Nintendo Wii Fanboy

A recent IGN Podcast has unveiled some interesting tidbits related to the Wii. Now, we all know IGN's information comes from the shadiest of places...scarred men whispering secrets in dank alleyways, unnatural seances with souls departed...but if they're willing to dive into hell's inferno to obtain some info, then we're certainly willing to take all the credit relate it to you, the faithful reader. So, without further ado:

• Nintendo may decide to move Super Paper Mario directly to the Wii, as the Gamecube is essentially dead in the water. This would not only make financial sense, but finally allow us at Wii Fanboy to cover this excellent looking game. We want to believe it.
  
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption may not make the Wii launch after all. This is directly contradicting several months' worth of continuous confirmations by Nintendo and Retro Studios, and would take a lot of steam out of the superlative launch lineup. We doubt it.
  
• Dragon's Quest: Swords also may not make the launch window. We see no reason to disbelieve such a thing; Square-Enix loves their delays.
  
• Excite Truck has been confirmed as a launch title. Why not?
• LucasArts has indeed been developing a lightsaber game for the Wii. Yeah. We know.
• Publisher THQ has 6 to 8 titles in development for the Wii. Seeing as how they're handling the more lighthearted affairs (Cars, Spongebob), it seems plausible, but none too exciting.
  
• At the Leipzig Games Convention (coming soon!), Nintendo and third parties will reveal exactly how they intend to port more traditional game fare from the PS3 and Xbox 360 over to the Wii. Uhhh...sure.

And, there you have it. As a special bonus gift from us at the Fanboy, here are some complimentary grains of salt.

First, we reported the imminent keynote speech from Nintendo entitled "Wii Prove Our Promise" at a relatively unheard-of show called the Leipzig Games Convention. Then, we told you that Nintendo would unveil five new Wii games at the conference. And now, yet again, more big news: later in the day, after the keynote, there will be a joint presentation between Nintendo and Electronic Arts, of all companies.

A bit of a personal story: on the day that the Wiimote was unveiled at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show, a speaker from EA had come to the University of Florida to speak about game design and coding details of several upcoming games, notably the Xbox 360 version of Madden 2006. At the end of the presentation, he fielded some questions; I, of course, raised my hand and asked him what he thought of the then-called Revolution and its wacky new controller. He looked at me with disdain and shook his head, commenting that he strongly doubted EA would be supporting such a thing.

How times have changed! Or maybe that man was an uninformed idiot, I don't know. Still, it's very obvious that many companies have turned from cold to raging wildfire for the Wii, and a presentation with the biggest third-party in the business can only mean good news. August 23rd! Mark it!