Konami and Hudson Soft unveil new Balance Board title
Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has announced its first Wii Balance Board-compatible title. Marbles! Balance Challenge has been devised by Hudson Soft and will be released for Wii in April, 2009.Marbles! Balance Challenge is a skill-based action title where the player helps an Ant called Anthony save his colony via a series of physical tests. Wii Balance Board users can access Marbles! Balance Challenge’s 100 specially-created stages where the players steer a ball using the shifting weight of their physical movements. This unique way to control the game offers a new experience and combines fun and physical exercise. Players can also use gentle movements of the Wii Remote, with steering the ball through 200 different stages in a quest to locate the mythical ‘Golden Sunflower Seed.’
This was an email which was sent to XSEED, and Ken who has always responded to emails such as these replied:
1. Is Little King’s Story indeed releasing on January 6th in Canada?! My local Best Buy had the game on that date on their release schedule board in front of the store! Strange! O_o I was under the impression it was coming out on Feb 17th.
No, Little King’s Story is not releasing on January 6th. We were shooting for a February release date, but good chance that it will be delayed past that right now.
2. How goes the localizations on your Wii games and such? Run into any problems? Hope everything is going smoothly!
Localization is going well on most everything we’re working on, Retro Game Challenge is done and will ship in February, Avalon Code and Rune Factory: Frontier are both wrapping up now so shouldn’t be too long after Retro Game when they come out.
3. Is it possible at this stage to say what the framerates of each of your’s and MMV’s Wii games? Are all games going to have silky smooth framerates? Is XSEED able to smoothen any framerate problems if there are any?
Of what we’ve seen, all the MMV titles are moving at a smooth framerate so no concerns at this point.
BBFC recently rated Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the DS. The game was given an “18” rating to no surprise. There was one notable tidbit that was included alongside the rating though – The game will include 168 minutes of cut scenes. Rockstar Leeds certainly wasn’t lying when it was said that Chinatown Wars is huge.
Nintendo Power usually has a few tricks up their sleeves for most of their issues. The March 2009 volume of the magazine will follow in the same tradition – the magazine is claiming an “exciting discovery” will be present in their next issue. Nintendo Power states, “We’ve made an exciting discovery for next month’s cover story. Can you guess what it is? We’ll also have an exclusive look at The Conduit’s multiplayer modes and reveal the winners of the 2008 NP Awards.” The picture included with the tease is just a map (see above), which might cause any guessing to be difficult. Anyone want to take a gander?
All insanity seemed to had ended yesterday when Robert Pelloni, who has been desperately pleading for a SDK for Bob’s Game, said that his 100-day protest was over. Well folks, that actually isn’t the case.
The website for Bob’s Game has been updated and he has in fact resumed his protest. Oddly enough, police apparently checked in on Pelloni after it was thought that he had committed suicide. No movement had been seen on his camera for a number of hours and the room in which he was maintaining his protest was a complete mess. Though there’s doubt that the latest stunt was accidental, it is clear that the insanity set in motion over Bob’s Game will continue. Viral marketing or not, Nintendo must be rolling their eyes at this point granted they are aware of the situation.
“We appreciate the vote of confidence and as Inafune-san has indicated recently in his 1Up interview, we are thinking about it but there is no project of this sort in development at this time.” – Christian Svensson, Corporate Officer/VP of Strategic Planning & Business Development
“I can’t comment on any potential roadblocks, but I think Strider has enough juice to merit a next-gen sequel. Here’s a question for you guys though: Could a Strider in 3D recapture that same magic? Would it have to invent new magic? I’d love to see the giant mechanical Ape, or the politburo that turns into a giant robotic centipede w/sickle in 3d, but a lot of the best mechanics of the fights were very 2d-centric. I can already think of cool ways you could recreate that in 3d, but what do you think as Strider fans?” – Seth Killian, Capcom Sr. Manager, Community
I think Strider could work in 3D regardless of the platform that the title ended up being released on. Then again, it could look great as a 2D game as well!
Best Buy
Buy one get one free when you buy any of the following Wii games:
– Imagine: Party Babyz
– The Price Is Right
– Petz Sports
– My Fitness Coach
– Petz Crazy Monkeyz
Tecmo Bowl Kickoff (DS) – $19.99
Free month of online Club Penguin when you purchase Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force (DS)
Free Guitar Hero skin when you buy any Guitar Hero On Tour game
Circuit City
Brain Age (DS) – $14.99
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader (DS) – $14.99
Margot’s Word Brain (DS) – $9.99
Free game with purchase of any DS, choose from Hannah Montana or Ben 10: Protector of Earth
VERGE Stylus 4-Pack for DS – $2.49
VERGE Screen Protectors for DS – $3.49
Big League Sports (Wii) – $19.99
NYKO Charge Station for Wii Remote – $24.99
Save $5 on all Wii Fit accessories
My Fitness Coach (Wii) – $19.99
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (Wii) – $39.99
Little League World Series Baseball 2008 (Wii) – $19.99
Monster Jam: Urban Assault (Wii) – $19.99
Target
Choose from over 60 other $19 titles + games listed below
Personal Trainer: Math (DS) – $19
Kung Fu Panda (DS) – $19
Monster 4 x 4: World Circuit (Wii) – $19
Wii Points Card – $19
