Dead Space: Extraction executive producer Steve Papoutsis has been chatting to MTV Multiplayer about the forthcoming Wii shooter, and it seems that it’s not going to be a traditional on-rails blaster like Ghost Squad or the House of the Dead games, but something a little different.

So what exactly is EA calling it? “[It] is a Guided First Person Experience” explains Papoutsis. “The player will be presented with many choices as they play the game, ranging from which path they wish to explore to maneuvering in Zero-G.”

Choosing paths in a rail shooter is nothing new, but perhaps the Zero-G sections will allow a little more freedom of movement than is commonly found in the genre. Evidently, the game is going to be faithful to its 360/PS3 predecessor, with stasis and telekinesis powers making a return, while the story is canonical - detailing the events prior to the arrival of heroically dumb engineer Isaac Clarke on the mining vessel USG Ishimura.

Of course, if you’ve played Dead Space, you’ll know that all was not well aboard said ‘planet-cracker’, so don’t expect Extraction to have a happy, feelgood ending. Do expect it to feature co-operative play, though - Papoutsis confirmed a second player can jump in at any point and start dismembering Necromorphs.

The world’s first GFPE should be with us sometime this Autumn.

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Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Capcom Japan certainly knows how to treat its fans, as proven by the truckload of extra goodies featured in the Special Edition version of forthcoming Miles Edgeworth adventure, Gyakuten Kenji - or Perfect Prosecutor as it’ll be known in the west.

The package contains a miniature version of the April ‘08 Gyakuten Saiban concert pamphlet, complete with a manga from character designer, Tatsuro Iwatmoto, portraits of Mitsurugi (Edgeworth), Mei (Franziska von Karma) and new rival prosecutor Mikumo, a DS card case, a collection of Kenji promotional videos, and a five-song mini-album containing orchestrated versions of tunes featured in the game.

This can be preordered from Capcom’s e-shop, and it looks like you’ll get a limited-time-only bonus of a Steel Samurai phone strap should you fancy shelling out 9490 yen (£67.26) for this corking collector’s item.

And no, we never get anything this good. And no, it really isn’t fair.

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Sad times for the former King of Pop - he’s now so skint he’s even having to auction off his collection of arcade machines - and there’s some great stuff in there. I never really had Wacko down as a gamer, but he’s got a wide range of cabs, from the nostalgia-inducing to the ultra-rare.

Visit Julien’s Auctions and you can have a look at the items which are going under the hammer on April 24th. A Virtual Boy in its stand-up store display is one of the highlights, but there’s also an N64 unit, and several Nintendo-related arcade classics, like Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. Plenty of other machines of interest there, too - and the starting prices are absurdly low considering some of these are genuine collector’s items.

Expect the prices to rise and rise as wealthy gamers start upping the ante, but for now, $100-$150 is the price for Gunpei Yokoi’s legendary cornea-scorcher - should you fancy giving yourself a permanent headache, that’s all the Virtual Boy will cost you. Bargain!

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UPDATE: Nintendo of Europe has said it’s “too early” for its own Q2 list. Expect that at some point in March, probably in two or three weeks.

NOA has released an uncharacteristically early list of titles which will be released in the second quarter of this year, including a date for Punch-Out!!, the announcement of an Excite Truck spin-off and the news that popular Japanese character Starfy will finally be making his western debut this May.

The big surprise - shocking in a where-the-hell-did-that-come-from kind of way - is Excitebots: Trick Racing. Apparently building on the Excitebike and Excite Truck franchises, it “lets everyone in the family use the Wii Wheel accessory in unique and changing environments, play fun minigames and perform crazy tricks”. In other words, it’s about as hardcore as Scouting For Girls, but hopefully not quite so fist-chewingly hateful.

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat gets a five-months-late localisation in the New Play Control range on May 4th, while Punch-Out!! is out two weeks later, and has some rather spiffy boxart, as you can see above.

Pleasingly, Nintendo has made a bit of a fuss about a few titles coming to WiiWare - Bit.Trip Beat and Eduardo the Samurai Toaster joined on the official press release by Swords and Soldiers and a new title named Night Game from the makers of Cave Story - the latter also coming to WiiWare soon.

The launch of Rhythm Heaven alongside DSi is confirmed, while Personal Trainer: Walking is a handheld accompaniment to Wii Fit which includes two pedometers, and the first use of Miis on the DS. Meanwhile, The Legendary Starfy will be released on June 8th - nice to see it arrive, but it’s nothing to get massively excited about. One for the kids, definitely.

It is, of course, a partial list, so best not to get too irate about any omissions, both non-surprising (Another Code, Fatal Frame) and faintly worrying (Wii Sports Resort). With MotionPlus guaranteed to launch before May, the latter is probably pencilled in for an April release - the gap between the New Play Control pairing of Mario Tennis and Pikmin (March 9th) and Excitebots (April 20th) surely a bit of free space for a first-party biggie. One cry-making absentee - Mario and Luigi RPG 3. Let’s hope that one’s just waiting on a concrete date.

Elsewhere, there’s little on the third-party list that’s too surprising, though I’m heartened to see giganto-quiff detective Jake Hunter make a reappearance in a new adventure named Memories of the Past. The first one was pretty naff - albeit charmingly so - but definitely had promise. An improved sequel would go down like a sack of potatoes, to paraphrase a line from the original.

The full list can be found after the jump. Nintendo of Europe, your move.

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The official site for Wii de Asobu: Pikmin 2 (or New Play Control! Pikmin 2 as it’ll be known in the west) has opened, and is a pleasant reminder of what made the GameCube sequel so great, particularly the delicious visuals - there’s definitely a noticeable improvement in Olimar’s second trinket-hunting adventure.

Like the recent Wiimake of the original Pikmin, the new controls now make use of the Wii’s pointer capabilities, and there are a number of videos which show exactly how that works (clue: the same as New Play Control! Pikmin).

The hulking purples and poisonous, treasure-uncovering whites are detailed, as is the addition of Louie, Olimar’s dopey shipmate. The site’s two-player options remain off-duty for now, but we imagine they’ll play out similarly to the GameCube game. The addition of online co-op would be a most pleasant surprise, but I reckon Nintendo is saving that for Pikmin 3.

Let’s hope the March release of the second game means we’ll be hearing more about the new Wii version sooner rather than later. I’m expecting an E3 debut, though don’t rule out a mention during Iwata’s GDC keynote - particularly if he wants to sate the voracious appetite of Nintendo’s increasingly disillusioned core audience.

One more thing - as an added bonus, here’s a link to a rather excellent review of New Play Control! Pikmin - and there’s absolutely no bias in this recommendation at all.

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Big news in the Japanese hardware charts this week - Microsoft’s Xbox 360 not only shifted more units than Sony’s HD rival, but also managed to outsell Wii, and by quite some margin to boot.

For the week ending 22nd February, the 360 topped home console sales with 21,013, more than four thousand ahead of Wii on 16,900. Meanwhile, Sony is snapping hard on Nintendo’s heels with 15,967 PS3s sold for the week (these figures taken from CVG.com).

The software charts make the reason for the 360 spike obvious - Square-Enix role-player Star Ocean: The Last Hope, sold a whopping 162,000 copies, easily beating last week’s chart topper, Mario and Luigi RPG 3, into second place, the latter suffering a large drop in sales to 62,000 units on its second week of release.

The other big success was the PSP, with poptastic starlet-grooming franchise Idolmaster greedily hogging three chart positions, with the Perfect Sun, Missing Moon and Wandering Star variations snaffling third, fourth and fifth place respectively. Shining Force Feather kept the DS’s end up, taking sixth spot with 30,000 copies sold.

Thanks to GAF for the software numbers.

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Nintendo’s Japanese site has pics of a new design of Classic Controller set for release this year. Named the Classic Controller PRO, it’s essentially a cross between the original Classic Controller and a GameCube pad, with a dash of the DualShock thrown in.

Wider than the original, and with Wavebird-aping hand grips, this doesn’t have the old-school class of the original Classic, though it looks a little comfier to hold for longer gaming sessions. The Z buttons have been enlarged, and have been sensibly positioned behind the L and R triggers, which is one nod to Sony’s controller, the other being the larger gap between the two analogue sticks.

A worthwhile upgrade, then, with one glaringly obvious flaw - Nintendo could easily have made it wireless, but has opted instead to keep it tethered to the remote for additional battery-drainage. It’s definitely worth choosing over the original Classic if you don’t already own one, but wireless was the real tipping point for me. As I’ve got plenty of Cube pads, I’ll happily stick with those, if only to save me a few quid on AAs.

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Gamasutra has an interesting article about the disappointing sales for two portable rhythm-action games - the PSP’s Patapon and terrific touchscreen tapper Elite Beat Agents on the DS.

While the former was a niche title which arguably overperformed - partly thanks to a low price point - EBA (based on the Japanese game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan) was always expected to do better, with Reggie Fils-Aime having confessed that he’d hoped for roughly 300,000 sales - the game limped out of the charts with a comparatively paltry 179,000.

Yet the feature’s comparisons with Guitar Hero: On Tour seem a little unfair - the latter being an established franchise backed with officially licensed songs and a strong marketing push. While EBA theoretically had the might of Nintendo behind it, the big N was comparatively reluctant to heavily trail the game - any title without immediately obvious mainstream appeal tends to fall foul of Nintendo’s timidity when it comes to promoting new core IP.

Anyway, the cost for procuring the licenses to cover the songs featured in EBA would have been a not insubstantial amount, and thus - despite the success of Ouendan 2 in Japan - a western sequel seems very unlikely. Shame.

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The latest issue of unofficial UK Nintendo publication NGamer can be found in stores from today, though it’s next month’s edition which looks more interesting.

At the back of the mag, the next month page advertises an ‘Easter reviews special’, covering the likes of GTA: Chinatown Wars, Broken Sword and Little King’s Story.

But more excitingly, the mag also promises the first look at Red Steel 2, sequel to Ubisoft’s FPS/sword-fighter which was something of a commercial success during the Wii’s launch window. Better still is the news that the game will feature “Motion Plus swordsmanship” says the mag.

Issue #35 of NGamer, on sale March 25th, but likely to reach subscribers five or six days earlier, will also uncover Dead Space: Extraction in more detail.

Plenty to look forward to, then, especially if you subscribe to this excellent magazine.

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As if to make up for the fact that the Japanese don’t have a new handheld launch to look forward to, Nintendo has announced the launch of three new DSi colours, which will join the white and black flavours on store shelves in Japan on March 20th.

There’s a lurid pink model, which I think is the least attractive of the three, while the lime green is suitably bright, but still not to my tastes. Much more pleasant is the metallic blue number - very reminiscent of the Enamel Navy DS Lite.

Watch-Impress has more pictures. Go and have a look and be envious of our eastern brothers and sisters. Still, we’ve not too much longer to wait - it’s around six weeks until DSi launches in Europe and the US.

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