Good news, folks. Shiny Media’s corporate overlords have managed to get their hands on somecorking prizes, and are strongly recommending that you enter a competition in order to try and win them. It’s pretty easy stuff, actually, and shouldn’t interrupt your Wii Fit/Mario Kart sessions for too long.

All you have to do is use any video capturing device - whether it be acamcorder, amobile phone or a digital camera - to record some footage representing ‘My Video Life’.

Visual Networking supremos Cisco have a bucketload of ace prizes for you to get your hands on. Whoever wins the competition will get the opportunity to spend a full day in a professional studio with the experts at Cisco to create an even better video, while your entry will be featured on Cisco’s website. Fame beckons. Oh, and you’ll also get £500 worth of vouchers to go on a shopping spree. Riches and fame beckon. Eight runners-up will each win £50 vouchers from top-notch AV retailer Dabs, so you’ve got an even better chance of winning something.

Detailed info on how to enter can be found after the jump.

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This is either going to be amazing or a bit rubbish. Guitar Hero DS is a triumph of hatstand creativity over common sense, coming with a peripheral that’s so daft it has to be seen to be believed, and some gloriously silly DS extras like blowing to extinguish flames in Battle mode.

The final tracklisting has been revealed, and while it’s generally very good, fifteen songs is a little less than we were hoping for. Unlockables, perhaps? Future tracks via DLC? Could happen. But that’s four fewer songs than Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan 2, and this doesn’t have people doing funny dances to pop music on the bottom screen. Still exciting though. List after the jump.

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This. The Wii Wheel. It’s nowhere. It’s gone. It’s vanished out of sight. I have been trying to get hold of one for two weeks, and no dice. And no, I’m not putting up with some crappy third-party equivalent because it’s not the same. I came close to going for GAME’s own (okay-looking) version, but held firm. 

Mario Kart Wii is a bit of a mixed bag of a game, frustrating the life out of offline loners just as much as it’s charming the pants off online regulars. And the Wii Wheel is great - perhaps not perfect for time trials with heavier karts that need tighter turns, but ideal for multiplayer shenanigans. It’s a terrific field-leveller, too - newcomers seem to find it just as accessible - if not more so - than those used to a more traditional pad.

So I ventured out into Stockport town centre a couple of hours ago to locate said peripheral. Hit the jump for more details on my - ultimately fruitless - journey, and some vaguely reassuring words from Nintendo.

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Weird. I wandered into the centre of Stockport before (for reasons which shall shortly become clear), arrived home, took one more quick look at that Nintendo Power ‘moon’ teaser pic, and spotted three items of interest almost instantly.

Have another gander at the picture above - now digitally altered by some incredible photomorphing technology, to highlight the areas of the moon which might, just might, shed a little light on these surprises (plural, sorry) to come in NP next month.

Starting from the left, and the blue outline, tilt your head forty-five degrees to your right and what do you see? That’s right! It’s Wind Waker Link! So that either means new Zelda or - be still my beating heart - a special edition Wii Wind Waker: Director’s Cut with motion-controlled sailing, wand-waving and combat, and those two dungeons which were excised thanks to time constraints during development. A new Zelda’s going to happen eventually anyway, so I’m hoping for the latter, personally.

Next up is the green outline, and if you can’t see the angelic figure of Pit in there, then you’re even more short-sighted than I am. Fresh Kid Icarus info in four weeks’ time? Maybe.

Third, and most importantly of all, is the pink outline, clearly detailing a wonky-eyed Pikmin with a huge leaf above his head. Pikmin 3 to be revealed at E3? Excitement. Level. Through. Roof.

If this really does end up being Moon on DS, I’m firebombing Nintendo Power’s offices. Seriously.

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Magazines and websites are getting better and better at whipping up hype, sending readers and internetters into a frothing frenzy by teasing with obscure hints as to what exciting news they’ve got hidden up their little sleeves. More often than not, this ends in crushing disappointment. But occasionally, these forthcoming exclusives are real joy-makers, sending fanboys into spasms of ecstasy when they’re revealed.

The latest issue of US mag Nintendo Power has a picture of a moon on its ‘next month’ page, apparently containing some well-hidden hints as to what it might relate to. Try as I might (and I’ve stared at the large pic in the link below for upwards of five minutes) I can’t see anything at all. Perhaps the secret’s in the moon itself. Could it relate to ace-looking DS first-person actioner Moon? Perhaps it’s a sign that Pikmin 3 is on the way (that may, admittedly, be wishful thinking on my part)? Does it suggest that Nintendo might finally be doing something with the Mother franchise for the West, some thirteen years after Earthbound hit the SNES? The shot’s just after the jump, so click below, and see what you think.

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Nintendo made a big song and dance about the importance of connectivity when the GameCube was still alive, with the likes of the excellent Pac Man VS and the sublime Zelda: Four Swords Adventures evidence of how wonderfully it could work. However, it was really quite awkward - wires, expense of multiple consoles, not enough Nintendo fans around - and didn’t exactly help sales of the wee purple box in any meaningful way.

Yet with the success of Wii and DS, and Sony’s recent successes with the (admittedly more multimedia-focused) link-up features of PS3 and PSP, it’s amazing that Nintendo hasn’t really taken advantage of the wireless connectivity of the two consoles. Sure, we’ve got the Everybody’s Nintendo Channel coming next month which will allow you to download DS demos, but that’s about it.

So it’s nice to see a third-party developer adding what’s essentially a novelty feature to the Wii version of their forthcoming Ghostbusters game - and it’s something that’s really quite inventive. The DS acts as the gang’s PKE, allowing them to track the ghosts with this radar of sorts - it’s a similar idea to the GBA link-up in the Cube port of the original Splinter Cell. Hopefully more developers will take this example on board and bring us some interesting connectivity features in future Wii titles. Well done Sierra and Red Fly.

Videogaming247

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It’s called Mind Over Mutant, it’s looking pretty damn nice actually, and it’ll be out in the autumn of this year. Hit the jump for two more pics and some more info on what makes this Crash a bit of a change from the usual.

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Yep, that’s right - old LucasArts favourites such as Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, Full Throttle and Maniac Mansion can be played on the Wii with the remote as the perfect mouse substitute - assuming you’re well-versed in the art of homebrew, that is.

It’s already up and running on DS, so it was only a matter of time before someone cracked it with the Wii. Click the link above to see it in action.

SavyGamer

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It’s a shame that the games themselves are never as funny as the little teaser trailers, but the two Rayman Raving Rabbids games on Wii have been entertainingly disposable minigame-fests - the first, certainly. So it’s good to see that the third title in the series will clearly feature some kind of Wii Board support - whether it’s optional or compulsory is thus far unclear.

Still, nice to see another third party making the effort to get more use out of the peripheral - and given Wii Fit’s success, even if the board was required to play, it’d still have a sizeable audience. After We Ski (formerly Family Ski) and Prizefighter, this is the third major title to be supporting the board. Good news.

RRR3 will be out around autumn time.

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Several thugs round on a woman in an alley. One of them throws her over his shoulder and they walk away. Moments later, a garage door opens and two brothers dressed in pearl-white knee-high boots and waistcoats mince onto the cobbles. Billy starts thumping the air. Jimmy does a flying kick. He accidentally clips Billy and Billy doubles over. After a stand off, Billy punches Jimmy once, then they carry walking on to the left. They meet a couple of milling thugs, dozens more catch the scent, and it all goes off. Fists fly, feet swing, knees crunch into septums, victims slump and vanish.

Then, the weapons come out. People are lashed, bludgeoned, stabbed, shot, dynamited, shoved into holes, knocked onto conveyor belts and crushed by machinery. Eventually, after unlawfully killing dozens of criminals, Billy and Jimmy turn on one another and fight to the death, after which Marian runs into the arms of either Billy, her boyfriend, or Jimmy, her boyfriend’s murderer. It’s all the same to her.

Yep, it’s Double Dragon, and it’s come to Virtual Console.

Going on the press release, it sounds like this version is different from the arcade original. For one thing, it claims that Billy will “gain experience by using different fighting techniques to obtain more hearts, which will unlock more powerful techniques to use against his enemies,” which doesn’t ring a bell.

For another, it “contains mild violence.” Doesn’t sound like the Double Dragon I grew up with. Is nothing sacred?

Bit Bytes Pixels & Sprites

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