NZ Story confirmed for DS

By Ellie Gibson Published 19 July, 2006

It's out later this year.

Just a few weeks ago, we brought you news of a rumour that a DS version of classic platformer New Zealand Story is in development.

Rising Star Games declined to confirm or deny back then - but now they've officially announced that the game is on the way, and will be released in late 2006.

Just like the 1988 original, the new version of NZS will see you playing as little yellow birdie Tiki the Kiwi. All of Tiki's friends have been kidnapped by a dastardly sea lion, and it's your job to run around rescuing them.

According to Rising Star, "The setting for each of the game's levels will remain untouched," pleasingly, "Although the layouts will be remixed and re-jigged to provide fresh challenges."

Naturally, you can expect a graphical overhaul - but one that will "update New Zealand Story's visuals whilst retaining the clean lines of its arcade ancestor." Marvellous.

"With New Zealand Story Revolution, we're not going to be taking away anything that made the original such a charming classic," promised Rising Star exec Martin Defries.

"Its delicate balance will be carefully recreated and with the new features we've included, New Zealand Story Revolution will be an even more manic platform adventure than the original."

We'll be bringing you a proper preview of the game awfully soon.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (30) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • plok #1 6 years ago

    Please please please don't change anything...I don't want "fresh challenges", I just want New-Zealand Story unharmed.

  • octo #2 6 years ago

    Hmm. No doubt it's a great game, but I would have preferred to see a completely original follow up.

  • Wrestlevania #3 6 years ago

    New Zealand Story Revolution

    OK, it's officially "Rubbish Names Day"...

  • kincaide #4 6 years ago

    I hope they don't f(_)ck it up like Bubble Bobble 'Revolution', and Rainbow Islands 'Revolution'

  • cheze #5 6 years ago

    no - they have farked the art - checkout spong site:

    [link url=http://ne ws.spong.com/asset/209725/11/10420
    ]http://ne ws.spong.com/asset/209725/11/10...[/link]

    Tiki is now FAT!!?? nooooo - its all gone roundsy cutesy nasty art.
    The Backgrounds look ok though (as does ice whale).

  • gizmo #6 6 years ago

    Isn't this from about 100 years ago? I don't remember enjoying it at the time :(

  • Tomo #7 6 years ago

    Huh. I don't remember it looking anything like those screenies :[

    They look really rubbish... sniff. I was looking forward to this. Get that preview out now EG!

  • cheze #8 6 years ago

    they`ve gone and made tiki kiwi into some overweight sad eyed plump chick (a face you want to punch).

    the old art is still great - no need to make it all roundy looking for the sake of it. Same goes for rainbow islands, you dont want make everything too overdetailed otherwise everything just looks too damn cluttered.

  • shirubagan #9 6 years ago

    LEAVE IT THE FUCK ALONE.

    Bastards.

  • smelly #10 6 years ago

    "Although the layouts will be remixed and re-jigged to provide fresh challenges"

    Fuck that then.. they'll fuck it up.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #11 6 years ago

    I have my hopes up for this. I never really enjoyed the original Rainbow Islands so I did not care for the DS remake. Altough I was kind of interested in Bubble Bobble. Too bad it's a bad game (according to reviews). Seeing this game coming from the same developer I still hope they learned from their last games and don't change too much.

  • cheze #12 6 years ago

    yeah - but the character art has been mashed - even the fruits look awful

  • Load_2.0 #13 6 years ago

    Yellow kiwi's are the most dangerous of all. You would be amazed at how they fashion bows from twigs and branches. Its quite an evolutionary feat, however there need to be more signs warning of the kiwi danger though. Tourist fatalities are way up this year.

  • smelly #14 6 years ago

    Well they re-invented bubble bobble and rainbow islands, and messed them up, so i dont trust this one bit.

    Pah..

    Can someone GOOD please release bubble bobble, rainbow islands, parasol stars and nzs as a box set for the DS please.. WITHOUT changing them?!?

  • Carlo #15 6 years ago

    PLEASE DO NOT FUCK AROUND WITH THE GAME LIKE YOU DID WITH ALL THE OTHER ONES (Bubble Bobble, etc)!

    The original is almost certainly going to be better, just add save points.

    Thanks!

  • jlaakso #16 6 years ago

    FFS and pleasepleaseplease don't make a mess of this. Those screenshots are sort of up for debate, not horrible, but not quite on the level of the original.

    I played NZS on the C=64 a lot. I can't believe I actually completed it back then, trying an emulated version a couple of years back I couldn't beat the first level! So in that respect, "fresh challenges" are probably welcome.

  • kaleii Verified Editor-in-Chief, Country Manager, Eurogamer Sweden #17 6 years ago

    I remember the original fondly, but I'm still hoping that this will be a good remake. The graphics are cutesy enough whilst still looking like the original.

    cheze: Honestly, all that "tiki looks like a fat girl that I want to punch" crap is pathetic. Are you trying to be cool by taking some crappy "I beat up girls" approach? Grow up please.

    Anyway, fingers crossed and all that. Even if this doesn't work out 100% I'll still be able to play the version in Taito Anthology for the PS2 if I need a quick fix.

  • smelly #18 6 years ago

    If this isnt good, then im gonna get some dev tools off the web and remake the original for the ds myself.

  • aine #19 6 years ago

    Honestly, all that "tiki looks like a fat girl that I want to punch" crap is pathetic. Are you trying to be cool by taking some crappy "I beat up girls" approach?

    um. I think he meant "chick" as in "young bird". And not that sort of bird.

  • mechamonkey #20 6 years ago

    You get to draw a big phallus on the screen when you realise that yet another classic series has been raped.

  • kaleii Verified Editor-in-Chief, Country Manager, Eurogamer Sweden #21 6 years ago

    aine: Ah, i see. Sorry, I was just at ukresistance and was just thinking that he was trying to be as "cool" as they are.

  • cheze #22 6 years ago

    kaleii - i dont call women chicks, tiki kiwi is a chick - its got yellow feathering, its a chick (young kiwi bird).

    And the new fat face is quite punchable - (not that I would punch any animal or advocate such a thing) - it looks sad and droopy now. Reminds me of that awful bird from the TV series "Orm and Cheep" (if anyone remembers).

    Thing about this game is the original was v good, on many hardware platforms (Speccy / mastersystem / amiga / pc engine etc...) - so by `remaking` it there is more chance of knackering it (as fans will compare the new one to the original) than improving it. It probably would have been best to just call it the "continuing adventures of..." - that way you make a new game, new gameplay and so on - and you dont insult the memories people have of the original.

  • mevvins #23 6 years ago

    Can someone GOOD please release bubble bobble, rainbow islands, parasol stars and nzs as a box set for the DS please.. WITHOUT changing them?!?

    Don't forget Liquid Kids too!

    I had this misfortune to spend money buying the hideous Rainbow Islands "reimagining", so I'm thinking this is going just as cack. Shame, because I really wanted all the classic Taito remakes to be good :(

  • Hog-lumps #24 6 years ago

    personally, I'd welcome them changing the formula and revolutionalising' it......... as long as they include the original game untouched on the same cart!

    ......then I'd be happy :)

  • kaleii Verified Editor-in-Chief, Country Manager, Eurogamer Sweden #25 6 years ago

    ... or "Newer Zealand Story", perhaps :)

    cheeze: As I said just above your post, sorry. I'm fully aware of what a chick is, but I was in a different mindframe when I read your text. I'm glad we sorted that out :)
    Edited by 1 at 19/07/06 @ 15:56

  • cheze #26 6 years ago

    arrr, nay warries kaleii -

    now if only we had developers email so we could petition them to make nicer character sprites....

  • Daikon #27 6 years ago

    Looking forward to the day Mame will run at 100% speed on DS...

  • Psi #28 6 years ago

    heh someone had to say mame :p

  • Lagto_Soa #29 6 years ago

    It's true though, they've nobbed up the graphics. Perfectly acceptable graphics from how long ago? Almost 20 years? And they've made them worse. If anyone still thinks this could end the Rising Star curse...

    [Edit: can't actually spell 'curse' - I blame Rising Star]
    Edited by 1 at 20/07/06 @ 15:51

  • Dirtie #30 6 years ago

    Too bad we don't actually see any kiwis down here apart from in zoos and wildlife preserve places :/
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/06 @ 07:15