Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Oh, woe is us. Microsoft just dispatched (and then pulled) a press release boasting about the imminent arrival of Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox Live Arcade, describing the game as an XBLA "exclusive." We can safely assume this means the bird and bear won't be made available on the Virtual Console, news that conclusively crushes whatever slim hopes we had for the game appearing on Nintendo's service. We suppose $540 million buys you these kind of perks, eh?

To rub salt in our open wounds, Microsoft also disclosed that sequel Banjo-Tooie would be made available on XBLA early next year, "making Xbox 360 the new home of the beloved Banjo-Kazooie franchise." We think we're going to sigh sadly now, reader. Feel free to join us.

* sigh *

[Via Joystiq]

Soft rock god and midget Bon Jovi is amongst the latest group of artists confirmed to appear in Rock Band 2. Game Informer magazine identified seven new tracks from the instrument fest, finally confirming what we all suspected: that the "leaked" video from earlier in the week was a fake. One piece of speculation that doesn't look fake is an earlier list of rumored tracks, many of which match up to the latest official batch. And here they are, along with their YouTube links:

• "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi
• "Rock 'n Me" by Steve Miller Band
• "Testify" by Rage Against The Machine
• "White Wedding Pt. 1" by Billy Idol
• "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett
• "Almost Easy" by Avenged Sevenfold
• "I Was Wrong" by Social Distortion

Game Informer also reveals that the drum kit has been tweaked (to incorporate expansion slots for cymbals, velocity-sensitive pads, and a sturdier, reinforced drum pedal), and that Harmonix will release a deluxe drum kit which can double up as real electronic drums when you're not playing the game. There will also be quieter buttons on the guitar, a "less squishy" strum bar, and a mode that lets players listen to their performances. Hopefully all of this applies to the Wii version!

Hold your lighter aloft and sway past the break for a full list of Rock Band 2's confirmed (and rumored) tracklist to date.

Celebrity Miis have competition now, from Celebrity MySims caricatures. Game|Life's Chris Kohler got a chance to mess with the character creation utility, and, rather than creating a lil' Chris Kohler, he decided to test the game's Sanjaya Malakar-creating capabilities. Sanjaya, for those of you not hooked on the longform game show American Idol, is a very popular contestant who makes it really hard to watch the show with the sound on.

On the one hand, the likeness is incredible, indicating a very intuitive and feature-rich character creation system. On the other hand, noooooo.