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Virtual Console Release: Wii-k.
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Retro, Role Playing Games, Strategy, Virtual Console, Wii,
Koei has been milking the Dynasty Warriors franchise for a while, with seemingly dozens of releases hitting every platform from the PlayStation 2 to the Xbox 360. But the series actually spun off from another franchise for the company, the strategic Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. In fact, the Dynasty Warriors release pattern mirrors that of Romance; take a good idea, and run it into the ground with more releases than the public can handle. Still, the SNES release is one of the better entries into the series, and for 800 Wii Points, one can experience the property as it was originally intended. Having this as the sole retro release this week is a disappointment, however.
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| Nintendo
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EA Announces Wii-Exclusive Boogie
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Party Games, Wii,
Electronic Arts had previously announced both that it would be focusing more of its development efforts on original IP as well as moving resources to Nintendo’s Wii. Today, EA revealed an original IP game for the Wii called Boogie, a party-style game that will combing dancing and karaoke-style gameplay, which would seem to lend credence to a Wii microphone peripheral in the future. The game is being developed by EA Montreal, developers of SSX Blur. The game’s character design definitely looks interesting, and hopefully third-party developers continue to bring original creations to Nintendo’s console.
Read More | Gamasutra
Excitebike, Splatterhouse, Beyond Oasis Hit Virtual Console
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Retro, Virtual Console, Wii,
Some times with Nintendo’s Virtual Console releases, it feels like you are getting filler. This week, though, highlights three better than average games that should get those nostalgic feelings flowing again. Excitebike, of course, is Nintendo’s side-scrolling motorbike racer for the NES. Like all NES titles before it, the game sells for 500 Wii points. The other two releases this week might have gotten slightly less attention at first release. Fewer people may have seen Splatterhouse because of the platform it appeared on, but it is a generally decent side-scrolling action game that inspired a number of the survival horror games that would follow. Splatterhouse sells for 600 Wii points. Beyond Oasis is a decent, if a little short, action RPG. The prequel to this story was released as Legend of Oasis on the Sega Saturn. Beyond Oasis sells for 800 Wii points, which might be a bit much for this RPG, but those familiar with the Saturn entry in the series would do well to try the Genesis version out.
Nintendo’s full press release continues below.
Click to continue reading Excitebike, Splatterhouse, Beyond Oasis Hit Virtual Console
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NPD: Nintendo DS, Wii Lead Hardware Sales
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360,
February’s NPD data has been released, and things look good for Nintendo. 1up has the details on video game sales for last month, and the Nintendo DS sold 485,000 units, the Wii 335,000. For the rest of the next-generation hardware, Microsoft maintained its sales pace by moving around 228,000 consoles, while the Playstation 3 saw a significant drop to 127,000. The PSP didn’t do much better against the DS, moving 176,000 handhelds.
The only bright spot for Sony would be that in the non-handheld category, the PS2 took second behind the Wii, selling 295,000 units, showing that their now last-generation technology still has plenty of legs at retail. Still, having their PS3 sales drop by nearly half over last month’s sales is a significant change; if new software from Sony can’t change course, the company may have to do something drastic to turn things around.
Microsoft should be pretty happy; while they didn’t lead the pack, the company will surely trumpet their increase in year-over-year sales. That, and having the number one game at retail for the month of February, Crackdown will also help. 1up’s article also further details the rest of the software charts for the month.
Read More | 1up
Tecmo Bowl Hits Virtual Console
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Retro, Virtual Console, Wii,
The original NES Tecmo Bowl hits the Virtual Console this week, along with Sonic Spinball for the Genesis and Double Dungeons for the TurboGrafx-16. Tecmo Bowl might now be more famous for its gameplay glitches and balance problems than anything else, but despite these, the game still maintains a fun-factor due to nostalgia. Tecmo Bowl has the standard NES pricing, at 500 points. Sonic Spinball is the pinball-based spinoff of the classic platformer; the game isn’t the strongest pinball entry on the Genesis, but as a mix of action from the Sonic franchise and at 800 points, it isn’t all that bad. Finally, Double Dungeons for the TurboGrafx-16 is a dungeon hack-style game; it is interesting in that it supports two player split-screen action through a 3-D first person-style viewpoint, but overall the lack of depth of gameplay makes this title suffer. Still, you only risk 600 Wii points for the game, but you might find better options among the other titles in the Virtual Console back catalog.
Nintendo’s full press release continues below.
Click to continue reading Tecmo Bowl Hits Virtual Console
NPD Numbers Release Soon, Pachter Makes Predictions
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Wii,
NPD’s official video game hardware and software sales numbers for February should be released soon. Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan has his predictions ahead of the data, as reported by Gamasutra. His predictions have the Wii leading the PS3 again, with an estimated 350,000 consoles sold verses the PS3’s 200,000. The Playstation 2 should still see strong sales numbers, with marginal declines year over year. The Wii numbers seem to reflect the short month along with Nintendo not meeting customer demand; 350,000 seems like a small number to ship into the channel. Pachter also analyzes software sales, pointing to Crackdown, Guitar Hero 2, and Virtua Fighter 5 among the leaders last month.
Read More | Gamasutra
GDC: Eiji Aonuma Talks Zelda
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games, Wii,
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess represents somewhat of a rebirth for the franchise, and its creator, Eiji Aonuma, talked about how the turnaround came about. While the Zelda series has certainly hit more high notes than other series, Wind Waker and Four Swords represented a sales disappointment for Nintendo. According to 1up’s report on Aonuma’s talk, the Japanese turned away from Wind Waker because of its complexity, while US audiences couldn’t seem to get past the cartoony look. Nintendo was determined to turn this around with Twilight Princess and the return to a more realistic look was only part of the equation. A number of the design decisions, such as the dual world and the Wii remote controls are discussed by Aonuma, giving some great insight into how Nintendo turned the feedback they were getting from Wind Waker into the massively popular and critically acclaimed Twilight Princess.
Read More | 1up
Shigeru Miyamoto’s GDC Keynote got a lot of coverage around the web; as expected there was little in the way of real announcements due to an information blackout enforced by Nintendo’s upcoming stock sale, but there were a few tidbits to be had, like a new Mii Channel that will allow users to compare Miis and have contests. Miyamoto also led attendees know that Super Mario Galaxy will be coming this year as he showed off a little of the game in development.
The rest of the keynote really seemed to focus on the development process at Nintendo. Miyamoto touched on expanding their gaming audience using his “Wife-O-Meter” to gauge casual gamer interest in what the company is working on. He also discussed Nintendo’s entertainment focus, and how their hardware and software teams collaborated to bring the Wii remote about. The last two ideas he focused on were risk, Nintendo’s willingness to experiment and fail, and tenacity, the way that Miyamoto focuses on ideas that may take years to come to fruition. Overall, the keynote offered more insight into the mind of Miyamoto than into anything Nintendo has in the works for the future. It wasn’t as product focused as Phil Harrison’s keynote but it was still worthwhile to understand how Nintendo’s game master works. In terms of GDC coverage, 1up and Eurogamer seemed to be the most detailed, but Gizmodo has a great gallery up of pictures from the event.
Update: The Super Mario Galaxy trailer is now linked above; this game looks insane…
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| 1up
Read More | Eurogamer
Read More | Gizmodo
Read More | Joystiq
Nintendo’s Second Quarter Titles Announced
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Release Dates, Wii,
Nintendo announced today their second quarter line-ups for both the Wii and the DS today, and while there are a lot of titles listed, unfortunately the latest Metroid didn’t make the list. Still, there seems to be a lot to offer, including the arrival of Super Paper Mario on April 9th, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and Mario Party 8 in May, and Big Brain Academy and Pokemon Battle Revolution in June. Pokemon Battle Revolution will be the first online-enabled game for the Wii. On the DS side, gamers can look forward to the latest RPG entry in the Pokemon series for handhelds, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. It looks like the DS browser will also finally hit the US DS in June as well.
The full press release and release list continues below.
Click to continue reading Nintendo’s Second Quarter Titles Announced
This Week’s Virtual Console Titles
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Retro, SEGA, Wii,
Nintendo continues to drop additional Virtual Console titles for the Wii; this week three new titles are available, one each for the NES, SNES, and Genesis. The biggest title this week would probably be Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts for the SNES at 800 Points. The game is one of the classic platformers for the SNES and was known for its graphical excellence on the console as well as its strong difficulty.
Sword of Vermillion at 800 Points for the Genesis is worth more as a novelty than anything else. The game is an early RPG, developed by AM2. AM2 is probably more well known for their arcade efforts, including Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter, but Sword of Vermillion does little but give some insight into the development team’s history. There are some interesting action-RPG type elements in the game, but otherwise, the title isn’t really that interesting.
Elevator Action for the NES at 500 Points steps back in time to early arcade-style gameplay. There’s not a lot of depth here, and it might be worth tracking down the original arcade version rather than playing the NES port, but there are worse games than this for the NES.
Nintendo’s full press release continues below.
Click to continue reading This Week’s Virtual Console Titles
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