Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Who doesn't love Earthworm Jim, this week's Virtual Console release? People without souls and taste, that's who! It's a great mix of platforming and action segments, wonderful minigames, and tense boss fights that come together and form one amazing product. an earthworm in a robotic suit? Can't beat that!

And the Nintendo of Europe site leaks another morsel of info! Not long ago, news of Nintendo selling music appeared in our RSS feed weeks early, only to lead to a dead link after it was hastily pulled by Nintendo. And now another slippage has occurred, with Nintendo accidentally revealing (what we suspect are the contents of) tomorrow's PAL Virtual Console update: Earthworm Jim and Shining Force II.

Once again, the news appears in our RSS feed (as seen here) while the story itself has been yanked from Ninty's site. All being well then, tomorrow's VC update for Europe and Australia should read something like this:

• Earthworm Jim -- Mega Drive -- 800 Wii Points
• Shining Force II: The Ancient Seal -- Mega Drive -- 800 Wii Points

These aren't set in stone yet, so we'll label this as a rumor, but it looks likely. Also: "Hurray!" for both of these.

Update: And it's confirmed: those are your titles for this week, PAL people! [Thanks, Lanceh!]

The latest ESRB update confirms two wonderful things that we knew were happening at some point: first, that Mega Man and the sublime Mega Man 2 would be on the way to our Virtual Console soon; second, that Earthworm Jim would make an appearance.

Even more interesting -- Earthworm Jim has been rated for a while, but the latest update includes a rating for Earthworm Jim 2 on the Wii! Strangely, the new rating is for the Wii and Genesis versions, while another rating is already on the site for the Genesis game. Now it's got two E ratings! It's extra appropriate for families.

Other interesting new games found in ratings: Professor Heinz Wolff's Gravity, an Incredible Machine/Crayon Physics hybrid; Potpourii, a matching puzzle game; and Midnight Pool and Midnight Bowling from Gameloft.

You know what the best thing about hanging out with JC is? Hearing him gush about Mega Man 9 and how he got a ton of time to play it. It's kind of the same thing with me and Wario Land: Shake It!, I assume. But, what's important is the question we have to ask.

So, in thinking about what other retro dream sequels we could see on WiiWare (Earthworm Jim 3, for example), we'd like to know what you all can come up with. So, let's hear it! What retro dream sequel would you like to see?

The announcement of Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 for the Virtual Console was just a warning shot: Interplay is prepared to overexpose the hell out of Shiny's old character, starting with a new game! For Earthworm Jim 4, Interplay has brought back Doug TenNapel, creator and original character voice of EWJ, as a creative consultant. No details of the game, including which platforms it is planned for, have been released, but Wii seems likely given the aforementioned VC announcement.

Interplay is getting all the mileage out of Jim they can -- they've also announced both a new cartoon series and a feature film based on Jim. For his part, TenNapel is happy to be reunited with the character, and happy with Interplay's treatment: he states in his forum that "Interplay is being really cool ... they're hungry, so they want to see Jim fly again. That's a different strategy than just sitting on a dead license and try to milk more re-hashes that continue to weaken the brand."

Groovy! One of the most-requested Virtual Console games is now officially on the way, thanks to Interplay. And it's bringing friends! Earthworm Jim, Shiny's platform/shooting adventure about a worm in a space suit, will be released on the Virtual Console "later this year," joined by its sequel, as well as the Claymation SF2-alike Clayfighter (developed by Visual Concepts) and Boogerman (full title: Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure).

According to Gamasutra, these will be the Genesis versions of the games, which means that Earthworm Jim will include the extra "Intestinal Distress" level that was exclusive to that version.

Hey, Interplay had the rights to Out of this World at some point. Maybe they still do!

David Perry, who should sound familiar to you Earthworm Jim fans out there, sat down with GamesIndustry.biz to conduct a nice little interview. GI grilled him on all of the current consoles on the market, eventually coming to Nintendo's newest console, the Wii. What Perry had to say, however, might not be what we all wanted to hear.

In regards to the competition of Nintendo's first-party titles, Perry states "You have to allow for that. You can't assume it is going to be like the other platforms, because you are going to have Nintendo taking most of the sales. And if Nintendo really sees you as a threat, they will take the moves to wipe you out. They are not going to let you win." Kind of makes Nintendo sound like the mafia or something, wouldn't you say?

Perry also talks about Nintendo's new winning attitude, stating that the ease of use of the Wii is what is bringing them all of this new fortune. Perry compares them to Apple, saying "What matters is the fact that things are easy to play. Hopefully, everyone heeded the Nintendo message. Easy to play is very important in this industry. Does anyone get that yet? You can go back to Apple, who taught us the same thing. Time after time after time they put out a new iPod with the same controls. Why? Because adding ten more buttons, which would have been very tempting and very easy to do, would have made it more complex. Keeping that system, that round dial that does everything magically, is part of the proof that making things easier sells."