Wii Zapper Details are Real!

It's official. Zelda Crossbow Training is real, but it's actually called Link's Crossbow Training, which makes more sense to me. It will come bundled with the Wii Zapper for $19.99 on November 19th. Here's the press release:

REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 10, 2007 - Nintendo announced today that the Wii Zapper™ interface for the hit Wii™ home video game system will come packed with Link’s Crossbow Training™. The software is based on the hugely popular Legend of Zelda® series and provides a perfect demonstration of the way the Wii Zapper could be used in other games. The Wii Zapper casing houses both the motion-sensitive Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ controllers in a single unit for precision targeting. It goes on sale Nov. 19 at an MSRP of just $19.99.

“The Wii Zapper combines our remarkable controllers into one housing with a classic style reminiscent of arcade-style games,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. “Both veteran and first-time players will find it brings a whole new dimension to games where targeting is key and provides even more exciting game-play experiences.”

Link’s Crossbow Training drops players into a world in the style of The Legend of Zelda®: Twilight Princess. Players assume the identity of hero Link, who progresses through a series of tests to perfect his crossbow marksmanship. Start with stationary bull’s-eyes and graduate to moving targets before defending Link against all kinds of enemies.

Third-party publishers have lined up to support the Wii Zapper. EA’s Medal of Honor Heroes™ 2 lets players take World War II into their hands with the Wii Zapper. The game features an all-new Wii-exclusive Arcade Mode that offers accessibility to gamers of all skill levels, a full single-player campaign and support for up to 32 players in multiplayer. Capcom’s Resident Evil®: The Umbrella Chronicles reveals the back story behind the fall of the Umbrella Corporation by exploring locations from Resident Evil 0, 1, 2 and 3, as well as new never-before-seen locations like Umbrella’s stronghold. One or two players use the Wii Zapper to take aim against a horde of zombies in first-person perspective. SEGA’s Ghost Squad™ lets players replicate the arcade light-gun experience at home with the Wii Zapper.

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

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Nintendo Magic becomes Master of Illusion

That magic game for the DS called Nintendo Magic has now been renamed to Master of Illusion. If I'm not mistaken, Nintendo Magic was one of the trademarked titles by Nintendo that I recently posted, so it's interesting to see a name change.

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9/7/07 IGN Wii-k In Review Podcast Summary

Thanks to Go Nintendo, here's a summary of IGN's latest Wii-k In Review Podcast:

Smash Bros. talk, recap of week’s news. Discussion/debate of online play

Smash Bros. Vs. Halo 3 sales talk

Smash Bros. marketing talk

Smash Bros. WiiConnect24 speculation

Worms: A Space Oddity discussion. WiiConnect24, downloadable items, motion/IR

Mario Kart Wii talk, nothing new

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption discussion. Debate on quality of the first “level”. Control talk

Trauma Center: New Blood talk. Co-op mode

Manhunt 2 story delayed until next week due to Rockstar not being able to get everything together

Super Mario Galaxy update. Different gravity levels on each planet/galaxy. Star power-ups. Haunted house level, water levels, some levels on massive scale

Battalion Wars II talk. Naval support (submarines, ships). Multiplayer modes (co-op, assault, skirmish) Co-op - 2 players agaisnt CPU, Assault and Skirmish - 2 online players agaisnt each other.

More Zack and Wiki coverage possibly on the way

Some of Nintendo Power’s best of E3 show

Contra IV
Mario Kart Wii
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
Super Mario Galaxy
Phantom Hourglass

Third party DS titles at TGS. Tecmo event, Capcom event. Zack and Wiki , REUC most likely to have showing.

Spaceworld discussion, may be coming back.

Reggie news promised for September

Editorial involving headset coming soon, next week most likely

Editorial on hard drive possibly coming

Sept. speculation surprise is unknown

There are a few games that are going to be announced. “Mature (not rated)” title that was looking for a publisher has gotten a publisher. Dark title, spooky

Brawl boxart floating around - Nintendo may have distributed as a placeholder for now. Not on Nintendo press site

More Metroid Prime 3: Corruption advertising discussion. Advertising goal is to get things out to the casual gamer

Street Fighter VC sales are unknown. Sales are “pretty good”. Everyone waiting for Super Street Fighter

Future of Resident Evil after Umbrella Chronicles. Hopefully franchise will continue on Wii as well. Matt unsure, Bozon thinks there will be another RE4 style game.

RE5 cannot be isn’t coming to Wii. It could be done with a lot of time and effort, but most likely won’t happen.

Third party Wii support talk. Devs jumping on board. Spooky game mentioned once more.

Rayman Raving Rabbids success due to game being good, or that it as a launch title. Sequel is funnier than first. Most of the games will be improved from the first title. Shooting mode will be discussed in a couple weeks. Says should be good, but perhaps not as well as the first.

Embargos are a “necessary evil”. Rockstar/Manhunt 2 embargo discussed. Euro Vs. US press discussed.

More Western devs on the VC definitely going to happen. Factor 5 games may be coming soon.

Factor 5 discussion. Julian Eggebrecht is into Wii. Julian says that they would love to work on the Wii. If the opportunity came up they would do it in a heartbeat. Not against working with Nintendo on a title. Matt would love to see them do Pilotwings. Another Rogue Squadron is something Factor 5 would love to do. Pehaps a compilation, perhaps a new game. Start a petition if you want it this to happen.

Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. Matt not a fan of split screen. No split screen in MoH:H2.

Konami talk. Some kind of Castlevania change goin on, platform unknown.

Devs may always feel that the PS3, 360 are better platforms to express their ideas. On the other hand, there will be other developers that will like working on the Wii better.

DS is the system that changed Nintendo.

Third parties excelling at Wii - Capcom. Exclusive review coming. Factor 5 would be a great dev for Wii.

Matt, Bozon would market Zack and Wiki by drawing parallels to game mascots like Mario and Sonic. Wii demo disc for a demo would be great, in-store demo kiosk would help to. Marketing will be tough due to title, character design, and gameplay.

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Nintendo Says No Metroid Dread

“Nintendo is not making the 2D Metroid at this point in time” - Nintendo of Europe rep

After all the rumors from the past year or two, and after the hidden message in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, I don't buy this. I think there is a Metroid Dread. Maybe they're saying that cause the game is already done, hence them not making it at this time. All I know is, I think it exists. Believe Nintendo if you want, but I'm not.

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Mario Kart Wii 16 Player Online and More - All Speculation

Well, this sucks. ONM (Official Nintendo Magazine) printed a short note about Mario Kart Wii in their latest issue saying it would have 16 player online, stunts, and online battle mode. Well, it seems that was all speculation on their part:

“The details printed in Official Nintendo Magazine 21 regarding Mario Kart Wii were healthy speculation on our part and are in no way an official announcement from Nintendo. We are sorry if we have mislead anyone. We do not set out to mislead our readers. ONM apologises profusely for any misunderstandings that this has caused.” - ONM

So what will it really have? My guess is 12 player online and online battle mode. As for stunts, I don't know about that one. Even so, it'll be a great game.

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Nintendo brings you from the lands of Twilight Princess to the stars in MP3

Here is a picture of an email that Nintendo sent out to some MyNintendo account members:


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Nintendo Conference News.... Disappointing

Well, apparently the conference is over and apparently this is all that we got:

Mario Galaxy - 1st of November (5800 yen)
Mario Party DS - 8th of November
ASH - 4th of October
New Crimson Black DS Lite (like the Brain Age 2 one) 4th of October
Literature Collection DS - 18th of October (2800 yen)

All of those are Japanese release dates just so you know. I have a feeling we're not getting anything else new from this conference unfortunately. *cries* Reggie, where's my September surprise? There is no other show in September besides the Tokyo Game Show and Nintendo isn't going to that, so who knows when more stuff will be shown.

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Nintendo Conference Rumors

So, Nintendo is having their conference in Japan in a few hours, though the exact time I do not know. A few rumors have popped up as to what they will reveal at the conference:

Mario Party DS - 11/8 (Japan date)
Mario Galaxy - 11/15 (Japan date)
New Wii color
DS price drop
possible big game announcement

Hopefully this and more turns out to be true.

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Picross DS Gets Downloadable Puzzles!

Picross DS, what is it? Well, if you haven't heard of it, you NEED to read on. It's a highly addictive puzzle game. I had heard about it before but never really believed the hype or anything. A few days ago I downloaded a demo of it from Target and it was so much fun. You basically have to fill in a certain number of squares vertically and horizontally. It's hard to explain, so if you haven't played it yet, I highly suggest going to a store near you that has a DS Download Station and downloading a demo of Picross DS so you can learn how to play it and get addicted to it.

So anyways, one cool feature of Picross DS is that it uses Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. You can create your own puzzles and send them to others with the game. And you know what's even better? Over time, Nintendo will send out new puzzle packs that you can download and play. Well, if you have Picross DS, now is your chance to download some puzzles online. The Mario Picross Packs 1 and 2 are available for download, so go download them and have fun, umm... picrossing. Yea, that's doesn't work. I have to look into buying this game cause it was a lot of fun.

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New Nintendo Trademarks

Here are some new localized and protected trademarks that Nintendo has made:

- Mii Contest Channel
- Nintendo Magic
- Wii Body Controller
- Mii Audition
- Wii Handle
- Pikmin
- Soma Bringer

Mii Contest Channel? Possibly a name change for Check Mii Out.
Nintendo Magic? A Japanese DS game about magic now coming to the US maybe.
Wii Body Controller? Possibly the new name for the Wii Balance Board.
Mii Audition? Maybe this is a new name for the Check Mii Out channel.
Wii Handle? A replacement for Friend Codes possibly.
Pikmin? Possibly, and hopefully, a new Pikmin game coming.
Soma Bringer? No clue.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what they are, though we could find out about some of them at Nintendo's conference tomorrow.

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The "Wii Would Like to Play" Song

I'm sure you've all seen the Wii Would Like to Play commercials. They include two Japanese guys going to random places saying "Wii Would Like to Play". The original few, which you can see in the video below, showcased various Wii games and they later came out with other "Wii Would Like to Play" commercials for Mario Party 8, Mario Strikers Charged, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and other games. If you haven't seen any of them, which I find unlikely, watch an extended commercial below:



The reason I posted this is because of the music in the commercials. I came across a link to the actual guys that play the song. The artists are known as the Yoshida Brothers and the song is called Kodo. It is really cool and you can watch/hear it below:



I enjoy the music and I look forward to hearing more "Wii Would Like to Play" commercials with this music in it.

IGN's Wii-k In Review Podcast Highlights

-Metroid Prime 3 talk
-talk of third parties flocking to the Wii
-Zack and Wiki talk
-Manhunt 2 info next week possibly
-SMG graphics compared to power of Xbox
-LucasArts talk
-Arcade mode in Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 is better than RE:UC
- (Complete rumor)The next Zelda game may star Zelda for the first time in the actual Zelda series
- My Sims is linear
- MoH: Heroes is close to mouse and keyboard controls
- Phantom Hourglass talk
- RE:UC in-depth talk
- Good exclusive stuff next week and stuff lined up until 2008

A Zelda game that stars Zelda? Sounds interesting. Exclusive stuff next week? Could it be related to Nintendo's conference on Wednesday? Possibly. I don't know about you, but I'm excited.

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Before the Wii Remote, there was the GyroPod

See that above? Those are the prototype designs for the GyroPod, which could have become Wii's controller. It was meant to be a one or two hand controller and had motion sensing capabilities, simliar to the Wii Remote.

More Details Here
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Nintendo Holding a Conference on 9/5! [UPDATED]

Good news and bad news, folks. The bad news is that Nintendo isn't showing up at the Tokyo Game Show, which they rarely do anyways. The good news? Nintendo is holding their own conference before Tokyo Game Show. The conference will be held on Wednesday, September 5th and will focus on Nintendo's games releasing from October to December. I think that's better than Nintendo attending TGS. And for those that haven't figured it out, that release period includes some awesome Wii titles, like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl in particular.

Some third parties are also holding conferences. Capcom has one on August 31st, which is tomorrow, and SEGA has one on September 14th. I don't know about you, but I'm excited for Nintendo's conference. I am sure we'll get some new information on games I've been wanting to hear more about so I look forward to it. The countdown begins: 6 days!

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[UPDATE] I just remembered something. Around E3 07 time, Reggie made a comment saying a surprise is coming in September... and the conference, well it's in September. Could we find out this surprise in 6 days? Maybe. Not only that but Beth Llewelyn of NOA said this:

"After we get back from E3, we'll look at the calendar and figure out the right time to do something very specific for Smash Bros. Brawl," added Llewelyn

Is that comment connected to this conference? Maybe. I'm even more excited now.

Source for Llewelyn's comment

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Ships to Stores

REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ — Today’s launch of Metroid(R) Prime 3: Corruption for Wii(TM) marks the end of a trilogy — and the start of the most active and dynamic Metroid adventure yet. With the motion-sensitive Wii Remote, you become one with heroine Samus Aran’s powerful arm cannon, while the Nunchuk can literally yank armor off enemies.

“Metroid Prime 3 has a revolutionary control style that makes it easy for anyone to immediately jump into the action,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. “Now, an entirely new audience can experience this amazing first-person adventure.”


The rich story requires players to use their heads as much as their hands. Complex puzzles, tough enemies and new challenges put players inside the visor of the story’s heroine. As deadly Phazon threatens to corrupt Samus, she harnesses its power and attacks her enemies with superpowered weapons. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption features voice acting, new bounty hunters and three adjustable control settings for players of all skill levels.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, rated T for Teen, launches today exclusively for Wii. The game’s launch represents the culmination of Nintendo’s “Month of Metroid,” which has featured free Metroid Prime 3: Corruption videos available for download in the Wii Shop Channel and the release of the classic Metroid(R) and Super Metroid(R) for the Virtual Console(TM). For more information about Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, visit http://www.Metroid.com.

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit http://www.Wii.com.

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RUMOR: Nintendo Doing Online Testing?

Recently, someone on NeoGAF came across something interesting while looking at the connection data for Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. He found a code that seemed to be Nintendogs and Yoshi's Island. They're not online, so why is this code appearing? The code I'm talking about is the game code. Here are the links for those two games:

Nintendogs
Yoshi's Island

Not only that but, 10 other titles were discovered. The thing to note about those 8 is that they're Wii titles. We don't know all of them, so I guessed on some. Here they are:

Ghost Squad
FIFA 2008?
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock?
NBA Live 208?
Japanese puzzle game
Also a Japanese puzzle game
?
?
?
?

What does it mean? Who knows. Maybe nothing.

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The Mysterious Metroid Dread

Ever heard of Metroid Dread? Well, if not, I'll explain it. Metroid Dread was announced in Game Informer magazine in June 2005, and it's a 2D side-scroller Metroid game that takes place after Metroid Fusion. Throughout the past few years, we've had sites say it's coming, some sites put it on a release list of games coming in the future, and even a site that said it's been cancelled. So what's the deal with this game, is it coming or not? The real answer is we don't know. Nothing has been said officially on the subject by Nintendo, so we just don't know. There has been no evidence from Nintendo themselves that it's coming... until now. Well, it's not really evidence, but it's a possible hint.

Today, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption ships out to stores. Well, in the second half of the game, there is a control panel you can scan. Once scanned, you get the following message:

“Experiment status report update. Metroid project ‘Dread’ is nearing the final stages of completion.”

That looks to me like a hint that Metroid Dread is indeed coming and that we'll find out about it soon. But, keep in mind, it's still a rumor for now. I just don't see why it would be in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption if it wasn't real, but that's my opinion.

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PLATTCHEN - Twist 'n 'Paint Interview

For those that don't know, PLATTCHEN - Twist 'n 'Paint is the first WiiWare title that we found out about. Here are some tidbits of an interview about it...

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your game, PLÄTTCHEN, and how does it incorporate the Wii Remote?

A: PLÄTTCHEN - twist 'n' paint is an intelligent puzzle shooter with 3D gameplay elements and the freedom to paint and to repaint any plättchen, the puzzle tiles in the game, to any color of the rainbow. Players select the color just by twisting the wiimote and with it the color wheel on screen. Plättchen of a similar color will react with each other but will not, as in other games, disappear instantly. A big thing in the game is the action-centric shooting part, which we will reveal at a later date. We often try to compare PLÄTTCHEN twist 'n' paint with classics like Tetris, Picross, Point Blank or Puzzle Bobble, but the game is so different that it just isn't comparable with any of them. Stay tuned for a completely new experience unlike anything before. Along with a unique 12-player simultaneous multiplayer mode, a huge number of other surprises await you.

Q: Nintendo say WiiWare will be available "Early 08", though George Harrison has stated that the service could launch as early as this year depending on what games are ready. Do you have a more specific date, and will PLÄTTCHEN be available on its launch?

A: Since most developers have been informed about the service only recently, we expect it to launch sometime in February or March of 2008. We will do our best to enrich the lineup with the availibility of PLÄTTCHEN - twist 'n' paint from the beginning.

Full Interview Here
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Nintendo World Store MP3 Promotional Items

If you were one of the first 100 to buy Metroid Prime 3: Corruption at the Nintendo World Store in New York, you received these cool items:




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Player's Choice Not Planned for Wii Right Now

We have no plans for a Wii budget label. Nintendo Wii software is performing very well at its current price points. - Nintendo spokesperson

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