Nintendo Wii Fanboy

After confirming Kid Icarus for the Wii, Matt Cassassminasiissanisina from IGN has made a wee comment that's sure to disappoint gamers around the globe: "Uh-oh. Looks like we're going to have to wait a little longer than E3 to see the kid fly again. Not too long, though, hopefully."

Well, at least we won't waste our time during the Nintendo press conference hoping and praying for a Kid Icarus showing. Instead, we can focus on filling up the remaining spaces on our lovely E3 Bingo cards.

There's a big game coming for the Wii this holiday -- we know this because Reggie said so -- and IGN's Matt Cassa Casamasi C. has virtually confirmed what most had anticipated: it's Kid Icarus. Speaking on IGN's most recent Nintendo Voice Chat podcast, Casamassina blurted: "Of course [Nintendo is] going to have some E3 surprises. You know, Kid Icarus, for crying out loud, how many times do we have to say Kid Icarus? Kid Icarus is coming for crying out loud."

So there you go -- can't say we're hugely surprised to hear of Pit's return, but that doesn't mean we're looking forward to it any less. Casamassina refused to reveal who was behind it, but we hear the folks at Retro are currently kicking back and taking a break from the Metroid universe ... *

* Wanton speculation.

[Via Joystiq]

He goes on to say that the last time IGN shattered the illusion of objectivity to promote a game (our words) was for Eternal Darkness. Because Zack & Wiki is such a competent and fun game, reminiscent of the classic PC adventure games, it is absolutely worth buying and evangelizing, in his opinion, but it may need help getting noticed.

Bafflingly, Casamassina thinks that the game could be in sales trouble because it's cartoony and doesn't depict realistic, gritty violence. That may have been the case a couple of years ago, but ... has he heard of this "Wii" thing?

The clues are beginning to come together: there's a countdown on the official site of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and some rumblings of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption news coming around May 20th. In this month once reserved for the mighty E3, it's been quite some time since Nintendo has held a major press conference. Finally, good 'ol Matt has made it perfectly clear in a recent IGN Mailbag: he's on his way to Seattle next week for some mysterious reason, and it's not for Starbucks.

About freakin' time, Nintendo. For a company still claiming that the big three will release in 2007, they've been awfully tight-lipped about the impending trio. We look forward to bringing you some surely awesome news coming next week ... uh, you know, assuming that this actually happens.

In this week's IGN Wii-k In Review podcast, Mr. Casamassina unleashed a rumor that promptly sent eighty-nine fans into spontaneous combustion (including poor David, his skin is coal black): Soul Calbur might be coming to the Wii. He refuses to speak the title by name, fearing some sort of silly massive lawsuit, but he comments that a very popular third-party fighting franchise seen on the Gamecube is coming to the Wii. Unless you count the import Naruto 3, Soul Calibur from Namco is pretty much the end-all-be-all of third-party fighting games on the 'Cube.

However, he also comments that the franchise will no longer be seen as a fighting game, but as an adventure game. The mythos behind Soul Calibur certainly has the potential to drive a fully-fledged adventure, but will the play mechanics remain similar? And are we just getting this as a runner-up prize because the 360 and PS3 might receive the long-awaited Soul Calibur 4? Only Miss Cleo time will tell.