Warning: you are now entering a Wii Fanboy nostalgia zone; if we get wrapped up in jabbering about our wholesome childhoods over the next 200 words, you've been warned. The cause of this trip down memory lane? The announcement that Tomy would be bringing a Pop-Up Pirate game to WiiWare. Yay!
Pop-Up Pirate Wii will emulate the pop-ular children's board/party game, in which players would hold their breath (that bit is optional, but helps) while inserting plastic swords into a plastic barrel containing a pirate. If you chose the wrong slot, the pirate would spring out, startling everybody. As dull as it sounds now we've written it down, it was all the rage back in the '80s, before those damn computer videogame whatchoomacallits came along and ruined everything.
Like other board games of our childhood that relied on a steady hand (such as Buckaroo and Operation), we're not yet certain that a videogame version will capture the same ridiculous levels of tension, but still, three cheers for Tomy for at least trying! The chunky, colorful visuals are a great start, in our opinion.
Also on Nintendo of Japan's WiiWare page: Simple Series Vol. 2 The Number Puzzle Neo. If ever a series was designed especially for WiiWare, the cheap-but-cheerful Simple series would be it. Both of these will launch next Tuesday in Japan for 500 Wii Points each.
Nintendo is at it again, unleashing yet another Wii Menu Update which puts us at 3.4, as our glowing Wii just informed us. Aside from augmenting the Nintendo User Agreement, the new system update will also "check for and automatically remove" all "unauthorized modifications to save files." Guess what, homebrew fans? The party is over foreverput on hold for the time being.
This is basically all of the info we have right now, but we're sure the homebrew community will step up soon with a response to this. You know how they hate it when Nintendo tries to stop them from running their'brew.
Keep an eye on Wii Fanboy for more on this as it's made available.
Here's an interesting tidbit for you to nibble over the weekend: Belgium is about to ban all game rentals, on the grounds that it has always been illegal, but is only just now to be enforced. They're not the only country to say no to rentals, either.
NeoGAFfers discussing the shift have compared the practice of game rentals to piracy. What do you think of that statement? If you agree, you may even consider it worse, because with rentals, someone else who is not the develper and publisher is reaping all of the monetary benefits of the game being rented again and again.
Of course, many of us do rent games, and probably don't feel that way about the practice ... but should we?
Though it's been doing the rounds in the homebrew community for roughly six weeks, WiiSX is still very much a work-in-progress, but one with huge potential. As a PSone emulator for the GameCube and Wii that loads ISO files from an SD card (DVD and USB implementation is planned), WiiSX could eventually grant owners of Ninty's white box access to around 8,000 games, including titles that many regard as someofthebestever. The idea of playing Final Fantasy VII on a Nintendo-branded console would probably make a few people weak at the knees.
During an interview with tehskeen last month, co-creator Emu_Kidid (Sepp256 and TehPola are the other names behind this) admitted that sound still needs to be implemented and "numerous bugs" zapped, but it looks pretty playable to us in the video above! Indeed, interviewer brakken reports that "the emulator can handle some games and runs at a very playable speed." As for when it will be ready, Emu_Kidid is hoping to have an initial preview release out before the end of 2008.
Assuming this exciting project does come to fruition, which PS1 title (which we strongly advise you should already own, obviously) would you try out first?
If you're a lawyer for Nintendo and your spidey senses are tingling, we may have an explanation. "Wii Backup Loader" is exactly what this (highly convincing) video suggests: a program which allows the Wii to play DVD game backups, in the form of modified ISOs. It runs from the Wii Homebrew Channel.
News of the program broke from the forums at tehskeen (note: we've linked to a related article due to tehskeen being down), though we'd expect this to hit peer-to-peer networks in the not-too-distant future, if it hasn't already. Just remember, kids: winners don't do piracy.
Illegal as this may be, there's plenty of other very cool and very legal things you can do through homebrew. Care to watch DVD movies on your console? How about some original games, like Masteroids or the shmup OpenTyrian? And it doesn't stop there. Our own Mike Sylvester also likes to see what he can come up with in his bi-weekly column Revolutionary.
Last week, while most gamers were off writing screeds about their disappointment with E3, Wii hacker bushing was drafting an open letter to Nintendo stating that he and fellow coders had found an exploit that allows stock Wii consoles to play copied games, and seeking cooperation from Nintendo to patch this hole in such a way that homebrew is left alone.
He quickly received a response from Nintendo -- or, rather, a Gmail address for "Nin Tendo." "Tyson Green" (also the name of the Halo 3 Multiplayer Design Lead) sent a curt message stating that while Nintendo didn't approve of people messing around with their console, he wanted to talk about this piracy issue.
Of course, that one is a fake, as are many of the responses posted. But bushing indicated that, while most of the emails he received and posted were fake, he did in fact receive correspondence from the for-real Nintendo.
We all know how piracy is very bad for the gaming industry. But, this is a first for us. it seems those filthy pirates are not only counterfeiting discs, but also creating knock-off hardware, as evidenced by the fake Wiimote and nunchuk you see above. Thankfully, site YYJoy has done a lot of hard work to make sure you aren't one of the folks unlucky enough to buy one of these.
Not only do they compare the quality of construction between Nintendo's official first-party hardware, but they also do a thorough inspection of the packaging, providing us with tips on how to spot these knock-offs on the shelf.
Only a few weeks after pirates figured out how to install Virtual Console games on their Wiis for free using the Twilight Hack, a clever trick for running unofficial code on an unmodded systems, hackers have expanded their counterfeit offerings to allow bootleg copies of WiiWare titles.
We're not yet sure if online modes are working, but the fact that pirates can install Japanese WiiWare ROMs/WADs on a US system, as shown above with Family Ping Pong, is impressive (and criminal!). Considering how fast the Wii's piracy scene has been moving, someone will likely soon release instructions on how to bypass microtransactions and install downloadable content updates for free, too.
How long will it be before Nintendo steps in to end these shenanigans? Will that mean the end of Wii homebrew, as well? See, this is why we can't have nice things.
Presented with a new toy to play with, Wii hackers have gone right to work producing a variety of game mods with the recently released Trucha Signer. For those of you out of the loop, the application allows programmers to run augmented games on chipped Wiis -- the gore-enabled Manhunt 2 mod is a good example of the software's possibilities.
So far, a lot of the developments focus on making it easier to play pirated copies of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but there are a few non-piracy-related modifications, too:
Today is the day where we stopped believing in everything good in the world.
As you can see in the above video (which we suggest you avoid if you don't want to see the first 5 minutes or so of the game's opening gameplay segments and cutscenes), the reported pirated version of Super Mario Galaxy that was leaked online is a reality and we now live in a world more dark, cold and evil than we could've possibly imagined. Hopefully, based on this video, Nintendo's pack of lawyers can hunt this person down and physically beat the price of the game out of him resolve the issue at hand.
Okay, so maybe that was a bit of a paraphrase, but Nintendo President Satoru Iwata revealed the company's plans to sell Wii consoles in China next year. Although Wii hardware is currently available in China, all systems are imported unofficially or distributed through third parties. Nintendo thus wants to start official distribution soon.
According to Iwata, Nintendo's first priority is to meet the demand of existing markets, but he recognizes the potential in tapping the Chinese market. That makes a bit of sense, seeing how China has a population of OVER A BILLION.
We do wonder, however, if Nintendo will be able to compete with the already existing option for cheap, pirated Wii consoles in China. Unless Nintendo can introduce cheaper systems into the market, or get rid of the existing piracy, folks might be swayed to buy the mod-chipped consoles that play both U.S. and Japanese games. Even with piracy, though, we're sure that Nintendo will move plenty of systems in China and make even moremoney.
Posted Oct 25th 2007 6:00PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
Apparently GameStop/EB stores have been receiving full Super Mario Galaxy discs to use as in-store demos. On the store systems, gameplay is restricted to 10 minutes, but the restriction is not inherent to the disc ... which means that if an unscrupulous EB employee were to sneak off with the disc and rip it, he or she could then make the full game available online.
Which is exactly what has happened. Soon, people who wouldn't buy the game anyway will be playing it for free, weeks before its release. We don't know where it's available, and we're not going to look, and neither should you. Of course, the dumped game will only work for chipped Wiis.
For some reason, we can't muster up the expected level of outrage for this egregious crime. Sure, a guy broke the law, but very few people will actually download this, and we're pretty sure that Super Mario Galaxy will do a nice amount of business. Besides, you totally don't get a free coin when you steal the game. Right?
During a court-ordered raid of Supreme Factory Limited facilities, over 10,00 game-copying devices and chips were seized. The whole seizure lasted three days, as Nintendo representatives seized devices used to copy DS titles from the internet and other devices that allow Wii game discs to be copied. On top of the equipment, there was also massive documentation of ties with a French company, explaining the scope of this illegal operation.
"Piracy affects the entire video game industry, from large companies to independent developers," says Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of America's senior director for anti-piracy. She goes on further to say "It can destroy years of hard work by a team of very talented software developers, who strive to create games consumers enjoy playing. Copying the developers' work and spreading the game files globally is blatant stealing."
On Friday, Mexican police stormed 12 different suspected counterfeiters. They managed to come away with 15,000 counterfeit Nintendo products, including over 4,500 counterfeit Wii discs. Going down in a major "fayuca" (contraband) market in Guadalajara, it's yet another campaign against crime in the territory as customs agents also recently nabbed over 5,000 counterfeit products entering Manzanillo, from China.
"Mexico is Nintendo's largest market in Latin America, where the problem of video game piracy is widespread," said Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of America's senior director of anti-piracy. "Since January, Nintendo has worked with law enforcement agencies worldwide to seize 100,000 counterfeit Wii games."
No, it has nothing to do with that not so super Mario. Instead, this has to do with pirated games. As an advertisement for the real deal, honest gaming software that frequents retail shelves near you, it shows that people who are looking for that pirated hook up won't get the real thing, but some kind of deformed product. So, do as the video says: buy games and don't support piracy.
Warning: you are now entering a Wii Fanboy nostalgia zone; if we get wrapped up in jabbering about our wholesome childhoods over the next 200 words, you've been warned. The cause of this trip down memory lane? The announcement that Tomy would be bringing a Pop-Up Pirate game to WiiWare. Yay!
