Nintendo has announced its early 2009 game line up which kicks off with Pokémon Platinum. the popular DS title will hit shelves March 22, 2009.

Other familiar games among the over 100 planned releases are New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis and New Play Control! Pikmin are coming out for the Wii with edutainment title Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Personal Trainer: Math and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars headed for the Nintendo DS.

More games from the Q1 2009 Nintendo line up follow the break.
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People who worry that in five years we’ll be facing the impending launches of Halo Tennis 4 Master Chief Racing 2 are completely understandable. It’s the most popular franchise in Microsoft’s catalog, and if you’ve seen what has happened to Mario and Sonic over the years, it doesn’t take much of a leap to imagine terrible spinoff after terrible spinoff.

At Comic-Con last week, Frank O’Connor (Bungie’s former community manager who now oversees the Halo franchise at Microsoft) explained that there are a lot of opportunities to delve into the Halo universe, but they don’t plan on abusing the franchise, reports Eurogamer.

“The Halo universe is really, really big now,” he said. “Literally the Halo games have only covered one year; a couple of months within a year in fact.

“We have a really detailed story bible, we do really have it all planned out. There are so many areas of the universe to explore, the real challenge is picking which is the most exciting area for people. Is it UNSC Marines fighting alongside Spartans against the Covenant? Or is it what happens next after Master Chief’s appearance in Halo 3?”

“We have a well defined, carefully orchestrated, properly planned universe to explore not exploit,” O’Connor continued. “And that’s the tricky part: what are the things people want to do? We have to pick things that people want. That’s what you see with the range of McFarlane toys – people want their armour permutation.

“Give them things they really want and make sure they’re high quality is the formula.”

There are at least three Halo games in development right now between Bungie, Peter Jackson, and Ensemble with Halo Wars. Even as a Halo fanatic, I really don’t want to see too many Halo games released, because I’ve seen what that can do to a franchise. Hopefully Frankie is right and we don’t see Master Chief at the Olympics anytime soon.

Like many older gamers I was a fan of the golden age of Sonic the Hedgehog. I still have fond memories of a certain New Years Eve party when I was younger and the challenge was issued amongst the rather inebriated guests to partake in a competition of skill.. namely to see who could get the furthest in Sonic the Hedgehog on the Genesis. I’d never been particularly good at the game, though I’d spent a lot of hours playing it but as the host I was obligated to try the best. Long story short, I got further in Sonic that night than any other time since and I credit that to my loose reflexes compensating for the game’s innate sense of speed.

Years have passed and Sonic’s seen better days. The last two games – Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic and the Secret of the Rings were mediocre titles that lacked the certain charm and style of the earliest games, or event the excellent early 3D games.

Sega wants another shot at changing the impression that Sonic is old hat. Last year’s Mario & Sonic titles sold well but they were not true Sonic games. The announcement of Sonic Unleashed however caught the attention of Sonic fans and the limited screens and footage hinted that maybe Sega had finally found the right mix to recreate the Blue Hedgehog for the new consoles.

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I’m a big fan of Boom Blox; it’s one of my favorite Wii games, and certainly the most fun I’ve had with any third-party title on the platform. The overall reaction to the game was quite positive, as the game garnered solid reviews. But according to the NPD Group (via GameDaily), the game sold only 60k copies in May, coming in at #25 for the month — surely that’s not what Electronic Arts had in mind for their Steven Spielberg-branded game had in mind, particularly in a month where sales of the system were so high at just over 675k.

Analysts have been split about what this means. Ben Schachter said, “While overall hardware and software trends for the Nintendo Wii continue to be strong, we would like to see more third-party hits on the platform,” before adding, “To-date, Guitar Hero III, Sega of America’s Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games, and TTWO’s Carnival Games are the only third-party Wii games that have sold more than 1 million units to-date according to NPD, and there are many third-party Wii exclusives that have come-and-gone with minimal reaction from the market.”

Anita Frazier disagrees and simply believes the game was caught in a month where the attention was directed to things like Wii Fit and GTA, which is the theory I personally subscribe to. “It’s still really hard for new IP to breakthrough the noise in the market, and there has been a lot of noise so far this year. Between Super Smash Bros. Brawl, GTA IV, Wii Fit, Mario Kart and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 (to name a few), there have been some really high profile game releases. The game was really well reviewed so I’m suspecting the marketing just didn’t break through the clutter to the extent that they were hoping for,” she said.

Earlier this week, however, EA CEO John Riccitiello told the audience at the William Blair Investor Conference (via MTV Multiplayer) that sales were actually on target, and that it had actually “met our expectations internally.” He also remains hopeful about the game’s future, saying, “A title like this one — can it do several hundred thousand or a million or more units? Sure, it’s just gotta keep selling.”

Nintendo is challenging father’s to bring their kids to Nintendo World at the Rockefeller Plaza in New York City for a special Father’s Day event. The Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii Father’s Day Tournament is on for this Sunday.

The Nintendo World will be giving away trophies and the Wii to winning teams. See the full press release after the break for all the details.
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You might remember an image that showed up awhile back depicting how Bowser might look if he were real. Well, that same guy decided to give the same treatment to another beloved video game character with this realistic picture of Sonic the Hedgehog. The artist did however make a few changes to the overall design of the character in order to get a look that was more close to a an actual hedgehog:

In the end I decided to give him a color-pattern that resembles a West European Hedgehog but facial proportions that stick to Sonic himself. His white gloves and the red shoes he kept as another link to the original, but the shoes underwent a little redesign. In addition his body looks like that of a runner, making it more believable that he can run at such high speeds.

He also made a pixelized version to see what this new Sonic might look like in the original game. All in all, this is still something that would terrify me if it came sprinting at me. Now I know how Sonic’s enemies feel.

Via Essenmitsosse

Glorified demo or not, Sony has to be mighty pleased with the early performance of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in the UK. The game has debuted as the top selling game in its first week, breaking the record for fastest weekly seller on PS3, previously held by Resistance: Fall of Man.

The chart also has Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games in the number two and three spots, and Call of Duty 4 comes in at number seven, proving that the game isn’t only selling like crazy in the United States.

Hopefully this doesn’t lead to an onslaught of releases of incomplete games at slightly discounted prices; the last thing we need is for the games we buy to no longer include all of the features we’ve come to expect from a retail product.

These numbers are courtesy of ELSPA, as compiled by Chart Track.

via Next Gen

For the fourth month in a row, Call of Duty 4 on Xbox 360 has reigned supreme atop the sales charts once again. A mere thousand units sold separated it from the number two game, Devil May Cry 4 (also on 360). Wii Play has been a mainstay since it was released, it would seem, and it comes in at number three. The Wii and PS2 versions of Guitar Hero III also managed to stay in the top ten, leading Rock Band on 360 which came in at number ten.

Despite another month of strong sales for the PlayStation 3 (superior to the 360 for the second month in a row) only a single game, Devil May Cry 4, was in the top ten. Are people still not buying Ratchet and Uncharted, or are people simply buying the PS3 to use as a Blu-ray player?

Seeing lost Odyssey make the list was a pleasant surprise, and I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by Turok making the list. I didn’t find it to be anything particularly special (and Yahtzee seemed to agree) but whether it was nostalgia or the promise of being able to shoot dinosaurs, it sold just under 200,000 copies.

So, will Call of Duty 4 finally be unseated in March? We’ll find out in under a month, but something tells me that Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will certainly play a role in the matter.

February 2008 Software Sales

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) — 296,200
2. Devil May Cry 4 (Xbox 360) — 295,200
3. Wii Play (Wii) — 289,700
4. Devil May Cry 4 (PlayStation 3) — 233,500
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) — 222,900
6. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Nintendo DS) — 205,600
7. Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360) — 203,600
8. Turok (Xbox 360) — 197,700
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PlayStation 2) — 183,800
10. Rock Band (Xbox 360) — 161,800

Gamers wishing to show the world their sense of fashion along with advertising their favorite game can now do so with little chance of getting a swirly between second and third period. Inno-Wear, a European clothing and accessories company that licenses video game attire, recently signed an exclusive Gears of Wars 2 agreement with Epic Games.

The highly anticipated GoW2 will be joining Inno-Wear’s vast catalogue of the Himmersion line which includes such gaming licenses as: Xbox, Resident Evil,Tomb raider, Devil May Cry, Unreal Tournament,Mario, Sonic, Guild Wars, Zelda and more.

You can expect the GoW2 clothing and accessories line to hit stores around the same time as the game in November.

Via: Press Release

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Sonic in an RPG? Yeah, I know it’s old news, but every time I’m reminded of it, I still have trouble believing it. Nevertheless, it’s true: an RPG titled “Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood” is coming to the DS sometime this year. Now at least we get to see what it looks like with these new screenshots. It actually doesn’t look half bad really; the hand-drawn backgrounds really give the game a more polished look. I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out if the full game is any good (hey, the RPG format worked out for Mario).