Archive for January, 2009

Wii Warm Up: Year to date

Posted by admin On January - 12 - 2009

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We’re one-third of the way into the first month of a new year! Hooray! Okay, that’s not much time, really. But was it time enough for you to buy a game? If so, did you use a gift card or other credit, or drop your own cold, hard cash? This time right after the holidays can be a major boom or bust, depending on all sorts of circumstances!

Of course, if you got something, we want to know what it was, too.

Wii Warm Up: Year to date originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Sun, 11 Jan 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Underwater monster hunting

Posted by admin On January - 12 - 2009

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No, this is not a hyperviolent sequel to Endless Ocean (though that might be kind of awesome, until PETA got wind of it and freaked out), but rather a little underwater adventuring — or hunting, if you will — in Monster Hunter 3 (tri-).

In these latest screens, our dear Hunter is faced with an underwater beast of epic proportions that might just be a very large, distant, and pissed-off cousin to the electric eel. There’s lightning, anyway. And teeth. Big, sharp, point teeth.

Gallery: Monster Hunter 3

Underwater monster hunting originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Let’s Tap down under

Posted by admin On January - 12 - 2009

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A rating for Yuji Naka’s latest project, Let’s Tap, has popped up on the OLFC and would appear to indicate the title is destined for an Aussie release. Seeing as how we haven’t heard anything on a North American or European release, this is likely going to be good news to folks outside of Australia. If Sega plans to localize the game down under, there’s a very good chance that those of us who are looking forward to tapping away with the quirky title will get a chance to.

Gallery: Let’s Tap

Let’s Tap down under originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wii Warm Up: Take the hint?

Posted by admin On January - 12 - 2009

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We’re basically too dense to understand all the details, but a patent popped up for an in-game system that seems designed to provide hint movies on demand for puzzles, and also to play games for the player to a certain extent, on a time delay. The idea is clearly to let people with less experience, skill, or time enjoy longer games, without the actual difficulty having to take a hit.

But what do you think? Does it ruin the game to give you the option to make it easier? Does the game become de facto nerfed due to a failure of self-control? Or do you feel some other justification for shutting the extremely casual out of something like Zelda? We’re sure some of you will. Some of you, on the other hand, may welcome such bridging efforts.

Wii Warm Up: Take the hint? originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Super Punch-Out!! and rare Ogre Battle rated by ESRB

Posted by admin On January - 12 - 2009

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That copy of Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen you stashed under the mattress to partly fund your early retirement just got a whole lot less valuable. The ESRB has rated the rare Enix RPG for a Virtual Console release, along with another, more widely known SNES gem: Super Punch-Out!!. Is Nintendo planning to release the classic pugilist title alongside its modern Wii equivalent, as it did in the case of Super Metroid and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption? Perhaps!

Those aren’t the only surprises in the latest ESRB ratings: Lonpos, a launch title for the Japanese WiiWare service no less, has also been classified. As it’s been a while, here’s a reminder of what it looks like:

Gallery: Lonpos

Super Punch-Out!! and rare Ogre Battle rated by ESRB originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just as we were preparing to play along with the “Commander” viral campaign for months on end, Nintendo Power came along and saved us from a lot of tedious guessing by just revealing the damn game. And, hey, the once-mysterious title sounds way cooler than its viral marketing.

The Gaijin-developed, Aksys-published Bit.Trip: Beat is a rhythm-based WiiWare game in which you rotate your Wii Remote to control an on-screen paddle and bat away colored blocks to music. As blocks hit your paddle, they create sound effects of their own that blend into the “pumping” tunes.

According to the magazine, good timing is crucial, because you’ll need to deflect blocks in sync with the soundtrack. Play well, and the visuals become “flashier.” Play poorly, and the visuals lose their color, and the sounds dwindle down to mere, simple bleeps. Throughout the three levels (each of which has a boss battle), the block invasions become more complex. Finally, there’ll be a four-player co-op mode, and five other releases in the series to look forward to.

So there we go: mystery solved, and an awesome new WiiWare title to look forward to!

Rez meets Pong? The game behind the ‘Commander’ viral campaign originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Namco confirms Klonoa coming to North America

Posted by admin On January - 12 - 2009

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And it’s doing away with that pesky subtitle Door to Phantomile. Yes, Namco’s remake of the classic PSOne game will release in North America, as reported earlier, and will simply be titled Klonoa. Should be easy enough to remember.

All we have to go on right now is a 2009 release window. Namco hasn’t specified an exact date within the year, but, hey, it’s 2009 right now. Let’s hope we get it sooner rather than later.

See also: Born for Wii: Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil

Gallery: Klonoa: Door to Phantomile

[Via press release]

Namco confirms Klonoa coming to North America originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Brace yourself for a new Cave Story sprite

Posted by admin On January - 12 - 2009

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Following the post about DLC, Nicalis has now officially come back to blogging, and by “blogging” we mean “teasing us regularly about Cave Story“. And, as they return to their schedule, we now find ourselves back in our weekly ritual of thinking dreamily about Cave Story in response to the posting of a new sprite from the game.

This time, it’s Curly Brace, who protects a group of Mimiga children and eventually joins protagonist Quote on his journey. The new sprite looks pretty great to us, but one Nicalis blog commenter classifies her new appearance as “fattie”. We guess … that one shaded square in her midsection is now white? And now she’s totally fat?

Gallery: Cave Story (WiiWare)

Brace yourself for a new Cave Story sprite originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WiiWare to look forward to in the next two weeks

Posted by admin On January - 12 - 2009

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Wow, two WiiWare card game stories in one day! This one is likely to have more immediate payoff, however. In addition to Planet Pachinko, North American gamers can (probably) expect Jungle Speed to be available, for 1,000 points. Jungle Speed is a card game in which players sequentially flip over cards until they reveal two identical cards, at which point they must race to reach for a totem in the middle of the table. The high-speed gameplay sounds like a potentially interesting Wii party game.

While the press release doesn’t mention the developer, an OFLC listing identified them as Next Level Games, the Canadian company behind Super Mario Strikers and the new Punch-Out!! This is likely to be true, as the game is apparently “produced with the financial participation of Telefilm Canada”. Government-subsidized WiiWare!

The next Monday, January 19, High Voltage Hot Rod Show, the racing game from the developers of The Conduit, will go up on WiiWare, also for 1,000 Wii Points.

Gallery: High Voltage Hot Rod Show

Source: Jungle Speed
Source: High Voltage Hot Rod Show

WiiWare to look forward to in the next two weeks originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patent shows Wiimote was originally a GameCube peripheral

Posted by admin On January - 12 - 2009

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Some new images and details on Nintendo’s patent for the Wiimote have surfaced on the net and they show that the original idea was planned for the GameCube. The Wiimote was to attach to the console via an adapter, much like the WaveBird’s. But, as you all know, the GameCube ended up going the way of the dodo, and so the Wii was born.

The image to the right shows Mario playing tennis, which is where Nintendo originally got the idea for Wii Sports, we assume, but there’s more. Past the break, you can see more diagrams showing how the Wiimote would work with the GameCube, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Gallery: Wii remote peripheral diagrams

[Via Siliconera]

Patent shows Wiimote was originally a GameCube peripheral originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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