In the latest issue of Club Nintendo – a Latin America Nintendo magazine (thanks, Light Wolf!) – Reggie Fils-Aime and Shigeru Miyamoto shed light on some interesting questions. First, and perhaps most importantly, Fils-Aime reaffirmed Nintendo’s commitment to investigating a storage solution. However, Fils-Aime confirmed that it isn’t necessarily a hard drive. Reggie’s words are roughly translated to the following: “We are working on a storage solution and it is especially important in America because our consumers are using Wii Points for the Virtual Console and WiiWare. I want the people to have the right expectations; We have never said that it will be a hard drive nor have we mentioned how we will fix this issue, but we are going to deliver a better way to store the games.” Miyamoto added that gamers should expect an announcement in the future, as Nintendo is researching different technologies to provide Wii owners with some sort of relief.
Between the two, a few more tidbits were shared. As has been previously reported, a new Zelda is indeed in development for the Wii. Although, Miyamoto noted that the new title has not been shown (will not be shown, rather) until the team is confident in the level of development they are in. So basically, when the game is ready to be unveiled to the public, Nintendo will do so.
Other news includes: Miyamoto said that there are enough peripherals for the Wii so we shouldn’t expect too many more. Fils-Aime commented yet again on hardcore gamers feeling left out of this year’s E3 press conference and explained that there’s GTA for the DS and that Animal Crossing is a hardcore game.
Last but not least: No Wii demos on the Nintendo Channel, no DS redesign until sales slowdown, and Reggie Fils-Aime is flattered more than anything in regards to Microsoft’s recent announcements over Xbox Live avatars. New Pikmin confirmed once again. Miyamoto wouldn’t say whether or not we’ll see another Zelda game on the DS.
“I would be surprised to see Sega refusing a sequel opportunity if the game is indeed successful! In any case, our team is definitively ready to work on a sequel. We even have a precise idea on what to do next if this were to happen… And if you play the game, you might find some hints on what that idea is.” – Dorian Kieken, Sonic Chronicles’ Associate Producer
The impressions of Sonic Chronicles seem to have been a bit more positive over the recent weeks. We’ll have to wait and see if those opinions will translate into a good game, though. Knowing that it’s Sonic, I’d imagine that Sonic Chronicles will sell. I’m just hoping that the final product will do the hedgehog some justice!
Brenda Stells of Berwyn, PA, watches as her friend Kathleen Marshall of Wyndmoor, PA, bowls a strike at Wii Sports: bowling at AARP’s annual Life@50+ Expo event at Washington, D.C.’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Nintendo’s interactive booth attracted crowds with live demonstrations of senior- and baby boomer-friendly video games for its Wii and Nintendo DS systems.
Sharen Price and Virginia Foale of Jamaica, NY, find out their brain age at Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes A Day, a brain-training video game for the portable Nintendo DS system. Featured at AARP’s annual Life@50+ Expo event in Washington, D.C., the game is designed to help seniors and baby boomers to keep their minds agile with a series of math, memory, verbal and musical activities.
Best Buy
$5 off all Wii Fit accessories
Guitar Hero On Tour Bundle (DS) – $44.99
Mario Kart DS (DS) – $24.99
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) – $24.99
Spore Creatures (DS) – Free T-Shirt with purchase
Target
Boom Blox (Wii) – $39.99
Groovin’ Blocks is a music-based game like no other. It adds innovative musical gameplay to an addictive action/puzzle game. The game features 27 different stages for everyone, from casual to hardcore. It also includes 15 levels of unlockable bonuses, cooperative play and a head-to-head mode.
The game will be available for download on Nintendo’s WiiWare™ service starting September 8th for 800 Wii Points™.
Rygar on Wii doesn’t seem to be dead. New screenshots of the port surfaced a few days back which gives a pretty good indication that Tecmo hasn’t abandoned the project. What about the long delay, though? 1UP’s James Mielke has written a blog post which explains why Rygar has not already been released on the Wii. Believe it or not, the port has given Tecmo huge trouble. The company essentially had to retool the entire project after initial “disastrous results.”
“But both companies [Koei and Tecmo] are legendary for their cheapness (see: Tecmo’s repurposing of a 5 year-old PS2 game — Rygar — as a $500,000 quickie port to the Wii, a project which proved so disastrous and unportable that Tecmo had to go back to the drawing board with it, at nearly three times the cost of what they were trying to achieve in the first place).”
“We are talking with quite a few companies in and outside of Japan. We are routinely in such talks.” – Square Enix president Yoichi Wada
