Nintendo will be releasing a special edition DS Lite featuring two sparkling Pokémon characters to coincide with the release of Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl for the DS Lite. The special edition DS Lite will be available in Japan on September 28th for 16800 yen, which is approximately $145 USD.
EBgames.com has launched its Wii section. Interestingly, they have listed many of the games at $59.99, despite Nintendo’s claims that first-party games would cost no more than $50. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Mario Galaxy are among the $59.99 games. There are numerous errors on the site, however, and the game pages contain the following note:
NOTE: Content based on the best available information. Price, release date, content and title are subject to change and/or cancellation by vendor.
It’s possible that these prices, along with any other information on the site, are inaccurate. Regardless, the emergence of Wii products at online retailers is a welcome sight.
See Wii at EBgames.com.
Ubisoft has confirmed that Rayman: Raving Rabbids will be exclusive to the Wii until May 2007. It is set to be released for the Wii in November 2006, with PS3 and Xbox 360 versions after its exclusivity expires.
In the latest issue of Game Informer magazine, Bill Trinen, Nintendo of America’s Head of Localization, discusses the upcoming Legend of Zelda game, Twilight Princess. He expects that the ESRB will give the game a rating of T due to the more realistic graphics. This, which will be a first for the series, will surely please older fans who wish for the series to take on a more “mature” feel.
Additionally, Trinen suggests that more than just the game’s visual nature may warrant a higher rating than has yet been seen in a Zelda title:
With Twilight Princess, the depth of story and its connections to past games means not only does it have twice the text as Wind Waker, but it includes a fair number of legacy terms that originate in past games, so consistency is a big focus there.
In their preview of Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, IGN revealed that there will be no third-party games for the Wii until 2007.
Gamers hoping for an online component, however, are in for bad news, because one isn’t planned. Activision would not say why, but IGN has separately learned from multiple development sources that Nintendo will not release Wii Wi-Fi Connection libraries to third parties until early 2007, which means that no third party launch title will have an online mode.
This means that third-party launch titles such as Call of Duty 3, Red Steel, Far Cry, and Madden NFL 07 will not have online support.
EA, at the Leipzig Games Convention, confirmed that they will be releasing 6 titles for the Wii within the months following its launch. The games are:
Several screenshots and character renderings from Battalion Wars 2 are available at Jeux-France.com. Battalion Wars 2 may be playable at the Leipzig Games Convention, so more gameplay screenshots should be available soon.
1UP.com has posted a number of videos and photos from the Leipzig Games Convention, which is being held from August 23rd to August 27th. Nintendo doesn’t have any public kiosks for the Wii, but will be showing it behind closed doors to industry insiders.
Nintendo’s “Brain Age” has earned Edge Magazine’s EIEF06 “Innovation in Gaming” award. Quoth magazine editor Margaret Johnson:
We’re delighted that Brain Training won – it’s a great ambassador for gaming and proves that the instincts for making rewarding and entertaining software that Nintendo has honed for decades can be applied in entirely unexpected ways.
Other contenders for the award included “Amped 3″ for XBOX 360, “Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King” for PS2, “Electroplankton” for DS, “Fahrenheit” for PC, PS2, and XBOX, “Guitar Hero” for PS2, and “Killer 7″ for GameCube and PS2.
Shigeru Miyamoto has announced that Nintendo is considering remaking GameCube games for the Wii, should the dual console release of Twilight Princess prove to be a success, and modifying them to make use of the Wii’s unique controller. To quote Miyamoto:
We’ll be upgrading the development tools, but GameCube code can be used for the most part as is. In that sense, I believe that it would be good to remake GameCube games for Wii, and that some titles would become better with the change to the Wii remote controller.
Because porting games from the GameCube to the Wii is such a simple process, Miyamoto says that any rereleased titles will likely debut for less than standard full retail price.