Kotaku's Pre-E3 Party

With most of Kotaku Tower emptying out to fly to Los Angeles this weekend it would be a crime not to throw a party. So of course we are. Come join us for a some pre-E3 libations on Sunday July 13 at LA's historic Golden Gopher.

Among the guests will be weekend warriors Maggie Greene, plus yours truly (in the I Heart Hot Moms shirt from the GTA:DUI video). Also appearing are Brian Crecente, Brian Ashcraft and Mike McWhertor. You'll also be able to catch up with Leigh Alexander and Mike "Mountain Man" Fahey, plus Intern Adam Barenblat, who interrupted me amidst a phone call with a ladyfriend last night and now must buy me a beer. (What, that cost me $5.99 a minute. Damn right I'm making the intern pay.)

The thing kicks off at 8 p.m., when the place opens, and we will, for a time, have an open bar. The place isn't gigantic, and in Tokyo we managed to burst Mother at the seams, so you may want to try and get there on the nose.

If you plan on making it, make sure to obtain a wristband from one of us once you arrive for the free drinks. The party is 21 and older only, unfortunately. Sorry.

Golden Gopher

Kotaku's Pre-E3 Party

With most of Kotaku Tower emptying out to fly to Los Angeles this weekend it would be a crime not to throw a party. So of course we are. Come join us for a some pre-E3 libations on Sunday July 13 at LA's historic Golden Gopher.

Among the guests will be Kotaku's own Maggie Greene and Owen Good as well as such surely editor types as Brian Ashcraft and Mike McWhertor. You'll also be able to catch up with Leigh Alexander and Mike "Mountain Man" Fahey. I'll be around as well, probably demanding things of Intern Adam, like having him fetch me sammiches.

The thing kicks off at 8 p.m., when the place opens, and we will, for a time, have an open bar. The place isn't gigantic, and in Tokyo we managed to burst Mother at the seams, so you may want to try and get there on the nose.

Give a shout out in comments if you plan on making it and make sure to obtain a wristband from one of us once you arrive for the free drinks. Oh, 21 and older only, unfortunately. Sorry.

Golden Gopher

Following the release of Majesco's Wonder World Amusement Park, there isn't much for fans of casual mini-game collections to play on their Wiis. Well, there's Sports Party, Summer Athletics, and Carnival Games: Mini-Golf, which all hit later this summer, but after that? It's looking a little dry.

Fortunately, Midway is filling the Fall 2008 void, announcing Game Party 2 for the Wii, sequel to the million-plus selling original. It promises a total of eleven games, including Skee Ball Skill Ball, Jarts Lawn Darts and Beer Pong Ping Cup. Sounds like something I'll never touch fun! Pics of some of the games in action in our gallery below.

Come Party With Kotaku

With most of Kotaku Tower emptying out to fly to Los Angeles later this month it would be a crime not to throw a party. So of course we are. Come join us for a some pre-E3 libations on Sunday July 13 at LA's historic Golden Gopher.

Among the guests will be Kotaku's own Maggie Greene and Owen Good as well as such surely editor types as Brian Ashcraft and Mike McWhertor. You'll also be able to catch up with Leigh Alexander and Mike "Mountain Man" Fahey. I'll be around as well, probably demanding things of Intern Adam, like having him fetch me sammiches.

The thing kicks off at 8 p.m., when the place opens, and we will, for a time, have an open bar. They place isn't gigantic, and in Tokyo we managed to burst Mother at the seams, so you may want to try and get there on the nose.

Give a shout out in comments if you plan on making it and make sure to obtain a wristband from one of us once you arrive for the free drinks.

Golden Gopher

Don’t let the name and the cute graphics fool you, Dokapon Kindom, the upcoming party RPG from Sting and Atlus, more than lives up to its subtitle “The Friendship Destroying Game.” I had the pleasure of checking it out last week and testing my already somewhat tenuous relationship with my arch-enemy, GamePro’s Travis Moses. It was a lot of fun and quite surpassed my expectations.

The best way to start describing Dokapon Kingdom would be to compare it to Mario Party in that they are both multiplayer games that use a board game mechanic, but the similarities stop there. Dokapon Kingdom goes a step further by adding in RPG elements, a huge map and a healthy dose of vicious competition to create something truly unique and a hell of a lot of fun. Up to four players can play locally (there is no online play) and no worries if you only have one controller as the game can be played with the “pass the controller” method.

Dokapon Kingdom has been overrun with monsters much to the chagrin of its King and his daughter, Princess Penny. Your job is to help rid the land of it’s monstrous inhabitants and any other requests the King might have for you along the way. You begin the game by creating your own customizable character and choosing your class: Thief, Warrior, Magician, etc. Then, once the game begins it’s every man/woman for him/herself.

Nintendo Third Parties Don't Need Your Pity, Publisher Says

There are so many Wii games and DS games on store shelves — so many bad ones — that you'd think Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton would like to complain about them. His company focuses on Wii and DS, after all.

And you'd think he might take the opening to talk about the stress of Nintendo first-party sales dominance. Nope!

Asked about the assumed struggles of being a third party on the Wii and DS in an earnings call earlier this month, Sutton said they are not holding Majesco back. Meaty analyst-exec conversation (that just might teach you something) follows...

Finally a publisher comes right out and says it - we're gonna crank out mini-games for the Wii like there was no tomorrow. Ubisoft has launched a new label, Play Zone, focused on delivering fast and fun entertainment for friends and family through mini-games.

The first game to appear under the Play Zone label is Sports Party, which features nine different mini-games with varying difficulty levels. Included are three variations on basketball, croquet, lawn darts, badminton, volley-ball, horse shoes, and mini-golf. Sounds perfect for parents who've grown jaded over this whole fresh-air and sunshine nonsense.

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party Announced

Can't get enough Raving Rabbids? Well you're not alone, Ubisoft is crazy for their crazy hares as well.

Today the company announced a new Raving Rabbids title is coming to the DS and Wii this holiday season and that the Wii version will support the Balance Board.

"The Rayman Raving Rabbids titles have been an immense success, entertaining the world over,” said Yves Guillemot, president and chief executive officer, Ubisoft. "The inclusion of the Wii Balance Board into the game was a huge source of inspiration for our development team and I guarantee you will see the Wii Balance Board used in ways that will be surprisingly unexpected!”

It sounds like the game will be like the other Raving Rabbids but this time getting players to do evil things to cows with the balance board... not that there's anything wrong with that.

Hit the jump for the full release and screens.

Here's The Beer Pong Trailer

When you've had your fill of virtual binging with Major League Eating, why not virtually purge with a round of Beer Pong? Thanks to the power of WiiWare and Frat Party Games, the thrill of tossing ping pong balls with a femme wrist snap at Solo cups can be experienced without the threat of alcohol poisoning. To sum up, Beer Pong, Frat Party Games, WiiWare and no, this isn't something you're going to wake up from.

Iron Man Weekend Party Fun Time!

Yet Another PS2 SingStar Game Announced

Tomorrow (Wed.) will see the Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword launch party at the Nintendo World Store in New York City from 2pm - 6pm. The game's producer and director Yosuke Hayashi will be on hand to sign autographs and met and greet the crowd. If you purchase the game there you will be granted one of those nifty Dragon Sword Ninja styli. There will also be demo stations set up around the store so you can try before you buy.

Also, as I reported last week, tonight is the launch party for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII at the Sony Metreon Center in San Francisco. The event goes from 6pm - 9pm and space is limited to 200 people.

And if that's not enough for you, our own Crecente will be attending and telling you all about his adventures at the Tecmo event in New York. Launch events, ho!

I've often been privy to conversations where people swear that the only good Wii game is a first party Nintendo game. While this might be true for some, there are plenty of other folks out there who enjoy a decent 3rd party game although admittedly the really good ones are few and far between.

The Video Game Blog has posted an interesting list of the third party Wii games that have sold over a million copies. Some of them are pretty obvious like Resident Evil 4 (1.6 million) and Guitar Hero III (1.8 million) while others were definitely a surprise (at least to me) like Carnival Games (1.2 million) and the top seller of all, Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games (3.4 million). There are seven games total on the list including three that are getting pretty close to a million like RE: Umbrella Chronicles (900k) and LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (900k).

While all the games on the list may not be your cup of tea, it certainly is interesting to see what sells on the little white console. You can check out the entire list at That Videogame Blog.
3rd party Wii games that sold a million [That Videogame Blog - via GoNintendo]

Square Enix Bringing "Dragon Quest Party" Stateside?

Is Square Enix finally bringing its Itadaki Street series to North America? We've got a hunch it is. The latest entry, known as Itadaki Street DS in Japan, features a guest appearance in the long-running board game series from the Mario universe cast, including Peach, Bowser, Wario and Yoshi. While previous games in the series featured characters from Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, the inclusion of Mario and pals may have the star power Square Enix needs to finally localize it.

Square Enix has made no such announcements about such a game, but its recently filed trademark for Party Castle certainly makes us think it may have sights set on an English port. Everyone knows "party" translates to "dice-rolling board game" in Nintendo-speak. Plus, Itadaki Street DS has no shortage of castles. Conjecture? Totally. That's why we're getting in touch with Square Enix to learn more about what this new trademark means. (Pray it's not a mobile game!)

Party Castle Trademark [USPTO]

So a funny thing happened at last week's Valve party.

As I'm sure you're all aware Valve threw a little party during last week's big show (We weren't invited. I blame our butchering of their song.) and during the tail end of it they brought up Jonathan Coulton to play a set. At the end of his last song he invited the Rock Band folks up on the stage to play Still Alive on their game, a really neat way to announce that the song was coming to the game.

There's really not much a third party company can do with the Nintendo Wiimote controller. Since so many peripherals (GH Controller, Zapper, Shark Gun) are designed specifically to accommodate the shape of the standard Wiimote, you can't except to see any wild variations as you might with a third party Xbox 360 or PS3 controller. This fact has kept many peripheral makers away from the Wii, but not Sunflex. The German controller company fiddled with the button shapes, slapped a shiny new coat of paint and a rubberized grip and voila! The Snakebyte Riimote. Get it? Riimote! Like remote, only spelled like Wii! HA! Ahem. The controller comes in two colors, Glossy Black and Lipstick Pink (for the girls - their words), and should be available February 8th across Europe for 39,99€. The company plans on complimenting the Riimote with the Snakebyte Nunchaku, wireless Nunchaku, and Retro Controller this spring, along with new colors of the Riimote itself.

Sunflex Product Gallery [Sunflex Europe]

Third Party Games For Wii Will Take Off Like DS

If you look at the data for our third quarter you'll see that, out of the 14 Wii titles that shipped over a million units, 11 of those were our titles. However, if you look at the 50 titles that shipped over a million units on DS, only 28 of those are ours.