By seaempty.
Tuesday, 20. May 2008, 14:19:40
seaempty, PAL, WiiWare, games
...
Wii Ware has officially been launched in Europe and Australia today. There are six titles available to download, and if the US is setting the example, we should get more added with the VC updates on Friday.
The initial games available are:
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Dr. Mario & Germ Buster from Nintendo
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FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King from Japanese developer SQUARE ENIX
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Lost Winds from UK developer Frontier
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Pirates: The Key of Dreams from Dutch developer Oxygen Interactive Ltd
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Pop from Australian developer Nnooo
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Star Soldier R from Japanese developer HUDSON SOFT
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Toki Tori from Dutch developer Two Tribes B.V.
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TV Show King from French developer Gameloft
More details can be found from Nintendo's EU site.
So, PAL people! What are you getting?
We'll try to keep an updated list of all the PAL Wii Ware games, which can be found here.
By seaempty.
Wednesday, 5. September 2007, 18:50:05
seaempty, N+, poll, members
...
Last week we wanted to know what 3rd party games you were most looking forward to. I don't get shocked very often, but I let out a loud gasp when I saw the most popular choice!
The most eagerly awaited game was NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. Not a strange choice, by any means, but not what I had anticipated. The second spot was shared by Manhunt 2 and No More Heroes. Only 4% of you were interested in Ninjabreadman. That'll be me then...
This week we want to know more about you.Read more...
By seaempty.
Wednesday, 29. August 2007, 19:45:02
seaempty, N+, poll, members
...
It's poll time again! And on the back of a record week of voting! It seems a lot of you wanted details on some of Nintendo's upcoming titles, and although we can't give them to you, w can... um... tell you which game interested you most!
By the slimmest of margins, Mario Kart Wii won the poll, with two Nintendo firm favourites tied for second. It seems that daily updates aren't enough for Enplussers, with Brawl sharing the second-place spoils with Animal Crossing. 9% of you wanted info on "other" titles but didn't actually specify which ones, so we'll never know...
This week Nintendo have shown what the Wii can really do, with the release of Corruption. We hope that the console now starts to get some decent 3rd party titles to boost its library.
Read on to see this week's question!Read more...
By Anton.
Tuesday, 28. August 2007, 03:39:09
MK, seaempty, N+, group
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It's that time again, the time when we have to leave our living rooms empty much more often, and it's a shame to, Metroid Prime 3 is here and ready for long nights of pirate battles. Pack those bags guys it's back to school time!
- Tissue Box
- #2 Pencils
- Ruled Paper
- DS Lite / Gameboy Advance
Ahhhh the school list. Are you ready for back to school? If you forgot to throw that last bit of necessary gear into your bookbag then read on! N+ Moderators have teamed up to bring you their personal checklist of 5 "Back 2 Scool" must have games...
Read more...
By seaempty.
Wednesday, 22. August 2007, 16:21:45
seaempty, N+, poll, members
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It's Wednesday, which means that it's time for a new N+ poll!
Last week we asked you what you thought the best Metroid game had been, and after a very small margin, Metroid Prime was the most popular choice. It seems that we prefer the first-person perspective over the 2D view, with Hunters taking the second spot. In third place came the game which was just released this week on the NAVC, Super Metroid. If you haven't played it, I suggest that you take the advice of the N+ members, and download it now.
This week, with the Leipzig Games Convention about to start we want to hear your views on the announcements you would like to hear. Read more to see the question and options in full.Read more...
By seaempty.
Tuesday, 10. July 2007, 13:21:54
seaempty, music, games, list
...
EA have announced the tracks that will be featured in Boogie on the Wii, and there are a fair few! 35 in total, listed below, along with the artist that made them famous (all the tracks are cover versions). It was looking good until I saw Simply Red...
The game is set to be released on 31st August 2007 in Europe.
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ABC - The Jackson 5
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Baila Me - Gypsy Kings
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Boogie Oogie Oogie - Taste Of Honey
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Brick House - The Commodores
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Canned Heat - Jamiroquai
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Celebration - Kool & The Gang
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Dancing in the Street - Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
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Dancing Machine - Jackson 5
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Don't Cha - Pussycat Dolls / Busta Rhymes
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Fergalicious - Fergi
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Get Right - Jennifer Lopez
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Get The Party Started - Pink
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Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
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Groove Is In The Heart - Dee-Lite
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I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
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I’m A Slave 4 U - Britney Spears
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It's Raining Men - The Weather Girls
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Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
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Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
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Le Freak - Chic
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Let's Get It Started - Black Eyed Peas
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Love Rollercoaster - Red Hot Chili Peppers
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Love Shack - The B-52's
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Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit of…) - Lou Bega
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Milkshake - Kelis
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One More Time - Daft Punk
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One Way Or Another - Blondie
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Oops I Did It Again - Britney Spears
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Pop Muzik - M
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S.O.S - . Rihanna
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Stars - Simply Red
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That's The Way (I Like It) - KC And The Sunshine
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Tu Y Yo - Thalia
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U Can't Touch This - M.C. Hammer
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Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai
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Walking On Sunshine - Katrina & The Waves
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We Are Family - Sister Sledge
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Y.M.C.A. - The Village People
The game features more than 35 hit songs from over four decades including Celebration, Dancing Machine, Groove Is In The Heart, and We Are Family. The game ships with a packed-in karaoke microphone peripheral and includes new versions of tracks made popular by the hit bands listed below.
”This is a breakthrough game with a landmark soundtrack,” said Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Marketing at EA. “We’ve brought together generations of the biggest hits in pop music history for a game that takes Wii innovation to a whole new level. Boogie is truly the ultimate family fun experience.”
Players will dance, sing and create music videos with this ultimate videogame party package that takes advantage of the innovative Wii controls. Gamers can sing their favorite tunes or dance to the latest hit songs as well as catch their best dance moves, record their own voice and make music videos with the easy-to-use music video creator.
By seaempty.
Monday, 2. July 2007, 14:22:23
industry, seaempty, games, list
...
"Influential" UK Magazine Edge has made a list of the top 100 games ever made. Predictably Ocarina of Time takes the top spot. Not to belittle this achievement, as it is a great honour to be voted the best videogame EVER MADE by 1000s of the magazine's readers, it's been a common view amongst people who have played it, and compiled these lists. It says something about the game that I'm being so blasé about this achievement, but it's not the first time that it's been given this accolade.
What I found more interesting about the list, is the number of Nintendo titles that made the top ten.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)
- Resident Evil 4 (GameCube, PlayStation 2)
- Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)
- Half-Life 2 (PC)
- Super Mario World (Super Nintendo)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Super Nintendo)
- Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox)
- Final Fantasy XII (PlayStation 2)
- Tetris (Various)
- Super Metroid (Super Nintendo)
Although RE4 and (to an extent) Tetris are not made by Nintendo, both games made their debuts on a Nintendo console.
By seaempty.
Thursday, 26. April 2007, 13:06:14
news, industry, seaempty, nintendo
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Today Nintendo reported final consolidated fiscal year revenues of 966.5 billion yen and operating profits of 226.0 billion yen for the year ending March 31, 2007, an increase of 90 percent and 150 percent, respectively, over the same period one year ago. Both of these numbers are record highs for the company.
The reasons for this increase are:
- Full-year sales of more than 23 million portable Nintendo DS™ systems globally
- 123 million Nintendo DS games sold
- 5.84 million Wii consoles sold
- 29 million Wii games sold
Nintendo has also made some proections on how sales will go this coming financial year:
- Projected sales of 14 million Wii systems
- Projected sales of 55 million Wii games worldwide
- Projected sales of 22 million Nintendo DS hardware units
- Projected sales of 130 million DS software units
- Consolidated sales increasing nearly 18 percent to 1.14 trillion yen, and operating profits growing nearly 20 percent to 270 billion yen.
If you really want to see more details, the PDF version of the full report can be downloaded here
By seaempty.
Saturday, 21. April 2007, 09:43:14
news, seaempty, games, mario
...
Some interesting facts for you on a Saturday
- In the first quarter of 2007, the Wii has already notched over a million systems sold in America.
- Sales for the DS now stand just short of 1.25 million for the same period.
- Wii remains the fastest-selling new console in more than a decade, based on NPD sell-through information over the first five months of availability.
- So far this year, Nintendo has sold more video game systems than all other manufacturers combined.
The message delivered by both Wii and Nintendo DS is the same one. Innovation is compelling both current gamers and new gamers to experience a new way to play. Nintendo is bringing gaming back to the masses.
Reggie Fils-Aime, president, Nintendo of America.
Wii production is set to be increased as Nintendo are faced with unprecendted demand for the console. This demand looks set to continue with the release of Super Paper Mario, and the future release of Mario Party 8.
The DS should have a very good week this week, with the release of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in the US tomorrow, which has already seen preorder sales figures top 500,000.
As a long-time Nintendo fan, it makes for very nice reading this morning!
By seaempty.
Thursday, 22. March 2007, 12:26:43
discussion, hardware, list, ds
...
Our friends at The Tanooki have reported that the DS could possibly be on course to be the number one gaming platform in history. To some, however, the little Dual-Screened Wonder Machine, could be better.
Eric-Jon Rössel Waugh of Next-Generation has written an article on how he believes that the DS could, and should be improved. His basic points are as follows:
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Give the system some internal flash memory. - At the moment downloaded demos are saved on RAM memory and get deleted when the DS is switched off. It would be nice to have some more permanent storage.
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Improve the system interface. - Make the DS desktop more like the Wii, so that you can access it without the need to restart the console. The ability to suspend the games would also be welcomed.
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Make the system interface expandable. - The ability to download new features, like you download new channels for the Wii.
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Add a Virtual Console. - A VC specifically for the DS, including not only GameBoy and GBA games, but also GameGear, Neo Geo Pocket, and Atari Lynx.
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Integrate wi-fi support. - The old universal friend code grumble, and the ability to manage Wi-Fi settings from the main menu.
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Integrate Pictochat more. - Make Pictochat available in more games, like Animal Crossing.
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Let users toy more with the system menus. - Use the stylus to customise the menus and icons. "Doodle avatars for Pictochat. Doodle wallpaper. Doodle borders for windows".
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Make real, native use of the Game Boy advance slot. - Use the GBA slot for expansion paks similar to that of the N64, allowing for higher quality games, and maybe even offering all the above improvements.
The full article can be found here, and raises some interesting points. They are points that I'm sure most of us have already thought about. In your opinion, does the DS need improvements to keep on top, or is it fine as it is? We've already seen a cosmetic overhaul yield impressive results, would a software update be met as well?
By seaempty.
Friday, 16. March 2007, 13:48:19
seaempty, remote, hardware, list
...
We posted about a Wii Remote dissection back in December. Now Popular Science have produced a pretty flash animation to show how the accelerometers work. It's not only pretty to look at, but it's pretty interesting too! Filled with amazing facts such as:
- An accelerometer consists of a silicon weight—less than one millionth of a gram.
- The accelerometer measures a change in voltage when the weight moves and uses it to calculate the distance the weight has traveled—a matter of no more than five nanometers (hair is around 200 nanometers wide).
- With weights that shift up and down, left and right, and back and forth, the accelerometer measures movement in three dimensions.
- The controller wirelessly sends data about your movement to the main console, which compares your actions with a database of possible swings.
It's fairly old news (we know basically how the Remote works), but it's easy to take such impressive technology for granted.
By seaempty.
Friday, 16. March 2007, 08:30:27
news, industry, seaempty, ds
...
The NPD Group has announced the sales figures for consoles in th US for February 2007, and it makes for some good reading if you're a Nintendo fan.
- Nintendo DS 485,000
- Wii 335,000
- PlayStation 2 295,000
- Xbox 360 228,000
- PlayStation Portable 176,000
- Game Boy Advance 136,000
- PlayStation 3 127,000
- GameCube 24,000
- Xbox 480
The top two selling consoles are made by Nintendo, and even the GBA is beating the PS3 in terms of numbers sold. OK, there may be a slight difference in price between the two, but it still made me smile. It's probably due to their great advertising.via GoNintendo
By seaempty.
Tuesday, 6. March 2007, 17:16:33
list, seaempty, screenshots, preview
...
CVG have posted details of a forthcoming Wii game that goes by the name of
Emergency Mayhem. It's a driving game that looks similar to Crazy Taxi, but with the addition of some mini games that utilise the Wii Remote. Here are a summary of the details, lazily copied from the article.
- You play as the fire, police and ambulance emergency services, zooming around a large city in search of people in need of assistance.
- The city is divided into seven districts, each of which is riddled with tunnels, subways and sewers to help you arrive at the scene before everything goes haywire.
- There are six types of vehicle in all - two for each service - and you can apply up to five upgrades to each one as you progress through the game. Spoilers, faster engines and grippier tyres are all on the menu.
- When you get to wherever you're supposed to be, you engage in one of 60 minigame challenges. Some, such as knocking out convicts by whacking them on the head, or firing 'water bullets' at little flame men, are completely disconnected from the driving sections.
- Others, including chasing rogue kebab vans to stop them poisoning the citizens with their rotten meat, or driving critically ill patients to the hospital, are integrated into the main game. Each bump or jolt brings them one step closer to an en-route demise, as represented by a little heart icon that coughs and splutters when you drive badly.
- Appropriately for such a simple sort of game, it's controlled entirely using the remote. You tilt it to steer, and point at the screen for some of the minigames such as tracing the wires in a ticking bomb or aiming projectiles in a basic kind of first-person shooter scene.
A screenshot gallery can be found
here.
I think the game looks quite good fun, but whether it'll be long lasting fun is another matter. If they manage to get both the driving part of the game, and the mini games to be as strong as each other, it might be worth looking at. It can be played with two players, which is always a welcome addition to a game, and it's got monkeys wearing fez's, so it can't be bad.
The game's scheduled for a June release in the EU.
By seaempty.
Wednesday, 10. January 2007, 17:46:22
industry, seaempty, pokemon, nintendo
...
CVG have a report that detail the 20 top-selling videogame franchises of all time. As the title of this post rather gives away, the moustachioed plumber took the top spot, with a franchise worth 193 million sales worldwide. The report was initially published by The Independent newspaper in the UK, and the list looks like this:
1. Mario, 193 million
2. Pokémon, 155 million
3. Final Fantasy, 68 million
4. Madden NFL, 56 million
5. The Sims, 54 million
6. Grand Theft Auto, 50 million
7. Donkey Kong, 48 million (centre)
8. The Legend of Zelda, 47 million
9. Sonic the Hedgehog, 44 million
10. Gran Turismo, 44 million
11. Lineage, 43 million
12. Dragon Quest, 41 million
13. Crash Bandicoot, 34 million
14. Resident Evil, 31 million
15. James Bond, 30 million
16. Tomb Raider, 30 million
17. Mega Man, 26 million
18. Command & Conquer, 25 million
19. Street Fighter, 25 million
20. Mortal Kombat, 20 million
It does make you think how amazingly popular Pokemon is, considering the head start Mario has had over it!
Are you surprised with the top 20? Any franchises that you thought would have been up there? The only one I can think of is Metroid, but I gather it's not that big a title in Japan (I may be wrong about that).
By seaempty.
Thursday, 28. December 2006, 11:49:21
virtual console, seaempty, games, list
...
Here is a list of the games being added to the VC in Japan throughout January. Is it just me, or is their catalogue the best out there?
FAMICOM TITLES
Ikki (500 points)
Ice Climber (500 points)
Zelda II: Adventures of Link (500 points)
Kid Icarus (500 points)
SUPER FAMICOM TITLES
Fire Emblem Seisen no Keifu (900 points)
NINTENDO 64
Mario Kart 64 (1000 points)
MEGA DRIVE
Bonanza Bros. (500 points)
Gain Ground (500 points)
PC ENGINE
Alien Crush (500 points)
R-Type II (500 points)
Soldier Blade (500 points)
Moto Roader (500 points)
I so want Fire Emblem to be released on the EU VC, but I can't see this happening. I can see a lot of excitment for the Mario Kart title, but for me, the 64 version is one of the weakest released, next to the GBA one.
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