Gem Smashers (Wii)

This game had potential, but you're fighting against the gem smashers.

Actually, Gem Smashers is an action-puzzler involving small arenas and fragile, colorful gems which can be smashed by bouncing off them. It's kind of like Breakout but without any paddles or holes.

This game (alongside its 3DS counterpart) is in fact the second remake of the Game Boy Advance title of the same name. It was previously given a crunchy M&M coating and released on GBA and Nintendo DS as M&M's Break 'Em.

Constitution of the United States
For some mind-boggling reason, the game's Italian developers included amongst its files the first three Articles of the US Constitution. These dictate the separation of government into three separate branches. The most likely explanation for their inclusion is to draw attention to the game's ham-fisted allegory of power, as laid out by the three playable characters: a crab (the legislative branch), a bird (the executive branch) and a hedgehog (the judiciary branch). But not really.

This text can be found as plaintext in constitu.arc, a standard Wii U8 archive. Each Article is separated by directory and each section is a file. Rather than include the entire text here&mdash;the Constitution is actually quite long&mdash;here's section 1 of Article I (/article1/section1):


 * [start of Article I/section 1]All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.[end of Article I/section 1]

Unused Videos and Placeholders


Several files in the /Video directory go unused by the game. These include 505Logo.mo (505 Games being the intended publisher for the unreleased European release), Logo.mo (an animated version of the Frame Studios logo seen on startup) and sample.mo/sample.wav (an old-timey film reel opening presumably used for testing), as well as VideoPlaceHolder.tga</tt>, seen at right.

PC and Console Remnants
A great deal of evidence left in the Wii game suggests that it was originally or additionally intended to be released on the Xbox 360 and/or PC, and possibly also on PlayStation 3.

Instructional Graphics
Hiding in /files/Gui/Demo</tt> are control guides for the PC and Xbox 360, neither of which the game would ultimately appear on.

In /files/Gui/Buttons</tt> is another Xbox 360 remnant, SystemButtons.tga</tt>.

This series of "how to play" graphics found in /files/Gui/Pause</tt> seem to be from the Xbox 360 development period. In addition to the full composited images shown here (they are indeed JPEG format on the disc), each of the smaller graphics are included separately as TGAs, as with Xbox_pad.tga</tt>, shown last here.

These files in /files/Gui/MainMenu</tt> all seem to relate to a prerelease demo version of the game, so it's likely they're connected to the PC and Xbox 360 graphics, which also dated to a demo.

DirectX and Console Shaders
Under the /base/shaders</tt> directory are a large grouping of shaders for DirectX 9, 10 and 11 as well as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, in the vShaderBin format. While there is other evidence of PC and Xbox 360 versions, these are the only sign of a possible PS3 release. However, it's also possible these are simply included because they came bundled with the cross-platform Vision engine which powers the game.

Unused and Development Text
/files/.revision</tt> is a small file giving what is presumably the final revision to the game:

Found in /files/Models</tt> and /files/Scenes</tt>, respectively, are these two files, named vForgeManifest.txt</tt>, for use with the Vision Engine scene editor: [Version 1] LoadEnginePlugin:VisionEnginePlugin LoadEnginePlugin:CustomEnginePlugin AddDataDir:..\Scenes AddDataDir:..\Sounds AddDataDir:..\Vision

[Version 1] LoadEnginePlugin:VisionEnginePlugin LoadEnginePlugin:CustomEnginePlugin AddDataDir:..\Models AddDataDir:..\files AddDataDir:..\base

Under /files/Texts</tt> is a mysterious file with the inscrutable name Texts.txt</tt>. It's got texts, some of which aren't used.

<pre style="vertical-align: top">1100,"Not available in this demo" 1101,"OK"

<pre style="vertical-align: top">7000,"Empty" 7001,"Disabled"

90000,"SUX 1" 90001,"SUX 2" 90002,"SUX 3" 90003,"SUX 4" 90004,"SUX 5" 90005,"SUX 6" 90006,"SUX 7" 90007,"SUX 8" 90008,"SUX 9" 90009,"SUX 10" 90010,"SUX 11"

Remnant from Image Conversion
In the disc root are a series of TGAs which form the game's animated save icon, to be displayed on the Wii Data Management screen. Along with these files is the plaintext file save.tcs</tt>, seen below. The final graphic, iconBanner.tpl</tt>, was generated using this file.

path = ./ file 0 = iconBanner00.tga file 1 = iconBanner00.tga file 2 = iconBanner00.tga file 3 = iconBanner00.tga

image   0 =  0, 0, RGB5A3 image   1 =  1, 1, RGB5A3 image   2 =  2, 2, RGB5A3 image   3 =  3, 3, RGB5A3

texture 0 =  0, x                    ; texture 0 uses image 0, no palette texture 1 =  1, x                    ; texture 0 uses image 0, no palette texture 2 =  2, x                    ; texture 0 uses image 0, no palette texture 3 =  3, x                    ; texture 0 uses image 0, no palette

Planned European Release
Going deeper into <tt>/files/Texts</tt>, there's also a <tt>Languages/</tt> directory, with <tt>Texts.txt</tt>s for a variety of European languages. The bulk of the game's dialogue is stored in these per-language files, including the following credits for eventual non-publisher 505 Games in <tt>TextsPAL.txt</tt>:

90121,"505 Games^c255,255,0" 90122," " 90123,"Executive Producer^c255,255,0" 90124,"Alan Bunker" 90125," " 90126,"Producers^c255,255,0" 90127,"Chiara Pasquini" 90128,"Alberto Torgano" 90129," " 90130,"Project Manager^c255,255,0" 90131,"Marcello Monti" 90132," " 90133,"Associate Producer^c255,255,0" 90134,"Davide Racah" 90135," " 90136,"Assistant Project Manager^c255,255,0" 90137,"Pierluigi Bellini" 90138," " 90139,"Global Brand Managers^c255,255,0" 90140,"John Merchant" 90141,"Victoria Martin" 90142," " 90143,"Head of European Development^c255,255,0" 90144,"Andrew Wensley" 90145," " 90146,"Production Manager^c255,255,0" 90147,"Stefano Stalla" 90148," " 90149,"Head of Global Brand^c255,255,0" 90150,"Tim Woodley" 90151," " 90152,"Managing Director^c255,255,0" 90153,"Ian Howe" 90154," " 90155,"Publishing Manager^c255,255,0" 90156,"Silvana Greenfield" 90157," " 90158,"Operations Co-ordinator^c255,255,0" 90159,"Sharon Malcolm" 90160," " 90161,"Commercial Director^c255,255,0" 90162,"Ralph Pitt-Stanley" 90163," " 90164,"European Marketing Manager^c255,255,0" 90165,"Alison Mitchell" 90166," " 90167,"European Consumer Communications Manager^c255,255,0" 90168,"Liz Falconer" 90169," " 90170,"Creative Director^c255,255,0" 90171,"Mark Stevens" 90172," " 90173,"Studio Co-ordinator^c255,255,0" 90174,"James Howes" 90175," " 90176,"Graphic Designer Manager^c255,255,0" 90177,"Lara Spinazzola" 90178," " 90179,"Designer^c255,255,0" 90180,"Andrea Quinteri" 90181,"Rebecca Meyer"

The 505 Games version of the copyright screen (exceedingly boring and thus not shown) is also available at <tt>/files/Gui/LegalLinePAL.tga</tt>.

SDK Leftovers
Like some other Wii and GameCube titles, Gem Smashers leaves in some example content from the Nintendo SDK such as the Home Menu demo (<tt>hbmdemo</tt>) and <tt>gxTextrs.tpl</tt>.