Nintendo announces Mario Super Sluggers

Nintendo just announced yet another Mario-themed addition to the Wii lineup this morning during their media summit in San Francisco - Mario Super Sluggers. It’s exactly what you expect it will be, take Mario Strikers, remove soccer, add baseball.

“Mario is truly a one-of-a-kind character; clearly fans can’t get enough of him and his friends,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “We’re giving Wii users brilliant new ways to enjoy him while expanding our series of active-play games.”

Players will swing their Wiimotes like a bat, or motion a throw towards a baseman - you know, all that Wii stuff Nintendo likes to do. Mario Super Sluggers is scheduled to launch later this year.

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Tversity Adds Entertainment Diversity to Your Wii, PS3 or Xbox 360

We can’t wait to try Tversity, free software that will add even more entertainment options to your already multi-tasking PS3, Wii, or Xbox 360. Tversity allows you to stream just about any multimedia from your PC to your TV via your gaming console. Basically, if it can be played on Windows Media Player, it can be played on TV. The software also allows you to stream internet media—audio, video, RSS feeds, podcasts and images—for television viewing. This can be done by entering websites of your choice, or using Tversity’s audio and video guides. And that’s only some of this freeware’s features! Sounds like exactly what we’ve been looking for. We’ll report back after giving Tversity a test run…

Read More | TVersity via Chip Chick

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“Mario” Goes Zero-G to Promote Super Mario Galaxy

If you’re a hardcore gamer with a Wii, you don’t need to be told that Super Mario Galaxy is looming large on the horizon. With only a week to go until launch, though, Nintendo thought that they should take the time to try to reach those last few folks that’ve been living in a cave for the past year. How did they decide to point your attention towards Mario’s latest space-faring adventure, dear reader? By plunking down a few G’s to send Mario Zero-G, of course!

That’s right, that poor bastard you see pictured above had to ride the “Vomit Comet” in a Mario suit. I’m guessing some intern at Nintendo has been stuck with the task of finding the best way to de-barf a Mario costume right now.

Super Mario Galaxy launches on the Wii on November 12th for $49.99. And it’s going to be awesome, I dare say.

Read More | GoNintendo

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Castlevania Creator Talks About What’s Next For the Series

Koji Igarashi, creator of the popular Castlevania franchise, is featured in an interview with Game Informer where he talks about what’s next for the series.

[Next,] I will be working on a DS version, but I am thinking of moving to the home consoles for the future. I will continue to use 2D for the DS version, but I’m still trying to figure out which console to do the home console versions. I think the Xbox 360 would be the best platform for the U.S. market.

Another DS Castlevania wasn’t really a bold prediction, but focusing on the 360 is a little unexpected. Igarashi goes on to clarify, “The U.S. market is the biggest market for the Castlevania series, so I will give the first priority to the U.S. market. The platform will be the Xbox 360, since the PS3 isn’t doing well everywhere in the world.” He does later suggest that he thinks Metal Gear Solid 4 could easily increase the PS3 base in the US which would make it more attractive as a target for a Castlevania game.

As for the Wii, which represents an even larger market than 360, Igarashi says he hasn’t quite figured out how to make the gesture controls work with the game saying that the motion for cracking a whip might be too hard on users but some kind of abstraction would be “not so good.” “I will have to think about a way to accomplish this,” he concludes.

Read More | Game Informer

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Bloomberg: Wii Still Dominant in Japan

In what has become a regular occurrence, Nintendo’s Wii handily outsold its closest console competition three-to-one in Japan for the month of August.  However, it is interesting to note that the gap between the Wii and PS3 has lessened.  In June, Nintendo’s console outsold the PS3 six-to-one and four-to-one in June and July, respectively.

Bloomberg reported the final August numbers as follows: Wii at 245,653, PS3 at 81,541, and the Xbox 360 lagging behind at around 11,000.  The Wii’s August numbers bring the console to a whopping 3.4 million units sold in that country since its launch last year.

Read More | Next Generation

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Monster Lab - New Wii Action RPG Revealed

What’s this now?  A third-party Wii game that (a) isn’t a lazy PS2 port and (b) actually looks pretty cool?  Yes, it looks like Zach and Wiki will have some company on the Wii in the near future.  Backbone, the developers of Death Jr. for the PSP, are cooking up a brand new IP exclusively for Nintendo’s Wii.  Monster Lab is a story-driven Action RPG that’s all about customization.  Indeed, the object of the game is to build, enhance, and accesorize monsters to fight against each other in turn-based combat.  The Wii’s motion control comes into play in the creation process through minigames, where players will throw brains into empty heads, hoping to maximize their monster’s power.  On hand to make sure that it all doesn’t devolve into complete minigame aimlessness is comic book writer Adam Beechen, who is scripting the game.

The very promising Monster Lab will be published by Eidos and is being groomed for a Summer 2008 release.

Read More | NeoGAF

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July NPD: Wii Reigns Supreme, Xbox 360 Edges Out PS3

According to the latest NPD report, the video game industry generated almost a billion dollars of sales in the month of July.  Nintendo’s Wii led the charge with an absolutely astounding 425,000 units sold.  The Wii was followed by the PS2, which sold 220,000 units.  The Xbox 360 sold 170,000 units, once again beating the PS3, which sold 159,000 units.  On the portable side of things, the Nintendo DS sold a whopping 405,000 units, while the PSP moved 214,000 units.  Overall console sales are up almost 43% from this period last year.

All of this begs the question:  Where are people finding the Wii in such great numbers?  I haven’t seen one in a store since the beginning of the year, but somehow Nintendo keeps selling hundreds of thousands of them every month. 

Read More | Next Generation

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Manhunt 2 Gets Green Light for Release in North America

Rockstar Games found itself in a bit of a pickle earlier this year when the ESRB slapped Manhunt 2 with an Adults Only rating.  Most stores balk at selling AO-rated games, but more importantly, Nintendo and Sony refuse to publish them.  As a result, the game’s original release date of July 10th was scrapped, and much hand-wringing ensued on the part of Rockstar executives wondering just what the hell to do next.

Well, Rockstar’s long nightmare appears to be over, as company PR has revealed that Manhunt 2 has been modified, rated M by the ESRB, and will hit North American store shelves this October 31st on PS2, PSP, and Nintendo Wii.  “Manhunt 2 is important to us, and we’re glad it can finally be appreciated as a gaming experience. We love the horror genre. Manhunt 2 is a powerful piece of interactive story telling that is a unique video game experience. We think horror fans will love it,” said Sam Houser, founder and executive producer of Rockstar Games.

There has been no word yet on what content changes were made to the game in order to lock down a Mature rating.  And sadly, the game is still banned over in the UK.

Read More | GameDaily

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