Nintendo Wii

[Lemonectric]

After watching the cutscene in which Link and Sheik get owned at the well, I'm disappointed in anyone who says Sheik has a deep voice.

[Merk]

6 Hours late an no one said anything?

North American Virtual Console releases today:

Adventure Island (NES) - I guess if the nostalgia factor outweighs the 'better' version released back in February

Donkey Kong Jr Math (NES) - We can collectively stop holding our breath since this has finally been released

Landstalker (GEN) - I doubt this was released because of the rumored PSP remake

EDIT:

Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure (T16) - I feel like banging my head against a wall too for the mistakes

[SilverStar]

6 Hours late an no one said anything?

North American Virtual Console releases today:

Adventure Island (NES) - I guess if the nostalgia factor outweighs the 'better' version released back in February

Donkey Kong Jr Math (NES) - We can collectively stop holding our breath since this has finally been released

Landstalker (T16) - I doubt this was released because of the rumored PSP remake

6 hours late and you couldn't even get it right?

Just kidding.. having 4 games released must have thrown you off the mark.

Edit, many hours later.. (geeze, this board has become dead, with everyone playing Corruption..)

Anyone know if you can pull images off your Wii and to an SD card, to transfer to a PC? Corruption just posted an image of my mission complete screen to the message board, and I'd rather like to be able to pull it over to my computer for work on it.

[BardicKnowledge]

I got the "better" Adventure Island in February because I'm a huge fan of the original series -- it wasn't better overall (though the new weapons helped quite a bit).

DKJr Math....don't buy it.

Bonk 3 is good, but I'm waiting on it since I just bought Star Fox 64 and Super Metroid this morning.

Still, I continue to be impressed with the VC -- the game list is good now, and if they keep up this release schedule, it'll just get better.

[KWarp]

N'Gai Croal points out a very interesting problem with the gaming press concerning Wii:

All this portends a sharp divergence between the people who faithfully cover games and the next-gen console with the most momentum, making the gaming press increasingly out of touch with what's really going on in the world. Has Game Informer put a Wii title on the cover since Red Steel? Has EGM put any Wii titles on its cover? I don't know for sure, but the bulk of the covers I see are for games that are leading on Xbox 360 and shipping simultaneously (cough, cough) for PS3. Wii games are relegated to cover lines or the guts of the mags. I don't think any of this is cause for Nintendo to be concerned, but I do wonder when the coverage is going to reflect the sales charts, if at all.

full article

Wii outsells rivaling consoles by massive margins on a regular basis. Why doesn't the press cover Wii games more? There are some serious grudge issues going on.

[The Damned]

Or Nintendo is going for a soft sell.

[KakTheInfected]

Because it's easier to get hyped about games with "good" graphics. How hyped were Motorstorm, Lair and Heavenly Sword? A fuckton, but none of those appear to be top quality games (certainly not in Lair's case). But since they're pretty, hey, give them as much attention as you can.

[I-n-j-i-n]

I think most true gamers know that such games haven't lived up to their hype. However, a lot of 360 games have (or in Gears of War's case, totally surpassed the hype) and that made a world of difference. And Wii games, honestly, just come and are sold as is because there really are no hype for them, positive or negative. A lot of PS2 games used to be like that.

Other than truly AAA titles like the re-remade Ninja Gaiden Sigma, there really aren't games that are actually worth $60 on it.

In addendum, they did have a really good title in Resistance but that's like one game. I still think PS3 will get its due later on, but it sure is taking a while.

[KWarp]

Fair enough, Nintendo's Wii software lineup isn't stellar at the moment anyway. I hope Metroid sparks some press interest.

[Neo Samus]

Besides Nintendo Power, Metroid Prime 3 had no covers that I can think of.....oh wait I think Tips and Tricks did, but that's it. But Halo's been on almost every magazine cover......

[WesPip]

So I feel like mentioning, while the MP3 boxart is pretty meh, it's the best looking wii DISC I've seen so far. The rest are all super boring, but this one's not so bad.

[JoeFu]

Holy bejeesus, a Vanillaware Wii game!

http://img133.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=80220_uporg1003459_122_23lo.jpg

http://img160.imagevenue.com/view.php?image=80222_uporg1003460_122_1009lo.jpg

I didn't like Odin sphere that much because it was repetitive, so I hope this game won't end up the same way as OS.

[Devyn]

Holy bejeesus, a Vanillaware Wii game!

http://img133.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=80220_uporg1003459_122_23lo.jpg

http://img160.imagevenue.com/view.php?image=80222_uporg1003460_122_1009lo.jpg

I didn't like Odin sphere that much because it was repetitive, so I hope this game won't end up the same way as OS.

Looks awesome. That graphic style is right up my alley too. Bring on the new 2D games.

[Neo Samus]

Looks promising. Lets hope it is as good as it looks.

[Bigfoot]

Mario Kart Wii:

Up to 16 players at one time online

Battle Mode Online

Stunts in the air

DS tracks re-created with Wii graphics

But wait!

"The details printed in Official Nintendo Magazine 21 regarding Mario Kart Wii were healthy speculation on our part and are in no way an official announcement from Nintendo. We are sorry if we have mislead anyone. We do not set out to mislead our readers. ONM apologizes profusely for any misunderstandings that this has caused."

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/06/mario-kart-wii-supports-16-online-includes-ds-maps/

[Cecilff2]

I still think it'd be neat if they readded the feather item.

[Neo Samus]

Mario Kart Wii:

Up to 16 players at one time online

Battle Mode Online

Stunts in the air

DS tracks re-created with Wii graphics

But wait!

"The details printed in Official Nintendo Magazine 21 regarding Mario Kart Wii were healthy speculation on our part and are in no way an official announcement from Nintendo. We are sorry if we have mislead anyone. We do not set out to mislead our readers. ONM apologizes profusely for any misunderstandings that this has caused."

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/06/mario-kart-wii-supports-16-online-includes-ds-maps/

Good going ONM......oh well we'll just have to wait and see.

[KWarp]

I still think it'd be neat if they readded the feather item.

I'm all for flying karts, but wouldn't that be Diddy Kong Racing?

[Devyn]

The feather appeared in the original Mario Kart and made you jump for a brief moment. It was useful for dodging shells and taking shortcuts.

By the way people, it is confirmed during E3 (from the many people who played the game) that you will be able to jump for a brief moment. Same for online, more players, and old-school tracks. It's in there. Doubt all you want, it's in there. Even Reggie let most of it go during the E3 conference.

[SilverStar]

So.. anyone think that maybe Nintendo might have learned some, with Metroid Prime 3?

Their friend system works entirely based on your existing address book, and you have to both work at communicating, to establish a connection between them.

[Bigfoot]

So.. anyone think that maybe Nintendo might have learned some, with Metroid Prime 3?

Their friend system works entirely based on your existing address book, and you have to both work at communicating, to establish a connection between them.

We can all hope so. It's nice not having to enter a code for every game.

[Artesu]

Nintendo definitly learned. They learned that Apple products dominate the electronic market. How genious was it of them to model the Wii after the ipod, ibook, etc.. The minimalist design, the white exterior, even the name of the console itself. Well done Nintendo design & marketing team, well done.

**BTW, 7 people probably mentioned this ealier in the thread but I didn't feel like reading through 283 pages of posts to check.

[JoeFu]

So.. anyone think that maybe Nintendo might have learned some, with Metroid Prime 3?

Their friend system works entirely based on your existing address book, and you have to both work at communicating, to establish a connection between them.

That was already implemented in Elebits.... I'm pretty sure Nintendo gave them the code to do that.

[KakTheInfected]

Nintendo definitly learned. They learned that Apple products dominate the electronic market. How genious was it of them to model the Wii after the ipod, ibook, etc.. The minimalist design, the white exterior, even the name of the console itself. Well done Nintendo design & marketing team, well done.

**BTW, 7 people probably mentioned this ealier in the thread but I didn't feel like reading through 283 pages of posts to check.

Wow, you're a firecracker aintcha.

[SilverStar]

Wow, you're a firecracker aintcha.

Nah. What he doesn't realize, is if Nintendo really were taking a page out of Apple's book, then next year we'd see 2 new Wii. One scaled down and devoted exclusively to VC and WiiWare, with the other one having 2-4x the internal storage(1-2GB), with a faster DVD drive for faster loading.

Then 2 years later, we'd see an even better mini system, with enough internal memory to hold 3 or 4 GC games at a time, available for download through the Wii store, with another model featuring HD graphics on a dual-core GPU, with games still requiring V1 spec, but the new model allowing for automatic upscaling.

2 years after that, 6 years from the original Wii's launch, we'd see a Wii with voice chat/voice command as standard, with the ability to launch games on command, with 200GB internal storage space and the ability to autorip GC and Wii games directly to the console, for near instant loading times, along with Dreamcast and original Xbox compatibility, coupled with the ability to run multiplayer games on the same unit, output to multiple HDTV sets to maximize screen realestate.

2 months later, the price of that unit would drop to $99USD, with a 5000 WiiWare points card to early adopters, while at the same time releasing a new spec of wiimote that would make all old 3rd party, unsigned/unauthorized expansion bits obsolete, because they wouldn't fit on the new remotes, which would feature internal charging features using manual charging methods, power generated from shaking the remote for 5 minutes for 20 minutes of play.

Through it all, we'd see subtle refinements in the process, so that the "low end", drive-less model is actually little more than a box the size of a single DVD case, with the sensor bar's IR diodes built-in, with HDMI compatibility right on the box, while the high end one is the power of 4 Wii combined, has lost the core Gamecube jacks, in favor of a gamecube shell for the new remote, and is roughly the size of 2 DVD cases, stacked.

So, let's hope Nintendo took their design ideas from Apple. At the price the Wii is, consumers can obviously afford to replace it with a new model every 18-24 months, in favor of new features and higher power, while still being able to use your entire old library of games.