Cheats-Area.com

   Previously known to be in development for the PlayStation 2 over at Broadsword Interactive, Baja Mania and Baja Destruction will (also) be heading to Nintendo's Wii console early next year, as announced over the weekend by publisher Conspiracy Entertainment Europe. Both games are carrying a Q1 2007 release timeframe, and will of course take full advantage of the Wiimote, promising to offer "exciting and hard fought combat and driving skills where fortitude will win the day".

   The concept itself of "Baja racing" originates from the Southern California desert on the Baja peninsula. Competitors vie with each other to build the ultimate off-road racer - the better the suspension, tyres and, of course, the obligatory roll cage, the better the chances of winning.

   The first game, Baja Mania, will stay closer to this concept, by drawing its inspiration from the desert around Palm Springs (where Broadsword Interactive collected the reference material for a previous game, Dakar Rally). Baja Mania will feature several types of vehicles - including 3 types of dune buggy (4 wheel), 3 types of 'cat' (6 wheel), 3 types of truck (8 wheels) - and each vehicle will have 3 variants to represent the different teams battling it out in races of up to 15 competitors.
"Baja Mania's uniqueness presents aggressive and responsive AI that allows tight competition via checkpoints that must be crossed in order. Players will capture the flags on each checkpoint and display them on their aerial to prove that you were the first through."    The other one, Baja Destruction, will be more of a fantasy driving game, sort of Baja racing meets Mad Max.

"Its uniqueness is in the fact that the stakes are much higher, the aggression and adrenalin required to complete the race by annihilating the opposition make for total destruction, with an arsenal of weapons and plenty of upgradeables.

Races consist of 15 competitors with 3 different teams for each of the 3 variants within each of the 3 classes. There are 3 types of terrain and 3 variants of each which have totally different courses laid out within them. They take place within an arena of approximately 400 sq. metres.

As well as the vehicle performance upgrades, there are 2 main types of weapon. Each has 3 variations for increasing power and accuracy and variants that go from merely forward firing to auto-targeting (homing)."    We're already beginning to see two very different approaches to simulating driving on the Wii. These two Baja games and Excite Truck, for instance, only use the Wii remote to control the vehicle, by tilting it sideways. But it seems a lot more "hardcore" (and realistic) the way they're doing it in Call of Duty 3 - where driving stages are controlled with both the Wiimote and the Nunchuck, sort of like gripping a real steering wheel with both hands. I for one would like to see more of that!