AndrewTS

http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=17588 Excerpts: Wii Release Highlights: Nintendo New Play Control! Pikmin™ - March 9 New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis™ - March 9 Excitebots: Trick Racing - April 20 New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat - May 4 Punch-Out!! - May 18 SEGA of America Virtua Tennis™ 2009 - May The Conduit™ - June Let's Tap™ - June Zoo Games, Inc. M&M's Beach Party - March 10 Puzzle Kingdoms - March 31 Garfield Gets Real - April 7 Pennzoil's Build-N-Race: "Speed Demons" - April 14 Jelly Belly Ballistic Beans - April 21 Smiley World Island Challenge - April 28 Garfield's Pet Force - June 9 DS Release Highlights: Atlus U.S.A., Inc. TrackMania® DS - March 17 Tokyo Beat Down™ - March 31 The Dark Spire™ - April 14 Dokapon Journey™ - April 14 Steal Princess™ - April 21 101 in 1 Explosive Megamix - April 21 Super Robot Taisen® OG Saga:Endless Frontier™ - April 28 Knights in the Nightmare™ - June 2 Shin Megami Tensei®: Devil Survivor™ - June 23 Nintendo Rhythm Heaven - April 5 Personal Trainer: Walking - May 25 The Legendary Starfy - June 8 Also...what the hell?

From what I've heard, it's a traditional platformer, then. I can't speak for the Wii version, but repeated bosses and some filler aside, the PS2 one was fantastic. Best Zelda clone ever.

Jungle Beat has new levels, new checkpoints, and re-arranged enemy placement. It doesn't actually support the original bongo controllers, either. The original Jungle Beat supported the standard Cube controls, too, actually. Pikmin is just GC version with new controls.

Eh, wasn't necessary, but doesn't really do any harm. It does make me wish there was some new content, because I freakin' loved Prime 3.

This is actually a New-Old rumor, btw

It doesn't seem surprising they wouldn't highlight a title like, oh, Madworld, since they aren't exactly begging for a game like that to be picked up on by the mainstream press. Cave Story is a little stranger, but it seems to be mainly a list of games "core" gamers don't care about. And Punch Out. DS' lineup seems to be completely the opposite, since its filled with RPGs and lots of really hardcore stuff. It's kind of funny to see a Nintendo release for...not just a SMT game, but one with "Devil" right in the title. I'd bet they'd drop it in an otherwise dry period. I wouldn't bet on it being *the* big holiday release, but *the* holiday *core* release I wouldn't be surprised. We don't really know this far ahead, but either it's going to be a few titles we haven't seen released yet, or some of the stragglers for US release (Fatal Frame IV, Disaster, and a heavily-censored Captain Rainbow?). It's not like they have an actual new Mario or Zelda prepped and ready. Pikmin Thrii I would peg for such a holiday title; it's casual-ish enough for the blue ocean while still enjoying a large 'core following--like Animal Crossing was this past holiday. I haven't heard of the Wii Prime voiceover. Any links to vids?

BTW, this will also be the first official US release of a Starfy/Stafy game, though that's not really that big of a deal (decent enough games, but they're not unsung classics from what I've played).. Something more disconcerting, though... http://www.gamespite.net/verbalspew/archiv...y_1150.php#comm

Yeah. Nintendo chose to not put it in this press release. Make of that what you will.

So how soon we going to have 70%+ broadband distribution? Until then I wouldn't count on it. I think that you'll see the minor publishers doing it a lot sooner than the major publishers. We're already seeing titles appearing as downloadable titles that are small-budget, riskier titles. If you think EA is going to release a digdist-exclusive Madden release for a major discount when they're guaranteed millions of sales at the $60 price point annually, you crazy.

Agreed with almost all points, and especially noticeable for situations like Prince of Persia 2009, GTA4, etc. Although if you didn't buy a hard drive for the 360, that's your fault. You can buy an incomplete-but-functional system for 200 bucks, and then get an HDD later, or do it all at once. There usually are other options besides DLC for major content, if you wait tho. For example, Game of the Year Editions often have the extra content. The 360 release of Tomb Raider Anniversary was all DLC for Legend at first, but they released a boxed version of it later. Renting the games with the extra content or holding off if you didn't buy it at first is doable. Plus, you could always bum a friend's broadband if you have the HDD.

"EA and Eurocom craft a ground-up Wii prequel with first-person on-rails gameplay." http://wii.ign.com/articles/954/954895p1.html Trailer: http://wii.ign.com/dor/objects/14320...er_021709.html (Yeah, this was mentioned in the Wii thread, but here's media, so whoop.) Publisher: EA Developer: EA Redwood Shores Studio, Eurocom (assistance) Release Date: Fall 2009 Yay, another rail shooter. The Wii needed another one, I guess.

What's the reason for no DLC on the PS3 Fallout? I know that the same thing is happening for the PC and PS3 versions of Prince of Persia (2008).

...but...that's the whole reason for the game! There are various problems with the game (not even stuff it does intentionally like the timer and save system), like the ally AI, but changing the amount of zombies in-game makes it a totally different game. Crowd control is a major part of what makes it fun, intense, and unique.

Well, yes. We're talking about the Wii. So yes, there's cheap shovelware, ports, cash-ins made with re-used assets, mainly. That last of which this appears to be. Even a "decent" one like Umbrella Chronicles still felt really hollow. Only Ghost Squad didn't seem like a hollow attempt at making a quick buck (though it was an arcade port). It's par for the course for a developer to make their Wii exclusive "new" game in a series to be something dumbed-down and easy to play like a rail-shooter. This is less of a shock and more like a "yeah, it figures." When I think of the top 3...5...10 genres that the Wii is lacking in and could use new entries for, "rail shooter" doesn't really come up on my radar.

Link Excerpt:

Yeah, I guess 4 is a lot. Jesus Drew. Try again. Maybe 4 *good* ones. Ghost Squad Resident Evil UC House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return House of the Dead: Overkill Link's Crossbow Training Dragon Quest Swords Nerf N-Strike Samurai Warriors Katana Spy Games: Elevator Mission Target Terror Wild West Guns (WiiWare) Counter Force (Maybe SW Katana / DQS are Rail Slashers if you wanna be technical, but same diff imo.)

I never saw it when it originally aired. I saw bits and pieces afterwards in reruns. Shame, probably would have liked it. Jim Cummings (using his "evil bastard" voice) automatically makes it better than almost any video game cartoon ever, though. It's clear they actually had a decent voice casting budget and director, though. There's a lot of Disney and veteran VAs on the cast (I immediately recognized Cummings, Rob Paulsen and Christine Cavanaugh, plus they have Michael Bell, Cree Summer, Kath Soucie, and Jason Marsden). Shame that furries had to ruin everything.

http://kotaku.com/5021416/square-enix-conf...rono-trigger-ds Now I'll inevitably play through the game another dozen or so more times.

http://kotaku.com/5112847/square-enix-will...-hearts-psp-now More or less, it's looking a lot like Kingdom Hearts 2. Also, no cursed Chain of Memories cards (which kills re: Chain for me as well). I'd thought that the Disney connection was going to be severed for this one, but appears to not be the case.

http://www.gamertell.com/gaming/comment/us...kingdom-hearts/ On the downside, it appears that Birth by Sleep itself is Dec 31. Japan. Ouch. =/

Yeah, DV is cool, eff the Sanctum, though. I actually completed all the Sanctum BS, but I'll most assuredly never do it again.

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog struck me at the result of the writers getting high and watching too much Bugs Bunny, then trying to stretch and squeeze what material they could to fill a half-hour. Sonic even seemed to like to dress in drag quite a bit. "That's no good!" was hilarious, though. I actually remember what episode that was attached to--Sonic had the hots for a robot 'hog chick Robotnik made. I guess I can kind of see the vague connection...but if they were going for a moral, I thought it would be DON'T...DATE...ROBOTS!

A broadband-impaired friend had me d/l the Rosario+Vampire anime. Never heard of any of it before but checked some of it out. I think he'll be disappointed because it's honestly pretty awful. Like, Tenchi Muyo meets Darkstalkers, but stupider. On the other hand, I hear it's pretty much completely the opposite of the manga. Anyone familiar enough to break it down, or is it an avoid either way? (Also: Japan, this loli shit is getting out of hand, srsly.)

Anyone else pick this up (for DS)? It's a conversion of Game Center CX (which itself is based on a Japanese game show), and the draw is a collection of faux 8-bit classics. The hook is that you've been thrown back in time to some sort of alternate 80s to play through the many (fake) classics of the time. The games include: Cosmic Gate: Galaga-style one-screen shooter, with some neat twists like warps, asteroid bonus stage, and swank score multipliers Haggle Man 1&2: action title that feels part Mega Man, part Rolling Thunder. Use doors to find secrets and also to KILL baddies Guadia Quest: a full-length 8-bit style RPG like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy 1. Yeah, it's about 8-hours-ish (if you play to the end). Really. Haggle Man 3: It's like, Ninja Gaiden Metroid, sort of. Star Prince: Star Soldier style shoot 'em up. The main game is a list of "challenges" (most very easy, though), and afterwards you get to play the "full games" through Free Play mode. However, the games have in-game manuals, you frequently recieve cheat codes through game magazines that are unlocked through the course of the game, and completing challenges lets you progress to the date that a game is "released." Aside from the flaky overhead racing game, Rally King and Rally King SP, all the games are actually pretty fun. Plus, cheat codes can make even the games/genres you find frustrating pretty easy. Weird game structure, but I'm loving it and await the (already available in Japan) sequel. Even though the games look and feel old, there are many modern/innovative design elements, such as the drifting in Rally King or the generous save system of Guadia Quest, for instance.

I'd heard that the MadCatz new sticks were *not* POS, unlike....all their other products in the past. Has anyone respectable done a full-blown review of the SF4 model?