It’s been a busy day for Hudson, who today officially announced Bomberman Blast is coming to the WiiWare service. No timescale is given, but if we assume that Alien Crush Returns will be here in the next few weeks, then I think we’re looking at October at the latest.

Bomberman Blast allows up to eight people to compete in online games, with support for four players from a single Wii console. You’ll also be able to use your Miis, which should add an extra personal edge to the multiplayer shenanigans.

It’s about time we got a decent online Bomberman, and with the promise of special online tournaments to come from Hudson (visit www.hudsonentertainment.com for details), this could well be the best version yet of this classic series.

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While us Europeans have to hold out until early 2009 for Square-Enix’s DS remake of arguably its greatest RPG, the publisher today announced that Americans would be getting their hands on the game a little early - November 25th, to be precise.

It still looks just about identical to the original, which is a little disappointing, though the game will now have “all-new dual-screen presentation and touch screen functionality”.

We’re also promised brand-new dungeons and an Arena mode, though to be honest, the simple opportunity to play such a classic without shelling out around £90 (which is pretty much the going rate for the original SNES cart) is going to be too tempting to resist.
 

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A large number of people seem to be disproportionately excited about the forthcoming Mega Man 9. Because apparently retro is the in thing at the moment. While I can understand people being happy about their favourite franchise making an unexpected return, is anyone truly happy about the old-school looks? Nice tribute to the original games it may be, but it strikes me as a little lazy, particularly when we’re expected to shell out 1000 points for the privilege.

But then I would say that because I’ve never been a massive fan of Mega Man. Still, perhaps the final game will convince me. In the meantime Capcom has released some shots of the game’s bosses. Pictured above is the excellently named Concrete Man. I’ll post another couple tomorrow.

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With Games Convention 2008, just around the corner, Sega has announced its line-up for the event, with plenty of Wii and DS games in the offing.

Samba de Amigo will be there, alongside Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, DS game Dinosaur King and Platinum Games’ brilliant-looking MadWorld.

Headstrong Games (formerly Kuju) will be attending, and it seems that its first game for Sega will be the game that’s shown off to the press and public for the first time. I’ve received a tip-off that it will definitely be a Wii game, and I’ve also heard a strong rumour that it’s a reinvention of an old Sega franchise.

Jet Set Radio using the balance board, anyone? Sounds as good a candidate to me as any.

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It’s not often that I’ll spend time enthusing about a game on a rival console, but if you happen to own an Xbox 360 as well as a Wii, then get on that there Live Arcade and get downloading Jonathan Blow’s Braid, a platform-puzzler that might take inspiration from a few places, but winds up very much its own beast. It’s a superb game - surprising, genuinely rewarding and surprisingly affecting, and it’s almost entirely Blow’s own work. And the puzzles are, on occasion, absolutely inspired.

Not long into the game, you’ll happen across a dinosaur outside a castle, who utters the immortal line “sorry, our princess is in another castle”. It’s not the only tilt of the titfer to Nintendo’s most famous mascot, and Blow admits it was a significant influence. “It’s about the things that I think about. The books and films referenced in the game made big impacts on me at various stages in my life” he explains. “Super Mario Bros provided the core game mechanic that Braid and so many other games are based on, so it only seemed appropriate to reference it. I wanted to take that childlike, optimistic, simple-world blue-sky feeling of Super Mario Bros and mature it into a world that is emotionally complex, lacking in certitude, and possessing an existential gravitas.”

Clever bloke, and a thoroughly nice chap, too (I interviewed him recently, and found him far more agreeable than his reputation would have you believe). The rest of the interview can be found on CVG.com.

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Though it’s a bit later than I’d hoped, Square-Enix is definitely bringing the DS remake of its classic SNES role-player Chrono Trigger to Europe - the first time the game’s made it to these shores.

Originally released in 1995, Chrono Trigger is still widely regarded as one of the best RPGs ever made, despite its non-appearance in PAL territories. Square-Enix today confirmed that Europeans would be getting their first official taste of the time-travelling adventure in early 2009.

S-E President John Yamamoto said “It gives me great pleasure to see Chrono Trigger being released in Europe and the PAL territories. With its ground breaking story and gameplay, this epic RPG with multiple endings has already won the hearts of many fans and I hope it delights a whole new audience of players into revisiting the Chrono Trigger world time and again.”

I do too, John. I do too.

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It’s been nothing but a seemingly fanciful rumour for a while, but it seems classic SNES RPG Chrono Trigger is coming to the DS. The official site is now open, though for now it just has a big clock on there, counting down towards the eventual full reveal.

Younger gamers - or those new to Nintendo - may wonder what all the fuss is about. Quite simply, Chrono Trigger is regarded as one of the best games ever made. It reached #28 on Famitsu’s all-time top 100,  and #54 on Edge’s list. The only surprise is that it wasn’t higher on both, despite the RPG genre having moved on significantly since its 1995 release.

Expect this to be absolutely huge in Japan.

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It’s all about the retro at the moment, people. Hot on the heels of Capcom’s 8-bit Mega Man 9, it seems as if Hudson is keen on resurrecting one of its old franchises for WiiWare too.

Takakashi Meijin - the man who was the inspiration for the game’s lead character - has revealed that Hudson is planning a new Adventure Island, and that it will likely be a WiiWare title. He suggested that motion controls wouldn’t really work, so it seems as if it’ll be NES-style controls once more.

And talking of Hudson, apparently two of the WiiWare triumvirate of Alien Crush, Blue Oasis and Karaoke Joysound will be making it to the US (and presumably the UK). Joysound might be the most problematic translation, so it looks like Alien Crush and Blue Oasis will be the ones to make the journey from east to west.

A bit more info here, if you fancy reading more.

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Fantastic t-shirt maker King Of Games has announced it’s creating a special Kid Icarus t-shirt, which will go on sale on the 13th of June for 4900 yen.

The shirt, pictured above, is the latest in a long line of Nintendo-related products from the manufacturer - check out the full range on its website (though don’t expect to find many in stock).

The limited edition tee is bound to run out of stock quickly, so get one while you can. King Of Games tend to only make 200 of each, so you’re unlikely to bump into anyone wearing the same shirt - unless you attend press trips in Sweden, it would seem, where I managed to spot someone in the same OutRun tee as I had in my suitcase.

Even better, if you have kids and want to give them a ‘gaming chic’ look, then the company is bringing out a series of four of its most popular designs in tot-sized versions. They’ll be available on the same date, as will a series of reprints of selected shirts from the back catalogue.

King Of Games - Kid Icarus design, kids’ tees and reprints 

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Don’t get too excited, it’s just a rumour. And a rumour that’s been doing the rounds - albeit in slightly different forms each time - for a fair while.

But Swedish mag Games Reactor has published a short piece in its rumour section that somehow seems just that bit more plausible than previous “Shenmue is returning!” proclamations.

“Shenmue is back! Sega has rereleased classics like Nights,Bass Fishing and House of the Dead lately. Now it’s said that Shenmue is next. But don’t think that it’s about a new game, instead, they’re bringing back the two original Shenmue games with extra Wiimote-minigames which will be released for the Wii” says the mag - or rather, a rough translation of the Swedish text therein, anyway.

The reason why this is a big deal is because the Shenmue story is as yet unfinished. Though it had a sizeable cult following, the franchise never sold well enough to justify the astronomical development costs. Indeed, Shenmue II is still one of the most expensive games ever made, recently surpassed by GTA IV (and probably a couple of others whose costs remain undisclosed), but holding the number one slot for quite a while. So the simple fact that these two titles are set to appear on Wii will lead further clamouring for the third game to be made, so the story of Ryo Hazuki can finally reach its conclusion.

But yeah - still a rumour. Albeit quite an exciting one.

GoNintendo 

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