year of wii launch was made for casual games and get more people to video games. but now is the time for hardcore games, for people that really like video games, not for people that just want to cook in their consoles. im a wii owner and im waiting for the moment that hardcore games return to reign the nintendo consoles

  • Trindris

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 12:22 pm PT

    Woah woah woah woah woah. Hold on a second, Waldo is called Wally in other countries? Wow that blows.

  • randomrings

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 12:01 pm PT

    Does this site STILL not have the Conduit. go check that game out, it'll shoot this game. it looks like some kinda "Portal Steel"

  • ftjx

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 11:41 am PT

    escape THIS GAME

  • link631

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 11:40 am PT

    .....escape the museum

  • BlackSamvara

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 11:34 am PT

    I'll play Escape the Museum, If only for my strong love of Graphic Adventure games. As most of you, I doubt I'll buy it, Sure $20 is cheap, But Bondfan626 is right, It will more than likely be so short that it won't warrant a purchase. Anyway, I agree with Schmitt316 Where's Eternal Darkness 2?

  • ADJ209

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 11:15 am PT

    Escape the museum
    Damn that titles says it all

  • schmitt316

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 11:09 am PT

    The Wii needs a sequel to "Eternal Darkness"

  • NA3D

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 10:31 am PT

    Ministry, I see that a thread has 10 posts, i click on it, and it only shows 3, then i refresh, and it is still 3, then i go back to the board to make sure i clicked the right thread, and i did, then i go back in it, and it is 3, then i make a post, then it shows 11 posts, the mine and the 3 that i saw, and the 7 i couldnt see.

    It is a common glitch on the GS site. It doesnt always happen, but it happened earlier today. It happened 2 weeks ago, and it happened 2 months ago. It isnt a big deal, but they need to fix it. I can go on gameFAQ and look at the thread and it shows all of the posts, then i refresh again, and still GS doesnt show it. So yeah, GS needs to work out a couple glitches.

    when you make a post on here it says 1970... instead of the time and date too. it isnt a big deal, but it would only take an intern to fix it. they have their problems.

    Anyways, this game doesnt look like something that will do that well. Let me know what the final sales figures are on it.

  • Bondfan626

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 10:31 am PT

    Not worth buying, maybe a rent. Will probably be short and easy.

  • GoldenRamoth

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 10:30 am PT

    So um... Real games for wii please? The system needs two things... a video card, and for game companies to realize the wii mote is a lot easier to use than regular controllers. Don't get me wrong, regular xbox and PS controllers are great, but wii mote is much more user friendly, and accurate, especially for FPS. 'nuff said.

  • Ministry4390

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 10:26 am PT

    NA3D said "So between GS glitching up so you cant see all of the posts until you post"

    Thats not a glitch. Those comments were just posted after you clicked on the article. Try refreshing the page if you want to see the newest posts.

    If thats not what you're talking about I don't know what to tell you. I've never had any problems seeing comments.

  • lufaru123

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 10:04 am PT

    o gosh stop the shovel ware...

  • HyruleanLink

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 10:03 am PT

    Interesting.

  • kcwsk8

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 9:57 am PT

    why isnt this coming to wii ware?

  • gamerguy845

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 9:54 am PT

    .... I've never even heard, nor care about these games

  • Steelpoppy

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 9:47 am PT

    Um, WTF? We need real titles for the wii, not these lame ones

  • akiwak

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 9:44 am PT

    Sounds lame......

  • kos1085

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 9:30 am PT

    I will pass on this game.

  • RinTinTinVan

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 9:29 am PT

    Noooooooo!

    So why is this news worthy?

  • videogamr49

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 9:23 am PT

    Was it a good game?

  • GoldenRamoth

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 9:12 am PT

    awe..some?

  • x-2tha-z

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 9:09 am PT

    Sounds good.

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