Nintendo recently posted the latest “Iwata Says” segment, which has Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, sitting down for a chat with Shigeru Miyamoto. The conversation starts with Iwata asking Miyamoto questions about how they came to develop Link’s Crossbow Training and accompanying Zapper, but then things start to take a turn for the weird. Miyamoto casually begins revealing some of the radical ideas that were proposed for various Legend of Zelda titles. How radical? Well, he once envisioned having Ocarina of Time play from a first-person perspective — his fascination with the FPS style eventually spawned Link’s Crossbow Training. Also, he concieved of “a sort of Terminator style story about a time warp from the future” to explain how Link might have a gun. Finally, the original prototype for the Wii Zapper? It was literally made from rubber bands and wires. Obviously (and thankfully), none of these ideas ever came to fruition. However the images in my head of Arnold Schwarzenegger decked out in Link’s green costuem isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
Okay, I think it’s safe to say that a Kid Icarus game for the Wii is all but confirmed now. Not only is there at least one insider convinced that Nintendo is set to reveal the game at E3, but now some concept art for the proposed game has surfaced. These images don’t reflect the final stages of the project, but you can kind of get a sense of what they’re going for. Just based on a few of the sketches, it looks like the game could involve various weapon upgrades plus different elemental powers for Pit to use. More importantly though, it looks like Pit is all grown up, having ditched his childlike appearance in Smash Bros. Brawl. I have an odd feeling they’re taking some cues from Zelda on this one.
The “big three” (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo) are notorious for pulling out huge surprises at E3, but it looks like one of Nintendo’s secrets may have been inadvertently revealed already. On a couple of podcasts from IGN, one of the hosts, Matt Casamassina, has all but confirmed that a new Kid Icarus game is on the way for the Wii:
“Of course [Nintendo is] going to have some E3 surprises. You know, Kid Icarus, for crying out loud, how many times do we have to say Kid Icarus? Kid Icarus is coming for crying out loud.” When a co-host asks if he wants to reveal the developer he responds “I think we’ve confirmed it a billion times but no, I’m not going to say it officially.”
Yeah, this is kind of a “wink-wink-nudge-nudge” reveal, but Casamassina sounds really confident about his prediction; like he might be privy to some insider information [note: the image above is a made-up fan creation]. Plus, it’s not like fans haven’t been requesting it even more fervently ever since Pit made an appearance in Smash Bros. Brawl. This could actually be a really good idea to bring in some of the gamers that are tired of so many Mario games, but still love Nintendo’s classic characters. *Sigh* Just another reason E3 can’t get here soon enough.
Sorry to burst the bubble hovering over my fellow gamers heads but if you were planning on pre-ordering the Wii Fit, you are out of luck. GameStop has stopped taking pre-orders for the highly anticipated game/balance board combination and have it listed as out of stock and are asking gamers to check back for stock updates.
Basically, if you have not already pre-ordered the thing, chances are you will not get it. Amazon is sold out as well, and unless you just happen to come across one at Best Buy or Wal-Mart you will have to wait.
EA Sport’s Peter Moore has confirmed to Eurogamer that the company is currently at work on a Wii Fit game and said that EA plans on making it more strenuous than the current offerings for the Balance Board. Speaking at an EA Sports conference, Moore stated:
“We’re watching very closely what the Wii Fit board does. We think we have to have a role to play with that mum - the kids have gone to school, she’s got 45 minutes on her own, the Wii is there, it’s the first console she’s ever liked because she can do things herself. And we’re working on stuff, trying to work out how we can use EA Sports applications there.
“We also need to make sure we’re delivering something that’s truly exercise. I’ll call [Wii Fit] more eastern fitness, where it senses weight and balance, like Tai-Chi. It’s more about holistic fitness. I don’t think the board is going to take a pounding. We need to look more at western fitness in which I can actually be moving and start to sweat a little bit, and that’s what we’re working on right now.”
No details on the game were given, and no release date was even hinted around at but lets hope that this Wii Fit title will not tell you that you are fat. If it does, I am going to smash the board to pieces and hand deliver the carnage to EA myself. You may want to start raising bail money for me now just in case.
Forbes has published their list of the 40st richest people in Japan and topping the list is former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi. Running the company from 1949 to 2002 and retiring from the gaming giant completely in 2005, over the past year his wealth has increased by $3 billion dollars - thanks mainly in part to the Wii, DS and the game sales for both systems. This has increased his overall wealth to a whopping $7.8 billion.
Hiroshi’s wealth has tripled over the past three years, and one can only imagine how much wealth he will accumulate once the WiiFit hits the states.
When you bash almost any game, you’re going to draw criticism from many of its internet-dwelling fans. In the case of a game like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which may as well be called Nintendomania, you’re going to get even more insane, ridiculous criticism. And by criticism, I of course mean profanity-laced hatemail filled with death threats for you and your dog.
So for the first time ever, Yahtzee took this week’s installment of Zero Punctuation to respond directly to some of the mail he’s gotten from crazed Smash Bros. fanboys who wrote in, trying to invalidate Yahtzee’s opinion.
The creatively named Nintendo Channel is live folks, and the unsuspecting gaming world thought it would not launch until May 12th. Nice one Nintendo, but we caught you red handed and have told the masses. Mwha ha ha ha!
Ok, so maybe the whole internet is privy to this information already, but we thought it strange for the gaming giant to pull such a fast one - but that is their prerogative. The Nintendo Channel will allow subscribers to not only write reviews for WiiWare titles but will also give gamers a list of upcoming titles and Nintendo DS demos.
Nintendo Channel is an interactive guide to what’s new in the world of Nintendo - now available for easy download from the Wii Shop Channel. Watch trailers, mini-documentaries, product demonstrations, and gameplay videos. Browse the game guide pages to get information about your favorite games on Wii and Nintendo DS. You can even click to order games straight from your Wii, if you have the Internet Channel installed. Make sure your Wii is connected to the internet, and get started!
So get to downloading it and tell us what you think of it.
Nintendo is bringing another old favorite past time into the digital age with the release of Crosswords DS. Crosswords puzzles are more portable than ever with a variety of puzzles and levels of difficulty. If you get stuck you can choose how much information the Hint System gives you. You can get another hint, have it reveal a letter or just reveal the whole word and go on with the puzzle. Everything is entered via the stylus, so there are no worries about smudging or erasing a hole in your paper with this game.
The game also includes the usual puzzles that accompany Crosswords in your local papers. There are over 200 Wordsearch puzzles as well as an Anagrams game which will challenge you to combine letters into words.
Whether you prefer to stretch your intellect or just need to kill something, this week’s Wii-kly Update has a new outlet for you. The two new titles up on the Wii Shop are Pokémon Puzzle League and Renegade. Most everyone is familiar with Pokémon, but for those of you new to the arcade hit Renegade, it’s the technological predecessor to Double Dragon.
I’m almost surprised two see two titles released today. Nintendo has been rationing games more tightly the last few weeks. It’s nice to have a variety to choose from.
Pokémon Puzzle League (Nintendo 64(R), 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): Get ready for a new kind of Pokémon battle where the power and speed of your brain are just as important as the strength of your Pokémon. Join Ash, Brock, Misty and many more characters from the Pokémon animated series as they gather in Puzzle Village to compete for the title of Pokémon Puzzle Master. Just match three or more blocks of the same color in any direction. Sounds simple, right? But the actual game play is surprisingly addictive and deep (chains and combos anyone?), especially when you’re facing off against a human opponent. Choose from six different modes offering a wide range of action, from story or puzzle modes to continuous play or timed play. If that’s not enough, take on the challenge in 3-D and get ready for more blocks than ever before. Featuring animated cut scenes combined with bright, fun graphics, there’s enough to satisfy any fan of Pokémon or puzzle games.
Renegade™ (NES(R), 1-2 players, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older – Mild Violence, 500 Wii Points): Renegade follows the story of a vigilante who fights his way through countless gangs in order to bring peace back to his city. Battle your way through subways, parks, alleyways and parking lots. For added fun, there’s a wild motorcycle ride to challenge you. Use your arsenal of kicks, punches (including the infamous sit-on punch) and jump kicks, as well as a variety of throws to knock your opponents into submission. Along the way, pick up items like a hamburger that restores your life, a heart that increases your lives by one, a power-up to increase your attack strength, and a speed item that gives you a speed burst while on your motorcycle. You’ll need all the help you can get to take out your aggression on street punks, thugs, outlaw bikers, killer kung-fu females and an array of bosses standing in your way. Take the law into your own hands to defeat countless scumbags and take your city back like the renegade you are.
Ah, it’s great how the ESRB updates their website with such fervor that it sometimes reveals upcoming games before they’re ever announced. This time, the ESRB has added a listing for Earthbound on the Wii (it’s rated “E,” by the way). Naturally, this probably means the beloved RPG should be hitting the Virtual Console sometime in the near future. That’s awesome and all, but where’s its sequel, Mother 3? Or for that matter, where’s its next-gen version? It’s time these young whippersnapper RPGs got a lesson from an old classic.
Well, July is approaching fast, and E3 with it. We received the list of E3 exhibitors, and thought we’d share them with you. As usual, you can expect us to have a team from Gaming Today on site to bring you coverage right from the Convention Center.
This year’s list includes (among others) Atari, Eidos, EA, Konami, LucasArts, Square Enix, and of course the big three of the console world: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Contrary to popular rumor, Bethesda will make an appearance with Fallout 3, as confirmed by their blog post. Apparently they were left off the initial listing for an unknown reason.
You can see a full list of the companies currently expected to attend after the break.
Nintendo has issued a challenge to racing fans everywhere to join one of its new Mario Kart Wii Tournaments. The first tournament is today, on the new Mario Kart Channel. Today’s challenge is to compete for the fastest time on a modified Mario Circuit. you can compete as often as you like. Your scores will be ranked and compared with racers from around the world.
Tournaments will be available every few weeks, presenting racers with new challenges. Some events may require you to race with a specific character or collect a certain amount of coins. The only universal requirement is that you have an online connection.
Shigeru Miyamoto, the mind behind everyones favorite plumber and Wii Fit is already looking towards the next step.
Wii Fit is an unprecedented success despite pessimistic predictions. Wii Fit is a harsh and demanding personal trainer. It keeps track of your weight and BMI, asking you to explain yourself if you show an increase. It compares you against your family members and criticizes you when you fall behind. Despite this people are buying the game in droves. Amazingly enough, there has been no reported rise in collateral damage from Wii Fit players destroying stuff out of frustration.
“We thought they might, but the evidence from Japan is that they get cross with themselves — not the machine. They don’t blame the game.”
Miyamoto is naturally pleased at the success of Wii Fit and is already moving towards taking the punishment to the next level. Wii Fit will be evolving to include web based game play, to allow players to compete with people outside their household.
Lest people embrace Wii Fit with too much enthusiasm, Miyamoto does offer a word of caution and encouragement for players to emulate the Wii balance board in their real lives:
“Spending too long, staying in and playing any video game is not good,” said Miyamoto. “I always tell my children to get out on a sunny day and I, myself, went jogging in Central Park yesterday. But I do my stretching on Wii Fit. They work together.”
It’s Monday; the start of another week and time again for another classic game release on the Wii shop. This week’s Wii-kly update is the NES hit Double Dragon. Although the NES version was a pale shadow of the greatness of the arcade game, it did spawn a bad movie with Alyssa Milano. She was in a tight skirt the whole time so some of the suckage was balanced out.
Double Dragon (NES®, 1-2 players, Rated Everyone 10+ — Mild Violence, 500 Wii Points): Double Dragon begins with Billy Lee’s girlfriend, Marian, being kidnapped by a group called the Black Warriors. They demand to know the secrets of Billy’s martial-arts style in exchange for his girlfriend. However, Billy won’t stand for these underhanded tactics and decides to rescue her himself. Help him fight through city streets, buildings, jungles, temples and various other locations in a quest to find his girl. He’ll gain experience by using different fighting techniques to obtain more hearts, which will unlock more powerful techniques to use against his enemies. Keep an eye out for crates, boulders, whips, bats, knives and even dynamite along the way, as Billy can also use them to annihilate opponents. Armed with his mysterious and powerful martial arts, help Billy pummel his way through an array of goons, gang members and other Black Warrior scum to free Marian from their clutches.
In Edmonton of Alberta Canada, Greg Chin is conducting an experiment to determine whether virtual exercise is as good as the real thing. Chin, a teacher at Archbishop Joseph MacNeil, is using students from his eighth grade class as guinea pigs. He monitors the students’ heart rates for regular exercise against simulated activities on a video game system. Chin is very optimistic about the data so far.
Teenagers should be getting their heart rates up to around 180 beats per minute. In some of the games, his students were reaching 170 beats.
“I was surprised at some of the heart-rate readings,” he says. “So far, the Wii has been better than I expected.”
The study is on going at this time, but I would venture to say I have to agree with many experts in the physical fitness field. I doubt that exercise from Wii-sports,Wii-play or Wii-fit are as effective as a regimented workout routine is the long run. However I do also agree that many kids that are completely turned of by sports, especially competitive games will gladly play the Wii or Dance Dance Revolution. That’s where the advantage of video games over physical fitness education and team sports lies.
via Vancouver Sun
A new report for IDG Research claims that the core gamer market is saturated, and that only the huge success of casual gaming is keeping things moving. Without more publishers embracing the casual gamer, IDG believes the industry could stagnate, reports MCV.
According to the report, Expansion of the games industry in recent years can be attributed largely to Nintendo with the Wii and DS. Citing facts like the overall market internationally having declined 7% when you don’t count the hardware and software sales of the Wii and DS. Apparently they didn’t consider that maybe people are buying Nintendo systems instead of the PS3 or 360.
“The middling performance of the 360, coupled with the PS3’s slow start has led IDG to the conclusion that the core gamer market is in fact saturated,” states the report.
“On a combined hardware and software basis, the global market grew by 21 per cent with the DS and the Wii in 2007, but declined by seven per cent without the two Nintendo platforms,” adds the IDG report. “In short, the balance of power has significantly shifted towards Nintendo.”
The ESRB has rated more than 15,000 games since being formed back in 1994, and only 23 have managed to obtain a rating of Adults Only. AO is of course the only rating higher than Mature, meaning the content it contains is deemed appropriate only for those 18 years and older, compared with the 17 years old you have to be to purchase an M-rated game. There’s obviously a lot of maturity that goes on in that extra year. Or something.
But the more important factor with regards to AO ratings, as we learned during the Manhunt 2fiasco, is that none of the three platform holders – Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony – will allow a game carrying an AO rating onto their systems. Many retailers will also refuse to even stock the game, meaning the PC and online sales are essentially what developers seeking to develop an AO-rated game are looking at.
So just what 23 games managed to obtain the infamous rating? I think most people can name Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, thank to Hot Coffee, but what were the other 22? What They Play has gone through the trouble of compiling a list with all of the offenders and descriptions of what they are and why they got slapped with the AO rating.
I could get up on a soapbox and talk about Hostel and R-rated movies, but I’ll spare you the trouble of reading me poke holes in the “logic” behind that stuff.
We always hear a lot about attach rates or tie-in ratios, which are basically the average number of games sold per system. So, if you’ve got an attach rate of 1, that means you would have sold, say, 10 million systems and 10 million games. Microsoft constantly boasts its large attach rate, but how do the rest of the current generation of systems hold up by comparison? You might be surprised to find out.
After Nintendo announced its global attach rate, Joystiq inquired with the NPD Group to find out their attach rate for the five major platforms. Xbox 360 of course leads the way with 7.5 games, followed by the Wii at 5.3, DS at 4.7, PS3 at 4.6, and PSP at 4.2. Honestly, I’m not sure if I should be more surprised by the Wii’s being as large as it is, or the PSP being so close to the rest of the pack. It’s rare to see a PSP game crack into the top ten best selling games each month, while games like Call of Duty 4 and particularly Wii Play have taken up permanent residence on the list.
The last time we got these figures, the PS3 was in the threes, so you can see that PS3 owners are slowly expanding their game library. (Well, either that or Blu-ray owners can’t help but pick up a copy of Uncharted.) With Grand Theft Auto IV, Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii all releasing very soon, you can expect to see the consoles’ attach rates jump. The only thing guaranteed aside from that is the next Microsoft press release touting their historic attach rate.
WiiWare won’t be the only significant addition Wii owners in the U.S. get next month, as the Nintendo Channel (formerly Everybody’s Nintendo Channel) will launch with WiiWare. Certain aspects of the two services will actually be integrated, such as the ability to read or write reviews of WiiWare games. (Although you’ll need to have spent at least an hour playing the game in question to be an eligible author.) This will be the only way of really sampling WiiWare games without heading to your favorite game website or message board, as there’s no plan for demos of any of the games. I’m not convinced that Wii owners will be too keen on typing out useful reviews with the on-screen keyboard, though.
The new channel will be a free download from the Shopping Channel next month, and will offer up release lists for upcoming Wii and DS games. And you’ll also be able to finally download demos of DS games, which you can then send over to your DS. The demo will remain on your DS until the next time you turn it off.
The video above is Game|Life’s look at the Everybody’s Nintendo Channel from when it launched in Japan last November. It should give you an idea of what to expect from the new channel.
Forbes has published their list of the 40st richest people in Japan and topping the list is former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi. Running the company from 1949 to 2002 and retiring from the gaming giant completely in 2005, over the past year his wealth has increased by $3 billion dollars - thanks mainly in part to the Wii, DS and the game sales for both systems. This has increased his overall wealth to a whopping $7.8 billion.
Ah, it’s great how the ESRB updates their website with such fervor that it sometimes reveals upcoming games before they’re ever announced. This time, the ESRB has added a listing for Earthbound on the Wii (it’s rated “E,” by the way). Naturally, this probably means the beloved RPG should be hitting the Virtual Console sometime in the near future. That’s awesome and all, but where’s its sequel, Mother 3? Or for that matter, where’s its next-gen version? It’s time these young whippersnapper RPGs got a lesson from an old classic.
Well, July is approaching fast, and E3 with it. We received the list of E3 exhibitors, and thought we’d share them with you. As usual, you can expect us to have a team from Gaming Today on site to bring you coverage right from the Convention Center. 
In Edmonton of Alberta Canada, Greg Chin is conducting an experiment to determine whether virtual exercise is as good as the real thing. Chin, a teacher at Archbishop Joseph MacNeil, is using students from his eighth grade class as guinea pigs. He monitors the students’ heart rates for regular exercise against simulated activities on a video game system. Chin is very optimistic about the data so far.
The ESRB has rated more than 15,000 games since being formed back in 1994, and only 23 have managed to obtain a rating of Adults Only. AO is of course the only rating higher than Mature, meaning the content it contains is deemed appropriate only for those 18 years and older, compared with the 17 years old you have to be to purchase an M-rated game. There’s obviously a lot of maturity that goes on in that extra year. Or something.
