If your idea of a superhero is someone with an invincible ego who can type e-mails while wearing boxing gloves, then the Wii™ Shop Channel has great news for you. The legendary Strong Bad (from the popular Homestar Runner Web series) makes his eagerly anticipated WiiWare™ debut this week. For even more laughs and clever gaming kicks, you’ll also find a satirical space-age shooter on the Virtual Console™, along with a classic billiards game for those who prefer to keep their feet planted firmly on the ground.
Nintendo adds new and classic 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:
To most, this year’s E3 was the most disappointing Nintendo conference over the past three years – even more so than last year – due to Nintendo’s increasingly blatant focus on the casual audience. How exactly did Nintendo’s most recent press conference stack up to its previous two years though? Well, over the past three years, the total of games the company has decided to present – for both Wii and DS – have declined considerably. Believe it or not, this applies to third-parties as well. Overall, E3 2008 saw the biggest shift in Nintendo’s attention and also saw a big drop in titles. It will be very interesting to see how Nintendo approaches next year’s E3 if they continue on this pace – if there is another E3, that is. Below are a number of statistics that compare different categories for Nintendo’s three latest press conferences.
Total number of games discussed
E3 2006 – 43
E3 2007 – 28
E3 2008 – 11
Total number of Wii games discussed
E3 2006 – 29
E3 2007 – 19
E3 2008 – 7
Total number of DS games discussed
E3 2006 – 14
E3 2007 – 9
E3 2008 – 4
Best Buy
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) – $39.99
Space Chimps (Wii) – $29.99
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii) – $19.99
Little League World Series (Wii) – Free $10 gift card with purchase
Circuit City
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) – $39.99
Mario Party 8 (Wii) – $39.99
MLB Power Pros (Wii) – $15.99
Imagine Teacher (DS) – $19.99
Target
$17 DS games: Brain Age, Brain Age 2, CrossworDS, Flash Focus, High School Musical: Makin’ the Cut, Hannah Montana
“With six degrees of freedom you can basically make any movement at all, and be able to track that in combination with the sensor bar and other sensors included in the Wii remote. Add the gyroscope capability and you have the ability to work in all three dimensions of space.”
A refreshing statement from Joe Virginia, vice-president of the company that brings us MotionPlus for Wii, InvenSense.
It’s what we’ve all been waiting for! The ability to wave the Wii Remote in any direction, and have true output as if one were actually swinging a sword, or tennis racket.
But as far as Nintendo being the only company with such technology available will be more than questionable in the near-to-late future.
“Of course we’re incredibly pleased – delighted would probably be a better adjective – that Nintendo approached us… but it’s not an exclusive relationship,”
Virginia hasn’t and won’t release any information on what systems, or companies, will be using their technology.
“I can’t get into details about other folks that are interested in this technology, but as you might imagine of course there is more interest out there.”
So this means Wii will still have the most physically interactive games, but for how long?
Come on Nintendo, you’ve got to have something up your sleeve. We built this city on originality.
The Japanese Mario Kart Wii tournament website has been updated with information about a new tournament. Here’s a lowdown on what to expect:
Course: Koopa Cape
Objective: Pass through rings
Vehicles: All
Tournament date: 8/15 – 8/25
A new game, Tumblebugs, has been officially announced for WiiWare. The game is scheduled to release this fall.
Today Hyderabad and Los Angeles based Gameshastra announces an agreement to create the Wii version of Brisbane based Wildfire Studios’ wildly popular and critically acclaimed Tumblebugs franchise.
Since first launching in 2005, Tumblebugs and the recently released sequel Tumblebugs 2, have generated 40+ million downloads.
“We are strong believers in console based casual games,” says Prakash Ahuja, CEO of Gameshastra, “especially given the recent transformation of consoles from historically teen focused gaming devices to now becoming family entertainment hubs in many living rooms across the globe. We are very focused on titles that satisfy this new, broad demographic.”
Sam and Max Season One (Wii) – 85%
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (Wii) – 61%
Summer Athletics (Wii) – 63%
Wall-E (Wii) – 54%
Rock Band: Special Edition (Wii) – 80%
Kung Fu Panda (Wii) – 76%
The Incredible Hulk (Wii) – 43%
Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) – 80%
Civilization Revolution (DS) – 89
Bangai-O-Spirits (DS) – 82%
Metal Slug 7 (DS) – 50%
Mr. Slime Jr. (DS) – 70%
Hi Hamataro Ham-Ham Challenge (DS) – 80%
Mary King’s Riding School (DS) – 64%
Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns (DS) – 63%
Space Chimps (DS) – 47%
Top Spin 3 (DS) – 60%
Biohazard 0 (Wii import) – Not recommended
Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 (DS import) – 79%
DAIGASSO! Band Brothers DX (DS import) – 88%
Hello Kitty: No Panda Sport Stadium (DS import) – 42%
Blue Oasis (WiiWare) – 2/5
Major League Eating: The Game (WiiWare) – 2/5
Gyrostarr (WiiWare) – 3/5
SPOGS Racing (WiiWare) – 1/5
Thanks to Biggity for the news tip.
Fire Emblem: New Shadow Dragons and the Blade of Light (NDS) – 80k
Tales of Vesperia (360) – 70k
Treyarch’s community manager has confirmed in an email that there will not be online co-op functionality in Call of Duty: World at War for Wii. Instead, there will only be offline co-op between two players – not even four. This comes at a great disappointment, especially after an interview was indicating that the Wii version of the game would be very close to its 360 and PS3 counterparts.
“Hi XXXXXXX-
I’m glad to see you are interested in Call of Duty: World at War.
Unfortunately, you’re trying to compare apples to oranges with the below listed games and Call of Duty: World at War. I don’t believe any of the games you listed utilize any form of DX9 shader technology, or any of the other numerous advancements with the CoD4: Modern Warfare engine which is now running on the Wii with CoD:WW. These ramifications for online play are far-reaching
We are proud to bring what we believe will be the best-looking Wii game this fall to the community, but that comes with technical trade-offs. The difference between competitive MP and co-op is non-trivial. Think of a size of an MP level, then compare that to an SP level. Then consider all the AI code, level scripting, and endless other content in a SP / co-op environment that is just too much for the Wii to sustain with our engine.
