Line Rider rides into Wiis and DS

If you haven’t heard of Line Rider, then (a) the link below takes you to the latest version by its creator, Bostjan Cadez, for you to waste some time on, plus a video demo below, and (2) you haven’t been torturing bobsledders this holiday season, have you? Line Rider is a Flash-based, Etch-a-Sketch-like program that is rapidly becoming an Internet addiction. Probably because you get to torture a bobsledder in the process.

In Line Rider, you “draw” a simple landscape with your mouse, and when you click PLAY, a little bobsledder will ride the (often insane) territory you create. Simple premise, like LEGO, it unleashed the creativity of Internet surfers everywhere… not to mention become a productivity killer right up there with JezzBall and Internet pictures of Natalie Portman.

Let’s get to the meat: the game’s premise of “drawing” meant that it was only some time before someone thought of bringing it to the DS (ahem, the Stylus) and the Wii (ahem, the Wiimote). Which is what InXile Entertainment, which has acquired the rights to Line Rider, will be doing: make the “toy” available for Wiis and DS’s this Spring 2007. These “ports” will feature more features that are not available in the flash-based Web application.

Which means that, for DS owners, productivity will die once again. Since the Wii is at home already, we don’t expect any productivity casualties, but there may be one more torture the poor bobsledder will suffer: Wiimote-induced homicide. We kid.

If you haven’t heard of Line Rider, then (a) the link below takes you to the latest version by its creator, Bostjan Cadez, for you to waste some time on, plus a video demo below, and (2) you haven’t been torturing bobsledders this holiday season, have you? Line Rider is a Flash-based, Etch-a-Sketch-like program that is rapidly becoming an Internet addiction. Probably because you get to torture a bobsledder in the process.

In Line Rider, you “draw” a simple landscape with your mouse, and when you click PLAY, a little bobsledder will ride the (often insane) territory you create. Simple premise, like LEGO, it unleashed the creativity of Internet surfers everywhere… not to mention become a productivity killer right up there with JezzBall and Internet pictures of Natalie Portman.

Let’s get to the meat: the game’s premise of “drawing” meant that it was only some time before someone thought of bringing it to the DS (ahem, the Stylus) and the Wii (ahem, the Wiimote). Which is what InXile Entertainment, which has acquired the rights to Line Rider, will be doing: make the “toy” available for Wiis and DS’s this Spring 2007. These “ports” will feature more features that are not available in the flash-based Web application.

Which means that, for DS owners, productivity will die once again. Since the Wii is at home already, we don’t expect any productivity casualties, but there may be one more torture the poor bobsledder will suffer: Wiimote-induced homicide. We kid.