David Hayter is the voice actor who plays Solid Snake, the gruff Special Ops agent in the Metal Gear Solid series. It’s a part that Hayter has been intimately associated with for over nine years, much like Nancy Cartwright is famous for voicing Bart Simpson. It’s good news, then, to learn that Hayter will be reprising his role as Solid Snake especially for Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
To be frank, if he hadn’t been involved in the voice duties for Smash Bros then we’d all have had cause for concern. The developers would have resorted to rehashing sound clips from previous MGS games, and that would have tarnished the experience somewhat. It’s reassuring to know that the new game will be featuring fresh dialogue and deadpan witticisms.
Useless factoid: did you know that Hayter is also a phenomenally successful screenwriter? He wrote the screenplays for both X-Men and X2, and his latest project is the adaptation of “Watchmen“, the most important graphic novel in the whole wide world ever. This guy’s got some serious nerd credentials.
Shigeru Miyamoto has been teasing us with the prospect of a Wii Music game since way back in 2006, when he wowed the crowds at E3 by conducting an orchestra with his Wiimote. That game is not scheduled to appear until 2008, so what to do between now and then? Here comes Namco Bandai galloping to the rescue; they’ve just announced a port of their musical DS game Nodama Cantabile: Dream Orchestra for the Wii.
Based on a popular Manga comic book series, the original game used the stylus for keeping the pace of the music, a task for which the motion sensitive Wiimote is much more appropriate. This new version will feature 50 songs, together with a new story mode with cutscenes to play through.
The game is dated for release in Japan on 27th December, with no announcement yet for a European publisher. However, if the success of Cooking Mama is anything to go by, Dream Orchestra is a dead cert to be picked up for Western distribution.
A small online research firm called What Japan Thinks has conducted an survey to determine the preferred console choices amongst Japanese kids. Based on a questionnaire answered by 1, 165 elementary school students, the researchers found that the SNES and the NES were still preferable to owning an PSP.
That’s right, two consoles from several generations ago are still more popular than Sony’s technologically advanced handheld. It fair makes the mind boggle, doesn’t it? But don’t take our word for it, here are those results in full:
* Nintendo Gameboy Advance 39.8%
* Sony PlayStation 1, 2 or 3 37.4%
* Nintendo Wii 35.3%
* Nintendo Gamecube 31.4%
* Nintendo Gameboy, Gameboy Micro 19.8%
* Nintendo 64 15.2% * Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES) 15.1%
* Nintendo Famicom (NES) 11.9%
* Sony PlayStation Portable 10.5%
* Microsoft Xbox 5.8%
* Sega Saturn 5.1%
* Sega Dreamcast 4.8%
* Other 16.4%
It should be noted, however, that the survey was conducted before the new PSP Slim sold quarter of a million units in one week. Feelings about the PSP amongst this particular demographic might have changed dramatically since then. And it’s much worse for Microsoft, whose Xboxen continue to be shunned like the plague.
This here is a trailer for Boulder Dash ROCKS!, coming in November to the DS and PSP. For those too young to remember, Boulder Dash is an 8-bit classic from the days of the Commodore 64, where little Rockford would burrow through various levels collecting gems whilst avoiding falling boulders. This new version brings the franchise bang up to date whilst (hopefully) retaining the core characteristics that made it so fun. Kinda like “Tomb Raider” and “Tomb Raider Anniversary“, except that Rockford doesn’t have breasts.
The interesting thing about the trailer is that Rockford’s platform of choice is the Nintendo DS, whilst the evil giant squid next to him prefers to play using a PSP. The squid eventually gets his comeuppance by being crushed under a boulder. Intentionally or otherwise, the makers of the trailer are implying that the DS is the handheld of champions. Or perhaps we’re reading too much into it?
The homebrew community is buzzing with the news that the Nintendo Wii D2C chipset has been well and truly hacked. A new product called the Wii “D2C” Modchip Actel is said to take full advantage of the exploit, and is about to be launched in Europe by Hard Store. If you were to go to the trouble of installing it, you’d now be able to directly load backups of GameCube and Wii games on your console.
A couple of points to note, however. For one thing, the mod hasn’t been perfected, with only 80% of region protected games confirmed working without any problems. For another, installation is a very tricky process that involves micro-soldiering 30 wires to attach the chip to the Wii. Needless to say, doing so will completely invalidate your warranty, and in some countries is considered an illegal activity.
If none of that has dissuaded you, and playing backup games is absolutely necessary, then the modchip is priced at 37 euros. Release date is 8th October, but they’re taking preorders now. Don’t come crying to us if (or when) the console stops working and the boys in blue come knocking at your door…
Paris is currently hosting the 2007 Micromania Games Show. There hasn’t been much in the way of exclusive announcements at the show, hence the lack of coverage, but one game in particular has caught our attention: Advance Wars 2 for the DS. A sequel perhaps, but a sequel to one of the greatest games ever made, so you can understand if we’re a little excited. Over on the NeoGAF forums, Sad_Panda spills the beans:
“AW DS 2 did receive a complete overhaul in terms of design. Gone are Max, Andy and the others, replaced by a whole new crew. IS went with a whole new, more realistic, miltary look, and quite frankly, it seemed like a pretty wise move. Graphically-wise, the look went with the new design, though it looked pretty much the same. New combat animations were pretty low-quality though, blurry and badly animated. Surely that’s gonna be fixed by the time it comes out. Had time to notice a new unit - bike infantry unit - and that pretty much sums it up.”
Hmmm, interesting. It sounds like all the familiar elements have been ditched in favour of something more gritty and less cartoony. This was probably necessary in order to keep the franchise fresh, but we’ll have to wait and see if it works. More details when we have them.
Here’s a portion of an interview given by Reggie Fil-Aimes, president of Nintendo of America, to the San Jose Mercury News. He discusses the Wii console shortages and the threat posed by Halo 3, amongst other things.
Reggie’s attitude towards Microsoft’s big green monster is telling for its distinct lack of concern. He’s thinking the exact same thing that everyone else is thinking - after the hub-bub over Halo has been and gone, will anyone still be interested in the 360?
MN: The Wii console has been a big hit to date, with you guys having a difficult time meeting demand. This is going to be a bad Christmas for folks still wanting to buy one, isn’t it?
R: We have been sold out worldwide since we launched … Every time we put more into the marketplace, we sell more, which says that we are not even close to understanding where the threshold is between supply and demand.
MN: There’s been a lot of buzz about Microsoft’s Halo 3. How do you expect it to affect the console battle this holiday season?
R: Will they sell a lot of software? Certainly. Will it sell hardware? I think it’s an open question. Why? Because I think that the Halo 3 consumer already has the hardware, because they’re playing Bioshock and Crackdown and a variety of games that are, in the end, quite similar: first-person shooter experience, multiplayer capable online. Tell me what’s new?
MN: So do you feel like you need to counter Halo 3 in some way?
Ever wished you could gobble down those red, blue and green mushrooms like Mario does? Well the wait is over. Now you too can have a power-up of your own with these sweet Mario-themed mushroom candies from FractalSpin. Alas, you won’t grow bigger or get an extra life, the best you can hope for is a raspberry, cherry or apple flavour sensation.
The cool thing about these sweets is that you can reuse the tins afterwards for any number of purposes. You could complement your N64 bong and use it as a place to stash your hash, or perhaps use it for something more mundane like storing paper-clips. In this wild and crazy world, the choice is all yours.
As far as China is concerned, things like patents and trademarks don’t mean a thing. Meet the Vii, a Chinese manufactured console with an uncanny resemblance to the Wii. Even the controllers have been replicated, sporting the exact same motion sensitive capabilities as the Wiimote.
The images are courtesy of French site Wiiz, which spotted the Wii clone in a Chinese magazine and scanned the pages. No doubt Nintendo will be calling their lawyers once they get wind of this. Conversely, if the console does become a success, we might have to consider changing the name of this site to ViiVii. Doesn’t have the same ring to it, somehow.
The DS version of Scrabble contains a help function where, if you’re stuck for a word, the software can check your letters, look over the open spaces on the board and, after consulting the Chambers Official Scrabble Dictionary, offer possible solutions.
That’s what Zachary McAdam from Belfast did after being lumbered with five letters and no idea what to do with them. The game’s suggestion? How about “Lesbo”? A perfectly innocent word under ordinary circumstances. Except that McAdam was playing the game with his seven year old daughter at the time. Cue red faces and awkward questions about the word’s meaning.
Apparently “Lesbo” is indeed part of the game’s legal dictionary, but the software had omitted to exclude it from the junior setting. McAdam is now campaigning for the game to be recalled, but Ubisoft are standing firm on the issue, arguing that it’s not a derogatory term and therefore no cause for concern. Considering other word-related controversies they’ve had in the past, Ubisoft might want to reconsider.
David Hayter is the voice actor who plays Solid Snake, the gruff Special Ops agent in the Metal Gear Solid series. It’s a part that Hayter has been intimately associated with for over nine years, much like Nancy Cartwright is famous for voicing Bart Simpson. It’s good news, then, to learn that Hayter will be reprising his role as Solid Snake especially for Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
A small online research firm called 
Here’s a portion of an interview given by Reggie Fil-Aimes, president of Nintendo of America, to the 
The DS version of Scrabble contains a help function where, if you’re stuck for a word, the software can check your letters, look over the open spaces on the board and, after consulting the Chambers Official Scrabble Dictionary, offer possible solutions. 
Loading ...