This weeks Nintendo Download update sees the release of ‘Master Blaster: Overdrive‘ on WiiWare, which is an update of the original from the NES in 1988. Nice!
Other highlights are ‘Fieldrunners‘ which is excellent on the iPhone and ‘Tomena Sanner‘ which provides more Japanese crazyness. In total there are ten new games up fro grabs so head inside to see the full list.
Aiai and company are back with their latest Monkey Ball extravaganza, but will the addition of balance board controls be enough for you to give this a go? With the return of Monkey Target we’ve been swayed…
A small update to the Nintendo shop today for PAL gamers. Atleast one of them is the long overdue ‘Excitebike: World Challenge’. There are 3 games in total for Wii this week with only one for DSi owners.
Virtual Console:
Final Fight 3 (SNES, 800 Nintendo Points)
WiiWare:
ExciteBike: World Challenge (1000 Nintendo Points)
“Aha! I Found It!” Hidden Object Game (500 Nintendo Points)
In an interview with High Voltage Software, Matt Casamassina of IGN discovered that the developers next shooter for the Wii, which was revealed around E3 time last year, ‘The Grinder’, has lost its exclusivity to the console and will now be appearing on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC too.
The developers claim that they want their talent to reach the widest audience as possible, which is fair enough, they produce quality games. However we are pretty sure that they were secretly crapping themselves with the thought that the game may sell as poorly as ‘The Conduit’ did.
Iron Man 2 is likely to be an awesome film when released later this year just like its predecessor. Here is some Wii footage for the game tie-innd it’s looking promising. If this turns out to be half as good as the film, then we’ll be happy (ish!).
Japanese hardware sales time again! The week of January 24th - 31st saw the PSP retain the top spot, though combined sales of all DS models were higher. The Wii is stll holding off the PS3 in the home console fight and the poor Xbox 360 and PSP Go make up the numbers at the bottom.
PSP 47,875 Wii 42,309 DSi LL 34,863
PS3 34,431 DSi 24,783 DS Lite 6,811
Xbox 360 4,089
PS2 2,182
PSP go 1,645
Last weeks figures are after the break if you want to compare!
What I love about the games industry in general is the amount of guessing and rumours that fly around. Of course some are more credible than others and some are just plain stupid. We’re not sure where this rumour lies but it is just that - a rumour!
A ‘major international publisher’ reportedly told videogamer.com that we can expect a new Nintendo platform at this years GDC. Read more…
Here is the first trailer for Sonic 4: Episode 1. Nice to see the hedgehog looking back to his best! I wonder if this was brought on by Sega seeing the success of the New Super Mario Bros. titles on Wii and DS? Why are you still reading? Watch!
Sega have finally come clean as to what their latest project is, codenamed ‘Project Needlemouse’ and it’s ‘Sonic 4: Episode 1′ for download in summer on WiiWare, PSN and Xbox Live.
Many fans will be pleased to know that Sonic has gone back to his roots as Sonic 4 is a 2D platformer with set in 3D landscapes with levels reminiscent of old school Sonic adventures.
Gamespot caught up with Sega brand manager Ken Balough, who had this to say:
Speaking recently to Famitsu, ‘Metroid: Other M‘ producer Yoshio Sakamoto said that Samus’ new adventure is progressing nicely. As the game is slated for release this year, that’s relief to hear!
“This project between three companies, which we call Project M, is progressing extremely well. This Metroid is being developed with the aim of the ideal form of the old Metroid. It’s a game that can be realized because of the Wii. However, different from the rest of the series, this time we’re strongly depicting the human side of Samus through such things as movies.”