Nintendo 64 – Kirby 64™: The Crystal Shards
TurboGrafx16 – Psychosis

This week’s additions take players on a psychedelic trip down memory lane. Kirby® is back and armed with a bunch of new talents, including the option to combine abilities. Curious to find out what mixing the Burn and Cutter powers gives Kirby? We won’t spoil that for you here. If the colorful landscapes in the pink sphere’s world are too much for you and you’re looking for straight firepower instead, then try plunging your soul into the mind of a twisted demon. We’ll just see how you fare against wave after wave of bizarre enemy creatures in that kind of environment.

Nintendo adds new games to the Wii™ Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

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Europe has been known for receiving Nintendo games rather late. This bit of information led to the questioning of why Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit will be releasing in Europe before America. A discussion on the latest 1-up podcast talks about how Reggie replied to the Mario Kart Wii/Wii Fit release date confusion with “because they won’t get Brawl until Fall (Autumn).”

I don’t know if Mario Kart Wii/Wii Fit would be a reasonable substitution for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, especially because Autumn is rather late.

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Best Buy

Free $10 gift card when you buy Jumper: Griffin’s Story (Wii)

Circuit City

Free pen stylus and screen protector 2-pack with purchase of a DS Lite

Target

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) – $39.99
Thrillville: Off the Rails (Wii) – $39.99
High School Musical: Sing It! (Wii) – $49.99
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii) – $29.99

Although Wii owners who follow the Sam & Max games have requested the series to head to the Wii, Telltale will be cooking up something different for WiiWare. However, fans of Telltale should not be worried, as Kevin Bruner of Telltale explains that a new franchise – bigger than Sam and Max – will be coming to WiiWare.

“They’re big franchises, even bigger than Sam and Max. One will be on WiiWare. It’s been great to start with relatively small licenses like Bone, then move up to Max, then to these two new ones.” – Kevin Bruner (CTO of Telltale)

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During a recent interview, Doug Lombardi of Valve, who took part in the recent release of the acclaimed Orange Box, stated that the Wii would be Valve’s next system of choice to develop for.

“If Valve were to develop in-house for another format, it would be the Wii. It’s growing, there’s already a huge user-base, and it’s fun. Source is really scaleable. We can do that.” – Doug Lombardi

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TG16
– Psychosis

N64
– Kirby 64™: The Crystal Shards

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WiiWare

– No harddrive announced.
– Game manuals will be located on the Shop Channel, not on the ROM.
– Games will be compressed, and will expand when they begin play
– Can move WiiWare games to SD card, or you can delete + redownload later

Downloadable content

– Buy content with Wii points
– Can purchase extra content for WiiWare games, disc games
– Additional content for disc games would be purchased in-game
– No date announced for downloadable content

Pay to Play – new Wi-Fi service

– Wi-Fi connection remains, but this is something else
– Subscribe to a particular game for some titles
– Use Wii points to play
– Red logo will be used so that consumers will not be confused
– Pricing, games, etc. were not announced

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GDC hasn’t been filled with a ton the same type of announcements that are generally heard at E3, but an interesting tidbit has come out of the Boom Blox GDC conference.

Head tracking, which allows for players to experience environments with 3D depth, will be available in the game. Specifics, such as how exactly (previously recorded or custom levels?), the feature will be integrated remains to be seen, but it will be available.

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It’s been a number of months since the Everyone’s Nintendo Channel was released in Japan, yet gamers have still been hopeful that it would release in other territories eventually. It appears to be that North American Wii owners are one step closer to being able to download the channel.

According to Tom Prata, Nintendo is attempting to bring the channel overseas so that consumers who are interested in specific WiiWare titles will be able to look at the game information, and ultimately judge based on the details provided if the game is suitable for them.

“…Nintendo of Japan also has the “Everyone’s Nintendo Channel” which is used to cover content, and we’re working on making that available to the North American market as well. What that will allow is the consumer to find the content and get familiar and more educated with it, and make their decision based on that.” – Tom Prata (senior director of project development of Nintendo of America)

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Already a firm favourite with Wii owners, Virtual Console is once again expanding its catalogue, this time with the addition of a whole new games format. Later this year, Wii owners will be able to enjoy classic titles from the best selling personal computer of all time, the Commodore 64. These titles join classic gems from the likes of Nintendo, SEGA, Turbografx and NEOGEO already available via the Wii Shop Channel.The release of the Commodore 64 in 1982 was an historic moment for the computer and video games industry. According to the Guinness Book of World Records it remains the best selling single computer model of all time, with an estimated 22 million units sold. Its immense popularity saw an unrivalled collection of over 4,000 rich games titles released through its production lifetime (1982-1994), helping to establish the C64 as a ‘gamers favourite’. Now, some of the greatest Commodore 64 titles will be made available for Wii owners to download and play via the Virtual Console service.

Bala Keilman, CEO of Commodore Gaming, commented, “The massive impact the Commodore 64 had on video-gaming is still evident today with many gamers remembering the computer and its games with great fondness. By working with Nintendo of Europe, we are ensuring that future generations of gamers can play some of the best and most popular titles that kick-started the computer games revolution and so keep the C64 legacy in gamers hearts.”

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