Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Hmm. In the age-old debate regarding pirates v. ninja, it seems Nintendo clearly prefers the latter. What possible other reason could they have for following up International Talk Like a Pirate Day with ninja games? The two must be linked!

Now that we've had our daily conspiracy theory moment, let's get to the subject of what European gamers have a shot at this week, as the Hanabi Festival continues.

• Ninja Gaiden -- NES -- 600 Wii points
• Ninja JaJaMaru-kun -- NES -- 600 Wii points
• World Class Baseball -- Turbografx -- 600 Wii points

There may be brutally difficult action in the future for the Wii. Joystiq's Kevin Kelly recently interviewed Team Ninja's outspoken leader, Tomonobu Itagaki about his recent games and future plans. Kelly asked about the possibility of a Wii game now that Team Ninja's got a DS game in the works, and Itagaki revealed that his decision to make Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword was based on input from an exclusive focus group: his own children.

"We're doing a lot of research, that's about all I can say right now. Although, to add on that note, my kids have been saying they want a game for the Wii. To tell you the truth, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, that's because my kids were asking for one of my titles to be on the DS."

We already know that Itagaki's been thinking about Wii games, as has Ninja Gaiden Sigma's Yusuke Hayashi, so this is just further reinforcement of the possibility. Itagaki's kids must have some skillz if Ninja Gaiden games are being designed for them. The good news is that, if Team Ninja is designing what appears to be a real action game in response to these kids, there's a good chance that the Wii game will be similarly hardcore.

Aeropause's Steven Munn has compiled a list of potential Virtual Console games for suckers. These are all games that have superior versions that could show up on the Virtual Console, or, in the case of Street Fighter II, superior versions that already have shown up. Even without taking the arcade versions into consideration, there's still one more SNES Street Fighter II that could come out, so can you ever feel confident about buying one?

We take issue with a couple of the items on the list. Munn recommends against buying Super Mario Bros., because buying it later as part of Super Mario All-Stars with Super Mario World will be cheaper. We disagree, only because we think the NES version is the definitive version of that game. Same with Ninja Gaiden Trilogy: should Tecmo ever decide to release the SNES compilation on the VC, it will be cheaper than buying all three NES games. However, those SNES remakes are a mess of barely-upgraded graphics and ruined music.

The article does raise a good point, however. Why should we be expected to pay over and over again for inferior versions of the same game, when the best versions exist and can easily be ported? We're thinking of arcade games, here.

Not all speedruns are worth covering on Wii Fanboy, but when the game is Ninja Gaiden, we think everybody should know about it. We were happy the one time we made a run of Ninja Gaiden, and that took like a week. But not only did Tommy Montgomery complete Ninja Gaiden, but he did so in a record-setting 13:49.

That's it. We quit gaming. You guys can go watch the video after the break, then download Ninja Gaiden on the Virtual Console and try it yourselves.Check the link for videos of other Ninja Gaiden speedruns too. We're just going to sit for a minute, and reevaluate our lives.

Our sleeveless-ninja-suit-wearing friend from Tecmo is already planning his return, according to new listings found on the ESRB's site. Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos was released in 1990 in the U.S., just one year after Tecmo presented the first game. It features the same kind of side-scrolling action as the original, with the addition of shadow-ninja clones like the ones found in Ninja Spirit. The box warns that the game is "hard to beat!!" and we can in fact confirm this.

Also newly rated is Sega's Shining in the Darkness, the first game in the Shining series. Don't be discouraged by the fact that the series has been thoroughly ruined by countless mediocre spinoffs and sequels-- while Shining in the Darkness isn't as well-regarded as the Shining Force games, it can still be fun for people who are into hardcore dungeon crawling.

[Via GoNintendo]

Seeing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game on the ESRB's list of upcoming Virtual Console titles should bring joy to our nostalgia-ruled hearts, but we're finding it hard to not be pessimistic about this particular release. We've put more hours into Konami's beat'em up than you can shake a bo staff at, so it's not the actual game that we have problems with.

No, it's just outright jealousy over the XBLA port of the arcade version. While we're stuck with 8-bit graphics and support for only two players, the 360's turtle fans have the original cut scenes, arcade graphics, and online co-op for up to four players! Inconceivable! To add insult to injury, we might have to shell out 600 Wii points for the NES game instead of the usual 500 because of licensing issues. If that'll be the case, we would actually be spending more than what 360 gamers are paying!

We can at least find solace in the NES version's extended levels, extra stages, and Pizza Hut advertising. Also, TMNT II wasn't the only new ninja release spotted on the ESRB's Virtual Console catalog. Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo's 1989 platformer, will also be stabbing its way onto the Wii. Let's see the Xbox try to top us with a game like that! Oh wait...

We're jealous of the Japanese Virtual Console selection already. It's even worse now that we've seen the newly-announced games for April. There is some really great stuff coming out next month-- at least it means there's a chance we'll get it at some point. The new games include awesome selections like Final Fight (SNES), Puyo Puyo Tsuu (Genesis), Punch-Out!! (NES), and Star Fox 64 (N64). Really, the whole list is packed with awesomeness.

Of special interest to us: Ninja Gaiden (NES), which we pretty much don't need to say anything about, because who hasn't played Ninja Gaiden, and Air Zonk, the futuristic Bonk spinoff that exemplifies the term "cute-'em-up".

Computer and Video Games asked Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki about the possibility of putting his franchises on the Wii, and, while no concrete information was given, Itagaki indicated that he had at least thought about it. Specifically, he was inspired by Wii Sports Boxing to think about Wii fighting games. It doesn't take much of a leap to conclude that if Itagaki and Team Ninja make a fighting game for the Wii (and they should!) then the words "Dead" and "Alive" will somehow figure into the title.

Dead or Alive is fine-- we admit that we've bought every version of Dead or Alive 2 that's been released in the US for some reason-- but what we want to see is Ninja Gaiden. We can't believe we haven't thought about how awesome Wii controls in fast-paced 3D action games would be, but now we can't stop daydreaming about it. Of course, it's possible that whatever the new franchise is that he's planning could end up being a Wii action game in a new setting.

[Via Game|Life]

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.