Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

Last week, I asked for reader suggestions for this week's Virtually Overlooked. One reader suggested The Guardian Legend, and I thought that was a perfectly reasonable suggestion. The Guardian Legend was one of the biggest sleeper hits of the NES era, and something that is definitely worth checking out, especially for fans of Ys and Faxanadu.

It was only later that I realized that I was thinking of Legacy of the Wizard. I get those two mixed up a lot. They both fall into that "sleeper" category, they were both published by Brøderbund, and they both have "Leg" in the title. They're practically the same game, except that one's a hybrid vertical shooter/Zelda-style adventure developed by Compile, and the other is a side-scrolling action RPG from Nihon Falcom. But other than that, the same game.

Inspired by my inability to keep two similar things separate, I thought this week we could look at some more NES games I get confused about, either because they're so similar or because I'm so dumb.

Good news! You can sell that imported European Wii you bought! Conspiracy Entertainment is bringing Data Design's lineup of European budget Wii games to the US, according to the ESRB listings. These are budget Wii ports of Metro3D's budget PS2 games. Let us say it again: budget.

So far, four Conspiracy games have been rated for US release: Billy the Wizard (original name: Barry Hatter), Anubis II, Mythmakers: Super Kart GP, and Counter Force. No word on Ninjabread Man yet, and we don't know when any of these will be released. In any case, we recommend preordering now so you won't be stuck in line at 5AM on release day.

[Via GoNintendo]

Three new videos of the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix have gone up on IGN. The videos demonstrate a few of Harry's spells and give us a look round Hogwarts. We'll be casting the spells with a flick of the Wiimote, and maybe even incanting them through the mic.

Like Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, the Harry Potter games have been a bit of a mixed bag in the past; Goblet of Fire, for instance, was very much a bogey. This one, however, is looking and sounding very promising. If EA can capture the feel of Hogwarts in the game and get that elusive sandbox gameplay working, then this could be a real treat.

Spirited away in the PC Gaming section of IGN is a rather well-written editorial of the past, present, and future of motion-sensing controllers. It examines how the PS3's and the Wii's new controllers might introduce a new visceral thrill into many tried-and-true genres, how it might attract new gamers, and so on. It's nothing terribly new, but it does have some interesting comments from the MIT professor/video game enthusiast Henry Jenkins, a revelation about how bouncing puppets might appear on the Wii, and a convenient collection of each company's stance on the future of input devices. Take a gander, if you're willing.

[It's so bad.]