Nintendo of Japan has been busy trying to arrest sliding Wii sales in Japan by announcing the release of a new black-coloured version of its slightly-less-popular-than-it-used-to-be console.
Launching in Japan on 1st August, there will also be a special Monster Hunter Tri bundle featuring the new console, the game and a black Classic Controller Pro. Which will undoubtedly be HUGE.
A new red DSi will be released on 11th July, while Nintendo has also launched the official site for Wii Sports Resort, which eastern gamers are getting a month early - it arrives in Japan in just three weeks (25th June for those whose maths isn’t too hot). The site’s a little sparse at the moment, but you can get a glimpse of the (excellent) box art.
Finally, it seems that Chibi-Robo will be making a handheld return, with a new DS game set for release on 23rd July.
Kotaku has posted an excerpt of Nintendo’s financial results for fiscal year 2009, pointing out a note from Nintendo to its investors that the forthcoming Zelda: Spirit Tracks “will appeal to a wider age group of people”.
Naturally, this has led to speculation that it may be even more casual-friendly than Phantom Hourglass, though this may just be Nintendo trying to explain to its investors why it’s still making core-focused titles alongside its multi-million-selling Wii- branded range. That said, the results for Wii Music were considered disappointing, the instrument sim shifting a ‘mere’ two-and-a-half million unit.
It may, of course, be a reference to that patented hint system which was revealed not so long ago - will Spirit Tracks guide less experienced players through its dungeons should they find themselves getting stuck? The patent originally seemed to be for a Wii game, but it’s quite possible.
Expect to see more of Spirit Tracks at E3 this June.
Charlie Brooker - brilliantly acerbic, inventively sweary critic, and host of BBC4’s terrific Screenwipe and more recently Newswipe - appears to be working on a games-related programme, if his Twitter account is to be believed.
‘Tweeting’ (sigh) earlier this evening, Brooker had this to say:
“Worst videogame bosses ever? Email yr suggestions to gameswipe at zeppotron dot com. Make what you will of that email address.”
Potentially, we’re talking best games-related TV ever here, folks. If Brooker can handle the move to games half as well as his move to news-related commentary (and he has previous; he regularly contributed to PC Zone back in the day) then this will definitely be one to watch out for.
Turns out Edge’s Next Month page is extremely likely to be another game rather than Pikmin 3. Over the past couple of days, I’ve learned from a few journalistic pals that the game Edge is trailing for its next month issue does involve grass, but sadly not the creatures that reside therein.
It’d be a little unfair for me to say what the game is - and I’m pretty certain an embargo is in place to prevent it from being officially revealed - but suffice to say there’s a very strong chanceit’s not actually Pikmin 3.
So what is that tiny purple blob in the patch of grass, if not a Pikmin? It could be that I’ve happened upon an even more surprising revelation - that Pikmin live and walk among us. Either that or whoever took the shot was painting their ceiling a fetching shade of lilac with said photo catching an errant drip, but that’s not nearly as interesting.
And yes, there are still gremlins in the works which are preventing me from posting properly. Fingers crossed this place will be back to full strength, and all pictured up soon enough.
Issue 202 of Edge magazine is thudding onto subscriber doormats as I write this, and this month’s mag has plenty to interest Nintendoites.
Space Invaders Extreme 2 gets a 9/10 review, there’s a very positive preview piece on Punch-Out!! and there’s an interview with the key players of Japanese developer CiNG, creator of Hotel Dusk and Another Code R.
But most exciting of all is the next month page - at least, unless my eyes are playing tricks on me. It shows a close up picture of a seemingly featureless patch of grass, but in the top right-hand corner is a tiny little lilac-coloured blob, which looks very much like a Pikmin.
Does this mean the magazine will be talking about Pikmin 3 next month? Or is my imagination running riot over this seemingly incongruous tiny spot of colour? It’s so small that there’s no point in me posting a scan of the page (though that in itself would be a little naughty) so for the moment file this under ‘rumour and speculation’.
If not best, then almost certainly its most charming. The latest game to hit the Japanese WiiWare service is a twist on the usual Harvest Moon formula, tasking players with running a virtual store in a village populated by cutouts of familiar Mooners from the full-fat farming sims. Objectives include making the perfect icecream, decorating eggs, and - but of course - rhythm-action cow-milking. It’s 1500 points with further paid DLC promised, so it’s firmly in the upper bracket of WiiWare prices, though it looks to be one of the more polished games to hit the service.
A localisation is a possibility rather than a certainty, so I’m holding off a purchase for now until I find out that a western release is definitely off the cards - I’ve emailed Rising Star Games (the usual suspects for any game with ‘Harvest’ and ‘Moon’ in the title) and will report back if and when I hear any news of a PAL version.
Today saw the Japanese launch of the new Wii no Ma service - basically, TV programming made especially for Wii owners. And any Japanese users lucky enough to own a DSi too will get the opportunity to take their favourite shows with them on the move by downloading them to their handheld via a piece of software available on the DSiWare service.
Above - hopefully - is a YouTube video showing you how to download a (very short) cookery show to the SD card in your DSi. And that’s pretty much that.
It’s been too long, readers. But WiiWii.tv is back and (hopefully) better than ever. Certainly a little older and wiser, anyway.
Yes, this here blog is back on your internet, bringing you the best and most interesting Nintendo news on a daily basis from the start of next week. Today is but a brief taster of the feast of Ninty-related info heading down your cables next week. We’ll have stuff about ExciteBots (crazy), MadWorld (bloody) and Little King’s Story (buy it now), as well as possibly unwise speculation about what Nintendo might have in store at E3, whether and how Sony’s rumoured new motion-controller will impact Nintendo, and discussion on DS dungeon-crawler The Dark Spire - is it the most unfairly hard DS game ever, or is it completely brilliant? All these questions and more besides will be answered, and there’ll be more of that quirky Japanese stuff that I know you just love to read about.
Stay tuned. It’s going to be awesome.
(Even if we are having trouble with PHP code at the moment which means I can’t post pictures nor links. Tch. Technology, eh?)
It’s been a lot of fun, but unfortunately my time on WiiWii.tv has come to an all-too-premature end. The current economic climate has forced many media organisations to cut budgets as advertisers are reluctant to spend the sort of money they used to before the credit crunch started biting, and Shiny Media is no different. I’ve been told by my superiors that the site will be closing - temporarily, anyway - and so there won’t be any more updates save for an official announcement of a vaguely similar nature (but presumably with slightly more official language).
Basically, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to thank each and every reader who has spent time on here, whether you’ve just been browsing occasionally, visiting on a daily basis, or even commenting on my posts - seriously, you’re all great, and I really appreciate your support.
Hopefully this will just be a temporary measure, and Shiny will be able to reopen the site once more in the not-too-distant, but in the meantime I’ll be moving onto other things. I’ve enjoyed this so much that I might even start a new Nintendo blog of my own, but either way I’m sure you’ll see my name pop up on the internet every now and again, as there are a few other places I write for.
In the meantime, if for some bizarre reason you want to stay in touch, feel free to click the ‘contact’ tab at the top, and I’ll let you know what I’m up to and where you can find me.
Once again, thanks for your wonderful support which has helped make this one of the most purely enjoyable writing gigs I’ve ever had.
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