Nintendo Wii Fanboy

With all of the confusion surrounding Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII and online play, we're all dying to know if this game is to release with online gameplay. According to a nameless Ubisoft representative, we've all got our hopes up for nothing. Wii-UK received word as much when contacting Ubisoft, who said that the game would feature no online gameplay modes when it releases later this month.

Looks like we'll all still need to wait for Pokemon before online gameplay rolls out ...

See also: First screens of Blazing Angels on the Wii

Details on Blazing Angels have been thin, and the game's release date was shaky for a long time as well. Given those factors, it's understandable that rumors can sprout from the tiniest things -- like a WiFi logo on a placeholder box at IGN. We've seen placeholder boxes start a ruckus before, but this time there may be more too it than a simple mistake.

Blazing Angels was, as far as we know, slated to be online all along. It's not unpossible that we'll see online dogfights, but it may be very, very unlikely. However, this game was originally slated for an earlier release, so maybe we can cross off at least one "very" from that statement. We know online devkits went out, and that with the game's delay ... well, we can definitely understand the speculation.

Reggie Fils-Aime said the Wii should be online by Q2. But here's the thing -- that article didn't specify whether we're talking about the second quarter of the fiscal year or the year by the calendar -- and either way, late March is on the cusp. So it's actually more feasible than, say, hell freezing over this afternoon, but maybe only just.

Ubisoft has finally gotten around to release some screens for the upcoming Wii version of Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII. While there aren't as many screens as we would've liked, we're still holding out hope that the updated controls and other improvements being made to the game will add some value. We tried the game when it was on another console, and honestly, it wasn't too great. Actually, it downright sucked.

We've included the other screens past the post break.

So what makes a drought? When our cohorts at Joystiq posted the following -- Nintendo's official word on the upcoming sixteen games that will round out Q1, there was some discussion regarding whether a library of 40 titles constitutes a deluge or a drought. Here's the list, per Nintendo:

• Feb. 14 Wii Play with Wii Remote
• Mar. 27 Disney's Meet the Robinsons
• Mar. Bust-A-Move Bash
  
• Mar. Prince of Persia Rival Swords
• Mar. TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
• Mar. Bionicle Heroes
• Mar. Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII
• Q1 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
• Q1 SSX Blur
• Q1 The Godfather Blackhand Edition
• Q1 Medal of Honor: Vanguard
• Q1 Sonic and the Secret Rings

So there's the obvious question of how you feel about the way the Wii's library is shaping up, but the deeper question is ... how many games do we need? It seems most of us would rather have skinnier libraries with nothing but quality games than a new subpar sports title or FPS every week. We're not sure that every one of these titles is gonna reflect the quality we'd like to see, but it doesn't seem thin.

Last, but not at all least, you may notice that we didn't include Mario Party 8, which is apparently slated for March 5. Since it wasn't on Nintendo's list, we left it out here, but that date is still listed on Nintendo's official site.