Despite its toony appearance, Shape Boxing Wii de Enjoy Diet regards itself more seriously than the boxing in Wii Sports. There are no Miis to be found here, more technical details (such as different boxing stances) are taken into consideration across the title's 28 lessons, and the game will dole out nutritional advice in a bid to get/keep you toned. Less seriously, you can punch bears, which we don't recall seeing in Rocky IV. Anyway, the overall vibe seems to be self-improvement.
This releases in Japan on October 30th, and will use the Balance Board in some way. We're betting it could actually improve your fitness, based on the fact that we were wheezing, crimson-faced wrecks after one and a half minutes of Wii Sports boxing.
Cable Entertainment announced a new WiiWare game for Japan, and it's already scheduled to come out in September! Kappa-kun to Asobou: Kappa-kun to Mori no Nakamatachi (Play with Kappa: Kappa and his Forest Friends) is an animated picture book with voice narration. The game, which tells the story of a young kappa who wants to become human, also includes simple quizzes about the material.
As totally hardcore gamers, we in the gaming community tend to look disapprovingly at young kids' edutainment, but we think that children's "non-games" on WiiWare actually seems like a great idea. It's cheap (600 points), can be purchased from home, and might encourage a few parents to share a story with their kids.
Australian gamers are, by now, either used to getting treated terribly by game companies, or really depressed. At this point, when a game comes out only a little late or somewhat overpriced compared to other regions, it must be a great relief.
Activision has disclosed the pricing scheme for the Australian release of Guitar Hero: World Tour. The prices differ by platform, with the Wii version consistently just a bit higher than the PS2 version and lower than the other next-gen versions. $79.95 ($66.61 US) pays for just the game, $159.95 ($133.27 US) gets a "Guitar Bundle," and the Super Bundle, containing the game, guitar, drums, and microphone, will cost $319.95. Compared to Rock Band, that seems like -- oh, right.
Fragilecontinues to look like the most atmospheric Wii title since Samus did her thing. This short trailer doesn't contain much in the gameplay department, but what is there has a really eerie ambience to it. The haunting tune that plays as the beam from Seto's flashlight crawls across these desolate environments is perfect.
The official Fragile blog still has this listed for a 2008 release in Japan, and producer Kentaro Kawashima has promised us there will soon be news of a release date. Then it's time to start crossing everything for a western localization!
The problem with showing new images of Animal Crossing: City Folk is that, unless the screens happen to feature the new city environment, what you see ends up looking pretty much exactly like the original Crossing. Only subtle clues point to the newness, such as the lack of hats, the different clock, and, oh yeah, two player characters onscreen together. It's still very important, and it's still really exciting, it just -- happens to look a lot like Animal Crossing!
We wouldn't want it any other way. We're ready to start it all again -- picking fruit, paying off Tom Nook, meeting new neighbors, filling our catalog, pulling weeds, the whole thing. This time, we'll be able to enjoy the game over some friendly conversation!
Ultimate Shooting Collection will release in the U.S. later this month, but it might not be the last shmup port we see from Milestone. Sega's Illvelo / Illmatic Envelope is based on the NAOMI arcade system board (the Dreamcast was rife with NAOMI ports), and appeared earlier this year in Japanese arcades. Now, according to a Play-Asia listing, the Wii will be getting its own port on November 13th in Japan.
As you can see above, it looks pretty wacky, with cel-shaded levels populated by everything from giant cutlery to confectionery, a tongue-in-cheek approach that reminds us of Star Parodier. Presuming it does exist, will Illvelo Wii get localized? UFO Interactive helpfully picked up Ultimate Shooting Collection for the States, but that contained a wallet-pleasing three shmups -- as Illvelo will only feature one, a North American release looks less likely.
The cybernetic sauropod seen at the end of this stirring Space Invaders Get Even! trailer may not be the genuine Grimlock, but it may as well be. Or is it more of a Mechagodzilla riff? In either case, it's just one of the overblown, yet futile, weapons the puny hu-mans wheel out in an effort to stop the inevitable Space Invasion.
We love pretty much everything about the concept of this game, from the division into bite-sized chunks to the way it changes the usual neatly-stacked Invader lines to swarming masses, adding even more to the inversion of the normal Space Invaders experience.
When your sneaky ninja assassin is discovered in Tenchu IV, the target shakes your hand, laughing heartily while exclaiming "Ohhhhh, you! You almost got me that time! I gotta watch this guy!" Of course we're kidding -- he tries to murder you. In situations when you've been noticed, rather than just giving up or retrying, you now have the option to actually fight in a new first-person mode.
In alternating attack and defense phases, you use Wiimote gestures to simulate a one-on-one swordfight, battling until one of you is dead or your sword breaks. It's like Rose & Camellia, except with to-the-death ninja fights instead of Victorian-era face-reddening! Being a ninja and therefore a total jerk, you can also throw knives while fighting.
This week on Japan's Virtual Console: Workjam'sTantei Jinguuji Saburo: Yokohama Minato Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Detective Saburo Jinguuji: The Case of the Yokohama Harbor Serial Murder), the second game in what we now call the Jake Hunter series. And nothing else. Even the US got two Virtual Console games this week -- two first-party Virtual Console games, at that.
Luckily, WiiWare stepped in to make sure we don't get all smug about our downloadable games. Along with, well, Midnight Bowling and Saikyo Ginsei Reversi, Konami's Gradius Rebirth, which is either a remake of Gradius or a new game, is out. Either way, right now cores are being shot, and not by us. This is terrible.
Nintendo has updated their Japanese VC website with next month's planned releases, including one extremely beloved game from general VC holdout Square Enix: Seiken Densetsu 2, otherwise known as Secret of Mana. Super Famicom fans will also have the opportunity to give Square Enix eight bucks for Space Invaders, which seems kind of high but also irresistably alluring. It does allow you to simulate the cellophane color bars from the arcade machine! Taito's Liquid Kids, a platformer about a hippo who freezes enemies with water bubbles, rounds out the Square Enix (and affiliates) releases.
We're particularly excited to see Capcom's shooter Forgotten Worlds and the PC Engine version of Super Dodge Ball. See the full list after the break, along with some upcoming US releases via Hudson. There's a surprise!
Birdo was famously characterized as a cross-dresser in the manual for Super Mario Bros. 2, but seems to have been made female in her appearances in the Mario sports games. According to Chris Kohler, who is currently playing through the Japanese version of Captain Rainbow, the character's gender dysphoria is back, and being discussed in-game for the first time.
It turns out that Birdo has been in jail on Mimin Island for using a women's restroom. She asks Captain Rainbow to find proof that she's a female so she can get out of jail, and he does -- buzzing, under her pillow. When he picks it up, it is censored.
Maybe Nintendo will rewrite this bit so it's about sandwiches. Then it could be released outside Japan.
The weirdest thing about Birdo's gender is that the thing seems to be gender-free except for the bow. So, then, does it mentally identify as a man identifying as a woman? And let's ignore the egg-laying issue entirely.
While we completely freak over the news that Alien Crush Returns will be coming Stateside soon, take a brief second to remember Karaoke Joysound Wii. A few months ago, Hudson's Mike Pepe stated that two games from Alien Crush Returns, My Aquarium, and Karaoke Joysound Wii would be localized. With the first two now confirmed for North America, that means (as expected) that the karaoke game will be staying in Japan.
The silver lining: if you're feeling adventurous and refuse to let such obstacles prevent you from warbling to J-pop, you can always get your import on -- Hudson just gave the game a release date of December 11th in its homeland.
Remember that rumor we posted regarding Tatsunoko vs Capcom? Well, Capcom is saying that the title might not be destined for the United States (does this imply all of North America?). In fact, the possibility of the arcade game coming over here is situated somewhere between slim and none.
Of course, this doesn't answer questions regarding the Wii port of the title. If the game does get ported to Wii, and released in Japan, homebrew aficionados will have little problem enjoying it on their console. For the rest of us that want a localized version, however, we should probably stop holding our breath.
On the Japanese Wii Music website, Nintendo has begun a series of videos called "Today's Musical Instrument," which depicts an instrument both in its for-real form and as it will appear in Wii Music. The first video features the marimba: after some introductory text, we're treated to footage of a model pretending to use the Wiimote and Nunchuk as mallets playing an invisible instrument. This is followed by Wii Music footage of the same instrument. It's a cute video and a happy little tune.
Like a lot of gestural Wii games, this is going to involve some playing-along on the player's part. You could just shake the controllers wildly and achieve pretty much the same results as making instrument-appropriate motions, but that sort of defeats the purpose of having different instruments in there.
The strangest thing about this Hanabi Festival video, found on the Dutch Nintendo Channel, is seeing Nintendo promoting the Virtual Console at all. Nintendo of America grudgingly allows the bare minimum of content to be released to the (apparently) hated service, and would never dream of going so far as to have a special event like the Hanabi Festival or talk about it outside of that one press release every Monday morning.
The trailer features video footage of all of the games in the latest Hanabi Festival, from the celebrated (Super Mario RPG) to the ... celebrated for some reason (Spelunker). We may have most of these particular games, but we want our own Hanabi Festival!
