Nintendo Wii Fanboy

For those not compulsively checking the official Smash Bros. website daily for bare snippets of information, we here at Wii Fanboy have decided to perform the service of coalescing tidbits into tidbigs. Over the past week, a few interesting details have surfaced.

Most of the reveals are item-based: you may now move freely with projectile weapons (finally!), and as detailed earlier here, the new "Gooey Bomb" item was unveiled. The most interesting new item, however, is the Smash Ball, which activates character-specific "Final Smash" attacks. Mario's is entitled the "Mario Finale" attack, which unleashes a spread-fire explosion attack, and we've seen Link's Triforce blade attack in an earlier video. Since most competitive Smash Bros. players contend without the randomizing effect of items, it'll be interesting to see if this affects higher-level gameplay.

Also unveiled are some of Pit's (of Kid Icarus fame) attacks, which include a controllable arrow of light and limited flight capabilities (most likely the Up+B special). Brawl looks like it's coming together nicely ... do you guys agree?

We would put our journalistic integrity at risk by making a full-fledged post out of this stuff. Seriously, check the link: "confirmed reports" of Brawl and Galaxy release dates, new Mario Kart and Zelda for the Wii, a new original IP similar to Final Fantasy VII ... it's a Nintendo fan's wet dream. While we can't completely discount the fact that it's real, being constantly exposed to this drivel has to make one just a bit jaded.

Rumors are fun, there's no doubt ... even if we know it's fake, it's nice to imagine. But who writes this stuff? What kind of odd psychological thrill do they receive, and why are Nintendo fans so willing to ignore the obvious and go along with it? Some of it is impressive (see the Nintendo On video), but it seems that Nintendo is eighteen times more susceptible to ridiculous rumor-mongering than the nearest competitor. Ah well ... it's kinda fun ... we guess. Your thoughts?

It seems that Square Enix isn't quite convinced about the whole Virtual Console thing. In an interview with Nintendo Dream magazine, Square's Shinji Hashimoto was dubious about the prospects for Final Fantasy games on the Virtual Console, stating that the Japanese audience (which is, of course, the audience that matters) needs physical media for their games. And like the responsible, friendly, consumer-oriented company that Square Enix is, they are happy to provide physical copies of Final Fantasy games. Over, and over, and over, and over again. Of course they don't want to sell a $5 copy of NES FF1 when they've got the PSP remake coming out.

We aren't that upset, since they've already released the best game in their library (in Japan and Europe, at least). Go ahead and argue with us. You know Actraiser is way better than Final Fantasy.

[Via Game|Life]

So we're pretty happy with the Wii browser, and apparently you guys are too. Still, it's not a PC, and there are sites out there with whom our Opera browser doesn't play happily. It only features Flash 7.0, after all, and Java is a no-go. Still, can it handle some of the most popular sites out there? Games Digest takes the Wii browser on a spin through fifteen of the most popular sites in today's intertubes, and compares its performance with the PS3's built-in browser. We won't spoil the outcome.

We're actually quite surprised at the Wii's performance at Last.fm, essentially radio over the internet. If you've got a killer sound system hooked up to your TV, you can set the jams on high and rock out. Just like we do. Check out which sites are Wii-friendly, and which not! You might be surprised.

Two superb Capcom fighting games are headed to the Virtual Console. Final Fight and the inevitable Street Fighter II Turbo Hyper Fighting have been spotted on the ESRB's list of rated Wii games.

The SNES version of Final Fight lacks co-op play and Guy, but has plenty of "Oh! My car" to satisfy us. Street Fighter II Turbo is just like Street Fighter II, but sped-up, with more moves, more characters, and some bizarre changes made to the color scheme. We aren't sure why we're explaining this, because everyone in the world has played enough Street Fighter II to know the different versions.

Oh, also new on the list was Tecmo's Mighty Bomb Jack. As obscure game advocates, we feel like we should be most excited about this one, but ... yeah, Final Fight is really, really awesome.

[Via Siliconera]

Over the past several years, our quest for information has lead us down defined roads, ones that very obviously do not lead to simply asking a company to divulge critical secrets. They are, of course, led by evil PR demons who stem the flow of knowledge in a manner than would leave many medieval theocracies rife with envy.

This is why, when playNintendo simply sent an E-mail with a bunch of questions regarding the final release of the Opera browser, we expected nothing of it. Lo! Data rains down when least expected, and although many questions could not be answered, here are the highlights:

• The final release of the browser will be coming in late March or early April. Sweet.
• Though Opera will not be directly involved in the support of USB keyboards, Nintendo has not denied any possibilities. The wording seems to imply a special, Wii-branded keyboard is en route.
• The browser will be regularly updated by Opera.

Things that wouldn't get answered: will Java be supported? Will those black bars above and below the pages be eliminated? Where's the tabbed browsing? Hmmm ....

According to German gaming site GameFront, Square-Enix will have Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on-hand at Jump Festa, a gaming/anime/manga event held in Japan, taking place on the 16th and 17th of this month. The only information missing is just what version, or versions, of the game will be at the show. Will we see the new DS game or that installment that is Wii-bound? We'll update you as soon as we receive confirmation.

[Via Go Nintendo]