Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Nintendo News Blowout:
Sonic Fights, Mario Bikes, You Download


Nintendo held its Fall Conference in Japan while I was sleeping, and they let out a lot of good news. The first, if you couldn't gather from the video above, is that Sonic is Joining Super Smash Bros Brawl! Seeing him beat up on all the Nintendo guys actually started making me a little angry. I decree that anyone who plays as Sonic and wins in my presence will get a punch in the gut from me. And the good news also comes with the bad news that the game is delayed into 2008.

More breaking Ninty news after the jump...

Nintendo Takes Wii Ware Seriously
Not content to have their Wii Ware downloadable game service wallow in crappy no-name properties, Nintendo has announced both a Final Fantasy game and a Pokémon game app will soon be a few clicks away from your Wii menu. The FF game is titled Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: The Young King and the Promised Country (breeaaath! I'm sure they'll come up with something shorter in the US) and it apparently sounds like it'll be a strategy game or something, with the player building and governing their own land. Please tell me it's just Settlers of Catan: Final Fantasy Edition. With online multiplayer. ::geeeks!:: Pokémon Farm sounds basically like Mii Plaza for your pocket monsters. You import the little bastards from your DS and get to walk among them... And raise them. Anyway, nice to see that Nintendo really wants to enter the downloadable games space by offering up two hot franchises to start things off with.

Mario Kart Wii Delayed, Pops Onto Two Wheels
First off, MK has been delayed, but just a bit, to Spring 2008. I didn't even know when it was slated to come out, so that's no worry. BUT! They've also announced that there will be motorcycles (or bicycles, depending on whose translation you trust) in the game. Motorcycles could be OK if they handle the same as the karts, but... I just remember Diddy Kong Racing had all those different vehicles and it was actually a real turn-off for me. After enjoying the back-to-basics-with-some-twists Mario Kart DS so much (and hating Double Dash) I really don't want them to F this one up.

Wii Acts as DS Download Station
You know how you can download demos of DS games at in-store kiosks? No? Well get with it, man! Well anyway, soon you will be able to download demos of new and unreleased games via your Wii's wi-fi connection. This is great news, I never liked having to walk into a store to get the demos. I was always on the way somewhere else, so I always had to rush my little gaming session. I'm going to enjoy this much more from the comfort of my couch. Fo sho.

Super Mario Stadium Baseball Announced
Who knows why it's taken them this long to expand one of the thrilling Wii Sports sports into a full game, but finally it's here in the form of Super Mario Stadium Baseball. It's a shame that 1) The title is so clunky, and 2) Wii Baseball sucked (Mario Tennis, please!), but it's good to know their hearts are in the right place.

News based on translations of conference from Kotaku and IGN.