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Wii Archive

Xbox dominates top game rentals of 2009

According to Rentrak, a company who tracks video game rentals, Microsoft and the Xbox 360 “dominated” it’s top 20 list of most rented games in 2009 taking 17 out of the top 20 spots. Fallout 3 received top honors for the year.

Rentrak compiles their data by measuring “title-level performance via rental transactions from more than 65,000 DVD, Blu-ray Disc and Video Game properties in the brick-and-mortar, online, and kiosk channels across North America.” So all three major distribution methods are covered.

Interestingly enough the PlayStation 3 is nowhere to be seen on the list. The other three spots on the list not occupied by xbox 360 titles were occupied by Wii games Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Party 8.

Hit the break to see the entire list.

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Details on NBA Jam for the Wii

Earlier this week  word spread that EA Sports was working on a Wii version of the über successful basketball game NBA Jam from back in the day. If you were like me than your imagination went postal trying to conjure up what the new game will look like. Well you can give your brain a break and take a gander at the image posted above. It’s a capture given to Nintendo Power by EA Sports.

From the scan you can see that the game will still have the zany, over-the-top feel of the original. The player models will feature 3D bodies with 2D heads, which are pretty much photographed faces pasted onto the bodies.

Here’s more info from a reader on NeoGAF who read the actual article in Nintendo Power:

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Netflix is coming to the Wii

The most popular console on the planet has jumped on the Netflix gravy train…albeit months behind the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.

It was announced today in the New York Times that Netflix and Nintendo have reached an agreement setting the stage for a spring release of the service on the Wii, allowing Netflix subscribers to stream certain movies and TV shows on the console. Of course the Wii does not support HD streaming as of yet, but this announcement leads some industry insiders to believe that a HD version of the console will be announced sometime next year.

The service will require users to insert an “instant streaming disc” into the Wii much like the users of the Playstation 3 have to do already. The disc is free and will be provided by Netflix.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime added that the addition of the Netflix service to the console was “a continuation of an effort to bring more and more entertainment to consumers who interact with the Wii.”

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TellTale Games: “iPhone is much more powerful than a Wii”

The Captain Obvious award of the day goes to a TellTale programmer who made that exact statement in the TellTale Games forums. Fans of the game “Tales of Monkey Island” had been complaining about framerate issues exeperienced in the WiiWare version of that game.
“The voices and textures are the way they are because we’re limited to 40 megs for WiiWare titles. The PC versions of our games are usually 150+ megs, and most modern games range anywhere from 1-10 gigabytes or more. Talk to Nintendo about this one.
Frame rate issues will probably get sorted out eventually, but keep in mind that the Wii is just not a powerful console. An iPhone is much more powerful than a Wii, even.”
You would think that he might take such a bold statement back after having some time to think about what he said. But alas no. In a follow up comment he stands by his previous comment and then proceeds to throw the DS under the bus as well.
“I stand by them. The Wii and DS are extremely underpowered and their popularity doesn’t remove the hardware limitations.”
Unfortunately Nintendo couldn’t be reached for comment, they were too busy counting all of their money.

tales-of-monkey-island-screenshot

The Captain Obvious award of the day goes to TellTale programmer Yare, who made that exact statement in the TellTale Games forums. Fans of the game “Tales of Monkey Island” had been complaining about framerate issues experienced in the WiiWare version of that game.

“The voices and textures are the way they are because we’re limited to 40 megs for WiiWare titles. The PC versions of our games are usually 150+ megs, and most modern games range anywhere from 1-10 gigabytes or more. Talk to Nintendo about this one.

Frame rate issues will probably get sorted out eventually, but keep in mind that the Wii is just not a powerful console. An iPhone is much more powerful than a Wii, even.”

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The Conduit flopped – now what Nintendo?

the_conduit

I feel for you Nintendo, I really do. For the past year you’ve really been trying to reel in those hardcore gamers but it just hasn’t happened. Not with MadWorld, House of the Dead: Overkill and now The Conduit. See a pattern here?

The Conduit, which was touted as the first hardcore FPS for the Wii flopped. Since its release on June 23 it has only managed to sell about 72,000 copies. Not the figures High Voltage  or Nintendo were looking for. It came in at number 25 on the sales chart and didn’t even break into the top five Wii titles.

Listen, I actually like the Wii. I think variety is the spice of life. People bought it because it would be fun for casual gaming. Period. You could turn it on, play Wii Sports for a little bit and be satisfied. So I’m not knocking the system. It is what it is. But are we the only ones that see that? Is Nintendo trying to break into a market that is out of it’s reach?

The Wii has come to a fork in the road. So where does Nintendo and it’s third party developers go from here? Do they continue trying to find the pulse of an elusive fan base? Or do they settle for the casual segment they made so popular and try to perfect it?

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Wii may lose “No More Heroes” franchise

Just as Nintendo was making some progress at building up a more ‘hardcore’ collection of games for it’s Wii, Grasshopper CEO Goichi Suda drops a nugget of painful information. The sequel to the sword swinging original may be the last No More Heroes developed for the Wii.

He told Edge the following: “I really want to make NMH a big franchise and with this second episode have bigger success. I’m putting a lot of care into developing this IP, as I feel there’s a lot of potential.”

This does make some sense. After all ‘hardcore’ third-party titles are still having a hard time growing in popularity on the Wii. Developing it for other consoles would potentially give the game the exposure it needs to be a lasting franchise.

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He went on to say “I think this is the last NMH that is going to be developed on Wii. To expand NMH to new possibilities, we need a new platform. Wii is a great platform, but we’ve done everything we can with it now.”

A pretty accurate observation. But wouldn’t No More Heroes be totally different without the Wii’s motion controls? Is Suda expecting Sony and Microsoft to have comparable peripherals ready in time for the next installment in the franchise? Or will he be moving it in another direction?

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Wii and DSi get makeovers in Japan

Nintendo will be giving your eyes a break from that blah white Wii taking up space on your entertainment center. If you live in Japan that is.

On August 1 our Japanese gaming counterparts will be able to purchase the all new black Nintendo Wii. Along with the new shade of Wii, Nintendo will be releasing black accessories to match such as the Wiimote, Classic Controller Pro and Classic Controller. For you color coordinated types.

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Apparently Nintendo was in a festiv mood because they also decided to splash some new paint on the DSi as well. Available July 11 the new red DSi will let others know that you are cool, and you like red stuff.

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There hasn’t been any mention of a North American or European release yet. I’m guessing you can count on one a few months down the road. A holiday treat perhaps?

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Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort live demo

The other major showcase during Nintendo’s E3 press conference besides the Wii Fit Plus was it’s demo of Wii Sports Resort. The game was originally announced at last years E3 Expo.

The game showcases the new Wii Motion Plus accessory that will be hitting store shelves later this year. Wii Motion Plus will make the movements you make with your Wiimote a lot more accurate and precise. Taking into account how the player is holding and waving the Wiimote. Vastly improving the players interactivity and motion controlling. Making it a more intuitive controller to use.

Where was this when the Wii was first released!?

You can view the demo below.

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Nintendo’s Wii Fit Plus

Today Nintendo spent the majority of it’s press conference time at E3 to talk about it’s new Wii Fit Plus. Improving on what made the original Wii Fit a success, the Wii Fit Plus promises to “enhance and reinvigorate” your workout.

Players will now be able to customize their workouts to their liking or pick from 20, 30 and 40 minute routines. In addition to the activities available with the original Wii Fit, players will also be able to choose from new activities such as Skateboarding and Rhythm Kung Fu. Eat your heart out Billy Blanks.

Click the jump to see Nintendo’s full list of features for the Wii Fit Plus.

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Nintendo still on top of console sales

The NPD Group just released it’s game console sales totals for April and it didn’t look good for the Playstation 3. The high-end console limped into sixth place, beat out by it’s 9 year old predecessor the Playstaion 2. The PS2 price cut is probably the biggest contributor to the 50% increase in sales, leading me to believe that the PS3 may be next in line for a price cut. Sony may have dipped there toe in the water to see how the market would react, hopefully now they take the jump and knock a few dollars off the hefty price tag of the Playstation 3. And with E3 right around the corner it seems like a viable option.

Here are th sales figures for April:

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Majora’s Mask coming to Virtual Console

The hugely popular Legend of Zelda game is arriving today on Virtual Console for the Wii. Originally released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64, the game will set you back 1,000 Wii points. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask was the follow up to Oceania of Time, also one of the most popular titles in the Zelda franchise.

Majora’s Mask was the second most requested game for the Virtual Console behind Earthbound. An indicator of things to come?!

Which Zelda game is your favorite?

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Guitar Hero:Smash Hits full track list

Activision finally released the full Guitar Hero:Smash Hits track list to the folks over at IGN. It’s mostly just a “Best Of” track list from the previous Guitar Hero titles like you’d expect. Surprisingly enough there is only one Aerosmith song on the whole list. Just one. But on the other hand they were the only band to have an exclusive GH title to make the list. Metallica is nowhere to be seen.

Here’s the ridiculously long set list.

Guitar Hero

  • Blue Oyster Cult – “Godzilla”
  • Boston – “More Than A Feeling”
  • Deep Purple – “Smoke On The Water”
  • Franz Ferdinand – “Take Me Out”
  • Helmet – “Unsung (Live)”
  • Incubus – “Stellar”
  • Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – “I Love Rock N’ Roll”
  • Ozzy Osbourne – “Bark At The Moon”
  • Pantera – “Cowboys From Hell (Live)”
  • Queen – “Killer Queen”
  • Queens Of The Stone Age – “No One Knows”
  • The Donnas – “Take It Off”
  • The Exies – “Hey You”
  • White Zombie – “Thunder Kiss ‘65″

Guitar Hero II

  • Alice In Chains – “Them Bones”
  • Avenged Sevenfold – “Beast And The Harlot”
  • Danzig – “Mother”
  • Foo Fighters – “Monkey Wrench”
  • Iron Maiden – “The Trooper”
  • Jane’s Addiction – “Stop!”
  • Kansas – “Carry On Wayward Son”
  • Lamb Of God – “Laid To Rest”
  • Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Free Bird”
  • Motley Crue- “Shout At The Devil”
  • Nirvana – “Heart-Shaped Box”
  • Rage Against The Machine – “Killing In The Name”
  • Reverend Horton Heat – “Psychobilly Freakout”
  • Rush – “YYZ”
  • Stone Temple Pilots – “Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart”
  • The Police – “Message In A Bottle”
  • The Sword – “Freya”
  • Warrant – “Cherry Pie”
  • Wolfmother – “Woman”

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s

  • Anthrax – “Caught In A Mosh”
  • Extreme – “Play With Me”
  • Judas Priest – “Electric Eye”
  • Poison – “Nothin’ But A Good Time”
  • Ratt – “Round and Round”
  • Twisted Sister – “I Wanna Rock”

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

  • AFI – “Miss Murder”
  • DragonForce – “Through The Fire And Flames”
  • Heart – “Barracuda”
  • Kiss – “Rock And Roll All Nite”
  • Living Colour – “Cult Of Personality”
  • Pat Benatar – “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
  • Priestess – “Lay Down”
  • Slayer – “Raining Blood”

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

  • Aerosmith – “Back In The Saddle

Are there any tracks on here you guys think should not have made the cut? Any songs you think the game is missing?

You can pre-order the game at GameStop. The game will ship on June 16th for the 360, PS3, PS2 and Wii.

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Red Steel 2 trailer

A new Red Steel 2 trailer found its way onto the Tubes of You. It’s main focus is to show off it’s integration with the new Wii MotionPlus. Let’s hope Nintendo finally got motion controlling right with this new accessory. We’ll have to wait and see.

Red Steel 2 will be out sometime this holiday season. And it looks pretty bad ass.

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The Beatles: Rock Band have got some sweet guitars

Harmonix and MTV games have announced that they will be releasing two standalone guitars for The Beatles: Rock Band game. Each will be priced at $100 making them a little on the expensive side. They are modeled after the Rickenbacker 325 and Gretsch Duo Jet, the guitars that John Lennon and George Harrison favored.

These two “premium” guitar peripherals are targeted for the hardcore fan and will also be compatible with previous Rock Band and Guitar Hero instruments. So if you want to have a fancy guitar to play fake music with, this is for you!

Is there anyone else out there that thinks this is all a little on the expensive side?

The Beatles: Rock Band will be releasing on September 9th for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3.

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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis gets bumped up

EA Sports announced today that they will be pushing up the release of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis to coincide the the June 8th release of the Wii MotionPlus.  EA’s Todd Sitrin had this to say:

“Fans deserve great games that use the new accessory, and now they’ll have two that deliver authentic sports motion as soon as the Wii MotionPlus hits stores.” 

Apparently there was some bad communication between Nintendo and EA Sports. Originaly these two games were supposed to be released in mid-June, when EA thought Wii MotionPlus would be shipping. Not so fast. After finding out that Nintendo had changed the release date of their newest accessory, EA had to scramble to follow.

You think Nintendo would have perfected motion control before the Wii was released. After all that was their biggest selling point. Jabronis.

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