First seen as a mysterious title in the ESRB's database, new screens of Wild West Guns show the game to be ... pretty much exactly what we would have guessed: a Western-themed light gun game. Like Mad Dog McCree, but with less grainy video and more blocky polygons.
The 1,000 Wii Point WiiWare game will support four players in cooperative and competitive modes, and will include Zapper compatibility (remember the Zapper?). It also supports feelings of guilt over the adversarial depiction of Native Americans, and rationalizations about such treatment being a staple of the Western genre. That will be somewhat less salient when Wild West Guns comes out in Japan on July 22. Maybe that's whyGameloft revealed it to the Japanese press first.
This Wii had a lot of software representation in the top ten this week, with a third-party game taking the highest honors -- Namco Bandai's Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Japan's Wii RPG love wasn't enough to put the newest Tales game into first place, though; a DS title about horse racing, Derby Stallion, took that coveted position. Yet, Symphonia's first week sales are pretty impressive.
The other Wii games that found themselves in the top ten were Mario Super Sluggers, and of course Wii Fit and Mario Kart. As for hardware, the Wii dropped to third place, falling behind the DS by a minuscule margin: To see the top ten software sales numbers and rankings, just clicky clicky on the "continue reading" link below.
There was a momentary panic in the Wii Fanboy dungeon a few weeks ago, after news filtered through that PlayStation 3 sales had zipped past the Wii in Japan.
Was this it, we wondered, reading the figures over and over again to check that we weren't seeing things. Was this Sony finally rising to strike down the Nintendo hegemony in Japan? Well, no. Not at all, actually. Turns out some old dude had wandered on to Sony's console and sent PS3 sales spiralling. Things are now back to normal, and the data-gatherers at Enterbrain confirmed as much by revealing that the Wii outsold Sony's platform by almost 100,000 units during June -- 235,990 to 139,494 was the final score.
Fresh screens and the Japanese boxart have dropped for Spike's Jawa: The Mammoth and the Mysterious Stone, depicting the young caveman protagonist (you can also play with your own Mii) going about his usual business. The boxart, which is pictured to the right, actually kind of clicks with us. We know, line-ups are totally boring, but there's something about this line-up that just resonates with us. Maybe it's the huge, tusked Mammoth that's chilling behind the clan, soaking up the sun. Or, maybe it's just all of those darn dinosaurs going about their business in the backgrounds. That's probably it. Dinosaurs are pretty awesome, you know.
Head on past the break for a look a pair of new screens from the game.
Nintendo has updated their Japanese Virtual Console site with a list of fifteen games coming out in July. That's nine more than we got last month. Even if we don't believe that the MSX games are actually going to come out (Eggy?Released?) that's a lot of games for Japan to enjoy.
One of the more interesting titles is Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, which was released on the Super Famicom game download service called "Nintendo Power." Much like the rewritable Famicom Disk System disks, the "Nintendo Power" cartridge was a rewritable flash cartridge that could accept games downloaded from store kiosks. A cartridge version of the game came out later.
A couple of retro-tastic Taito games show up this month: Chack 'n Popis a direct precursor to Bubble Bobble (even including the same Monsta creatures), and Kiki KaiKai is the original Pocky & Rocky (also an ancestor of the recent Heavenly Guardian). The full list of releases is after the break.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Well, except for the PSP, that is. Sony's handheld is still as mighty as ever. Even so, the Wii toppled all the other home consoles once again last week, reclaiming its second-place spot:
The new Wii kid on the block in the charts is Mario Super Sluggers, which didn't sell as well as we thought it would, considering that it's a baseball game -- one published by Nintendo, no less. That's why we love Japanese sales so much, though. Just when we think we have the country all figured out, it goes and surprises us again.
Everything else Wii related is pretty much just business as usual, but check past the break to see where the games ranked in the top thirty and how much the top tenners sold.
Following its recent release to Korea, Nintendo has made an official announcement that the console will now also release in Taiwan. On July 12th, gamers will be able to nab a Wii of their very own. And, even better than the Japanese, their console will come bundled with Wii Sports.
The above video is the opening cinematic to Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Considering that's what video we started off with in this very post, you can safely assume that there will be more videos, full of spoilers. Sure, all the text is in Japanese, but we're sure at least one thing will be spoiled for you, should you watch them. So, before you head past the break, keep that in mind.
With the recent news that Nintendo's Mario Super Sluggersis only 2 months away for those of us in North America, you're probably too busy dancing and making noise in a fit of excitement to actually be reading this. That's okay, we'll leave you to that.
As for the rest of you, check out the lengthy video above. It documents all of the stadiums and their unique hazards, as well as showing off their look during both day and night in-game. If you don't want the stadiums ruined for you, then we suggest you check out some of our screens below for your fix on Mario Super Sluggers.
Being able to rent games is something that most of us take for granted -- in Japan, it doesn't happen because of publisher blackballing. Konami has decided to give the whole rental thing a try, though, starting with the popular soccer game, Winning Eleven: Play Maker 2008(aka Pro Evolution Soccer 2008).
Even so, Japanese gamers won't be able to test out the title in full. Instead, trial versions of the Wii game will be offered for free at Tsutaya stores. It's kind of like downloading a demo, only you have to go and pick it up instead.
We're interested to see if this has any impact on Japan's gaming industry, and if Konami will expand their "rental" service in the future.
Last week in Japan was all about Sony dominance, as Metal Gear Solid 4 rocketed the PS3 into first. The Wii still did pretty well for itself, though, nabbing the third spot in hardware and nine of the top thirty in software: Shiren the Wanderer 3 managed to remain in the top ten despite the Metal Gear bullying, but everything else was as we expected. Just click past the break if you want to check out the software rankings and sales numbers.
Yoshi seems to be pitching the winners in this latest footage from Mario Super Sluggers. The poor batters can't do a thing right, as time after time the fielders rush in to catch the ball and pelt it towards any base at lightning speed. It's like, hello? Why is a baby playing baseball?
It's nine minutes of Sluggers action, and includes character selection and menu screens, which are all pretty straightforward. You might not want to rush out to import the latest Japanese RPG, but Sluggers looks simple enough to enjoy right off the ... bat? Haw haw, haw.
Put on your importing hat if you want this right away, because it's out now in Japan and it won't be hitting the stores in North America until August.
The top Wii game last week wasn't Mario Kart, or even Wii Fit. Rather, beloved roguelike Shiren got the coveted title, as Shiren the Wanderer 3 debuted in second behind the PS3's new Dragon Ball Z. The previously mentioned Nintendo games did show up in the top ten, though, along with Family Trainer.
We're happy to see both Smash Bros. Brawl and Battalion Wars 2 hanging tough in the top thirty; the previous week had us a bit worried. In hardware, though, the Wii remains sandwiched between the PSP and the DS: Just click on past the break if you'd like to see how Wii software fared.
We were talking about Capcom and the Japan-exclusive Wii port of Resident Evil Zero yesterday, so we figured the question is valid. Sure, we all would like to see Capcom's newest entry in the series, Resident Evil 5, ported to the Wii, but what about this GameCube remake?
Do you want the game localized to your region? Big Resident Evilfan? We are, so we're usually quick to pick up a title even if it just has a new coat of paint on it. What say you all?
Well, we've had enough time to play this week's Virtual Console releases, so it's time we made our video, eh? We've done just that, so grab some popcorn, a refreshment and that special someone in your life, because you're about to be entertained. Of course, the reality is the video above is horrible and lacking in any quality.
So, to make up for that, we've got some added stuff past the break.
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There was a momentary panic in the Wii Fanboy dungeon a few weeks ago, after news filtered through that PlayStation 3 sales had zipped past the Wii in Japan.
Fresh screens and the Japanese boxart have dropped for Spike's Jawa: The Mammoth and the Mysterious Stone, depicting the young caveman protagonist (you can also play with your own Mii) going about his usual business. The boxart, which is pictured to the right, actually kind of clicks with us. We know, line-ups are totally boring, but there's something about this line-up that just resonates with us. Maybe it's the huge, tusked Mammoth that's chilling behind the clan, soaking up the sun. Or, maybe it's just all of those darn dinosaurs going about their business in the backgrounds. That's probably it. Dinosaurs are pretty awesome, you know.
The top Wii game last week wasn't Mario Kart, or even Wii Fit. Rather, beloved roguelike Shiren got the coveted title, as Shiren the Wanderer 3 debuted in second behind the PS3's new Dragon Ball Z. The previously mentioned Nintendo games did show up in the top ten, though, along with Family Trainer. 
We were talking about Capcom and the Japan-exclusive Wii port of Resident Evil Zero yesterday, so we figured the question is valid. Sure, we all would like to see Capcom's newest entry in the series, Resident Evil 5, ported to the Wii, but what about this GameCube remake?
