There’s one word to describe the latest downloadable game offerings from Nintendo: phenomenal. For starters, Wii™ owners can dive into a space adventure for the ages as the Super NES™ classic Super Star Wars™ makes its Virtual Console™ debut. WiiWare™ devotees have two extraordinary new titles to choose from, including the high-flying NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits and the super-charged Rock N’ Roll Climber™. And don’t miss this week’s Nintendo DSiWare™Brain Age™ title, which will help keep your mind buzzing wherever you go.
With the recent announcement of Dead Space: Extraction possibly losing it’s exclusivity to Wii, many Nintendo gamers have been whipping out their flamethrowers and taking gaming message boards by storm, infuriated by the constant “betrayal” from Wii third party developers. It started with the rumor that Marvelous would be porting one of their Wii games to PS3/360, followed shortly thereafter by the announcement of No More Heroes’ fateful end on the Wii, and now one of Wii’s most anticipated mature games (Dead Space) has the possibility of leaving the system as well. Regrettably, Wii’s third party situation is far from perfect, and part of that has to do with the failure of so many fantastic non-Nintendo efforts flopping on the little white box, and thus arrives the paradox of outside developers creating games for Wii.
This information comes from a post on the Capcom-Unity forums…
“I’ve got no updates to provide on new potential titles for Z&W. Sorry.” – Christian Svensson, Corporate Officer/VP of Strategic Planning & Business Development
As much as I’d rather not say this, I don’t think we’re going to see a Zack & Wiki sequel anytime soon…If ever. It’s such a shame that it wasn’t a commercial success, especially with the numerous attempts to get the word out about the title.
Course: Bowser’s Castle
Objective: Earn the best time
Secondary objective: Complete 3 laps
Tournament date: 8/15 – 8/25
Without a doubt, Nintendo’s E3 2009 media briefing saw a rather large change over the year before. Hardcore gaming had a larger focus with announcements such as Golden Sun DS, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Metroid: Other M. However, there were still a number of issues that were present at the conference. Specifically, the overall presentation was unorganized and dull.
Satoru Iwata seems to agree that there is room for improvement, though. Iwata was asked about Nintendo’s perception of their latest conference at the first quarter financial results briefing and said he understands that it is important “to look into finding a better way to demonstrate the products’ appeal better.”
“As for the media briefing at E3, of course we had many internal discussions after that. Honestly speaking, none of us at Nintendo thought that our presentation at E3 was as good as it could have been. It is apparent that we could not fully convey the charm of our products. In the past, Wii Sports and Wii Fit were naturally able to convey their appeal on stage since it was something no one had ever seen or imagined before. People seemed to capture the appeal of Wii Sports instantly and although there was some initial confusion with Wii Fit, its appeal did get through to the audience afterwards. This year, however, with the New Super Mario Bros. Wii, four people lined up with Wii Remotes was not a scene that no one had ever seen. Those who actually had the chance to play understood how the game would change with four people playing simultaneously, but we could not address that fun sentiment at the media briefing. Now we strongly feel that we need to look into finding a better way to demonstrate the products’ appeal better at E3 in these times where more people are watching it online via web cast not only in the U.S. but all around the world, than the number of audience who actually watch it in the theatre. In that sense, we learned many lessons from this year’s E3 show. After the media briefing, we had a domestic trade briefing in Japan. There we disclosed the black Wii console and red Nintendo DSi, which made a big buzz among game fans. It is also an important lesson for next year.”
As soon as The Conduit made its first appearance on IGN, the title seemed to have almost immediately garnered attention from major publishers. High Voltage slowed down the process though, and chose to collaborate with a company that would not hinder development of their title. After a few months, it was finally announced that SEGA would be publishing The Conduit. But you may be wondering the following: How did SEGA’s interest in The Conduit start and why was it decided that the company would be willing to publish the game? SEGA product manager German Fritsch provided an explanation in a recent Radio-Blodec podcast, which we’ve translated below.
“SEGA is expanding enough to reach all types of people and recognized that there is much potential in the different consoles. PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have a more conventional demographic. In the case of Wii, it’s assumed, or it looks like, other publishers are thinking of making more casual games. But SEGA recognizes that there are gamers like all of us. We have a Wii to make use of the controls, SEGA wants to give players an opportunity to have fun with the console and The Conduit was the perfect title.”
Astro Boy: The Video Game (Wii) – E10+
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii/DS) – E
Dead Space Extraction (Wii) – M
Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard (DS) – E
Arcade Zone (Wii) – E
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up (Wii) – E10+
Monster Truck Mayhem (Wii) – E
SimAnimals Africa (DS) – E
SimEarth: The Living Planet (Wii) – E
Rabbids Go Home (DS) – E
Word Searcher (Wii/DS) – E
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS) – E10+
Contra Rebirth (Wii) – E10+
Best Buy
Game Party (Wii) – $9.99
Ultimate Band (Wii) – $9.99
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (Wii) – $14.99
Six Flags Fun Park (Wii) – $14.99
Skate It (Wii) – $14.99
The Price is Right (Wii) – $19.99
My Fitness Coach (Wii) – $19.99
Deca Sports (Wii) – $19.99
Target
Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii) – $44
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii) – $44
Star Wars the Clone Wars: Republic Heroes (Wii) – $44
Guitar Hero Smash Hits (Wii) – $44
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (DS) – $24
G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (DS) – $24
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS) – $19.99
G-Force (DS) – $24
Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS) – $24
Imagine: Makeup Artist (DS) – $24
Gardening Mama (DS) – $24
Thanks to Jake for the news tip!
