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Filed under: News, Screens

We’re pretty sure it’s been mentioned several times on the site here, but playing Super Smash Bros. Melee has come down to us pretty much fighting on one stage: Hyrule. Now, it returns in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (along with the promise of other Melee stages returning, as well). Also, it’s now called The Temple, so no longer will we be labeling it Hyrule. Oh, you can’t believe how giddy we are, as we giggle maniacally at the inclusion of our favorite stage into the new game.

Is anyone else with us on this one?

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Filed under: News, Virtual Console, Imports

We know a lot of people have been waiting for Pokémon Snap, because they tell us. Frequently! It should come as a comfort to those people, then, that the game is scheduled for release on Japan’s Virtual Console on December 4th, which makes a release in other territories soon after a near inevitability. We admit to a fondness for the nonviolent rail shooter ourselves, and it’s aged rather well for an N64 game.

An N64 game on the VC is big enough news (they can only come out during a full moon on a warm night, and then only if nothing is there to spook them), but the release of Pokémon Snap also carries some news that is significant to the very nature of the Wii’s classic game download service. You will be able to send your in-game photos to Wii Friends. We don’t necessarily think Pokémon photo sharing is, itself, a killer app or anything, though we’ll probably take advantage of the service if we can generate awkward enough poses. This is the first time that a Virtual Console game has had functionality added to it (instead of having functionality removed) and it means that Nintendo is not above going in and changing a game for a good reason. As long as that reason is Pokémon. Also surprisingly, the game will be the normal 1000 Wii Points.

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Filed under: News

Just in case you didn’t hear him the first time he said it, Kaufman Bros. analyst Todd Mitchell has reiterated his belief that the Wii only truly benefits Nintendo, and that third-party developers have only seen “isolated successes” on the console.

Mitchell’s argument may have been aired before, but it’s also tricky to dismiss, especially as only two third-party titles have so far broken the one million sales barrier (launch twosome Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids). Then again, when it comes to top-drawer, original Wii software, Nintendo has delivered on a fairly regular basis. With the odd exception or two, can the same really be said of other publishers?

[Via Go Nintendo]

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By far the best thing about Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is the derisive tone we allow ourselves to take while writing about it the theme song. The latest trailer rocks Steve Conte‘s “Ride True Gravity” as Sonic and pals ride floaty snowboards through tubes and stuff, and it simultaneously makes the game seem both laughable and awesome.

Making ridiculously overblown theme music for games is something that Sega has mastered, and we’re relieved to see the tradition carrying on, even in these particularly troubling times. The song already has its own devotees, though that may be an artifact of Sonic fandom as much as general Sega awesomeness. We’d also like to admit that the game looks slightly better in this trailer. We don’t think Sonic Riders is a good idea in general, and the game is still PS2 material graphically, but at least it appears to be post-2001 PS2 material now.

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Filed under: Virtual Console

Though the official European Nintendo site still seems to be down, the Virtual Console is working overtime to bring you games you may not have heard of at high prices. Ain’t life grand? It is if you happen to be into more obscure games, and even the “pricey” ones really aren’t.

• Baseball Stars 2 — Neo Geo — 900 Wii points
• The Dynastic Hero — Turbografx — 800 Wii points

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Filed under: News

Looks like November in Japan fared better for Sony than it did for Nintendo, as sales for the PS3 beat out the Wii. Selling 183,217 units to Nintendo’s 159,193 units, it would appear that Sony’s system is becoming the more desirable system in the region and a trend is emerging. The reality, however, is likely very different.

With the Wii being so scarce (despite Nintendo supposedly manufacturing almost 2 million units a month), as well as Sony introducing a cheaper 40gb model of their PS3 console, the factors involved contributed to a favorable month for Sony. Should Nintendo manage to produce enough consoles so that the Wii could actually be on the shelf for consumers when they want to buy it, then we’re sure we would be writing a very different story right now.

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Filed under: Video

The latest trailer for Chocobo’s Mysterious Dungeon is mysterious because we can’t find out what we like about it most. Maybe it’s the soothing music that feels like it should be playing during the credits of Battle Royale or something (don’t ask us how we came up with that association, they really don’t sound that alike). Maybe it’s the young green-haired boy, who reminds us of Cabbage Head (oh, how we miss you Kids in the Hall). Or, maybe it’s because that Chocobo is just so darn cute.

[Via Go Nintendo]

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Filed under: News

As we type, the world’s crazy time differences mean that Wii Fit has been available in Japan for, ooh, a few hours at least.

How will it fare? We don’t know for sure, and as our closest friend isn’t a De Lorean-owning, wavy-haired scientist, the best we can offer is a guess. That said, the 300,000 preorders reportedly taken by Japanese retailers prior to the game’s release tell us that Nintendo has probably just conjured up another mass appeal mega-hit. If all of those preorders are honored, that would also make Wii Fit a bigger opening week success than a certain other title, but we won’t dwell on that, as it’s proven a touchy subject recently.

Check back with us next week for the full lowdown on precisely how many Japanese people are precariously poised on their Balance Boards.

[Via The Tanooki]

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Filed under: Fan stuff, Mods

This custom AT-AT GameCube lumbered around the Internet a few years ago, but we never dreamed that we’d be able to get our own tow cables around it. Nothing, however, convinces someone to get rid of an item like its total obsolescence.

Conversely, nothing convinces us to buy an obsolete item like having it crammed inside a Star Wars model! Really, it works out for everyone. At a current bid of $51, this is a deal just for the four Wavebird controllers included (whose receivers, along with two memory cards, are embedded in the unit). We’d love to see our friends’ faces when we brought this in for some party gaming, but we don’t have parties or friends. We are Star Wars fans after all.

Also found at GameSniped: this ridiculous NES controller stand.

[Via GameSniped]

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Filed under: News

Famitsu recently reviewed Suda 51′s No More Heroes and we’re glad to say the game received some good marks. But, even though the game was received well by the Famitsu folk, they still found one problem with it: it might be a tad bit too hard. See, the game is supposedly too tough for the Wii’s casual audience. So, it’s not so easy to pick up and play like, say, Super Mario Galaxy is. At least, that’s what Famitsu thinks.

We would like to know exactly what Famitsu found to be too difficult about it, whether it was the difficulty of performing Travis’s maneuvers or it was simply just the mission structure. Heck, it could’ve been a combination of any number of things. But, regardless, we can’t wait until February, when we will find out for ourselves.

[Update: We don't know the actual text of Famitsu's review, but we do know that the translated review summary was a joke on the part of NeoGAFfer "Dascu." We do know that the game received scores of 9, 8, 8, 9.]

[Via Go Nintendo]

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