Go to your local Gamestop and check out the Wii section. Disappointed yet? For every No More Heroes, there’s dozens of games meant for kids, half of which have Miley Cyrus on the cover. It’s a good idea, as Nintendo has succeeded in making a video game system that appeals to a broad audience, but to ensure their survival (and for people to take them seriously like they glory days of the NES and SNES) they need to win over the hardcore gamers.

Thankfully, it seems like they’ve realized this, considering this quote from (link: http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=6404) from Cammie Dunaway Nintendo of America’s VP of Sales & Marketing, in which she says that some of Nintendo’s 2009 output will certainly appeal to this crowd. First she mentions The Conduit, a futuristic first-person shooter — the sort of game with obvious appeal if you’ve ever played X-Box. Then there’s Mad World, an incredibly violent game by Sega rendered exclusively in black, white, and red (watch the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFNJfDGSZp0). For the old-school Nintendo fans, there’s a new Punch-Out!, too. Most exciting for me from the quote is the prospect of bringing Sin & Punishment 2 to the US, considering my disappointment when the first one (for the N64) never came out here.

In addition to quality staples like Mario and Zelda, these kinds of games are the key to the Nintendo Wii’s success. A look at EGM’s coverage of the Tokyo Game Show reveals even more promise, with follow-ups to Nintendo DS games like Trace Memory and Lost Magic being made for the Wii and interesting stuff like a spacefaring game called Cosmic Walker and the Norse Mythology-inspired Dynamic Slash. Now we must pray that this stuff comes to the US, particularly the fighting game (how many of those does the Wii have again?) Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, in which the old Capcom favorites take on anime characters like the bird-inspired superheroes of Gatchaman/G-Force/Battle of the Planets/Eagle Riders. It’s a long shot, but I’ll hold out hope.

We must also pray that all of this will lead up to a proper Final Fantasy on the Wii.

 Written for thewiitards.com by Danny Djeljosevic

The Nintendo Wii is frequently disregarded in the never ending Console Wars despite the notable fact that the system came out two years ago and it’s only JUST NOW becoming easier to find in stock (at least, according to the signs I’ve been seeing at Gamestop and Circuit City). I guess the failure of the PS3 overshadows the success of the Wii.

One of the unfortunate things that separate the Wii from its dueling older brothers is the lack of HD capabilities, which is a big deal for those that happen to have high-definition TVs. As a co-owner of an HDTV (we’re not rich, we bought it used), let me say that playing games in HD is a beautiful thing and you’ll never want to go back.

In a recent interview (http://www.3sat.de/3sat.php?http://www.3sat.de/neues/sendungen/magazin/112080/index.html) Shigeru Miyamoto, the Walt Disney of video games, was asked about it. Do yourself a favor and at least check out the opening of the video. Miyamoto’s intro is ADORABLE.

When asked about whether Nintendo was releasing an HD Wii, he could not confirm or deny, but rather deflected with a general statement that Nintendo is constantly at work dealing with the newest technological advances. Well, duh: Nintendo is a company from Japan, where giant robots police the city, you can download Suikoden on your cell phone (this may not be true), and the proper nomenclature of Final Fantasy is practiced — none of this “Final Fantasy VI is Final Fantasy III” nonsense.

Some are saying that Nintendo is waiting for prices on hardware to go down so an HD Wii will be affordable. That’s not a bad idea, considering one of the many attractive things about the system is its price, but if they wait too long the release of an HD Wii might be for naught.

Nintendo must embrace new technology to survive, lest we forget the Nintendo 64, a system that died a slow, painful death (some great games, though) because the company chose to go with cartridges instead of the CD-ROM format, which led to Sony breaking its partnership with Nintendo to create its own system.

And we saw how THAT turned out.

Written for the Wiitards by Danny Djeljosevic

Hey, remember when we told you about Mega Man 9 coming out as a downloadable game for the Wii (oh, and some other consoles with online capabilities, too). Well, it’s finally happened: Mega Man 9 is out today for the Wii (it comes out later for the other systems) for your downloading pleasure.

Now, you’re probably wondering why you should play Mega Man 9 when you could just go run over pedestrians in GTA IV or even download something well-worn and time-tested for your virtual console (like, say, Mario 64). Mega Man is a classic franchise, and the newest installment offers the same platform hopping, laser shooting, and enemy power stealing that made the originals great.

Many classic franchises have floundered in the wake of the 3D revolution (for example: has anyone ever raved about a new PAC-MAN game?), so Capcom have made a bold move to render the newest installment of the main Mega Man series in the NES side-scrolling style that made the original games a hit. Sure, it’s “simplistic” compared to 3D platformers, but that’s part of its charm: figuring out the patterns that allow your little blue helmeted midget to easily defeat the robot masters. Also, having played the originals, they don’t get any easier no matter how much the medium advances. The series will always provide a challenge for the willing gamer.

With such a bold move comes a wise decision: to price it at 1000 Wii Points (or $9.99), making it incredibly affordable for a new game from a major franchise.

Article written for the Wiitards by Danny Djeljosevic

Here’s the truth: I’ve never heard of Monster Hunter. I’m usually up on this sort of thing, but somehow it slipped through the cracks. Maybe I assumed they had renamed Monster Rancher. I’d continue believing that if I hadn’t found out that Tecmo did “Rancher” and Capcom made “Hunter.” Knowing that it is an action RPG by Capcom certainly makes me want to play it now.

Now that we’ve got that all figured out, the actual news: Monster Hunter (not Rancher) 3 is going to be Wii exclusive (yay?) but a total revamp of the franchise to fit the specifications of the system (promising!).

The infinite replay value that comes with a good online multiplayer mode is the best reason to buy a game (worked for every first person shooter ever), and Monster Hunter is no exception. Monster Hunter’s online mode (form a group with real players, trot around, kill monsters) is similar to other RPGs like Final Fantasy XI or Phantasy Star Online, the main difference being you could play through the story offline (the lack of which being the sole reason I never bothered with FFXI or PSO), but the online version offered more content. We can certainly expect that tradition to hold, as the online mode features an entire section of the game’s city devoted to being a meeting area for players to meet up. And let’s not forget: a Wii-exclusive game with a good online multiplayer can only help the Wii’s sales.

The most interesting thing to me, however, is that they’re revamping the franchise for the Wii. Too often are there multi-platform games that just fail on the Wii due to it being a game that was just meant for the traditional game controller (though we can all agree that Resident Evil 4 was born to be played on the Wii before the Wii even existed, right?), so it’s nice to see a developer (originally it was on the PS2) make the most of their platform of choice instead of just forcing the Wiimote controls onto a game it wasn’t meant for.

Trailer:

A few weeks ago we talked about Nintendo Wii’s hard drive problem. If you’re too lazy to click on that link, let me sum it up: the Nintendo Wii has a 512 MB of storage, and this is not enough for a system with an ever-expanding library of downloadable games and a long history of old games one would want to download.

Nintendo of America’s President and Chief Operating Officer Reggie Fils-Aime has said Nintendo is working on the hard drive problem. He was unwilling to specify what the solution would be, but that players would have a better way of storing their games than the Wii’s tiny storage space.

What could it be? Some people are speculating that it’s some sort of online storage system, but that sounds like it defeats the purpose of downloading games. This would only work if it were like those item boxes in Resident Evil where you traded stored items for items you want to use at the moment only to find out later that you forgot the Jade Key and now have to walk back through miles of ominous pre-rendered backgrounds to get it back. But that would be stupid.

Also, let’s keep the idea of streaming games completely out of the conversation, as I want to be able to play Mario: The Lost Levels without any lag.

Enough guessing. If Nintendo is smart, it will release some sort of affordable external hard drive to hook up via the Wii’s USB ports. It’s the most obvious solution.

Either that or carve a path into the 4th Dimension so we can have a physical place to store our downloads of Excitebike.

Written for thewiitards.com by Danny Djeljosevic

Steve Purcell’s Sam & Max: Freelance Police is the definition of underrated. They started out as an underrated indie comic. Then they became an underrated LucasArts point-and-click graphic adventure (a criminally underrated genre). Then they became an underrated Fox Kids cartoon. Then they became an underrated episodic video game series by Telltale Games that, thankfully, is still going strong on Gametap.

Now the first “season” is being ported to the Nintendo Wii, due for release on November 3rd.

It never occurred to me before, but the Wii, with its point-and-shoot interface, is perfect for the graphic adventure genre. I played the last Monkey Island game on the PS2 and it just wasn’t the same. These games were made for a mouse, not the average video game controller (which is also why I had so much trouble playing Grim Fandango on the PC).

The graphic adventure is a deceptively difficult genre. While only need to point and click to move your character around, the games require that you almost exclusively use your brains to figure out how to use acquired items to advance the story, which is something that most console games don’t stress in favor of the blissful simplicity of punching/kicking/shooting/jumping on top of the bad guys to win. To complicate matters, most of these games are comedic, which means that the items and solutions are often unconventional, silly, and sometimes even nonsensical. The reward isn’t the gameplay, but the engrossing and often hilarious story that ensues.

What does that mean for the Wii? Well, considering that the biggest criticism of the Wii coming from the hardcore gamer crowd is the kid-oriented fare, a bit of advanced problem solving will do the console (and its players) good.

That is, if they have the patience.

With any luck, the hopeful success of Sam & Max on the Wii will help get the fifth and final Monkey Island game greenlit.

Please?

Written for thewiitards.com by Danny Djeljosevic

Patrick Goss here; nice to see you read the article.
Just for the record - I’m a freelancer who does one weekly column for MSN on gaming, so the disclaimer is fairly accurate. They don’t tell me what I can’t write or what they think I should be saying. If they did it would be no fun and I wouldn’t do it.
I used to be the tech editor at MSN but now I work full time at Future and the gaming column is just a side project
So how can I comment on Nintendo and Mario? Because I write opinion pieces and this is an opinion. Do I think your response is valid? Absolutely.
Although “like saying an effing Bill Murray cameo would get old”. It did.
I love Mario - and I’d like to keep loving him - which is the gist of what I was saying.
Anyway - enjoyed the response :)
Yours
‘douche’ aka Gaming Goss

Now that we disagree on two major things in life, Mario and Bill Murray, I would like to say that it is super cool that he took the time to respond, and that he signed his name ‘douche’. I will officially retract the ‘douche’ because of this. MSN is still the wrong platform for a Mario commentary (opinion writer or not, something still stings about it coming from an Microsoft outlet). All in all, epic article and we love the controversy.

This is a direct response to the article on Why Mario Should Retire, and why that article is ridiculous, way off point and incredibly premature.

First off, what place does MSN have in the say on whether or not the Nintendo icon should retire? I don’t care what you say or if this disclaimer is at the end of the article:

“Patrick Goss is employed on a freelance basis by Microsoft. The views in this column are those of the author and not of MSN or Microsoft.”

Any commentary from Microsoft on Nintendo is like Fox News commenting on Obama. If 1up.com or ign.com were to write this article I would take it more seriously, probably not agree, but would see the article as objective and a real talking point, but I can’t get past the fact that this article is coming from msn.com.

Reason #1 - Mario is like wine; it matures over time

The mario games are timeless. In the last week I have had a classic gaming urge reinvigorated. What game did I go to first? Super Mario Brothers on the NES. The game is 20+ years old and it is just as fun as it was when I first made the run through World 1-1. About a year ago when Super Mario DS came out, I about pooped my pants when I saw the first preview video. They took the ultimate classic gaming platform and made it feel new. I loved every minute of that game, and would be in line to buy the second installment on it’s launch date. And with Mario Galaxy, I was blown away. Although I found it incredibly easy to beat, I unlocked everything, I played it like a junkie. If Super Mario Brothers on NES is as fun as it is to play now after 20 years, how are games like Super Mario DS and Mario Galaxy going to paly in 20 years? I would bet my money on effing fantastic.

Reason #2 - Mario has been a pop icon for 20+ years and is showing no signs of stopping

As a kid Mario was the ultimate. I still have a plush doll and a weird Super Mario Brothers 3 suction bounce toy. I remember Nintendo as if it was the most popular band on the planet and Mario was the lead singer and keytar player. Now, fast forward to present day, all the kids like me that dreamed of having all the cool stuff that their parents would never buy for all the sudden have jobs and purchase power. There are vinyl toys, tshirts, candy and the Super Mario TV series has just found new life on the Blockbuster new release wall, and these young at heart young adults are eating them up. Companies wouldn’t be producing this stuff if they weren’t making money doing it. Retire Mario now, please, give me an effing break.

Reason #3 - Mario is a chameleon…or a tanuki

Mario is the king of reinvention. The largness of Super Mario Brothers 3 and the transformative characters were genius. Wait!? Mario can fly…and he’s racoon…that is so GRAWESOME! Then Super Mario World came around and we got welcomed to the epic graphical world map and treated to watching Mario bitch slap Yoshi into eating shells and doing his dirty work (don’t deny it, you’ve jumped off Yoshi to reach the edge of cliff, and let him plumet to his death). I don’t even really have to say anything more than the title of Super Mario 64. To this day Mario 64 is considered one of the most revolutionary platformers. Nintendo seamlessly transferred the Mario world into a 3D environment. Mario Sunshine wasn’t what everyone was expecting but it was outside the box. Then we have Mario Galaxy. Even though the difficulty level wasn’t super high, the fun factor and newness of this game was so off the charts that I didn’t care. Now this isn’t intended to start a who is better than who flame war, but honestly do you see Halo or GTA ever reinventing themselves that radically over this long of a period of time, no effing way.

Reason #4 - Mario’s Cameos are AWESOME and aren’t new

I love seeing Mario in other games. I remember thinking man, I bet a fighting game with all the Mario characters would be awesome, then Smash Brothers came out, and it was awesome. And if you are going to argure that he is going to get warn out as a character because of cameos then he should have been warn out a long time ago as a referee in games as far back as Punch Out and Tennis, or as the golfer in Golf.

He has been a cameo since the 1980s, if it was going to get old it would be old by now, it’s still not. To say that a Mario cameo is going to get is like saying an effing Bill Murray cameo would get old.

In conclusion, I think Gaming Goss is a douche and should be banned from ever talking about mario again.

From Caleb911 :

hi i am testing out this “Invincibility hack\glitch” and i would like some help from The WiiTards and anybody who comes.

My Wii Persona: Caleb911

SERVER:GlitchTest
PASSWORD: 911
MAP: Port
Type: Death Match
Players: 32

it will be recorded and i write down all who helps.
anyone who comes will be helpful

Part of the reason I love the Wii (aside from Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) is the way you control games by moving the motion sensor controller. Suddenly Nintendo has leveled the playing field and made video games that everyone can play without memorizing which color button reloads and which one pistol whips. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but simplicity goes a long way when you’re a video game company that wants to sell your product to as many people as possible.

Now, Nintendo has gone and improved the controller with the Wii Motion Plus add-on. which more accurately senses how the arm moves in using the Wiimote. All it takes is plugging a little square device into the bottom of the remote and now your movements register with more precision than before.

The device is set to debut with a new game called Wii Sports Resort, in which players (or, rather, their Miis) go to the beach and have fun… with more precision than ever before!

If the idea of playing frisbee with your dog at the beach doesn’t float your boat, the Wii Motion Plus will certainly help out your Sith-murdering ability with the upcoming Star Wars the Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels game that was a no-brainer from the day the Wii was unveiled.

What do you all think? Are you excited for Wii Motion Plus or would you rather see Nintendo get going on a Wii Hardrive?