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Demo Play Coming To Nintendo Handhelds
Earlier this year, a Nintendo patent came to light that described a function that would allow players to “skip” parts of the game they found difficult. This system eases the pain of completing a difficult game, without watering it down so much that it turns hardcore gamers off. The new system, described in a patent…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 7, 2009 -
Miyamoto: “Wait, Please” For Kid Icarus
Hey, there wasn’t a big Kid Icarus announcement at E3. Nintendo Power asked Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto about Kid Icarus and recently published his response: Wait, please. I’m really surprised how popular that is. But you are the first person to ask at this E3! The original Kid Icarus was released on the Nintendo Entertainment system…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 7, 2009 -
Nintendo’s Electroplankton Returns As DSiWare Download
Bite-sized chunks of Nintendo and Toshio Iwai‘s musical software Electroplankton are coming to DSiWare, with four of those releases hitting Japan this week. Each will feature a specific Electroplankton for Nintendo DSi owners to experiment with. Eventually, Nintendo has plans to release all ten Electroplankton via the DSi download service, doling each out 200 Nintendo…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 6, 2009 -
The Nintendo Download: Bits, Busts, And Chariots Of WiiWare
Busting moves, tripping bits, and racing chariots are just some of the fun activities presented in this week’s downloadable games for the Nintendo Wii and DSi. It’s a promising week for The Nintendo Download, with an especially robust set of titles dropping for WiiWare. Kicking things off is the release of Aksys Games’ BIT.TRIP CORE…
By Mike Fahey Published July 6, 2009 -
How Mario Galaxy Looks In 720p
Remember those “HD” Wii videos? This is just like them! Only, it’s Mario Galaxy, not Smash Bros. And they’re lovely big screenshots, not blurry little internet videos. To refresh, these games are displaying in what is essentially high definition, as they’re being run through a Wii emulator on a PC. So if the Wii could…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2009 -
The R4…Vending Machine
Forget those mythical panty vending machines! This vending machine in Osaka’s Den-Den Town is selling R4 devices. Best part? They’re all sold out. Nintendo has been fighting the R4 piracy flash carts and fighting them hard. There’s a court injunction against the Chinese R4 makers for “violation under Japan’s laws”. Yahoo! Auctions is prohibiting the…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 6, 2009 -
How Many Hours People Play Nintendo’s Wii Games (Sorry, Donkey Kong)
Never mind what’s at the bottom of this barrel, here’s a list of 29 Wii games from Nintendo and the amount of hours people play them, per gamer. (The following stats are pulled from the usage data shared by more than two million Wii users through the system’s Nintendo Channel. For more information about how…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 3, 2009 -
How One Man Spent $17,500 On A Video Game
JJ Hendricks, an avid games collector, recently paid $17,500 for a single video game. If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to spend that much on a video game, Hendricks has written all about it! The game in question is one we actually featured a few weeks back: a gold Nintendo World Championships cartridge,…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 3, 2009 -
Club Nintendo Elitists Score Prizes Later This Year
If you’ve been diligently registering your Nintendo DS and Wii games with Club Nintendo, enough to receive Gold or Platinum status, you’ll be getting a free gift from the company. When? Some time before January 1, 2010. North American Club Nintendo members of “Elite” standing, like myself, will be notified about the opportunity to claim…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 2, 2009 -
Nintendo Buys A TV Show
You’ve played Nintendo games. Now get ready for a Nintendo television show, as the Japanese gaming giant have bought themselves a British gaming show. And that show is called “Britain’s Best Brain”. While Nintendo won’t be allowed to advertise directly on the show (thanks to British regulations), they’ll be its principle sponsors, and the events…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 2, 2009 -
Miyamoto: New Zelda Won’t Be “Radically Different”
So Nintendo is making a new Zelda. Exciting! And with the new Wii MotionPlus, the possibilities are endless. Since the last console Zelda, Twilight Princess, was originally developed for the GameCube and ultimately released on the Wii. The upcoming Zelda would be developed for the console from the ground-up. Guess that means we’d be getting…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 2, 2009 -
Mother Sells Nintendo Wii Her Son Stole, Now Arrested
Three teens swiped a neighbors Wii and enlisted the help of a mother to pawn the stolen loot. Joshua Carter (18), Patrick Early (16) and Derrick Henson (13) have all been arrested on felony charges for stealing a neighbor’s Wii. According to Early, his mother, 41-year-old Maxine Law, helped them unload the console at a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 2, 2009 -
Bit.Trip: Core Preview: Thumb-Aching Good Fun
Bit.Trip: Core is the second installment of a six-part WiiWare music game series developed by Gaijin Games. The first game, Bit.Trip: Beat came out in March 2009 and quickly established itself as a tough game with solid rhythm gameplay. Though Nintendo never releases sales figures for its WiiWare titles, it’s safe to assume the title…
By AJ Glasser Published July 1, 2009 -
Finally, Grease: The Video Game
News that 505 Games and Paramount Digital are bringing the musical Grease to the Nintendo Wii gives me chills – which could be multiplying. 505 Games is overseeing development on the new project, which looks to be an all-singing, all-dancing party game that takes advantage of both the Wii’s motion sensing controls and a microphone.…
By Mike Fahey Published July 1, 2009 -
Square Enix Mystery Solved – The Four Warriors Of Light
Square Enix’s mystery countdown title is a mystery no longer, as scans from the latest Weekly Shonen Jump reveal The Four Warriors of Light: A Final Fantasy Anecdote. At least that’s the way the game’s name translates according to our own Brian Ashcraft, who pored over the scans to glean what information her could. The…
By Mike Fahey Published July 1, 2009 -
Spectrobes Now In Convenient Novel Format
Disney continues to stand behind their answer to the Pokémon, releasing a series of junior novels based in the Spectrobes universe. Disney’s enthusiasm for the series they had created from the ground up is admirable, and there tenacity is something to see. They aren’t just fostering a video game franchise, but attempting to sow the…
By Mike Fahey Published June 30, 2009 -
Nintendo Patents WarioWare Take On Othello
The last time we unearthed a big new Nintendo patent, we found hints of a video game paradigm shift. This time, Nintendo may have locked up a multiplayer mode from a 2004 GameCube game. On June 23, the United States granted Nintendo patent number 7,5489,923 a more than 11,000-word patent invented by WarioWare director Goro…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 30, 2009 -
Wii Sports Resort Is The Third Best Selling Wii Title
Last week, sports game collection Wii Sports Resort went on sale in Japan. Loads of people bought it. The game launched on June 25, and in its first four days, the title moved 353,827 copies. Sales-wise for the first four days, that puts Wii Sports Resort behind Mario Kart Wii (608,000) and Super Smash Bros.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 30, 2009 -
Reviews
The Conduit Review: A Bland, But Enjoyable Shooter
In Sega’s The Conduit, you play as a pawn in a vast conspiracy involving aliens, shadowy government agencies, and the president of the United States. But the Wii-exclusive first-person shooter hopes to win gamers over not with its plot and known voice talent, but its nuanced controls and solid multiplayer gaming. With the ability to…
By Brian Crecente Published June 29, 2009 -
The Nintendo Download: Summertime In The Fantasy Zone
It’s summertime, and on top of the usual crop of random puzzle games and a return to the Fantasy Zone, Nintendo has a couple of games available for download today that accurately simulate being outside. What’s outside, you ask? No earthly clue. As far as I am concerned my world ends at that heavy curtain…
By Mike Fahey Published June 29, 2009