From the horse’s mouth

If you’re short of bedtime reading, find the full English transcript of the recent Q and A session with Miyamoto, Iwata and Link here. To be fair Link wasn’t there. He’s not real. Bon Appetit!

A Dreamy Decade

First off, merry Dreamcast day to you all and I hope it was a good one because today, on Wednesday September 9th, celebrates a decade of that wonderful (that’s questionable but…) Dreamcast, a console that brought us certain joy, with such classics as; Sonic Adventure, Ecco The Dolphin: Defender of the Future and Sonic Adventure 2, the Sonic game (in some opinions) that ended Sonics run of good games. The Dreamcast also brought much frustration with most games being only released in Japan and all the other ones being absolute rubbish (Though I’m sure Jack and Jason will have something to say about that) or , for those that weren’t rubbish, they were extremely hard. Many television sets and Dreamcast controllers were smashed in fury.

Some of you may already be saying to yourself ” But the Dreamcast first came out in 1998, on November 27th no less.” Well you would be right, but today ten whole years ago on the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninety-ninth year, it appeared in North America then very soon after appeared in Wacky warehouses, shopping centres and even houses across England on October 14th. But back to why I chose today to post this. Apart from me forgetting it’s original release day, an interesting trailer appeared. The trailer goes a little something like this:

Along with that SEGA also released Sonic and Knuckles for XBLA. It’s obvious to see SEGA are celebrating. The trailer is interesting to say the least and with Sonic games getting better recently a 2D sonic is a great proposition. I hope they pull it off. I leave you now saying, join the WiiDS blog team on October 14th for another Dreamcast treat, till’ then goodbye.

Wii Internet channel, Free at last.

Tuesday, September 1st Nintendo announced on their UK website that the Wii internet channel will be free to purchase as of today. At first when I Saw the headline “Wii Internet Channel now free!”, although this is good news for those wthout the channel, my first reaction was anger as I’m sure some others will be, especially if you’ve spent Wii points to get said channel and even angrier if (like me) you acquired the points using stars, but all is not lost! At the end of the post Nintendo stated: “The Wii Internet Channel previously required 500 Wii Points. Starting later in October, Nintendo will be offering a NES title from Virtual Console worth 500 Wii Points to those Wii owners who have already spent 500 Wii Points on the Wii Internet Channel”. For those of you who were getting ready to complain Nintendo have sweetened the deal for you. Well I’m off to choose a NES game!

Harvest Moon rises again on Wii in October

Rising Star Games have announced that it plans to release their new entry in the long running series titled Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility on for Friday, 9^th October and is the ‘…first to be made exclusively for the Wii…’ (Tom East: Official Nintendo Magazine) and it allows you to run a farm that is set on Waffle Island. Your farm starts off as just a few plots but grows into a massive farm with all sorts of animals and crops. Your main tasks in the game will be to ‘…plant seeds to grow fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs…’ as well as going ‘…fishing and mining for extra profit…’ which you can spend on various items to improve your home. As you work your way through the game you will ‘…befriend the locals, get married and have children…’

The story behind the game is suitably wacky. The Harvest Tree which used to give life energy to the Island has died meaning that the rainbows have disappeared along with the Harvest Sprites. You ‘…have to save the sprites, bring the Harvest Tree back to life and deliver prosperity to the island once again…’ (Tom East: Official Nintendo Magazine). In the game you can play as either a male or a female character and explore the huge town where you can ‘…go fishing at a variety of locations, visit the hot springs to relax and recover energy and explore a range of local shops.’ (Nintendo UK Official Website) The main challenge in the game is time management. ‘There is only a short amount of time in each game day and you only have a set amount of energy.’ (Nintendo UK Official Website) If you happen to run out of energy ‘…you will lose the rest on the day, become sick and sleep in late the next morning…’ so you have to be careful out to do more then you can physically achieve.

The game has a very bright and colourful graphical style and should allow players to become fully immersed in the world of Harvest Moon. Rising Star Games Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility could be a great sleeper hit when it launches later this year.

Shadowy platformer arrives this Spring

Konami has announced it will publish Hudson’s upcoming Wii title The Tower Of Shadow in Spring 2010.

Players take on the role of the shadow of a young boy attempting to climb a colossal tower. The origins of this shadow and its reasons for its ascent are mysteries that will be solved as gamers progress.

The shadow must always have a shadow foothold as he will disappear when fully engulfed in light or darkness. Light sources also alter the game’s gravity mechanic, with the shadow being pulled towards the light, or changing in length depending on the angle of the light.

This innovative puzzle platformer will hit retail shelves in Spring 2010.

Source

Super Monkey Ball steps it up on Wii

This week Sega announced their latest title in the puzzling party series, Super Monkey Ball which will be released exclusively on Nintendo’s Wii System. Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll will make use of Nintendo’s Balance Board and is set for release in early 2010.

You will have to stand on the Balance Board and lean left or right to ‘tilt the stage and make your monkey roll’ (Tom East Official Nintendo Magazine). It should be similar to previous games but with Balance Board control. There will be the usual collection of mini-games too. The game can also be played using the Wii Remote as well.

The trailer starts with AiAi finding a Banana on the Balance Board. He grabs the Banana and then investigates the board. As he steps on the board the world around him tilts which keeps him a shock. His shock fades away into delight and he steps onto the board and starts having fun making the world tit around him. The board sinks into the floor like a switch as he’s using it and everything goes dark. When the lights go back on AiAi find himself in a ball on a Super Monkey Ball Stage. He makes his way carefully across a bridge and then when he reaches a plain he races off at full speed. Not looking where he’s going, AiAi goes too far and rolls over the stages edge and falls out of sight.

This game should be really fun and ‘Sega are promising to reveal more information next month’ (Tom East Official Nintendo Magazine) probably at ‘GamesCom taking place around this time next month in Cologne’ (Tom Bramwell Eurogamer) so keep an eye of this one.

Spyborgs infiltration operation begins September

Capcom has just been revealed their co-operative action game Spyborgs will be sneaking onto shelves on Friday September 25^th exclusively for Nintendo’s Wii system.

Spyborgs allows you the chance to play as one of three special operatives called the Spyborgs. The characters are a Robot, a Ninja and a Soldier. The gameplay involves moving though levels fighting enemies and at the end of each stage taking on one of several huge boss characters. As you play the game you will encounter various ‘mini-games that span rhythm action and on-rails shooting are interspersed with the action, as are puzzles and interactive cartoon cut-scenes’ (Robert Purchese Eurogamer).

This game looks really promising and I hope to be bringing you a full preview of the game by the end of this week.

Shigsy has dropped the bomb on Zelda.

Nintendo have got our hopes up with talk of the next Zelda being different only to have the expectations all blow up in our faces. On July 2nd IGN reported an interview between Nintendo Power and Shigeru Miyamoto.  The information is sketchy but Shigsy said something along the lines of: “I don’t think it’s goint to be that radically different.”

The new game is Motion Plus ONLY (That’s been confirmed) that will definately change the game controls-wise, so what is going to be the same? that is what IGN said (In summary). Hopefully the part that stays the same isnt the gameplay because that has been the same for too long now and definately needs a change. Of course the story will be different, so that begs the question, what won’t be radically different?

Only time will tell, hopefully we will get some more screens and information in good time.

New Final Fantasy Game Revealed

It was revealed recently that a new Final Fantasy is in development called Four Warriors of Light: Final Fantasy Gaiden for Nintendo’s DS system. Square Enix’s latest RPG will put the player in the shoes ‘of a 14-year-old boy on a quest to save a princess’ (Tom Hopkins: Now Gamer). The game ‘lacks mana/magic points during battles’, which is a major difference from the normal Final Fantasy set-up. It has also be stated that they will be a new ‘charge command’ which should make the battles more tactical.

The game is currently set for an autumn release in Japan and all that has been shown so far is a single piece of concept art that can be seen on the game’s official website via this link below that also has a countdown timer over the image.

Shia LaBoeuf: Wii is an amateur console

Expect a full-blown rant on Episode 105 next monday, but for now: Shia LaBeouf (who was an accessory to murder last year) has spoken out about the Wii while discussing the various versions of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen in an interview with Big Download.

BD: Have you checked out the Wii Transformers game?

SL: I haven’t been able to play the Wii game because my hand is broken. I’ve just been playing Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. I would imagine that the Wii experience will be like…I don’t mess with the Wii, to be honest with you. It’s kind of an amateur console. I’m not into the Wii thing.

BD: What’s wrong with the Wii?

SL: This is how in a simple way you can find out if it’s a gamer you want to play with. Ask them if they have a Wii. If they say yes, get the f*** out of there.

Now, everyone is valid to their opinion. Shia’s is wrong. Very wrong.

Source: NintendoLife