Nintendo Wii Fanboy

We've been diverging lately into video game history and ephemera in these VC Advantage columns, because those are usually a lot more interesting than just plain old cheats, while keeping in the spirit of extending the enjoyment of games through secrets. But sometimes it's nice to get back to the original stated purpose of presenting codes for Virtual Console games as if we were writing a column in an old gaming magazine.

Mega Turrican seems like an excellent candidate for this treatment, because it is hard as all get out. While previous entries in the franchise involved huge, maze-like levels, Mega Turrican is basically Contra but faster (and with backgrounds that don't contrast enough with the enemies) -- a straightforward left-to-right run-and-gun. And that is almost universal code for "punishingly hard game whose first level you will see about fifty thousand times."

With that in mind, an invincibility cheat seems like a perfectly relevant and helpful thing to offer. It couldn't be easier to pull off, either: just pause the game and hit A, A, A, B, B, B, A, A, A. You don't even have to write this one down! You can also skip a level by hitting right, left, down, right, and then B while paused. And now you can pretend to be successful while playing Mega Turrican!

[Codes via GameFAQs]

In their latest podcast, called "Nintendo Voice Chat," the IGN crew hinted pretty strongly at a Wii Kid Icarus game. At about the 12:30 mark in the March 18th show, the group turns to Reggie's mysterious E3 surprise. "Could be Kid Icarus," Matt Casamassina said, "We've already chatted about that -- don't know if it's going to be that. We do know that that game exists."

Here, Matt seems to be referring to the previous week's Wii-k in Review (ugh), in which he said that Kid Icarus would "absolutely" be on the Wii in 2008. Any sources? Of course not! "The rumors are out there," he said. Is he using his own rumor from a previous week as confirmation?

We wouldn't be surprised about a Kid Icarus game at this point, if only because people are so crazy about the rumor now. But we'll just say that Nintendo does not care about the franchise, or there would have been a third game by now. That means that they would undoubtedly be outsourcing it -- to Factor 5 or someone else.

We appreciate the fact that we actually have a good game to play this week, but only one release? Come on, Nintendo! You spoiled us with your week after week of releasing multiple titles, only to have us completely let down today? For shame, considering that most also expected the first entry in a very good series of games to be on the VC (it did seem like a no-brainer).

Oh well, at least, like we said, the game is good.

It's been hard not to feel totally pampered by recent PAL Virtual Console updates, with the likes of Phantasy Star II and Street Gangs keeping us up late.

This week's releases -- both of which are shooters -- can't quite match that kind of awesomeness, but they're still worth considering. Super Turrican is a pretty SNES shooter from Factor 5 (heard of those turncoats?), while Psychosis is -- we urge you to brace yourselves for a shock -- a Turbografx-16 shooter.

Blast your way past the break for extensive footage of both in action.

• Super Turrican -- SNES -- 800 Wii points
• Psychosis -- Turbografx -- 800 Wii points

You'll know the story by now. Factor 5 scoffed at the Wii for not having the technical grunt of other consoles, only for the Wii to suddenly start selling by the truckload. Suddenly, Factor 5 decided that it quite liked the console after all, and announced they were making a GameCube 1.5, sorry, Wii game. We welcomed them back, while reserving the right to compose smug opening paragraphs to blog posts.

But hey, just because Factor 5 may have changed its tune on the Wii, don't expect it to change its approach to development. The company is famed for squeezing every last drop of power from hardware -- see the Rogue Squadron games on the GameCube -- and company president Julian Eggebrecht says things will be no different when it comes to Factor 5's mysterious Wii project.

You can't fault the man for ambition, either. Speaking to IGN, Eggebrecht promised that Factor 5 was aiming to "outdo everything else on the platform, the same as we did for the Star Wars games back on the GameCube." We're certainly not opposed to the idea of a game that's prettier than Super Mario Galaxy, but that is one very tall order.

In the same interview, Eggebrecht also admitted to loving the pointing aspect of the Wiimote, and revealed that this was "probably the biggest innovation which we're working on right now." So there you go. Pretty graphics. Pointing. We're still no clearer on what Factor 5's game is. Though we know what we'd like it to be.

When Factor 5 announced that they would be making a Wii game, many of us took guesses as to what it would be. According to Kombo, though, a credible source claims that the game will be a new Kid Icarus title. The rumor also states that Factor 5 will not be using their GameCube graphics engine, and instead will be developing the game from the ground up.

With Pit being a playable character in Brawl (which is likely to increase hype for the Kid Icarus franchise), we wouldn't be surprised if this rumor turned out to be true. Since it is only a rumor though, be sure to take your daily dose of salt with it, perhaps a grain or two.

[Via GoNintendo]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Factor 5 turned their noses up at the Wii and said they didn't really feel like working with "GameCube 1.5." Well, now they've changed their tune and have confirmed that they've got a game underway for the system ... and it's not a Rogue Squadron game (or even a take-off), and it's not for the Virtual Console. Apparently, the game is "all new," so the possibilities are wide open. Feel like speculating over breakfast? We hardly know where to begin!

We are curious, however, if this also means they're picking up other projects for the console. It seems likely.