Guitar Hero IV is Rock Band... +?

It may not come as a surprise to anyone, but in an effort to not be outdone by Rock Band, the next edition of Guitar Hero will be pumping up its features big time. Among these additions (as described in the latest issue of Game Informer and on IGN) are the inclusion of drums and vocals in the mix, a "new input mechanic" for the guitar, and a "Studio Mode" for creating new songs or jamming over old ones.

The drums features three regular pads and two raised wedge-shaped cymbal pads. All of them (as well as the pedal) are pressure sensitive, so the game knows exactly how hard you're hitting them. Activision claims the drums are built to be less noisy and more sturdy than the Rock Band drums, and I'm inclined to believe them 'cause those RB drums are rickety crickety. (UPDATE: There's a picture of the drums after the jump!) No word on what the guitar's "new input mechanic" that will "impact the way you play GH in the future" might be. If it's anything like the solo buttons or effects switch on the Rock Band guitar, color me unimpressed.

Hit the jump for info about the Studio Mode, where you'll get to make music and share it with the world!

Details are still scant in regards to the Studio Mode, but what we know is this:

• You can jam over existing songs with any instrument.
• You can use the instruments to create a new song by laying down rhythm, lead, melody, bass, and drum tracks. No vocals.
• You will be able to share the songs you've created online. Only five at first, but if they're rated well you might get permission to upload more.

Call me cynical, but are people really going to be able to create music worth listening to with a five-button guitar? The inclusion of vocals would make it an awesome YouTube-y experience, but without it you'll just be listening to a string of guitar and drum samples. Much cooler would be the ability to import your own pre-recorded songs and assign Guitar Hero tablature to them, but I guess it would be tough to regulate copyrighted content.

UPDATE: Someone at Destructoid has posted a scan of the drums!
These look pretty great and all, but can anyone really justify having two fake drumsets in their house?

Strong Bad Coming to the Wii!

The funniest thing on the internet that I haven't checked out in years, Strong Bad from Homestarrunner.com is getting his own series of episodic adventure games on WiiWare, the Wii's upcoming downloadable games service. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is a collaborative effort from Videlectrix (the Homestarrunner guys' heretofore "fake" video game company) and Telltale Games, the guys behind the successful Sam & Max episodic games. There will be a total of five episodes, released monthly starting in June (soon!). The press release says the episodes will play out like extended cartoons, during which the player assumes the role of Strong Bad and becomes "part of his awesome world." Strong Bad himself had this to say:

"Telltale has been rejecting my ideas for green text adventures for years," laments thousandaire gadabout Strong Bad, "but we finally reached a compromise with this puffy 3D point-and-click-em-up adventure. They claim all the coding was done with green text, so I guess that's pretty cool."

There's a trailer up at Telltalegames.com

Head Tracking Actually Coming to Wii!

Remember when we brought you the video of tech genius Johnny Lee turning a Wiimote into a head tracking system to awesome effect? If not, hit the jump for that video and then get excited, because unlike the trillion other homebrew gaming innovations that never make it into an actual product, Joystiq says head tracking IS COMING. The only bad news is that it's coming in the form of Steven Spielberg's action puzzler Boom Blox, where I can't imagine it will be useful for anything more than a cool parlor trick. But hey, a published game is a published game, Spielberg is Spielberg, and soon some smart company will realize the tech is viable and it would make any first person shooter a must buy. Oh yes. We're almost there.

Hit the jump for that video and thoughts on the announcement from head tracking pioneer Johnny Lee...

On his blog, Johnny Lee had this to say about the announcement:

Reward the developers who decided this was worth including and send a signal to EA and the greater game development community that this is a desired step forward in the evolution of game play technology.

I'm proud. If this pans out, it'll be only 5 months between the initial research prototype to integration into a major product release. Sweet!

Just in case you are wondering: No, I don't get any royalties or benefits for the use of this technique in games. Personally, I'm much happier impacting the state of technology on such a large scale in such a short period of time rather than struggling to transform it into personal financial gain. In terms of my original intent behind creating the head-tracking demo, it has already been a wild success beyond my highest expectations.

Mario Kart Wii Gets a Trailer!

Mario Kart and I... Let's just say we have a very uncomplicated relationship. I love her forever, and in return she lets me be the best. And since Super Smash Bros has chosen not to engage me in a similar relationship, that makes Mario Kart my most anticipated Wii game. Just don't expect to find four Wii wheels in my apartment. They'll probably be $20 each... $20 of useless plastic.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Announced

There have been rumors and rumblings, but this morning Activision officially announced Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Says frontman Steven "Big Mouth Bass" Tyler:

"Any band that can go from 'Don't Want to Miss A Thing' (Aerosmith's #1 smash hit) to the ass-kicking 'Sweet Emotion' to the cheekiness of 'Love in an Elevator,' to the classic ballad 'Dream On' shows why Activision chose us to headline this game based on the diversity of the Aerosmith catalog. Not only is songwriting a bitch, but then it goes and has puppies."

The setup seems to be a quest through the band's life, from infancy to superstardom to has-been. You'll be playing songs from Aerosmith and "celebrated artists that the band has either performed with or has been inspired by in some way." Is it just me, or does it all seem a little too... restricting? Swapping from Guitar Hero 2 to Rock the 80s to play a few songs was obnoxious enough, swapping from Guitar Hero 3 to play a bunch of Aerosmith songs? I just don't see it happening. Why isn't this a downloadable expansion that adds the songs to your GH3 playlist and an "Aerosmith Story Mode" to the main menu? Now THAT would be awesome.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will be coming to PS3, XBox 360, Wii, and PS2 this June.
You can get a taste of the action by downloading "Dream On" for Guitar Hero 3 for free on XBox Live and the Playstation Store this weekend.

Bully For the Wii and 360: Better Late Than Never!

Way back in Gnerd's summer 2007 infancy, we reported that Bully (one of our favorite Playstation 2 games) would be coming to the Xbox 360 and Wii by Fall 2007. Well, we all know now that this was a huge lie, fed to an unsuspecting public by Rockstar developers who no doubt would rather play Guitar Hero in the communal company kitchen than get their own games out on time. But all is forgiven, because over the weekend a new release date was announced (via IGN), along with info as to what the fabled "new content" would consist of. Deets after the jump.

The new release date is March 4th in the US and March 7th in the UK. The extra content includes...

Eight new missions
Presumably these are side missions, and not multi-faceted missions with their own cut-scenes and what not. Here's hoping they're not all Give-This-To-That-Guy missions, of which there were already more than enough in the PS2 version.

Four new school classes: biology, music, math and geography
All of the school class minigames managed to be both fun and challenging, but chances are you'd finish them all well before the storyline of the game ran out, taking away from the realism of having to sneak around to avoid cutting class. More classes are a welcome addition, and I'd bet money the Bio class involves frog dissection.

New unlockable items and clothing
I'd scoff at this, but truthfully I spent a sad amount of in-game time mowing lawns so I hope they include some superhero tees this time. There were never enough geek options for dressing Jimmy.

New two-player offline minigames
Excellent addition - one might question the point of adding minor multiplayer offering in a single player game, but I frequently played Bully with friends just by taking turns on missions, since the game's script is smart and funny enough to entertain even if you're not playing. I'd guess these new minigames will probably be go-kart racing and maybe some sort of melee fight game (as in The Warriors).

New awards and Achievements
Yawn. Only college football players and The Cheats care about trophies.

There's no mention of how the Wiimote will work, so I'm still holding out hope for Wii Boxing style fight controls (not bloodly likely). There's also no explicit mention of updated graphics, although IGN's publicity stills for Scholarship Edition look a lot smoother and prettier than we've seen before, so it's a good bet.

Kick Ass Head Tracking Wii Mod

Intrepid Wii mod genius Johnny Lee is at it again, this time implementing precise head tracking control using a Wiimote and sensor bar. The effect when seen from the first person is incredible (about halfway through the video for all you impatients). We can only hope that some brave developer gets this tech into a shooter, and quick! Check out more of Johnny Lee's brilliant Wii hacks at his website.

Game Review: Rayman Raving Rabbids 2

If I hadn't gotten a Wii at launch I can't imagine I would have ever bought the first Rayman Raving Rabbids game. But at the time there wasn't much out and I had to have something to play with my friends. That game was a mixed bag with a few good minigames but a seriously broken multiplayer component. The game was good for laughs but not much else, and I sold it as soon as I had a couple of newer games (WarioWare, Mario Party) that filled the party game requirement in my apartment.

So does the sequel have more staying power than the original? Hit the jump for our full review.

The Structure
Rabbids 2 ditches the overly restrictive story mode from the first game and lets you pick one of six "trips," each loosely representing a different region of the world. You can do these trips either alone or in a group, an improvement over the original which required you to unlock the minigames in single player mode before they became available in multiplayer.

Also available is the option to string as many of your favorite games as you'd like together to make custom trips, which is really important because...

The Games
...there are some really bad minigames in the mix. Far too many of them rely on the "shake the Wiimote as fast as you can" mechanic, which gets really old really really fast. There are other complete duds, like the chess game which requires you to hold your hands to your temples as if you're concentrating really hard. I get it, it's a joke, chess is hard and rabbids are dumb so this is how they play it, but that doesn't make it a minigame you're going to want to play more than once.

Another blemish on the game's record are the on-rail shooting levels. These were the best part of the original game, but they flop here. The big change is that instead of a fully 3D environment the levels are based around full motion video shot on location in New York, Paris, etc. It's actually a well done, nice looking effect, but it makes the game much more static than the original. The environments don't have any of the dynamism they had in the first game, and the rabbids actions are much more limited because they can't actually interact with their surroundings. It comes off less like an energetic shooter and more like an old shooting gallery game (think Lethal Enforcers.) Add to the equation that there is a significant lag between your trigger pull and the gun firing and you're left with a game so tedious you'll be wishing it would just end. Thankfully these levels are separated from the main game, so you don't really ever have to play them (but we both know you will anyway, you completist.)

These bad games don't matter much in the long run, however, because once you make a custom trip with your favorites you'll never have to see them again. And for ever dud in the game there is a real star. Among the best:

• A volleyball game which is easy to lose hours to with friends once you get over some slightly unintuitive mechanics
• A bumper car game that takes place on top of a skyscraper and brings back happy memories of one of my all-time favorite minigames, Super Monkey Ball's "Monkey Fight"
• A movie theater game in which you raise the Wiimote to your head like a phone (complete with Rabbid gibberish via the speaker) until the theater manager walks in and turns on the lights, at which point you have to lower your phone before he catches you and press buttons as quickly as you can to send text messages to the other players, causing their phones to vibrate which gets them in trouble with the manager.

The theater game will fill you with more glee than you might be able to handle.

The Tech-uality
One of the bigger disappointments of this game is that the graphics are really sub-par. We've seen much better out of not only the Wii, but the GameCube and even the PS2. Hopefully Nintendo has schooled everyone with Mario Galaxy and third parties will put more effort into future games to try to reach that bar.

The Rest
Realizing no one cares a flying flip about the "Ugliest and Most Uncompelling Gaming Mascot of All Time Award" winner Rayman, they took him off the cover and made the Rabbids playable. And not only playable but fully customizable, from their heads down to their toes. There's also a jukebox where you can listen to unlocked songs, which is a feature that pops up in a lot of games and I can't help but ask why do developers think we care about this shit?

The Verdict
Despite it's shortcomings, I remain very positive about this game. The bad minis are disappointing, but there are enough good ones to construct a custom trip that will keep you and three friends entertained and laughing for hours. And since that's all I could ask for out of a party game, I place Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 above every other party game on the Wii with the exception of Wii Sports, if you even include that in the category.

THREE out of FOUR stars!

Review: Guitar Hero 3

We here at Geekanerd have been huge fans of the Guitar Hero franchise since that fateful day I walked into a Best Buy and gave it a whirl at a demo station. After plowing through three GH games (including the 80s Edition), is their still room in our hearts to be impressed by the series? Well, we've played it thoroughly on both the Wii and PS2, so hit the jump for our full review.

The Good:

It's more Guitar Hero. Seriously, I still enjoy playing the first one immensely, so all Red Octane really needed to do to get me to like this game is not mess with the formula and give me new songs to play. And they've done this. There are a few gameplay differences, most of which I like or at least don't mind. Most notable is the fact that the window for hitting a note is significantly wider. My first time playing I was blazing through strings of hammer-ons and pull-offs that I know I'd never get through in the previous games. Some have grumbled that this cheapens the experience, but it makes me feel like a rockstar so I say it's awesome.

A lot of people have made a fuss about how the game is more difficult than the previous iterations, but I honestly didn't notice too much of a leap, other than that the "First Tier" songs aren't necessarily any easier than the second, third, or fourth tier. There was certainly a larger disparity between the difficulties of GH1 and GH2.

The new guitar controller is really great. It feels much more solid than the old ones, and while the ability to swap out the faceplates and take the neck off are features I'll probably never use, I guess it's nice to know I could if I wanted. Having had time with this guitar and the Rock Band guitar, I'd have to say this one feels MUCH better, even if it doesn't look quite as cool.

The Co-Op Career is a very welcome addition, and making some tracks with especially great bass lines exclusive to that mode makes it seem like more than an afterthought.

Finishing off the Good List is the fact that a lot of the tracks in the game are original recordings. No longer do we have to sit through cringe-worthy covers of songs we love. Jamming to authentic masters immediately crowns this game as the King of the Guitar Hero hill.

The Bad

Unfortunately the game is not without its flaws. The most egregious of these is a severe case of devolving character design. The first Guitar Hero introduced a handful of unique and well-designed characters, but this game takes those, dips them in a vat of blandjuice and gives them all a $50 Hot Topic gift certificate to dress themselves. In the dark. Add a robot (who can relate to a ROBOT?! Especially one so distinctly uncool...) and some really really ugly "Legends of Rock" and you get a character selection screen that's not even worth looking at. The non-player characters suffer as well, most notably the drummer, who looks like he's an animatronic transplanted from a 50s era Disney ride. Ugh.

Another problem is the introduction of the Boss Battles. While the actual battle songs written specifically for the game are fun (why can't we play them in Face-Off mode??!?), the Battle mechanic is seriously half-baked. Every power-up interferes with the fun of playing a song, and most are way too powerful. Getting hit with just about anything in the final battle with the devil will just plain kill you. It's no fun, it feels cheap and unbalanced, and I don't like it no matter what you say.

The Eh...

The online play on the Wii is a mixed bag. We rarely had trouble finding someone to play against, but we've only gotten through one full session without our opponent dropping out when they were losing. Not really the game's fault, but still extremely frustrating. The matching system could also stand to be a bit more intuitive. That being said, the community that's growing at GuitarHero.com shows a lot of promise, with leaderboards and tournament scheduling.

I also have mixed feelings about the added Wiimote functionality. As you can see from the pic at the top of the post, the Wii guitar has a slot for the Wiimote to fit snugly. While there it makes a missed note "twang" sound effect, and vibrates to the beat when you have star power. These features, especially the sound bit, are things I really like in theory but distract me a bit in actual gameplay situations. I'm sure I'll eventually get used to it, but my initial impression was not a good one.

The Verdict:

SE2 Labs Builds a Wii60

Last night at the Digital Life Holiday Press Event, SE2 Labs showed off a configuration of their ITC One that has an integrated Xbox 360 and a Wii. The Frankenstein Monstrosity of home entertainment is meant to be a one piece system that contains everything your home theater needs: Audio equipment, HDTV receiver, HD-DVD Player, DVR, an iPod dock, and lastly but most importantly, gaming consoles. Just add a television and you're good to go. If you can afford a TV after dropping TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS ON THIS BEAST.

Hit the jump for a rundown of a few problems that keep this thing from being truly droolworthy, followed by some hardware porn...

Problem 1: There is an inflexible two drive bay rule on this thing. One of them has to be a 360, and the other one can either be a Wii or an HD-DVD drive. As you may have guessed, the HD-DVD player is the 360 add-on drive, so if Wii + HD-DVD or Wii60 + HD-DVD is your dream, you're SOL.

Problem 2: They've done a good job of completely deconstructing the 360 and relocating its various ports and jacks around the front and back of the unit, but the Wii is left intact and therefore if you can't see it you can't get to it. Meaning: No GameCube controller ports or memory card ports, and no USB ports. They are using a wireless sensor bar that the President of the company insisted was first party Nintendo. I think the difference in our income levels was significant enough for him to realize he needn't listen to my assurances that no such thing exists.

Problem 3: As much as they try to make this thing look small in the pictures, it is HUGE. And not very attractive.

Problem 4: You know how I mentioned it was $20k? Well, that's for the stripped down cheapest configuration. That's right, these puppies are $20k AND UP.

In the interest of fairness, there are some good things about the ITC One. The cooling is supposedly much better for the 360 than the original box, and allegedly quieter as well. So it could cut down on the red ring of death, and not just because there is no light ring on this thing. Also, there is a button on it that will make your remote beep wherever it is. Which is the most obvious feature to be missing from home entertainment since the remote was invented.

Sega Makes Ugliest Wii Game Ever

The news came down yesterday that Sega's upcoming Nights: Journey of Dreams for the Wii will utilize the Wii Weather Channel to affect in game conditions. There were two problems with the announcement: First, the Wii Weather Channel is seriously broken, showing six hour old incorrect information. Second, it came with a screenshot that IS THE WORST LOOKING CRAP I'VE EVER SEEN. Flat, blurry ground as far as the eye can see, with five trees, four mushrooms, and some pixelly-ass lightning. Ack!

Via Kotaku.

Video: Buy Mii a Wii

While I can't promise that watching this video from BlackNerdComedy won't be an extremely uncomfortable experience, you should still give it a shot. Beware some intense Wii box humping. I'm told that the song is a parody of T-Pain's "Buy U a Drank."

BlackNerdComedy [via Gizmodo]

Guitar Hero 3 Makes a Shredder Out of "Devil Went Down to Georgia"

The Devil Went Down to Georgia has been on the Guitar Hero III playlist for a little while now, and if you're familiar with the song you'll get a kick out of what they've done with it. It's the final song in the game, and seeing as how some song tiers culminate in a boss battle with a rock icon (Slash, Bret Michaels, etc) and this song is about a musical showdown with the Devil... Do you see where I'm going here? It seems that Satan, the muse of all rock music, is the final boss of Guitar Hero III. They're calling him "Lou," as in "Lou Cifer," but make no mistake it is the Dark One. And good luck, the song has been turned into a truly hellish shredder:

Hit the jump for the full tracklist.

Tier 1:
Foghat - Slow Ride
Poison - Talk Dirty to Me
Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Social Distortion - Story of My Life

Encore: Kiss - Rock and Roll All Nite
Co-op Encore: Beastie Boys - Sabotage

Tier 2:
Mountain - Mississippi Queen
Alice Cooper - School's Out
Cream - Sunshine of Your Life
Heart - Barracuda

Boss: Tom Morello - Guitar Battle
Encore: Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade
Co-op Encore: The Strokes - Reptilia

Tier 3:
The Killers - When You Were Young
AFI - Miss Murder
The Who - The Seeker
Priestess - Lay Down

Encore: Rolling Stones - Paint It Black
Co-op Encore: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss

Tier 4:
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
The Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK
Sonic Youth - Kool Thing
Weezer - My Name Is Jonas

Encore: Pearl Jam - Evenflow
Co-op Encore: Blue Oyster Cult - Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll

Tier 5:
The Dead Kennedy's - Holiday in Cambodia
Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane
Aerosmith - Same Old Song and Dance
ZZ Top - La Grange

Boss: Slash - Guitar Battle
Encore: Guns N Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
Co-op Encore: Bloc Party - Hellicopter

Tier 6:
Santana - Black Magic Woman
Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock
White Zombie - Black Sunshine
Tenacious D - The Metal

Encore: Stevie Ray Vaughn - Pride and Joy
Co-op Encore: Matchbook Romance - Monsters

Tier 7:
Slipknot - Before I Forget
Disturbed - Stricken
Queens of the Stone Age - 3's and 7's
Muse - Knights of Cydonia

Encore: Living Colour - Cult of Personality

Tier 8:
Slayer - Raining Blood
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast
Metallica - One

Boss: Lou - Guitar Battle
Encore: The Devil Went Down to Georgia

Bonus Tracks:

An Endless Sporadic - Impulse
Backyard Babies - Minus Celsius
Bret Michaels Band - Go That Far
Die Toten Hosen - Hier Kommit Alex
Dragonforce - Through the Fire and the Flames
Fall of Troy - FCP Remix
Gallows - In the Belly of a Shark
The Hellacopters - I'm in the Band
Heroes del Silencio - Avalancha
In Flames - Take This Life
Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
Killswitch Engage - My Curse
LA Slum Lords - Down N Dirty
Lacuna Coil - Closer
Lions - Metal Heavy Lady
NAAST - Mauvis Garcon
Prototype - The Way It Ends
Revolverhead - Generation Rock
Rise Against - Prayer of the Refugee
Scouts of St. Sebastian - In Love
Senses Fail - Can't Be Saved
The Sleeping - Don't Hold Back
The Stone Roses - She Bangs the Drums
Superbus - Radio Song

Official Trailer for Super Mario Galaxy is Gorgeous

For all the talk about the Wii not having the graphical chops of the 360 and PS3, Super Mario Galaxy is an incredibly beautiful game. Most of the video we've seen up to this point has been heavily compressed or filmed off of a screen, so this official trailer really blew my eyelids off. Stunning! Note to Nintendo: this is one trailer that really doesn't benefit from having smooth-faced Benetton models smiling while they play. I understand that a game with more Wiimote waggling might need a little illustration of how it's played, but there isn't much of that in Galaxy so all the shiny people look super cheesy.

New Video: Mario Kart Wii

It's obvious they've got a long way to go on this game, but the vid shows off two cool things:

1. Dynamic jumps! No longer does the course feel like a magnet holding your kart down, it appears that they've totally reworked the physics of the experience. The clip has Mario doing some freestylin' Excite Truck-style air spins and stuff. Very cool! I often felt like Double Dash was restricting my movement too much, so I'm ready to go wild on Wii.

2. The motorcycles are seen racing alongside karts, so it would appear the difference between the vehicles might be more cosmetic in nature and won't detract from the core experience. Great news.

I've still got my fingers crossed on this one, but the footage looks promising...

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.

Geekanerd Investigation: Which System Has the Best Games?

The Wii and PS3 are nearing their one-year anniversaries, and the Xbox 360 is coming up on it's second. They've all had some time to roll out great games, but which system has been rolling out the most? Commence Investigation!


The Ten Best-Reviewed "New Gen" Games
The system listed is for the highest reviewed version, additional systems are in parentheses
1. Bioshock - 360 (PC)
2. Zelda: Twilight Princess - Wii (GameCube)
3. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - 360 (PS3, PC)
4. Halo 3 - 360
5. Gears of War - 360 (PC)
6. Guitar Hero II - 360 (PS2)
7. Resident Evil 4 - Wii (PS2, GameCube)
8. Metroid Prime 3 - Wii
8. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - 360 (PC, Xbox, PS2)
10. Call of Duty 2 - 360 (PC)

What does it all mean?! Hit the jump for analysis...

Using the above list, the Great Game Count for each system runs like this:

Xbox 360 - 7
Wii - 3
PS3 - 1

The 360 has a pretty sizable lead here, with twice as many AAA games as the Wii, and just forget about the PS3. Something else to take note of, though, is that most of these games are available on multiple platforms. Which begs the question, what is the best system for exclusive content you can't get anywhere else? A new list!

The Ten Best-Reviewed Exclusive Games
1. Halo 3 - 360
2. Metroid Prime 3 - Wii
3. Forza Motorsport 2 - 360
4. Project Gotham Racing 3 - 360
5. Resistance: Fall of Man - PS3
5. Project Gotham Racing 4 - 360
7. Ninja Gaiden Sigma - PS3
8. Dead or Alive 4 - 360
9. Super Paper Mario - Wii
10. Dead Rising - 360

TOTALS:
Xbox 360 - 6
PS3 - 2
Wii - 2

Ooh, you thought that was gonna be a Wii coup, didn't you? Quite the opposite, the Wii merely tied the mangy PS3. Well, that list is almost entirely sequels, and Nintendo is all about the Wii being a "new way to play," so let's look at the category that they'll surely trump:

Ten Best-Reviewed Non-Sequel Exclusives
1. Resistance: Fall of Man - PS3
2. Dead Rising - 360
3. Viva Pinata - 360
4. Crackdown - 360
5. Motorstorm - PS3
6. Saint's Row - 360
7. Heavenly Sword - PS3
8. Kameo - 360
9. Eternal Sonata - 360
10. Blue Dragon - 360

TOTALS:
Xbox 360 - 7
PS3 - 3
Wii - 0

Say what!? All that talk about shaking things up and Nintendo couldn't come up with a single well-reviewed original game? Their best is Wii Sports, which ends up coming in at number 12. I might have to think about getting one uh them 360 things. Might. It has a sizable head start for sure, we'll see if Nintendo and Sony can step it up going into their second year.

All lists compiled using review scores from Game Rankings.
Thanks to intendo editor Rollin for wising me to the fact that Warhawk for PS3 is a sequel.

You've Already Won Me Over, Simpsons Game

I've made some slightly disparaging observations about this game in the past, but the time has come where I'll admit I might have to one day eat my shoe. Every piece of gameplay I see gets me a little more interested, from the stuff above to the GTA parody and original 2D animation after the jump. I realize now that they are calling it simply The Simpsons Game without any subtitle to suggest that it is indeed the ultimate game for the franchise. And when the visuals, voices, and jokes are right out of the show, how could it not be? Well, bad gameplay could kill it, but let's think nice thoughts.

Bowser is a Terrorist

This opening sequence from the highly-anticipated Super Mario Galaxy begins with a carefree Mario skipping down a calm Mushroom Kingdom street when BOOM! Bowser's airships swoop in and start blowing up buildings. There's fire and destruction, the streets are riddled with Toad parts... It's ugly. It's also quite a departure from the Bowser we've been seeing in most recent Mario titles. Bowser has been comic relief for a while now, bumbling and fumbling his way through his attempts to kidnap (and sometimes marry) Princess Peach. He is always outsmarted, he always gets angry and whines, and he often ends up teaming with Mario to defeat a greater evil. But in this sequence (which packs in more story than all the other core Mario titles put together) he is just pure evil. I, for one, am ecstatic. This game looks awesome.

Nintendo Launches "Import" Genre in the Wii Shop

Finally American gamers are getting something they've been clamoring for since before the Wii even launched - the ability to download games on their Wii that were never released in the US. The first two that get the treatment are the notorious Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 (known as The Lost Levels in the US, it was never released here due to insane difficulty and instead replaced with the Doki Doki Panic overhaul we know as SMB2) and the N64 shooter Sin and Punishment, which I had never heard of but was made by Treasure (Gunstar Heroes, Wario World) and looks pretty great in a couple videos I watched on YouTube. Nintendo is charging a little bit more for these imports ($1 extra for NES, $2 extra for N64) which is pretty lame considering the games are already overpriced, but it will be a small price to pay when the big guns (Mother!) start rolling out. Full press release after the jump.

This is a special week on the Wii Shop Channel. Frankly, it’s a gamer’s dream come true: Nintendo is launching the new Import genre with the release of two games that previously have never been available in the Western Hemisphere on their original platforms. The first will be hugely popular with Mario™ fans, who will love reliving the style of his classic games as they encounter new skills, new levels and new dangers. Nintendo® 64 enthusiasts also get a masterpiece of the shooter genre and perhaps the best game never released outside of Japan. Welcome to Import Week for the Wii Shop Channel! The two new classic games go live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Nintendo adds new games to the Wii Shop Channel every Monday. Wii™ owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

Super Mario Bros.™: The Lost Levels™ (NES®, 1 player, rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points): Originally released in Japan as Super Mario Bros.® 2, this game has previously made only brief cameo appearances in the Western Hemisphere. Now available on the Virtual Console™ in all of its original splendor, Mario fans will appreciate the familiar look and feel of the game, while finding that its updated game play creates an entirely new challenge. No longer content just to wear different-colored overalls, Mario and Luigi also possess different skill sets: Mario can stop quicker, while Luigi can jump higher. In addition to the classic enemies already known to fans worldwide, there are also Poison Mushrooms, backward Warp Zones, and the occasional wind gust (which can help or hinder your progress) to take into account. And if that’s somehow not enough, expert players can go looking for the game’s secret worlds. So get ready to put your Mario skills to the ultimate test, and save the Princess again. Just don’t be surprised if she’s in another castle.

Sin & Punishment™ (Nintendo 64, 1-2 players, rated T for Teen – Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, 1,200 Wii Points): Created by the legendary development studio Treasure, this is a game that hard-core gamers and fans of Japanese imports recognize as one of the finest Nintendo 64 titles to have never previously reached North American shores. Its unique combination of English voice-overs with Japanese subtitles (preserved in this version) has only added to the enthusiasm for its eventual release here. Experience the frenetic pace of a classic shooter, while choosing from a variety of options and a number of different skill levels until you are ready to take on the full-blown challenge of Turbo Hard mode. Not to be outdone by the action, however, the intriguing story line gives the game its soul and draws you even further into the mix. Set in the near future, on an overpopulated Earth starved for resources, players uncover the intriguing mystery of two teenagers (Saki and Airan) and their battle against the Ruffians as they advance through level after level of nonstop action. Take a deep breath, gather your energy and prepare to see why this game is so highly praised.