Posted Jun 25th 2007 5:35PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
Play Magazine has evidently revealed some "details" about Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in their latest issue. And, by "details" we mostly mean "opinions." But those are worth hearing, too, right? Otherwise, nobody would read game blogs. Check out the link for the impressions; we've picked out some actual details to highlight here.
There's stuff here to make Super Metroid fans' ears perk up: beam combinations and familiar creatures. Play also offers a single tidbit about controls: you switch visors by holding the minus button and moving the Wiimote in a particular direction.
The more actual gameplay impressions we hear about this game, the more we believe it may actually come out. Or that it's a really great hoax.
Does your hunger rival that of the undead horde? Grab a Snickers. If that's the case, you'd probably be interested to know that the extremely anxious will (probably) be able to obtain the Wii version of the much-lauded Resident Evil 4 several weeks early, via the import site Play-Asia. Sure, it'll cost you twenty dollars more than the standard U.S. price of $29.99, and it'll probably highlight your incredible lack of patience and discipline, but those pale in comparison to the two weeks of additional ecstasy.
This is not officially confirmed, so you might want to check back at their product page for updates if interested. If you do happen to obtain the game early ... or if you're reading this article from the far-flung future, in which RE4 has already undergone standard release, feel free to post your impressions.
A caution to our readers: anyone with a conscience or refined sense of humor may want to stay far away from the above video, which features a host of "rejected" Wii Play minigames to hilarious effect. It even includes Ribbon Dancing Revolution, which we called back in August of '06. The excellent reproduction of the Mii's simplistic style is alone worth the price of admission, so go ahead, click on the play button.
Some bargain hunters at CAG have sniffed out a pretty cool deal on Wiimotes for US gamers: apparently, when Hollywood Video stores put Wii Play out for rent, they didn't feel the need to offer the included Wiimotes for rental. So they shipped them over to their game-retail satellite, Gamecrazy (and by "shipped" we mean "walked across the room"). Gamecrazy, in turn, is selling these brand-new, out-of-the-package Wiimotes for $29.99.
Don't get your hopes up too much: the number of Wiimotes in stock at any store depends on how many rental copies of Wii Play were received by the attached Hollywood Video store ... and on how many CAGs live in your town.
Congrats are in order to Nintendo: both Wii Sportsand Wii Play (Hajimete no Wii) have sold in excess of one million copies in Japan. Having two million-sellers already trumps the Gamecube, on which only Super Smash Bros. Melee reached that particular milestone.
We know that the bundled Wiimote had a lot to do with selling Wii Play, though of course the degree to which it contributed cannot be measured. It makes sense that the two most casual, inclusive games on the system would sell to a Japanese audience that loves DS training games. We hope you guys like minigames, because it's safe to assume we're getting lots more of them!
Posted Mar 20th 2007 10:00AM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime, ever the iconoclast, had some choice words for the San Jose Mercury News about the success of the Xbox 360 in Europe. In effect, he claimed that the 360's success in Europe is localized to the UK, while the Wii is (obviously!) doing great across the continent.
Reggie also slyly wrote off the early (and not so early) strap issues, while blaming consumer ignorance for the few known cases. He said that the strap was originally meant to be a backup safety measure in case the controller slipped out of players' hands, but many users got too rough with their controllers and put excessive force into their motions. Of course, Nintendo has been kind enough to replace the straps.
Our contest is officially over and, now that you've seen the honorable mentions, it's time we presented the winner. Many of you might cry protest as the winner's video isn't particularly funny or original, however it managed to pluck at our heart strings and earn our winner the sympathetic vote. So, without further ado, let's see who won the Wii Play package...
Hey, did you know we were running a little contest where the winner is given the Wii Play package (which includes the software and extra Wiimote)? Well, where have you been? Get with it and enter the contest already! Oh, wait ... you don't know how?
Here are the specifics: entries need to be sent to nwf[dot]contests[at]gmail[dot]com and be received no later than 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, February 28th. Of course, we don't need to tell you to not send anything offensive or pornographic as it won't be considered (and it'll get you banned) ...
We've included a couple of good entries past the break. These folks did the right thing, however it just wasn't good enough to warrant them the package. Can you do better?
Upon inserting the Wii Play disc into your Wii's disc drive, you might feel elation and experience the levels of bliss only known to the few who would actually go on to write a sentence this long about some mundane physical exertion such as placing a disc into an electronic device. It's OK, we felt the same way too, and in being greeted with the snazzy music that accompanies the game's logo in the Disc Channel of your Wii, you might feel as if your life is about to change.
Here's a simple question: with all the AAA titles (supposedly) being released in 2007, which one are you actually looking forward to the most? Super Smash Bros. Brawl will certainly be a favorite, but recent hype and an unwavering faith in Miyamoto-san make us want to experience Super Mario Galaxy just a tad bit more. Maybe you're looking for the first truly-done-right first-person shooter on the Wii, courtesy of Metroid Prime 3, or perhaps you simply desire a return to a certain blue hedgehog's former glory in Sonic and the Secret Rings. Maybe we're wrong altogether. If you could have just one of the 2k7 games, which would it be? Which title can you just not live without?
Some new trailers showcasing a pair of the minigames to be included in Wii Play have hit Game Trailers and, like the trusty internet vacuums we are, have gathered and embedded them for your viewing pleasure. The first trailer, which is labelled as Tank Combat, shows just that! The second trailer shows us the fishing minigame, which reminds us a lot of a game we used to play as kids, involving fishing rods with magnets and gathering ducks in a pool of water (the name escapes us and Google is being no help).
When the big man speaks, we listen. And yes, we're referring to the deity that is Reggie Fils-Aime, standing atop his mighty pedestal after supplanting Zeus for the title. He was recently on Spike TV's GameHead, speaking rather generically about the Wii. But, as you may have guessed, there was a diamond in the rough: the news that the first multiplayer online Wii games will be announced in Q1 2007 and start shipping in Q2. Finally!
We're a little disappointed that online didn't come right out of the box; God knows some games really could have benefitted: Madden 07, Call of Duty 3, and Red Steel certainly could have used the boost. Still, at least a smidgeon of online functionality is coming quite soon, with the ability to trade custom levels in Elebits via the magic of the internet intertron. That's its new name. Thus have we spoken, and thus it is so.
[We don't normally steal our sister site Joystiq's pictures, but this one was just too good.]
The folks over at Siliconera recently got their hands on Wii Play, the collection of minigames that comes bundled with the Wiimote. Designed much in the way Wii Sports is, Wii Play is designed to show gamers how to use the Wiimote through a variety of different types of minigames. The games included are:
Shooting: A hybrid between Duck Hunt and those old-fashioned pellet gun game you see at the carnival.
Find Mii: A Where's Waldo-like game where the player must track down Miis in a crowd.
Table Tennis: Even more simple than Tennis in Wii Sports, the player must move the paddle to the ball where it is automatically returned.
Pose Mii: Players mimic the angle of floating Miis by tilting the Wiimote.
Hockey: Neon-colored air hockey.
Charge: In a bull race, you tilt the Wiimote to maintain balance on your bull.
Nintendo, in their almost-infinite tornado of news today, never mentioned anything on the promised ability for the Wii to play DVD movies. No mention in the press releases that followed their event today either? Hmm, how odd...
So what does Nintendo's VP of Marketing Perrin Kaplan have to say about this? Well, apparently she confirmed to IGN that the Wii is going to totally toss out the DVD movie functionality all together. The decision to rid the console of this feature was apparently in the interest of delivering it at a cheaper price for the consumer.
Does your hunger rival that of the undead horde? 
Some bargain hunters at CAG have sniffed out a pretty cool deal on Wiimotes for US gamers: apparently, when Hollywood Video stores put Wii Play out for rent, they didn't feel the need to offer the included Wiimotes for rental. So they shipped them over to their game-retail satellite, Gamecrazy (and by "shipped" we mean "walked across the room"). Gamecrazy, in turn, is selling these brand-new, out-of-the-package Wiimotes for $29.99.
Congrats are in order to Nintendo: both Wii Sports and Wii Play (Hajimete no Wii) have sold in excess of one million copies in Japan. Having two million-sellers already trumps the Gamecube, on which only Super Smash Bros. Melee reached that particular milestone.
NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime, ever the iconoclast, had some choice words for the San Jose Mercury News about the success of the Xbox 360 in Europe. In effect, he claimed that the 360's success in Europe is localized to the UK, while the Wii is (obviously!) doing great across the continent.
When the big man speaks, we listen. And yes, we're referring to the deity that is Reggie Fils-Aime, standing atop his mighty pedestal after supplanting Zeus for the title. He was recently on Spike TV's GameHead, speaking rather generically about the Wii. But, as you may have guessed, there was a diamond in the rough: the news that the first multiplayer online Wii games will be announced in Q1 2007 and start shipping in Q2. Finally!
Nintendo, in their almost-infinite tornado of news today, never mentioned anything on the promised ability for the Wii to play DVD movies. No mention in the press releases that followed their event today either? Hmm, how odd...
