Nintendo Wii Fanboy

During 2007, lots of companies realized that the Wii was doing good. Perhaps, too good. So, they scrambled to make games that they could port or "enhance" for the Wii, or other games that were made to take advantage of the console's adopters who were new to gaming and thus susceptible to spending money on crap games the unique capabilities of the Wii's controls scheme, causing a slew of cash-ins on the console that didn't necessarily bring anything new to the Wii other than another game sitting on the shelf. So, let's look at those games and you tell us what the most shameless and useless game of the lot is.

While this isn't as MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAT as, say, screenshots or video would be, we admit that we were pretty curious about how the moves in Mortal Kombat Armageddon were going to be pulled off (not curious enough to buy it, but certainly curious enough to read a thing on the Internet.) We knew waggling would be involved, but it's cool to learn what the specific waggles will be.

This totally reminds us of downloading Mortal Kombat FAQs from Compuserve and leaving them to print from our dot-matrix printer overnight. Sometimes we'd wake up in the morning only to find that our pet dinosaur had shredded all the pages, forcing us to start over.

[Via Joystiq]

Can you believe it? This week, we have a list of Wii releases -- an actual list, which means more than one title. Brilliant! At least, it seems that way until we head out to the shops and peer into our wallets, which immediately shrivel in the face of the epic list of games we want to buy. But we're greedy like that.

So what's it for you this week? Will you bear the brunt of multiple game purchases? Are you going to wait awhile before making any decisions?

• Mario Party 8
• Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
• Surf's Up
• Tamagotchi: Party On!

It's a little weird to release new screens of a port that looks pretty much identical to the versions that have been out since October, but that's okay! We're following Mortal Kombat Armageddon with interest, just because of the waggle. We are very curious about trying a waggle-fortified fighting game.

One thing is certain from these screens: Nintendo is definitely not insisting on replacing the blood in this game with viscous grey sweat. Unless they're saying that in the Outworld, people sweat red-- by the gallon, out of gaping neck wounds. We've posted a gallery containing new screens-- FINISH THEM! Uh, by which we mean LOOK AT THEM!

While we've all thought since January that the odds of online gameplay making its way into Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the Wii were almost nonexistent, it seems now that we may finally take that nonexistence by the throat and choke it to death. And toss it in a trunk, lock it shut with chains and padlocks, finally tossing it into the Atlantic ocean. It just isn't happening, as the game's producer Shaun Himmerick revealed to AMN in a quick Q & A session. This, of course, is quite sad, considering that some folks working on the game actually wanted to include online functionality.

During a preview for Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the Wii, Game Informer revealed that the preview build they were given was actually good. It was better than good, it was fun. And what exactly makes this game so fun? Well, we're glad to report it's the controls.

What's odd about this piece, however, is the report that the folks developing this MK title wanted to include online functionality. What's even more odd though is that the reason given for not including the functionality is Nintendo hasn't given them any online-capable dev kits yet. This goes against the reports of third-party devs already receiving these.

This doesn't make much sense to us, to tell the truth, even if Nintendo's Pokemon Battle Revolution is to kick off the Wi-Fi gameplay on the console. That doesn't mean the developers can't implement the code and just force those who have purchased the game to wait until after Pokemon before turning the Wi-Fi on, right?

Update: Whoops, we got our dates mixed up. MK releases before Pokemon Battle Revolution, explaining why they can't implement online play. Our mistake as we had the DS Pokemon games in mind when we said April.

Is it okay to get nostalgic about Mortal Kombat? We know the series isn't that old, and, in fact, still exists. But, for example, we can't help but reference the old "PREPARE YOURSELF" slogan from the 1993 print ads when we're talking about any MK game. We miss the old games, and it took the new one to put us in that state.

Looking at the big, empty environments of the new Wii version of Mortal Kombat Armageddon makes us long for the detail-filled stages of the old games, and the sort-of-plain character models remind us of how amusingly hokey the digitized sprites used to be. Those were the days, when we didn't need fancy polygons to enjoy virtually ripping some dude's spine out. We had Claymation bosses and we liked it. It was a simpler time-- a TOASTY!! time.

Screens, with obligatory Wii-gesture diagrams, after the break.

When Ed Boon recently sat down with Gamespot to discuss the Wii installment of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, it appears their was a video to go along with it. In the video, not only does Ed discuss the controls for the game, but demonstrates them (to a degree). We've done our thing and embedded the video past the post break, now do yours a give it a watch.

Gamespot recently conducted a rather extensive Q & A session with resident Mortal Kombat dude Ed Boon, confirming that rumors of an online game mode for Mortal Kombat: Armageddon on the Wii were nothing but that: rumors. Boon discusses just when development on the Wii installment in the franchise began, as well as some of the tweaks the game was subjected to in transitioning over to Nintendo's motion-sensitive system.

Ed goes on to discuss specifics in the motion-sensitive system, saying he "felt there would be no point in doing this game for the Wii if we did not support the Wii-mote for all modes and features. We didn't want to just support it, though--we wanted to utilize it and customize the gameplay experience. When you play it, you will notice that every single super move in the game is controlled by a Wii gesture system; also, the fatality systems will use the gesture system. For example, to do a move like throw Scorpion's spear, you will swing the Wii-mote away from your enemy and then bring it back toward your enemy, as if you are throwing the spear yourself toward the enemy, in an "away-toward" motion." Sounds good to us, bring on the Kombat!

IGN has a new feature up detailing the next Wii games you'll be playing (and one you might be playing right now). Looks like March will see the end of these empty, game-free weeks in favor of a barrage of titles. Profiled games include:

Godfather: Blackhand Edition
Heatseeker
Prince of Persia: Rival Swords
SSX Blur
Sonic and the Secret Rings
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Mario Party 8
TMNT
Bust-a-Move Bash!

Definitely a wide array of titles (though we skipped the more heavily discussed minigame collections), offering a little something for almost any gamer. Looking for a GTA-type experience? Check. Tricky snowboard action? Got you covered. High-flying fun? Landing at the end of March. The real question is -- which of these are high on your must-have lists?

Ed Boon likes the Wii. This makes us smile since he had made comments before that the Wii isn't a great place for fighting games. He has taken those hurtful comments back stating that it will be a good challenge to fit the game for the system.

Mortal Kombat happens to be one of our favorite fighting games (entering the blood code while our parents weren't watching gave us quite the adrenaline rush) and we are thrilled to hear that the king of fighting gore is appearing on the Wii, especially when it brings every single MK character with it in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

Anyway, MK god Ed Boon had a lot of nice things to say about the Wii including pearls like:

"I hope the Wii is going to carve out its own market and will be very successful. As budgets for game development keeps going up and the prices for each system does the same, the Wii will become a more and more attractive option for both gamers as well as developers."

When it came to talking about Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, he let us know that they are currently trying to find a way to fully utilize the Wiimote in this rather sticky transition. After all, we doubt you will find solace from fatalities with the usual combo breaker.

Boon also stated that he would love to see classic Mortal Kombat games be a part of the Virtual Console. Again, we can't help but smile and twist our fingers in anticipation for Armageddon to reach our bloodthirsty fingers.

Play-Nintendo has a "reliable list" (yeah, we know how those are) of games that are rumored to be on the Virtual Console. But it looks reasonable, and in fact, some of the titles are already confirmed by various sources. Their list is packed with classic titles, and some of them (oh, Castlevania, how we love you) are expected but still exciting, and others many of us still play on lazy Sunday afternoons (Ocarina of Time, anyone?) If this list turns out to be the real deal, we may have to take some extended breaks from our actual Wii games. A fanboy's life is full of difficult choices.

Play-Nintendo also reports that their "source" confirmed five brand new games for the Virtual Console, but they couldn't reveal the details. We'll see.

What are you dying to see? Frankly, we think Super Mario Bros. 3 is a necessity, if only because we know there'd be videos everywhere of fanboys reenacting scenes from The Wizard.

If you could add any three games to this list, what would you choose?

Full list after the jump.