Saturday, August 28th, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | 1 Comment

The massive 105-song setlist for Activision and FreeStyleGame’s upcoming DJ Hero 2 has been revealed. In celebration of the event, the Facebook page for the game now features a “name that mix” challenge that presents users with a mixed video and the opportunity to guess which individual songs made up its components. Prizes include tickets to performances of the game’s featured DJs and professional mixing equipment, among others. The contest runs weekly from now until September 21st. The game itself will launch on October 22nd for Playstation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360.

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Thursday, August 26th, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | 5 Comments

The oft-requested setlist from Harmonix’s latest musical opus is upon us, boasting over 80 tracks across 4 decades and even more genres. Rock Band 3 will release on October 16th, 2010 for the Playstation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360.

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Thursday, August 26th, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | 1 Comment

The developer behind Wii Party, Nd Cube, has just had the majority of their stake purchased by Nintendo, effectively becoming a wholly acquired subsidiary of the company. The Big N holds 96-percent of the company’s stock, this coming a few years after many Mario Party vets jumped on the company from Monegi, another majority-hold company, this time between Nintendo and Hudson. Nd Cube previously worked on F-Zero: Maximum Velocity for the Gameboy Advance and Tube Slider for the Gamecube.

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Monday, August 23rd, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | No Comments

About as far at the opposite ends of the thematic spectrum as they can be, the song lists for the techno-infused grooving Just Dance 2 and period pop Mafia II have been released in full. You can find both full track lists after the jump Just Dance 2 is promising more tunes as DLC, the disc itself releasing on October 12th in the States. Mafia II launches later this month on August 24th.

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Saturday, August 21st, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | 1 Comment

Two anticipated sequels have been given release dates. The Kojima-branded Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will launch on October 5th in the United States for both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 (both the regular and collector’s edition); the game will launch in the EU on October 7th, and the UK on October 8th. The series re-boot follows the quest of Gabriel Belmont to acquire the potentially world-saving God Mask, slicing and whipping his way through hordes of enemies straight from the dark ether.

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Saturday, August 21st, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | No Comments

A common sense addition the Wii peripheral library that has somehow gone un-produced these past few years, THQ has announced the first high-production tablet device for Nintendo’s console. Dubbed the “uDraw”, the device will launch bundled with a copy of the self-explanatory uDraw Studio this Holiday season in the United States. Two other compatible titles, Dood’s Big Adventure and Pictionary, will be available at release for the budget price of $30 each.

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Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | 1 Comment

With Metroid Other M this month and more than a handful of games on their way in the coming months, Nintendo is looking to hit the market hard with new installments in some of their non-Mario franchises. The E3 darling Kirby’s Epic Yarn will release for the Nintendo Wii on October 17th, while the aptly named Donkey Kong Country Returns will make its debut on November 21st. Over  a dozen other titles also received shelf dates across both of the Big N’s platforms, so follow the jump for the full list.

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Monday, August 9th, 2010 | Posted by Robin Meijer | 2 Comments

Several months ago, Tony Hawk revealed that the next installment in the long-running Tony Hawk series will be known as Tony Hawk: Shred. Today, Activision has released the first set of screenshots for the game. The screenshots reveal that the game will be presented with cell-shaded graphics rather than more realistic depictions as was common in previous game in the series. Furthermore, for the first time in the franchise’s eleven-year history, players will have access to snowboarding activities alongside the regular skateboarding gameplay. The screenshots can be found after the jump.

There is currently no information available regarding a possible release date, though the game is officially scheduled for a release later this year. While it is clear that Tony Hawk: Shred will be utilizing the skateboard-shaped peripheral that was included with Tony Hawk: Ride, no details are currently available regarding the way the developer is improving the motion controls. These controls were a primary source of criticism in the previous installment in the series.

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Friday, August 6th, 2010 | Posted by Robin Meijer | 1 Comment

A set of screenshots and artwork from the upcoming Wii-exclusive JRPG The Last Story have been released on the game’s website. The Last Story, which is being designed by the creator of the Final Fantasy series, Hironobu Sakaguchi, is currently in development at Mistwalker and set for a Japanese release somewhere later this year. It is unclear when this game will be available in the United States or other western territories.

The screenshots that were released show off wide environments, but also provide a look at a bustling city and a castle-interior. Several stills from in-game cutscenes and a battle scene are included as well. Besides these in-game images, several pieces of character art have been released for Kanan, Elsa, Quark, Seiren, and Yuris, each of which are playable characters in the game. The screenshots and images can be found after the jump.

Though specific details concerning the game are still scarce, it has been indicated that the Wii-mote will be used for two specific purposes during the gameplay. Using the Wii-mote, players will be able to lure enemies and draw them to a specific location on-screen, allowing the player to acquire superior positions with respect to these enemies. The Wii-mote will also be used to designate specific enemies, which will provide in turn provide more information as to which party member is currently being engaged by this enemy. Additional features of the game were not revealed.

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Thursday, August 5th, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | 2 Comments

Arguably the least future-proof of the current console generation is Nintendo’s Wii, its lack of HD support and storage space leading to rumors and speculation of a Wii 2/Wii HD for years with little validation from the Big N. Now, via an investor Q&A session, company President Satoru Iwata has confirmed the behind-the-scenes production of the next Nintendo console.

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Thursday, July 29th, 2010 | Posted by Robin Meijer | 1 Comment

Despite the apparent undiminishing popularity of the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo announced that it has made a loss during the first quarter of the current financial year, which ended in June. Overall sales fell with 25.6%, which lead to a loss of approximately ¥25.2 billion, or $289 million. During the same quarter in 2009, Nintendo made a profit of ¥42.3 billion, approximately $485 million.

Hardware sales for the Nintendo Wii increased with 36.6% as compared to the same quarter in 2009, part of which can be attributed to a strong first-party line-up. Nintendo indicated that it has already sold more than 4 million copies of Super Mario Galaxy 2, even though the game has only been available for just more than two months. However, despite this success, the overall Wii software sales dropped by approximately 9.3%.

With respect to the Nintendo DS, Nintendo indicated that hardware sales had fell by a staggering 44.7% as compared to a year earlier. DS software sales also fell, though not as steeply, by 22.9%. Over the last year, more and more developers and publishers have begun to phase out their support of the Nintendo DS, as piracy runs rampant on this platform. During the same three months last year, a total of 278 games were released for the Nintendo DS. This year, only 168 titles were released. Still, many of these third party developers and publishers have pledged their support to the upcoming successor to the DS: the Nintendo 3DS, which is supposed to put a halt to the widespread piracy on the platform.

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Thursday, July 29th, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | No Comments

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock promises over 90 tracks in its setlist, the vast majority of which being the original master recordings. The exceptions, it turns out, are those tracks being completely re-recorded specifically for the game. Alice Cooper’s “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, and the Runaway’s “Cherry Bomb” have been recreated in the studio exclusively for the title.

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Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | 2 Comments

The developers at Harmonix have been hard at work on their multiple music-rhythm games coming to market, and out of their labor announced new tracks for both Rock Band 3 and Dance Central. New artists were revealed for both titles at last week’s Comic Con, and can be found in their entirety after the jump. As usual with the developer, all songs listed are the original master recordings.

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Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | No Comments

One of the (arguably few) highlights of Ubisoft’s E3 Press Conference this past month was its reveal of a new IP based on the life and work of the self-proclaimed King of Pop. Now revealed to be Michael Jackson: The Experience, the game is set for a November release this year for the DS, Wii, 360, PS3 and PSP platforms. The Experience will allow players to “step into the shoes” of the world-famous music star and re-live his most memorable performances (although no specific venues or setlists were revealed.)

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Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 | Posted by Gavin Greene | 2 Comments

Nintendoland has been a binder-paper doodle in the minds of children since the early 80s, but it could soon be a reality. Company President Satoru Iwata hasn’t ruled out the possibility, but diversification away from other theme park properties like Disney (which has a Disneyland park operating in Tokyo, Japan) is mandatory before any ground can be broken in construction.

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