Nintendo Wii Fanboy

These new screenshots of Nintendo's Gamecube-turned-Wii racer haven't completely alleviated our fears over its new control setup, but we're excited to see that animal-riding has been included! With the game's Japanese release date (6/28) only a few weeks away, we can look forward to seeing a lot more revealing previews and gameplay videos soon. Head past the post break for rhino-riding images from DK Bongo Blast.

In a response to a young Rare fan's letter posted in their Scribes column, Rare discussed the possibility of some of their franchises coming over to the Virtual Console. The Donkey Kong Country sequels are likely, because Donkey Kong is a Nintendo-owned property. But games starring Diddy Kong, the Rare-created pal of DK, are not as clear-cut.

The main focus of the letter was Banjo-Kazooie, which is a Rare-owned property. The Rare "scribe" diplomatically said that "it's possible" for Banjo games to appear either on the VC or on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade. Our advice? Don't wait for any N64 games to come to VC, because they are slow in arriving.

[Via Play-Nintendo]

This image brings so many things to mind. The first thought that jumped into our head was the ultimate match of Wii Sports ever, where Godzilla takes on King Kong in a match of Tennis that is being projected against the Empire State building. The match ends with Godzilla being the victor, only because on the Game Point he turned to Kong and melted his face off with his laser breath.

If you think we're crazy, know that Godzilla's cheating tendencies have been well-documented the world over for many years.

Japanese mag Nintendo Dream (truly, if only such wondrous publications were here in America as well) has related a tantalizing morsel. According to a ghetto Google translation (check after the break), a successor to a famed and well-known Nintendo franchise is coming to a Wii near you. What could it be? Donkey Kong? Kid Icarus? Such teasing articles are better left unpublished; we lose sleep over this stuff, you know. Cold sweats in the middle of the night kind of stuff.

There will be no posts between 3 and 4 today, due to therapy sessions.

So, last week's rather spasmodic Virtual Console releases were a bit strangely timed. Still, it's hard to fault Nintendo, who has very little online console experience and consumer demand out the yin-yang. Still, they promised us Virtual Console Mondays, and by golly, here they come. From a press release:

Every Monday starting Dec. 4, Nintendo will add classic games to the popular new Wii™ video game console's Wii Shop Channel. Four games will be added at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Dec. 4. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week's new games are:

• Donkey Kong Jr. (NES): 500 points
• Victory Run (TG-16): 600 points
• Columns (Sega Genesis): 800 points
• Ristar (Sega Genesis): 800 points

A nice little addition! We're particularly looking forward to Columns, a very relaxing and satisfying puzzle game. With several new games being released every Monday, it won't be long until we see our promised Toe Jam and Earl action, or some of those rumored Virtual Console releases we keep hearing about. And look! A Christmas present! Keep 'em comin', Nintendo.

N-Sider reports that Nintendo's own Shigeru Miyamoto announced that a new Donkey Kong title would be gracing the Revolution and it would be helmed by none other than the Jungle Beat team led by Takao Shimizu and Yoshiaki Koizumi in a Famitsu magazine piece. The game is being released in the console's launch cycle and will be present at E3, although in what capacity we can only speculate. The game is to forgo the bongo interface of previous titles and adopt a new control interface on the Revolution.

It's smart for Nintendo to come out in full force with all of their strongest first-party titles for the Revolution, which is something the GameCube failed to do during its launch. Donkey Kong has been a fan favorite for years and, should the game feature the same polish as past games bearing the gorilla's mug, will be sure to be one of the Revolution's best titles. What kind of game do you want to see DK in next? Another platformer?