Gamernode: Latest Wii News

May 19th Virtual Console/WiiWare releases

The Big N has settled into a new routine now, updating both the Wii Virtual Console and WiiWare catalogs every Monday. Today we have a pair of new WiiWare games and one NES title hitting the little white box, down from the six new releases we saw last week.

Critter Round-Up is a puzzle game where players must fix fences in order to keep animals from escaping a virtual barnyard. Star Soldier R is a timed space shooter, featuring ship upgrades and power-ups, as well as an online leaderboard updated via the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. The lone Virtual Console game, Sky Kid, sees players assuming the role of the Red Baron, shooting down enemy planes and pulling off loop-de-loops in grand, 1986-meets-1917 style.

Here are the official details from the press release:

WiiWareCritter Round-Up (Kona...

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Pitfall Harry falls onto the Wii

We last saw Pitfall Harry in his 2004 title Pitfall: The Lost Expedition. It was a merely passable game but Activision must have saw enough success to warrant a sequel. Enter Pitfall: The Big Adventure exclusive to the Wii.

The game apparently boasts over 60 levels with a diverse range of landscapes and areas. Players will use the Wii Remote to pull off various feats. The title is being developed by Edge of Reality, the same people who brought us the previous Pitfall game. The Big Adventure is set to hit store shelves this fall.

From what I've seen, the game doesn't look too great. Actually the graphics are downright awful compared to other Wii titles or even other GameCube games. This game looks even worse than its predecessor with worse lighting, texture tearing, and poor draw distance.

A...

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Will WiiWare take off? Yes!

WiiWare has launched in the US. The big question on most Nintendo fan lips is "Will it take off?" This is a good question considering the service has a few limitations. For one, the developers are constrained with a 40 MB limit for their games.

This caused some people to wonder if WiiWare would only see mini-game collections or other games of comparable status. Well several developers have put those fears to rest. With Frontier Developments' LostWinds and Square-Enix's latest Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles already on the service, the future definitely looks good if day one already brought us those games.

We also have several confirmed titles in the works like Gyrostarr, Dr. Mario Online, and others. I think it's safe to say that WiiWare will be a huge hit. I know I'm looking forward to it...

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May 12th Virtual Console/WiiWare releases

Exactly zero games have been added to the Wii Virtual Console lineup this week. Instead Nintendo is "taking a week off" to celebrate the launch of WiiWare, the console's original games download service.

The good news is that six WiiWare games have been release for its inaugural week, headlined by the newest Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles game, My Life as a King, and Frontier Development's LostWinds. These initial offerings range from simulation kingdom building to casual bubble popping to a casino card game, so hopefully not everyone will be completely distraught over the momentary ebb in classic videogame flow.

From the press release:

FINAL FANTASY® CRYSTAL CHRONICLES®: My Life as a King™ (Square Enix, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes,...

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Nintendo Channel goes live

Earlier this morning, the Nintendo Channel (known as Everyone's Nintendo Channel in Japan) went live in North America. So boot up your Wii and head over to the Shop Channel to download it. This new channel opens up several new and exciting features to Wii owners including the ability to watch videos, commercials, and interviews.

The channel also allows you to rate any game you've played for more than an hour. Nintendo will then use your ratings to recommend games to you, although some games are not currently available for rating. I really wanted to tell people how awesome No More Heroes was too, bummer.

The most exciting feature, however, is the ability to stream demos of DS games right to your DS. It's like those DS Download Stations you sometimes see in stores only now you can do the sam...

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May 5th Virtual Console releases

Happy Cinco de Mayo from the land of classic videogames! This week's Virtual Console update isn't exactly the celebration of victory one might be hoping for, however, as it features a lackluster addition to a genre whose concept has been perfected elsewhere on numerous occasions, and a re-skinned version of a game that could have made it to the Wii for half the cost.

Renegade is the third NES beat-em-up from Technos to come to the Virtual Console in as many weeks, but this time the excitement of River City Ransom and Double Dragon just doesn't carry over. Actually, Renegade will make you wish you were playing those games, instead. As for Pokemon Puzzle League, it is basically the Pokemon-coated version of Tetris Attack. That's not a bad thing, but if it was replaced by Tetris Attack (an...

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Animal Crossing for Wii expected at E3. Whee!

VideoGames Blogger speculates that a Wii edition of the popular Animal Crossing franchise will make a showing at this year's E3. The reasoning is that Nintendo has yet to reveal any of their second-half 2008 lineup. 

They also, by dissecting each and every bit of Animal Crossing information for the past three years, have come up with a plausible list of features that the title might have. Most interesting is that they say the game will feature the ability to travel to friend's towns and play with several friends simultaneously.

"This creates a real-time, online community in larger towns that allow you to chat, work on building the town, and play motion controlled mini-games together", they say.

They also touch on the possibility that Animal Crossing Wii will be an MMO title that utilizes Nin...

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RUMOR: Prince of Persia coming to Wii?

A brand new Prince of Persia game was recently announced for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, and a few gamers have been wondering if the Wii will see a port of the title. In a recent Edge interview, Ubisoft confirmed that they will not be producing a port but there might be a different Prince of Persia title in the works for the system. Here is an excerpt from the interview.

"It's connected to the game in a very interesting way, but it's not a port. A complementary experience, shall we say? We ported Two Thrones to the Wii. It was a quick and dirty port, I can say. With that we saw a lot of potential. The controls were not fully optimized, and it did not take full advantage of the Wii, but a lot of people saw the PoP universe could certainly have a home on Wii. Since then, people h...

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EarthBound is coming to the Virtual Console!

Today I woke up to the best news I've heard in a very, very long time. EarthBound, my favorite game of all time, is finally coming to the Wii Virtual Console. Today EarthBound was rated by the ESRB with an E rating.

What tells us that it's coming to the VC is that it's listed under Wii. Since the creator of the series told us that there won't be any more original games in the franchise, this can only mean that the SNES RPG will be hitting the VC.

We don't know when it's coming but now we definitely know it is coming and that's better than nothing. The good news is that newly rated VC games usually hit the service quickly after it's rated so we may see this gem sooner than we think.

If you would like to see the rating for yourself, head over to the ESRB website and type "EarthBound" into the...

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Nintendo prez says the Wii needs more "surprises"

It's no news that critics of Nintendo's Wii say that the game console has been mired in shovelware of late and that the Wii is a gigantic giant ready to take a hard fall. But among those voices comes one from Nintendo's own ranks-none other then the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata.

First off, he related that he wasn't very concerned with other game companies copying the Wiimote motion sensing concept but was more concerned with bringing in new ideas to the Wii consumer base.

"We are not concerned about what other companies may do but rather more concerned with presenting them with new ideas to our customers based on the prospect that our existing customers will surely get tired of the plays enabled by Wii Remote if we do not try to improve the experience. In other words, what matters to ...

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Miyamoto says we need to have balance in gaming

The man who built Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, had some wisdom for gamers as he discussed the role of video games in our lives. He said that video games were a vehicle to enrich us, but also stressed that gamers need balance as well.

He hoped that the game Wii Fit, a low impact exercise game, would bring family and friends together. "In Japanese households suddenly new conversations are springing up between fathers and mothers, fathers and daughters, talking about Wii Fit."

Miyamoto said that gaming needs to be offset with other activities. He drew from a personal example to illustrate his philosophy. "Spending too long, staying in and playing any video game is not good. I always tell my children to get out on a sunny day and I, myself, went jogging in Central Park yesterday. But I do my stre...

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April 28th Virtual Console releases

Nintendo must be hurtin' for new (old) content, because we are again seeing a one-game update to the Virtual Console library. I am willing to let this one slide, though (I dunno what I could really do about it anyway), because the game in question is the excellent Double Dragon for the NES.

This arcade-style beat-em-up is a great follow-up to last week's River City Ransom; it was made a couple of years earlier by the same development studio, and can be viewed as a sort of grandfather of the genre. If you've ever played a side-scrolling punch-and-kick-everyone-in-the-face-until-they-drop game, Double Dragon is among the reasons you were able to, and you should definitely check it out.

From the official mouths fingertips of Nintendo:

Double Dragon (NES®, 1-2 players, Rated Everyone 10+ - Mil...

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Boom Blox: Best use of physics of any video game?

Last year Steven Spielberg signed a contract with EA to produce videogames and the resulting collaboration between the big-time movie director and big-time game publisher is Boom Blox for the Wii, scheduled for release on May 9. 

The game is described as a "high energy" game for the entire family. It will feature more than 300 levels, 30 plus characters, and include an in-game editor that will allow players to generate their own worlds of fun.

Amir Rahimi, senior producer of Boom Blox believes that the game has the best physics that have ever been seen on any game console to date.

"I certainly have not seen any game out on the Wii that uses... you know what? I might even be so bold as to say I haven't really seen another game that uses physics as well and as much as Boom Blox...We spend the ...

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Earthworm Jim and others going Virtual Console

Following reports that Interplay will be reviving some of their old franchises, we now hear word that the company will be putting up their old Sega Genesis classics up on the Wii Virtual Console later this year.

The games Interplay will be bringing to the Virtual Console are Boogerman, Clay Fighter, and best of all, Earthworm Jim and its sequel.

Of course, the most exciting news for most of you (and for me) is the confirmation of Earthworm Jim coming to the VC. EJ and its sequel are two of the best games to ever grace the Sega Genesis and I'm elated to hear that the two games will be easily accessible on my Wii.

[via Gamasutra]

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Dev says there will be PS3/X360 graphics on Wii

High Voltage Software is developing a new graphics engine designed for the Wii called the Quantum3 engine and claims their engine is capable of producing graphics that are of PS3 and Xbox 360 caliber.

"Quantum3 is the result of 15 years development experience and enables developers to make use of advanced graphical features, including better dynamic bump mapping, light effects, glossing and other visual improvements. Additionally, Quantum3 uses a 16 TEV stage material pipeline that can blend up to 8 separate texture sources.

"The engine also uses advanced processing techniques to make gameplay smoother, examples including seamless resource streaming, projected shadows, morphing and much more."says High Voltage.

High Voltage's first title which will utilize the Quantum3 engine is called The C...

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April 21st Virtual Console releases

Today is the day that dreams come true. Like every other Monday since its release, the Virtual Console library has been augmented with a couple of new games; what makes this update special is that one of those games happens to be River City Ransom - one of the best side-scrolling beat-em-ups in existence.

River City Ransom is the story of Alex and Ryan, a pair of high schoolers who set out to rescue Ryan's girlfriend from the gangs of River City. In addition to their hands and feet, the duo has a variety of weapons at their disposal, from sticks and chains to garbage cans and lead pipes. They can also learn special techniques via books purchased with money dropped by fallen foes. The RPG influence is evident, especially in the unique stat-growth system, but the game is fast-paced and a...

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Wii Fit officially priced at $90

Confirming rumors from last month, Nintendo has decided on an official price for their upcoming Wii Fit; the game will debut on May 19th at the price of $89.99. Additionally, consumers who preorder the title from the Nintendo World Store in New York City will receive a Wii Fit T-shirt signed by the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto himself. (Reproduced, of course.)

Obviously people will complain about the price, but are games getting too expensive?  I remember the Super NES and Sega Genesis era when the high-profile games were $80 or sometimes more. I very much remember having to save up $100 to purchase my copy of Chrono Trigger back in the day. Back then, high prices were quite common. Now in this day and age, that's the exception because most games cost thirty to sixty dollars with the rare gam...

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New Boom Blox screens

In case you forgot recently, EA and Spielberg are teaming up to bring you an "innovative puzzler" on the Wii, titled Boom Blox. The game is due to hit stores next month. For those who aren't "in the know," as we like to say, here's the official description of the game from EA:

"Fun for kids and the entire family, BOOM BLOX offers action-packed interactive activities that takes Wii play to a new level of creativity and fun with single player, co-op, and versus gameplay. Players can experience the visceral gameplay - perfectly suited for the Wii's interactive motion-sensitive controls - through brain-twisting challenges. They can interact with entertaining characters such as the block-laying chickens or baseball-throwing monkeys across four themed environments - Tiki, Medieval, Frontier, and...

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April 14th Virtual Console releases

Another thrilling week for the Wii-kly update! This time we get two games which I vaguely recall playing back in the day, but obviously didn't enjoy enough to clearly remember. The two sidescrolling action games "invite players to blast and battle their way to a thrilling climax," so if you like battling your way to a thrilling climax (while blasting) then these may be the games for you. If not, better luck next week.

Fantasy Zone (Sega Master System, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): Take command of the spaceship Opa-Opa and blast your way through various fantastical levels as you try to take out all the enemy bases in each stage. Once you've destroyed the bases, you'll have to beat the stage boss in order to move on to the next level. By using your guns and bombs wisely...

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Nintendo takes the lid off Mario Super Sluggers

Maybe some of you guys were fans of 2005's Mario Superstar Baseball. I myself briefly dabbled in the game once at a friend's house.

The game was functional, fun, and managed to keep me entertained for more than a few hours despite my general dislike of everything sports related. So it is with mild interest that I greet Nintendo's unveilment of Mario Super Sluggers, the Wii sequel to 2005's hit Mario/Baseball mixture.

Screenshots reveal that Mario Super Sluggers doesn't showcase much graphical fidelity. At least it doesn't when compared to its predecessor. It could be the terrible quality of the screens, but it seems to me that the two games look completely identical.

Nintendo's very own Bill Trinen demoed Mario Super Sluggers at their currently on-going Media Summit event. IGN was there to c...

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