Hudson Soft and Konami Announce Calling Exclusively For Wii - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 10 July 2009 / 3,522 Views

Konami will add another game to its Horror games library, but this time it won't be a new Silent Hill game. Developed by Hudson Soft, Calling will be released for Wii during the first quarter of 2010 in the West and promises to make use of the Wii motion-sensing capabilities at its fullest

The game will contain five playable characters that can use a cellphone to record audio and video, and of course, receive phone calls. Hudson promises a very immersive and scary title, we'll get more information about it as it approaches the Japanese release date, sometime later this year

Full Press Release below

Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has unveiled a terrifying new take on the horror genre, in the form of Hudson Soft’s CALLING for Wii. Using unique interaction elements, the Wii game features an innovative adventure concept and is driven by its terrifying story and many traps and mysteries. It will be distributed by Konami in early 2010.

CALLING brings new heights to the horror genre, with a breath-taking control system that immerses the player into its nightmare scenario. The player begins the game trapped in a strange room, with the Wii Remote doubling as the on-screen protagonist’s mobile phone. Using a torch to scour the dimly-lit area, players will also receive mysterious calls to their handset, which are answered by raising the Wii Remote to their ear. From this simple basis, CALLING then ramps up the fear, as a ghostly voice speaks directly to the user…

The story revolved around the urban legend of the ‘Page of Black’ website. Rumour has it that anyone accessing the site will die from a coma brought on by an unknown cause. The site is a simple black page with a numeric counter in the centre, but is linked to a low-key chat room. Not everyone can enter the chat room, but on doing so, the player’s psyche starts to receive calls from ‘Abyss’,. They then enter a state of limbo in a place known as ‘Border’ which is seemingly located between life and death.

There are several areas in the ‘Border’, and they are inhabited by Spirits which start contacting its various feelings via the user’s mobile phone. Occasionally, these spirits will also attack the player. As such, while avoiding their attacks, the user must attempt to solve the mysteries of ‘Border’ and has to seek an escape route.

CALLING is a horror title like no other. The fear generated by the received phone calls and the eerie location serve to create a tense, nightmarish situation. A clever mix of exploration and puzzle-solving is called into play, while the claustrophobic locations hide secrets and danger within their many shadows. From the moment the first, crackling call is received, CALLING will scare the player and make them wary of picking up the phone…

18 Comments

jbee02 (on 12 July 2009)

as a lover of the survivor horror genre I'm not complaining about another wii exclusive survivor horror game, but i am curious to why the wii seems to be getting all the survivor horror games in this generation. There have been only 5 survivor horror game for this generation of console games (not counting re5), only one of which has been on the wii, and suddenly every video game publisher and company thinks the wii is the best console for survivor horror games. There are now 8 survivor horror games in the works, soon to be release, and they are all wii exclusives. I want to know why every one seem to think the wii is a great platform for survivor horror games when there have been no successful ones on the wii as of yet.

This trend will likely make survivor horror fans buy wiis if they don't already own one. This will give the wii a strong foot hold in the survivor horror genre, and if this trend continues the foot hold could will turn into a strangle hold on the genre. Could there be some sort of agreement across the industry to make survivor horror games exclusively for the wii, in hope of making the wii the premiere survivor horror platform in order to improve the sales for these game? That's my guess.

bardicverse (on 10 July 2009)

Kitler - LOL yeah, you have to walk around your living room holding the Wii remote to your ear like a cell phone...

SJGohan3972 (on 10 July 2009)

@kitler53,
ahh the magic of advertising, they have that slogan engrained into your head and it will never come out! :)

wiifan75 (on 10 July 2009)

@Gamerace.... Resident Evil hasn't been survival horror since before RE4. I don't even think of horror anymore when playing a RE game. But this sounds like it could give me some chills during a midnight or 1am gaming session alone with a good surround sound and no lights or noise around. That's the atmosphere I like and this game is perfect to take me back to that spot. It sounds great and I can't wait to see more. Just from the sounds of it I think it's a buy from me. Depending on quality will determine if I pay $50 for it or wait to pay $25 or less. Conduit was worth my $50. But some aren't worth that at all no matter what is said. I would buy Carnival Games if it was $3.99. :-)

kitler53 (on 10 July 2009)

anyone else see the logo for the calling and immediately think, "more bars in more places"?

TopCat8 (on 10 July 2009)

I like how the Wii is becoming the survival horror console. I love those kind of games.

bardicverse (on 10 July 2009)

Bring it on. There's no such thing as too many horror survival games! Do you hear XB360 owners complaining because another FPS is coming to their system?

I'm glad to read/hear that it's coming to the west. I wasn't aware that Konami was going to have a hand in this.

blunty51 (on 10 July 2009)

so all this poor Winter is all but forgotten

a3hmax (on 10 July 2009)

THE HORROR, THE HORROR!!! NO ONE CAN SCAPE THE HORROR!!!

Ok, Ok, I'm overacting, but nobody can say they haven't enough horror games, silent hill, the grudge (feel), Winter, cursed mountain, dead space, rsident evil dsc, fragile, and now The calling.

Waron, I as thinking the same, both games (the calling and feel) are too much similar.

waron (on 10 July 2009)

wow i though those were the same games - they look very simillar ongameplay videos.

thekitchensink (on 10 July 2009)

@Waron: Nope, the Ju-On game is based on The Grudge. They're both first-person horror games.

Gamerace (on 10 July 2009)

@Waron - common mistake, but they are actually seperate games.
Ju-on is also being released in NA by Xseed.

waron (on 10 July 2009)

@Gamerace,
The Calling is a name of Ju-on movie-based game if i remember correctly.

thekitchensink (on 10 July 2009)

I've been interested in this since the first video got leaked months ago--the Wii is really becoming the one-stop shop for Horror games this generation. Quite ironic, considering the family-friendly image.

JUG (on 10 July 2009)

Sounds good. I'm definitely getting silent hill. Will get this as well if it gets good reviews.

Gamerace (on 10 July 2009)

I'm happy to see all these survival horror titles on Wii but now it's getting to be a little too much. Doubt I'll get Silent Hill, Cursed Mountain, Ju-on, Dead Space, RE:DC, RE:archives, RE:0 and The Calling. Some of those are going to end up getting dropped.