This page of the index features all of our listed NewsBites stories for 2008
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December 2008
Nintendo release Q1 Wii and DS schedule
Nintendo of Europe have unveiled the list of games you can expect to find for the rest of this Winter and the start of Spring. As usual, most of it's utter rubbish, but the likes of the Play On Wii series (now redubbed NEW PLAY CONTROL! - no we prefer the other name as well) getting it's European debut can't be missed, especially with the new widescreen view and updated controls. Here's a few Wii highlights: 6 Feb - NPC! Pikmin; Feb - The House Of The Dead Overkill; Feb - Onechanbra-Bikini Zombi Slayers (yes, we only put it in there because of the name); Feb - Mushroom Men - The Spore Wars; Mar - NPC! Mario Power Tennis; Mar - Sonic and the Black Knight; Mar - MadWorld; 23 Mar - Sim Animals; Q1 - Kororinpa 2 (working title); Q1 - Line Rider 2 - Unbound; Q1 - Castlevania Judgement; Q1 - PES 2009. Meanwhile on the DS... 20 Feb - Walk With Me; Q1 - De Blob; Q1 - Bomberman 2 (working title); Spring 09 - Gauntlet. In similar news, GTA Chinatown Wars developer Rockstar Leeds has confirmed that the DS game is set for release on March the 17th in America and March the 20th across Europe.
Also note that Nintendo didn't include Wii Sports Resort, Endless Ocean 2 or Punch Out!! in the Wii listings, and mentioned nothing about the DSi. Hmm...
DS does a Wii Fit
DS LATEST Wii Fit has been a massive seller for Nintendo, so it comes as no surprise that they have announced another fitness game, this time on DS. Walk With Me is a new "game" that helps you keep track of your walking via one of two pedometers included with the game. Using these, you can store data for up to a week, which can be transferred by infra-red to the DS cart. Using your data, you will be given challenges, mini games and trivia, alongside the chance to upload your score via Nintendo Wifi Connection. One interesting fact about this game, is that it is the first DS title to use Mii's! Mii's can be transported to the game using a feature in the Mii channel, or if you don't own a Wii, you'll be able to create your own on the cartridge. As well as all this, you'll be able to keep track of your dog's walking and how far across the solar system you have walked so far. The package will be released next February.
Bplus announce new WiiWare game - Niki Rock 'n' Ball
WW Bplus, developers of Plattchen Twist & Paint (already available on WiiWare for 1000-1500 points) have revealed a brand new game, Niki Rock 'n' Ball, where you tilt the Wii remote to move a ball around a stage, until you kill all the visible enemies. The game is also playable with a friend, or by using the D-pad, and has similar visuals and styles to Plattchen. Read the full press release, and check out all the screens and character art on the Niki Rock 'n' Ball page.
November 2008
Pop Up Pirate coming to Japanese WiiWare this Tuesday
WW Classic toy Pop Up Pirate is to get its own Wii release soon, with the game going online in Japan in the upcoming week. Here's the google translation of the Japanese web page: Blackbeard's Wii, a one-shot crisis, everyone raucously in the play "Everybody in the black beard! Mode", and thoroughly enjoyable one "black beard thoroughly! Mode" and "Blackbeard" instead of "Mii" the Tal And enter into, Wii and directing it in a souped-up modes of suspense, excitement and fun, BARAETIPATIGEMU. The game is due to be released for 500 points, and includes a four player mode. The game's genre is also listed, as: PATIAKUSHONGEMU. Hmm...
Nintendo re-unleash Legend Of Zelda statue
Nintendo This one's for our European readers - Nintendo have just added the Legend Of Zelda gold statue to their Club Nintendo shop! At a ridiculously high price of 15,000 points (which equals... a helluva lot of games - a minimum of SIXTY full priced Wii titles, in fact), this statue depicts Link riding Epona from the Twilight Princess game, and won't be hanging around for long. Also recently added are a bnunch of 'tones and wallpapers for your phone, and some Wii Fit Winter goodies, such as a woolly hat - presumably since Nintendo realised the summer kit they added in September (including sandals and goggles) wasn't working. Meanwhile, the Stars Catalogue is set for December in America and is said to include goodies that are also available on the Japan catalogue. Check out the UK stars catalogue here.
New Wii update brings good news
WiiWWVC If you're online, you'd better download the latest Wii update. This one is much better than the last one - which replaced the controller icons on the Wii Shop Channel with a menu that told you the exact same thing - since it allows you to save things on an SD card around five times faster than before. That means Mega Man 9 in just as many seconds (ish), and all WiiWare titles in no more than 35. This is a brilliant update, and now that we've seen just how good the SD streaming can be with the latest Guitar Hero World Tour songs, we're expecting Nintendo to let us play games straight off the card in future. Sadly for some of you out there, this update (unsurprisingly) also cancels out the homebrew channel (again), since it could damage the Wii and its memory (or something like that).
Nintendo sales are good - and bad
Wii Sales from January to October have been revealed by the NPD, with four of the top five sellers so far this year being Nintendo titles. Super Smash Bros Brawl and Mario Kart Wii have taken spots one and two respectively, whilst Grand Theft Auto IV - on the 360 only - comes in at third. Followed by these are Wii Play and Wii Fit, which is fairly unsurprising due to the lack of Wii Fit stock. Despite this, Wii Fit is still the best moneymaker of the year, followed by GTAIV, Mario Kart and Wii Play. Nintendo have also revealed today that over two weeks, Wii Music has sold around one tenth of what Wii Fit sold in its first eleven days - meaning that the game is so far looking to be a semi-flop. Cammie Dunaway is still optimistic though, recalling the way that Brain Training on the DS has been a consistently high seller for a while, and expects no slowdown in the Wii Music sales, hopefully bringing the game's total sales up a lot higher in time. Our solution? Maybe Nintendo could try and advertise it more than Mario Kart, Wii Fit, Brain Training and Mario & Sonic, since the reason for these games to become top sellers was mainly due to the massive advertising campaigns.
Worry - Mama Won't Fix This!
Cooking Mama has received its own spoof today on the website of PETA (which stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, for those of you who don't know), who claim that the one of the main traditions brought with Thanksgiving should be abolished - yes, we're talking about cooking Turkeys. In the Cooking Mama rip-off, you pull feathers off a dead turkey and then place its internal organs in a cooking bowl. Afterwards, the player is invited to watch a video of Turkey treatment. It's not put me off eating the things this Christmas, but hey - why not go and try out the game for yourself here - it taught me that pulling internal organs out of an animal is FUN!
Opera Browser 2.0 on its way
Wii An update to the Wii browser has been unveiled, and is set to include several new features. First of all, there is a new interface at the bottom of the screen which makes the icons look pretty damn uglier than before. Woo for updates! There's more, though. Now, your (Wii) E-mails can be viewed straight from an icon in the browser, so you don't have to go back to the Wii Menu. There is some more notable news though, which is mainly based around the addition of tabbed browsing (as with browsers on your computer). Since this is the Wii, though, Opera have made the tabbed browsing a bit more exciting though, by including each of the tabs in a cube icon located at the top right corner of the screen (yes, it can be switched off). In addition to this, there's also set to be some Wii Speak compatibility, of which details are scarce. That's all that is known at the moment, but the new update (which is set for release next month) is free to customers with the existing version, and will still cost 500 points for new buyers.
World of Goo coming to WiiWare in Europe!
WW The critically acclaimed World of Goo was not due for a European release on WiiWare as it was in the US, but was instead set for retail next year with an extra chapter bundled in. Enraged fans brought this issue to the understanding of 2D Boy and the WoG EU publisher RTL, and in the end the companies have given in, and are happy to announce that the game should be on sale for 1500 Wii Points (as in the US) on the Wii Shop Channel, saving us all about twenty quid. Thanks, guys!
Also recently announced for WiiWare is the ArtStyle series of simplistic games, based on the Bit generations GBA games that were released in Japan a while ago. These games have already appeared in US Wii Shops, and include Orbient, where you control the planets, Cubello, where you match colours in a 3D environment and Rotohex, where you spin groups of six shapes (ala XBLA's Hexic) to get similar colours to match. The ArtStyle games are 600 points each, and are on their way to Europe from the 21st of November, starting with Cubello.
Wii Shop Updates (7/11)
WW In this weeks updates on WiiWare, both the PAL and American regions got a few treats. Alien Crush Returns is the first of these, and is out in both regions at the price of 800 Wii Points. The horror themed pinball title includes three stages, extra downloadable treats in future and an online multiplayer mode. Alongside this, Americans also got decorating sim Home Sweet Home, which we reviewed a couple of weeks ago, and here in Europe, Space Invaders Get Even and Brain Challenge were waiting for us on Thursday night, both of which are unreleased in the US and its neighbours. These games are both set to be good fun, with the former being priced at 500 points, with three packs of extra pairs of levels being priced the same. Brain Challenge is 1000 Wii Points and includes 25 mini games based on maintaining your brain capacity, in a similar fashion to Nintendo's own Big Brain Academy. The biggest mystery about this weeks updates is that here in Europe, we still haven't got Strong Bad episode 3. The series was supposed to include a new game every month, but so far we still haven't recieved the episode for October! Meh - maybe we'll get it next time. With today's three top titles, we're not really allowed to complain.
Obama gets his first appearance on Wii. Sort of.
Wii Newly elected president Barack Obama has appeared in Mii form as part of a new games trailer promoting the upcoming Popcorn Arcade game Crazy Mini Golf. The creators of the game are already well known on Wii for making some tragedies so far for the console (as in: really bad games - not Romeo & Juliet tragedies), and so we wouldn't bet on it being any good, and more of an insult to the future mister president, but nonetheless, Popcorn Arcade are still pretty hyped up over his appearance, stating that until Obama gets inaugurated this January, he's still got plenty of time to enjoy the game from the Kidz Sports series (WHY?!?). The advert should give you a chuckle though, as McCain starts hitting himself over the head with his golf club. We would also like to take this opportunity to inform you that this, along with all other Popcorn Arcade games, is definitely going to end up on the pile of tripe already available for our beloved console. Put it this way - they spelt Rock and Roll A dventures "A vdentures" on the spine of the box art and in our opinion, that says it all.
DSiWare titles unvieled
DSi Nintendo have announced several new WiiWare and DSiWare games today, to celebrate the launch of the DSi in Japan. Utsusu! Made in Wario will be a launch game for DSiWare (arriving towards the end of the year in the land of the rising sun), and will utilise the system's camera to use your silhouette as a playable character. Another DSiWare title coming soon is one title Made in Ore, which allows you to make your own mini games using programming technlogy, whilst even creating your own soundtrack and graphics. A WiiWare title will also becaome available, allowing you to play your creations on the Wii. In addition to these, six new Art Style games will be arriving on the DSi, at the standard price of 500 Nintendo points (with smaller titles coming in at 200 and premium titles costing 800+ points). Three of the games in the series are already available on WiiWare in North America, but it isn't known as yet when they will be arriving in Europe or if there will be any more for the series.
Golden Joystick Awards - The Winners
It has been a bit of a disappointment this year for Ninty at the ol' Joystick Awards, as they walked away with just about nothing. Of course, they took an award for the Nintendo game of the year and Handheld game of the year (since Ninty basically own the handheld market. And the Nintendo market for that matter), with Zelda Phantom Hourglass and Smash Bros Brawl both taking awards, leaving Super Mario galaxy crying in the corner. Just about all the other awards went to Call Of Duty World at War and Activision in the ceremony hosted by Frankie Boyle, so there wasn't much there for us Nintendo lot. The highlight of the whole show? Frankie Boyle's closing comments: "This event has supported GamesAid, which I believe is a charity that sends Tamagotchi's to Africa so that the children can look at something that will outlive them. Just don't tell the Daily Mail I said that, OK?". At least he was better than Video Game BAFTA presenter Vic Reeves earlier this year, which was quite frankly awful.
>> Read what Billy voted for in his blog
Madworld Box Art Revealed
Wii Despite the imminent release of Manhunt 2, there hasn't been much controversy surrounding Nintendo recently. Upcoming Wii title MadWorld looks to change this, with the blood-fest coming out next year exclusively on Wii. In the game, everything expect blood is in black and white, which is bound to get the Daily Mail angry.
In other Sega news, they recently snapped up rights to publish metroid-y style shooter The Conduit, despite rumours suggesting that Nintendo would do. Despite this, it is still a Ninty exclusive, and shows that the famous Publisher doesn't want to leave the Wii alone now.
Image source: Nintendo life
 Don't Worry - Mama Will Fix This!
WiiDS Young kids (we won't say which gender to avoid being sexist), will recognise Mama, star of the three Cooking Mama games currently available. Well, next month, US fans can rejoice as the Wii sequel arrives - with co-op - next month. The game will also receive a European release next Spring.
In addition to this, Mama will also be the star of another new game soon - Gardening Mama. Swapping the rolling pin for secateurs, gamers can assist Mama in the garden to avoid seeing those terrifying eyes of death.
Wii Shop Update (22/10)
WW In the second Wii Shop Update in a week, we can reveal that Europe will be getting the rather awesome Tetris Party this coming Friday in their fortnightly WiiWare update. The game was released in the US on Monday to great reviews, alongside the little known Incredible Maze game, where you control a ball around a track or maze by tilting the Wii remote (nope, it didn't ring any bells for us, either). It seems unlikely that Strong Bad will be getting a look in this month though for Europeans, since the game hasn't even had a PC release yet, never mind a US WiiWare game, which means that fans will have to wait an extra couple of weeks in Europe, whilst America peoples will probably get it this coming Monday. What else could we get? Rumours (fuelled by myself) are strife that Nintendo's Art Style mini games will make their debut with Orbient, alongside the possibility of "spooky" pinball game Alien Crush, whilst DISASTER Day Of Crisis is set to go out as a retail release across stores nationwide. Tetris Party is now featured on the Nintendo Channel in both regions, and costs 1200 points. UPDATE: Europe also got The Incredible Maze and Tetris Party this Friday, alongside decorating sim Home Sweet Home. Oh, and we wouldn't advise getting The Incredible Maze - reviews across the net say it's awful.
Grand Theft Auto DS - First Official Screens
DS First screens of GTA Chinatown Wars (coming Spring 2009) have been shown off in a recent exclusive preview by Edge magazine, and reveal what the game is really going to look like. The screens show a slightly cartoonish affair, whilst in keeping with the nature of violence and law breaking you'd expect, with the drug dealing mini game being shown off, along with a game where you must start a car using a screwdriver. Although we must admit we didn't think the series would work on the DS at first, these screens look like the game could still be pretty good, even if they are years away from the graphical standard of the console titles.
Wii Shop Updates (17/10)
WWVC No big, notable news updates this week, strangely enough. The makers of upcoming Wii title The Conduit announced a game called the High Volatage Hot Rod Show, a WiiWare racing title with six tracks to play across, but otherwise nothing. Nowt. Zilch. That's it. Which leaves me to tell you about the latest Wii Shop Channel additions instead. Over in the US, they got top titles Secret of Mana and Street Fighter II Genesis over on the Virtual Console, alongside new releases Art Style Cubello (sort of like a 3D bust a move) and the currently-US-only World Of Goo (at 600 and 1500 points apeice). World Of Goo has been given some great reviews across the 'net so far, and is currently avaeraging the same score as Super Mario Galaxy on website Metacritic. Meanwhile, Space Harrier and another Super Street Fighter II were added to the EU virtual console, alongside critically acclaimed platformer Mayhem in Monsterland from the C64. Erm... there you go. That's it. Your lot. Finished.
No More Heroes 2 set for release
Wii A sequel to the top Wii title No More Heroes is due, with a release expected within the next two years. The new game, subtitled Desperate Struggle, was announced at the Tokyo Games Show by Goichi Suda, and all that we can say so far is that it looks to maintain the same look as the original. No gameplay information was released, besides an intro trailer, which appeared later on across the 'net. View the trailer on YouTube here.
UPDATE: In the original game, the overuse of bloodiness caused fury in western regions, forcing Suda51 to change the killing scenes to make characters burst into pixellated mess. This new version however, will be released in clean and explicit versions, ensuring that maniacs and younger people are united in happiness. Any bets on the explicit one getting banned?
50 WiiWare Titles Currently in Development
WW Nintendo have confirmed that there are currently over 50 titles coming to the Downloadable service WiiWare in the future. They didn't announce any new first party games, (sparking rumours that more Art Style mini games will be released soon instead) but the list of third party games was astounding. Amongst the games, favourites Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands were confirmed, whereas other intriguing games such as Game Sound Station, Aero Drum and Let's Hike! were also featured in the list. The confirmed titles are only set for release in Japan at the moment, but many more are expected to be announced for western gamers shortly. Meanwhile, American gamers got a treat today as Midnight Bowling and MadStone, both pretty good looking titles, were available on the Wii Shop. When it comes to Virtual Console games though, North America got their first N64 game in months: Mario Golf, alongside Shining Force II and the first Mega Man 9 DLC. Source: WiiWareWorld
 Reggie Fils-Aimes Speaks on Wii MotionPlus
Wii
Nintendo of America big-guy Reggie Fils-Aimes has stated that Wii MotionPlus was not just an afterthought, and was something that the company wanted in the original Wii package. The reason they didn't include it though, was pricing, as he claims that the technology would have been too expensive at the time. This leads us to wonder how much the attachment will cost when released seperately. £15? £20? £25? However much it is, it will raise the current cost of complete Wii remotes (with nunchucks) by a fair bit, and will push the price up to at least £60 per package. WiiMotionPlus is still expected to release next Spring alongside Wii Sports Resort.
 Nintendo DSi - latest info
DSi
Nintendo have recently made several new confirmations about the upcoming DSi console. First of all, the console will have it's own exclusives which won't work for the DSlite. These exclusives, as with the DS shop, will be region locked, so that means no more importing. Standard and existing games will still be region free on all systems. Cammie Dunaway (marketing executive, AKA Cheesy B**ch from E3, as Oli rightfully named her) doesn't agree with this, stating that she even owns a Japanese DS - since she likes the light blue model only available in the land of the rising sun. Reasons behind Nintendo's thinking here involve the fact that it uses online software, and because the DSi will have parental controls, which will vary depending on the region you live. Meanwhile, Ninty president Satoru Iwata claims that the software isn't a way of fighting off the iPhone and PSP as competition, and is instead a redesign of the handheld that will hopefully ensure that users take it everywhere. An example he used was "downloading Subway maps". GPS sat-nav in the future, perhaps? Iwata also stated that the system should "probably" be released in the UK next year, making that Spring 2009 date now seem a bit iffy. Source: CVG
World Of Goo US Launch Info
WWWii There are many treats headed WiiWare-wards soon, and World Of Goo is one of them. Controlling and building structures out of many balls of goo, you must complete missions to get the highest towers and so on. The game has just been announced for a US release of October 13 on the Wii Shop Channel, but Europeans will have to wait until next year for their taste of the action on Wii. Due to the fact that developers 2D Boy were running short on money after developing for themselves for over a year, they had to sign up to a publisher for the European release, which not only means that consumers will have to wait longer, but that they will also have to purchase it in the shops. There will be an extra section to the game because of this, but when you consider that Americans will be getting a slightly smaller version of the game for a much cheaper price (currently rumoured at 1000-1500 Wii points, about the same as £5-7.50 over here), it really doesn't seem fair. Also on the radar for upcoming WiiWare hits include Tetris Party, pinball game Alien Crush and the retro spin off Space Invaders Get Even.
Manhunt 2 Halloween launch for UK
Wii Manhunt 2 has finally been given a launch date in the UK. After the BBFC age ratings board refused to give it a rating early last year (thus preventing it from being sold in the UK), the games future looked grim. Then, the American ratings board gave it an AO (Adults Only) rating, of which is not allowed on Nintendo systems. Since then though, developer Rockstar (of Grand Theft Auto fame) edited it to tone down the extreme violence, and after a long appeal for the games release, it was eventually let off with an 18 rating. Nothing was heard for a while after this, but Rockstar has just confirmed that the game is to be released on October 31st (Halloween) in the UK. Due to the excessive violence and whatnot, we won't be reviewing it, but we can tell you that the reviews last spring weren't very positive for the game (NGamer's review aside, which clearly only gave the game a high score - 92% - because they got the review as an exclusive), so we wouldn't rush out to buy it if we were you, though the game is available for just £25.
Let's Catch: First WiiWare Details
WW As part of one of yesterdays big announcements, we were slightly intrigued as to what would be made of Wii game Let's Catch. It has now been revealed to be a ball game, where you simply throw and catch a ball. Imaginative, huh? The game will include other modes, including a Hot Potato game (where you must ensure you are not holding the ball when the timer reaches zero), Mii compatibility and a four player mode. The controls will be a major issue in this game, but if they get it right, it could be a fairly good party game. We're happy to say that it is only a WiiWare title, but at 1000 points, it might not sell many copies.
Play It On Wii - complete list of titles
WiiRETRO The brand new (well, sort of) Wii games based on classic GameCube titles have now been announced, with seven games so far ready to make their way over to the console. These titles are: Donkey Konga: Jungle Beat; Pikmin; Pikmin 2; Chibi Robo; Mario Power Tennis; Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 - Echoes. All of these games were very good on the GameCube, and the new versions will include optimized controls and (presumably) upscaled graphics. We hope that they won't cost more than £25 here in the UK, but if any more new features are announced (a Metroid Prime 2 online mode would be brilliant and would make up for the single player only factor of Corruption, released on Wii last year), we'd expect them to cost a little more. If many more of these games are announced, you would be able to buy new games first released on every Nintendo home console, rather than having to dig out those preowned copies of the awful Legends Of Wrestling down at your local game store. Don't expect much from the service though, since we believe that remakes of Super Smash Bros Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash won't be released due to the fact that the highly superior (and more costly) sequels are already available on Wii.
Nintendo Conference - New DS unvieled
Nintendo Nintendo have made some massive announcements at their special Nintendo conference, including a brand new DS model, a storage "solution" for the Wii and a brand new Sin & Punishment game. Read our full news article here
September 2008
Wii Shop Channel releases - US/EU
WW Time for the usual Wii Shop Channel updates, this time taking place on the NewsBites page, due to myself not being very time efficient enough to organise enough time to give them a full page (I'm blaming Oli, since he never posts). Anyway, in Europe, we've had some great releases this past Friday, with both the retro MegaMan 9 and hilarious StrongBad episode two getting their release alongside dancing game Helix. Although Helix has had some varied reviews on the web, both MM9 and SB2 have done quite well, and after playing on the latter two, we can agree with the positive-ness.
Meanwhile, the US recieved two new titles today, including Bomberman Blast (which Europe got a few weeks ago now), and Art Style: AMBIENT, a previously unkown game made by Nintendo themselves, where you travel around space, using gravity powers to attract and repel nearby objects and stars. All games (except for AMBIENT, which is 600) are 1000 points each.
Expect reviews of SB2 and MM9 this weekend. That is, if we can complete Mega Man. IT'S SO DIFFICULT!!!
Nintendo Stars Catalogue Update
Nintendo Nintendo have gone and surprised everyone by giving users of their UK stars catalogue some new treats for their registered games. For 350 stars, users can get themeselves any song from the EMI music store, which works out as getting a free song for about two games (in other words, its a usual rip-off). For 3000 songs, you can also get any album. Whereas this offer isn't as bad, we'd still recommend waiting for some top gifts on the store, such as the Nintendo themed albums available on their Japanese equal (though these gifts aren't likely any time soon). Other recent gifts available on Nintendo's own catalogue include the ability to buy Wii Points cards straight from the usual shop, rather than in a seperate place, some WarioLand and Family Ski 50-point wallpapers and a Cooking Guide chefs hat, alongside some Wii Fit summer gear (though it's a bit late for that now). Just don't buy the songs dammit. Or the points. Wait, and you won't regret it.
Nintendo Nintendo favourite and long time exclusive Zelda made a recent surprise at a gaming press conference. It's not what you're thinking (read: hoping) though, as the classic appeared during a Sony pioneered event to launch the PS3 in Malaysia. The Nintendo rival had Zelda music played over the speakers as two of the companies "guys" went up on stage. The situation is aboslutely hilarious, and one person even managed to record the shocker onto YouTube (in an admittedly awful video). We can only bet that somebody got fired for this mishap - oh, and the second one as well.
Grand Theft Auto DS - first details
DS Popular XBox and Playstation game is making its DS debut this Christmas, in a game first announced at this years E3 festival. The first details on the game have now emerged in American magazine Nintendo Power, and say that the game is going to be a cel shaded sandbox game. It will also feature an isometric camera view, with several mini games played out on the touch screen. The game, subtitled Chinatown Wars, will be set in the world of Liberty City (though with some slightly different routes to the console versions), and will feature weapons including the chain gun and flame-thrower. There will also be a PDA organiser featuring the map, music player and stat tracking, and as usual in GTA games, the radio will also have a welcome return. There will also be wi-fi stat tracking, real time weather effects and missions designed for shorter periods of play. The game has been given a "mature" rating in the US.
Activision Guitar Hero Updates
Wii Activision have claimed that over the next year, the amount of Guitar Hero games will double, and by the end of 2010 will have tripled what they are now. At the moment, there are six games in total, with three known games arriving soon (World Tour - Wii; On Tour Decades - DS; Metallica - Wii), but ex Guns 'n Roses guitarist Slash (as seen in GHIII: Legends of Rock) has let slip in an interview to Rolling Stone magazine that there is also due to be a game based on Jimi Hendrix. Activision have also claimed that their series is currently outselling Rock Band 6-1, and that there is to be another usual annual update to the series next year. Guitar Hero World Tour is set for a release early November, and On Tour Decades is expected December.
 Release Dates - Wii Music; Mega Man 9
Wii Wii Music has just been announced for an October 20 release date in America, indicating that the game has just about completed development. This also means that Japan can also expect a release around October whereas Europe can probably expect to find it in stores early November, though with Guitar Hero World Tour also being released around that time, we can't see that being too clever. Also arriving soon for the US is Mega Man 9, the retro style WiiWare game hugely anticipated by fans. The game, releasing this Monday the 22nd, is also expected in Europe the Friday after, along with StrongBad Episode 2, and will feature an extra character as a downloadable extra two weeks later. Bomberman Blast (released September 12 in Europe) is also expected for a US release shortly. Also recently confirmed is the adventure game Disaster: Day of Crisis, due out October 24th in Europe. Image source: Nintendo WiiX
Trauma Center Sequel Comes to Europe
Wii Trauma Center is published by Atlus, and so since they didn't have a European office, it was looking increasingly unlikely that the sequels to both the DS and Wii versions of their "stich-'em-up" would make it to our shores. Nintendo though, have gone and confirmed the second European Wii release for November 7th. The game, subtitled New Blood was released almost almost a whole year before this date, and is the first in the series to include two player co-op and online high scores. There is no word on a European release of the DS sequel Trauma Center - Under The Knife 2.
 Wii Wireless Router Unveiled
AC Nintendo have gone and forgotten about all of us waiting for a hard drive to be announced, and instead shown off images of a new Wii-branded wireless router. The kit, which seems to be only coming to Japan, will allow all the usual wireless stuff to connect online, and when released in the land of the rising sun (next month) it will retail at the equivalent of twenty five pounds.
Talking of wanting a hard drive, Miyamoto has claimed that Nintendo are looking into solutions and that you can expect an announcement soon. RESULT! In the same interview Miyamoto also stated that there are just about enough Wii accessories out now / coming soon and so few more can be expected.
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