Nintendo Wii Fanboy

The Japanese site for Soul Calibur Legends is up and running, complete with screenshots and a few character profiles, and lots of room to expand for later content. Despite the change in gameplay, the site gives us warm and fuzzy feelings of familiarity. While this isn't the same ol' fighting game that we're used to from Soul Calibur, the mood of the series is definitely intact.

[Via GoNintendo]

Reviews for Tamagotchi: Party On! haven't been favorable, but if you've ever wanted to compete against your friends in an election for the Sparkling President of Tamagotchi planet, have we got a deal for you! Amazon is selling Namco Bandai's minigame collection at a bargain price of $17.99, shipping them out for free with orders totaling over $25, as usual. The deal ends today, and we don't expect the game to stay in stock for long, so snatch up a copy now, while you can!

[Via CAG]

These may not be the newest Mobile Suit Gundam MS Front 0079 scans, but they are big and beautiful ... much like the mecha themselves. In fact, it seems to be the full set from last week, but now that we can get the full picture, along with the gameplay footage we've seen, we're starting to get a little excited. We feel a powerful need to slice and dice, and not in the Cooking Mama-sort of way.

There's a beautiful set of scans on Beautiful Katamari from the most recent Famitsu, but there's no sign of anything Wii-related; all the news is about the PS3 and the 360. It's enough to make a Nintendo fan weep. We want to roll up big balls and hear the screams of the city folk. We want to roll our big balls online, and we want to use our Wii remotes. What gives? Throw us a bone here, people!

Does this mean the rumors are dead? Not at all; the game is only half-completed, after all, and from the scans, we can't pick out any reason to avoid the Wii and we don't seem to be alone in that sentiment; many of the comments at Jeux France seem to share that view. Let's hope that, as Beautiful Katamari nears completion, the folks at Namco Bandai figure out that there is extraordinary demand for a Wii Katamari.

[Update 1: That was fast! Looks like we were tossed a bone after all 1UP has the following quote from Jun Moriwaki, director of Beautiful Katamari. "The Wii is also one of our platform choices .... However, the controller for Wii is quite unique so being able to overcome the different issues will be the key." That'll do, director. You go work on that, and we'll be waiting.]

Why didn't anyone tell us that Tamagotchi: Party On! was so adorable? We could have been staring dreamily at it since the Japanese Wii launch. What a missed opportunity.

Party On! is a minigame collection about trying to become the president of Tamagotchi Planet, and is full of edgy political satire cute competitive games that involve shaking hands, opening kind-of-unsettling animated doors, and directing traffic, from what we see so far. We love the appearance of this game, which recalls Parappa the Rapper without actually being flat.

Speaking of Parappa, the Tamagotchi DS games were developed by Parappa creators Nana-On-Sha, but this one seems to be the work of an internal Namco Bandai team. If we ever hear confirmation that Nana-On-Sha is developing for the Wii, you will hear about it immediately. We will interrupt your regularly scheduled websites. Enjoy some videos after the break!

[Via GoNintendo]

Rumor has it that NamcoBandai is planning two new games in their popular Tales series-- well, one new game and one new-ish game-- for the Wii. The PS2 Tales of the Abyss, as the Internet would have us believe, will get an upgraded port on the Wii, with new content and improved loading. In addition, a new game called Tales of Harmony is possibly in the works, which will take place 10 minutes (!) after the end of Tales of the Abyss. Get 'em both (if they're real) and you've got an epic RPG marathon!

For unattributable rumors, they seem awfully specific, which makes them either more credible ... or credible enough fakes that we will reward the con artists responsible by believing them. We choose to believe, because the Wii could use some Japanese RPGs! We think that the one-handed Wiimote would be a great, relaxing way to play an RPG.

When Nintendo first announced the Virtual Console service, it seemed as though Nintendo themselves would be just about the only ones releasing their past games. Of course, Nintendo's library is beyond incredible, but with the exception of Sega and Hudson, it just seemed as though companies weren't going to be taking advantage of the service.

(insert clichéd "tides have turned" line here) Nintendo has announced Virtual Console partnerships with twenty-four separate publishers, the full listing of which can be seen after the break. The big boys are all on-board: Square-Enix, Konami, Bandai-Namco. A few of the companies don't seem to have much of a legacy at all, however, which implies that they may be working on some smaller-scale original games for the VC service.

In addition, it appears that the Virtual Console will now be supporting the MSX (pictured above), an older arcade system. Iwata-san also expressed in interest to bring even more consoles to the Wii: we here at the Fanboy pray to the rings of Saturn.

(Fun fact! Did you know that video game mega-franchises Dragon Quest and Metal Gear first appeared on the MSX?)

From the hey, that's a great idea department comes a conceptual rendering of what it would be like to throw caution and embarrassment to the wind and strap a pair of wiimotes to your arms. The full ad depicts a guy with a Wii controller on each punch-capable limb next  to some screenshots of the Xbox titles, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, Breakdown and Fight Night Round 3. The connection between dual wiielding action and Super Punch-Out should be obvious in your mind, though we recommend you swiftly move on to the conclusion we reached:

Namco Bandai should port Breakdown to the Wii. Immediately. The game (which had a really fun story) was critically undone by unwieldy controls and unfair combat, problems that could very well disappear when given the opportunity to beat up those pesky T'lan warriors (or hallucinated cats) by flailing your own, more reliable fists. Oh, and let's not forget the joys associated with consuming magically restorative soda and protein bars.

[Via 4cr. Kudos to zaiten.]