Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Hudson has just launched the official Japanese site for upcoming WiiWare title, Alien Crush Returns. Within the site, you'll find a lot of content, including a nice video, along with several screens. Also, if you have some knowledge on translating Japanese, you can find some nice control explanations right here. Overall, it's a pretty neat site that you should check out. Be sure to hit up our gallery below, as well.


[Via Go Nintendo]

While many of you are wondering how Call of Duty 5 ... uh, won't suck on the Wii, check out Joystiq's interview with Treyarch's Mark Lamia. He talks about the Wii version, how it will include online play and also has its own team dedicated to the Wii version of the game. It's a pretty interesting interview that covers some of the concerns Wii gamers have for the title, so head on over and check it out.

The first Mario Kart Wii tournaments were no big deal, offering pretty much the same kind of Mario Kart action you'd enjoy normally, but with more people involved. The latest tournament, which is available until the 9th, surprised us with a new level based on Super Mario Galaxy! It's ... a really boring track (in that it's just a disc), but Galaxy Colosseum is, at the very least, proof that there is still new content to be found in Mario Kart, probably on the game disc.

What's even more interesting is the task: defeating four of Galaxy's Topman enemies in a Boss Attack challenge -- a new gametype! If Nintendo keeps this up, Mario Kart Wii will have a long, healthy life online. If not, we'll just go back to being disappointed.

Taking a look at the above scan from the latest Famitsu, we can see a couple of normal-looking areas, as well as a crazy neon crystal metropolis. In fact, a whole range of building designs will be available in a bunch of styles, including Futuristic, Crystal, Jungle, Las Vegas, Mediterranean, Traditional Japanese and even Cake -- apparently buildings inspired by your favorite baked goods. Sounds delish.

Adopting a MySims visual style, Sim City Creator's modes include Free Play, Mission, Collection (unlockable stuff -- hopefully cookies and pies to build a library), Memorial Album (happy snaps from Free Play) and City Making Contest. This mode lets you upload your created cities via Nintendo Wi-Fi and have various other would-be architects rank and review your work. Nice one!

Sim City Creator is set for a September release in Japan. Keep those dinosaurs and UFOs at bay until then, and hit the Source link to check out the full scans.

[Via NeoGAF]

What's this? A demo?

That's right folks -- if you're lucky enough to be a Wii owner in Europe or Australia, you'll be able to download the WiiWare game that many of us in the U.S. have been coveting -- Dr. Mario. Are you still unsure whether or not you want to lay down 1000 Wii Points, though? Fear not, because there's a demo out there that'll let you test the waters.

Interestingly, not just anyone can play it. A registered Wii friend who bought Dr. Mario & Germ Buster has to send you the free demo (we've tested this and it works). Once you receive and download the trial game, you can register the friend codes of people who've bought the full version and play against them over Nintendo's WFC.

Unfortunately, deprived gamers on the other side of the Atlantic won't be able to download the demo. Even though Wii owners in the U.S. can recieve it from a friend, trying to download it will generate a message saying, "The software you selected is not available in this country." Sad times, indeed.

As you can see in the helpful video above, sharing your own stuff in Blast Works is likely going to be a ... well, uh ... a blast. It looks fun, doesn't it? Of course, the main issue is will anyone actually take the time to share? We hope so!

The stuff that folks can share ranges from something as small as a ship to something as big as an entire stage. It really looks like it'll offer Wii owners some solid online content. And, as you all know, the Wii is in need of some online functionality.

Are home consoles ready to support a successful MMO? EA Mythic creative director Paul Barnett thinks so, but reckons that the hegemony enjoyed by World of Warcraft could be an obstacle. As Barnett puts it in his interview with CVG: "It's very hard [...] when almost everyone has only ever played one of these games and it dominates their thinking."

We'd probably agree with that analysis, though we're not so sure about this bit: "I think probably the best chance of someone doing [the first successful console MMO] is Nintendo."

Backing Nintendo to break new ground is usually a safe bet, but let us not forget how Satoru Iwata wasn't thrilled by the idea of a Nintendo MMO back in February; we can't imagine his position on the matter will have deviated much since then. As much as we all crave an Animal Crossing MMO, we're just not sure if soccer moms and Leroy Jenkins are ready to be united.

"No online racing for you!' That's the message Nintendo is sending to Mario Kart Wii owners hoping to race their Hitler Miis on its Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service.

Any attempt to bring a Mii sharing the German dictator's name online for Mario Kart Wii will be met with the following error: "You cannot access Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection using this Mii name. Please change your Mii name and try again." Presumably, you should still be able to race with a Mii bearing Hitler's likeness while using a different name. You know, if drifting through Moo Moo Meadows as the architect of the Holocaust is your idea of fun.

According to initial tests, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, and several other dictator jerks are not currently banned. Really, though, when was the last time you ran into someone using a Mii of Robert Mugabe.

Those of you who booted up the Wii this morning and checked out the Mario Kart Channel may have noticed that the first competition has finally been opened for entry! The process is simple: complete three laps of Mario Circuit as quickly as possible, upload your time to Nintendo's big list 'o times, wait until the deadline (May 9th or May 10th, depending on your timezone), and get ready to bask in internet glory. Hurray, right?

Wrong.

When we think of Mario Kart time trials, we think of gradually shaving milliseconds off of our best times, of taking every corner as finely as possible, of finding the best way to utilize our three mushrooms, of locating the perfect racing line, and of keeping our noses just ahead of the time trial ghosts. Yet this first Mario Kart Wii competition totally misses the point.

For instance, it's not a time trial at all, but a fully fledged race, complete with eleven opponents and all the usual items. In other words, you can take every corner as flawlessly as possible, only to get blue-shelled on the final straight. Which doesn't strike us as a terribly fair contest. We guess this is meant to level the playing field for newer players, but shouldn't more skillful players be justly rewarded?

Anyway, if you do want to try your hand at being robbed of a deserved victory, this blogger's best time so far is a quite appalling 2:03.325.

So what is so envelope-pushing about Blast Works's online functionality? Well, players will be able to create and trade content online. On top of that, players will also be able to head on over to a special website set up by Majesco, where they can browse other content made by users and, through the power of a mouse click, send that content to their own Wii. The best part? No Friend Codes necessary.

Majesco said that Nintendo has helped them make this leap into a world full of more rich and dynamic online content on a console that hasn't had it yet and sees the future as very exciting regarding Wii and the online space. You can read all about how in the MTV Multiplayer interview here.

For those of you who don't want to settle for just some screenshots of the game's online menus, check out the video above. And, as you would imagine, the interface is slick (got to love that globe and player locator) and allows you to get your game on relatively easily. Oh boy, are we ever dying to get our hands on this!

Why do we love the Wii with friends? Because we want all to share the splendor and majesty that comes from playing the best home gaming console around. So that's why we set out to bring you a nice, easy package of great multiplayer games for the Wii.

Both online and local multiplayer is covered, as well as games that have released and those that are still in production. We hope you find this useful in your own life, in some small way, or at least a good place to link a friend who has no idea what they're getting into with the Wii. So read on and see what we have in store, then come back here and tell us what multiplayer experiences you enjoy most on the Wii!

After Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii has become the latest title to appear in the excellent "Iwata Asks:" series of interviews. Featuring producer Hideki Konno, Wii Wheel project leader Kenichiro Ashida, and Shigeru Miyamoto (in fully relaxed, shirt-open mode) getting grilled by Satoru Iwata, it's a treasure trove of information for Mario Kart enthusiasts.

Alongside an enjoyably lengthy dissection of the series' history, there's also discussion about Mario Kart Wii's online play. The online matchmaking in particular sounds a treat, in that it allows players to join a race once it's finished, thus avoiding races becoming one-on-one affairs (as so frequently happened in Mario Kart DS). Players can use the Mario Kart Channel to check which of their friends are currently playing online, and even join them instantly.

Producer Konno and Miyamoto also explained the decision to include bikes in this game, with Konno admitting that his own hobbies influenced the choice, and Miyamoto stating that the bikes are there to "make the world of Mario a little more for boys [by] adding an extreme-like element to the game." (Apparently, the title was originally known as "Mario Kart X," with the "X" taken from "extreme")

Finally, we hear more on the Wii Wheel, and the reasoning behind it. As expected, the peripheral is designed to make Mario Kart more approachable than ever before, and project leader Kenichiro Ashida reportedly created "about thirty" prototypes (many of which you can see in our gallery). Oh, and he even made gold and black versions -- just for the hell of it. Do want!

Josh Thomas from WiiFolder has compiled an excellent two-part video tour of Dr. Mario's Virus Buster for saps like us who are impatiently awaiting WiiWare's arrival in the west.

Sure enough, against all reasonable odds, the footage above and after the break has actually managed to raise our excitement levels for the game -- we now particularly want to try out the Wiimote-specific mode (especially with three other people), and were delighted to hear that online play is totally -- that's totally -- lag-free (despite Josh being based in the U.S. and his opponents being in Japan). Finally, we were less than delighted to learn about Josh's record online -- just four wins from 35 matches. We suspect our own tally will be crushingly similar come May.