WiiNintendo

Do you live in a location where there is not a Gamestop within driving distance? Would you rather have Capcom send you the demo for Monster Hunter Tri in the mail?  Well, you are in luck!

Aurion’s Game and Technology Blog has posted some instructions for how to get this demo disc shipped to your home address.  Check out the instructions (complete with pictures) by clicking here.

By this time, a good majority of you have seen the head-tracking abilities of the Wii (as illustrated by Johnny Chung Lee).  While we have not seen any Wii game take advantage of that yet, it seems that they are moving forward with the DSi’s motion-tracking capabilities utilizing the DSi cameras. Check it out below.

[Official game site here.]

Arc Rise Fantasia from Ignition Entertainment delivers a one-of-kind journey on the Nintendo Wii. Taking the finest elements from traditional RPGs and blending it with all the whimsy and charm of a blockbuster Japanese anime, Arc Rise Fantasia conjures a real JRPG experience unlike anything released for the Nintendo Wii.

In celebration of the impending launch of Arc Rise Fantasia in North America, Ignition Entertainment has released new assets for the game. The new screenshots illustrate the strategic turn-based combat at the center of the game, and highlight some of the nefarious foes and special attacks that help make Arc Rise Fantasia the definitive JRPG for the Wii.

In Arc Rise Fantasia, players jump into the shoes of L’Arc, a composed mercenary who sets out to defend the Meridian Empire from an impending invasion of mysterious creatures. After assembling a party of allies, each with a unique set of abilities and fiery personalities, players embark on a perilous journey filled with vile enemies and treacherous dungeons. Players summon mystical creatures and work with their party to execute massive and strategic attacks. Arc Rise Fantasia features deep game play, stellar production values, and an unforgettable story.

KIDS ARE GOING TO FLIP FOR NEW FLIPS TITLES ON NINTENDO DSi

EA TO LAUNCH SIX NEW INTERACTIVE BOOK TITLES WORLDWIDE; FIRST TITLE ALREADY AVAILABLE IN EUROPEAN DSiWARE STORE

EA today announced that it will release six individual FLIPS titles between now and summer 2010 for the Nintendo DSi.  This new wave of titles, exclusively available as digitally downloadable content for the Nintendo DSi, is also slated to come to North American DSiWare Store, making it the first interactive kids’ book series to become available on the popular handheld platform in North America.

The first title in the 2010 wave, FLIPS Terror in Cubicle Four,  is available now in Europe and will launch March 1^st in the U.S.  The first title from the popular “Too Ghoul For School” collection by B. Strange, FLIPS Terror in Cubicle Four will enable children to interact with the story in a completely new way, from collecting items to unlock bonus content, to exploring pop-up character information and spooky sound effects, to using the Nintendo DSi camera to put themselves in the story.

Other titles currently in development for both markets include:

• FLIPS The Bubonic Builders
• FLIPS Silent But Deadly
• FLIPS The Enchanted Wood
• FLIPS The Magic Faraway Tree
• FLIPS The Folk of the Faraway Tree

About FLIPS

FLIPS is an innovative book range created by EA for the Nintendo DSi to give children of all ages a fun new way to read their favorite books. FLIPS uses the DSi touch screen and stylus to enable kids to read and interact by combining the world of storytelling with quizzes and references to characters, encouraging greater concentration and incentive to finish every chapter. Within the books, links appear to give the reader a unique way of interacting with the story and enhancing the overall literary experience.

For more information, visit: www.eagames.co.uk/flips.

[PR Email from EA]

MINOR STORY SPOILERS AHEAD!

* According to the journalist the game looks like a re-make of the Sands of Time.
* Jennings says its more of a re-imagination of the Sands of Time.
* Development started before PoP2008.
* The game uses a customized version of the Assassins Creed engine.
* Gameplay is still linear so no backtracking.
* The game takes place between Sands of Time and Warrior Within
* The story starts with the Prince going to the Kingdom of his brother which is under attack by a neighbouring kingdom.
* The palace of his brother looks very similar to the first level of Sands of Time. Jennigs says they’ve done this deliberately to let players know that they can expect a lot of Sands of Time-like gameplay.
* Just as the palace is overrun by the enemy(who’s obviously stronger) the Prince’s brothers activates an ancient artifact(whether this is a hourglass is not mentioned).
* The artifact releases “The Sand Army” which kills everyone, corrupts the Prince’s brother and takes over the Kingdom/Palace and it’s up to the Prince to save the world again.
* There is a new element called “natural powers”
* The Prince will gain the natural powers of water, wind, earth and fire as he progresses trough the story.
* He can upgrade each one. There are 4 levels for each natural power.
* The natural powers are usable in both combat and platforming.
* One of the natural power shown to the journalist was “Solodify”(water) which turned water into an solid mass. For example he would have to turn an waterfall into a solid mass to climb it but he then had to Unsolidy another waterfall because there was a lever behind it.
* Another natural power was “Dash”(wind) which he could use to quickly jump from an platform onto another without having to do the entire course. Or when used in battle it almost instantly “teleports” you in front of the enemy.
* The battle system is more similar to that of SoT than WW/T2T.
* You can’t pickup/drop weapons and your only weapon this time is an upgradeable sword. No dagger either.
* There are more enemy than in any other SoT.
* The journalist recalled a moment where he was surrounded by more than 50 skeleton warriors. He did complain that the A.I. was dumbed down and that they were just waiting to get killed.
* There will be boss fights not only at the end of level but also in between. For example you could be platforming when all of sudden an boss breaks trough the wall.
* The bosses range from building-size to normal size
* Most of them require a special tactic to defeat. For example the bull in the screenshot will charge towards you. You will have to dodge him at the right time so he hits the wall after which you can slowly hurt him.
* I can’t confirm this, but it looks like you’re not allowed to rewind whenever you want. How the rewind system works now is still unknown to the journalist. The journalist speculated that they did this to offer more of a challenge after everyone complained of how easy PoP2008 was.
* Except for the dumb A.I. the journalist was very pleased with the game. He said it would be a worthy follow up in the SoT series. He was especially very happy about the amount of eye-candy in the levels.

Nintendo of America’s Cammie Dunaway made it pretty clear that we’ll be seeing the New Zelda Wii game by the end of this year.

We all benefit if we can keep a pretty steady pace, so the development teams have worked hard to make sure that we’ve got a full lineup this year. If you compare the first half of 2010 with the first half of 2009, it’s night and day.

From some of the things that Mr. Iwata has talked about, and that we will talk about at E3, like Zelda, you know that we’re going to have a good back half of the year, as well.

[Read Wired's full interview with Cammie]

What do you guys think? Are we reading too much into this?

[GameTrailers]

[GameTrailers]

NintendoLife -
With a range of levels available we were able to try out almost all of the new additions, the most prominent being the inclusion of Yoshi. The little green dinosaur can chew on blueberries and red peppers laid around the courses, which both grant him special powers: eating a blueberry fills him with air sending him floating upwards, whereas the spicy pepper sets him racing ahead at breakneck speed. One stage challenges you to sprint up vertical slopes and avoid the perils of a dangerous course, with one hit sending Yoshi plummeting to the ground and back to the last checkpoint flag. The blueberry is reminiscent of Balloon Mario from Super Mario 64, and is used in some devious mazes, with one around a revolving log standing out in particular.

It’s not all dinosaur-based action in Galaxy 2, however. Those who complained about the first game being too easy will be thrilled at the inclusion of some very tough levels, with the latest available level presenting a stern challenge to even these experienced gamers. Mario doesn’t seem to have too many new moves: we were told of a new longer jump that seemed almost identical to the slide jump from previous entries, and the all-new drill power-up wasn’t used in the truly game-changing fashion that perhaps it will be later on.

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GoNintendo –
1. I think this game may actually look better than the original Galaxy (visuals)
2. Having Yoshi in a Galaxy setting is so much fun that it seems criminal
3. The level designs for Galaxy 2 are way more outlandish than the original. It seems like these worlds were designed for ultimate fun, without a worry for landform designs that would make sense in real life.
4. Galaxy 2 is, from what I played, measurably harder than the original
5. I want the finished game now…VERY badly

I played Super Mario Galaxy 2 more than any other title at the summit. I actually went through all the levels that were up for demo, and there were quite a few. I was and still am shocked with just how far Nintendo has taken the level design from the first game. I’m telling you, these layouts were far superior in imagination and design than the ones in Galaxy. Keep in mind, I thought Galaxy was a near perfect game! I just simply couldn’t get enough to traversing the worlds, and exploring every little nook and cranny. I think I can hear the demo calling for me right now…

Easily the best part of the whole demo was getting to take Yoshi along for the ride. I always love when Yoshi makes an appearance, and having his abilities upgraded for Galaxy 2 was just the icing on the cake. Using the Wiimote pointer to grab things with Yoshi’s tongue is going to make it hard to go back to classic-style Yoshi. You can instantly snatch up any enemies that are remotely close to you. Sure, Yoshi’s tongue seems to have grown a bit longer during this process, but that’s just fine by me!

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Kotaku -
My demo began at the base of a towering tree with no obvious paths for Mario to take up its trunk…until I spotted that little green-speckled egg. Still, with shell cracked, and Yoshi mounted, I was at a loss as how to get Mario to the tippity top of the level.

Thankfully, a kind Nintendo rep pointed out a new power-up-the blimp berry-which Yoshi could munch on to catch some air. Sure enough, with a point of the Wii-Mote at the magic fruit, Yoshi was able to slurp it up and lift off the ground like a slowly deflating balloon. But the real challenge came in collecting more berries while the pair ascended, as each fruit only contains a limited amount of helium.

I finally made it to the top of the tree, but not before landing on several low-hanging branches to refill Yoshi’s belly with hot air. Later levels promise to make this mechanic even trickier by including patrolling enemies that can pop Yoshi like a balloon.

Keeping with the theme of showing off what new tricks Mario has tucked into his plumber’s tool belt, I was next dropped into a level made of steep, roller coaster-like surfaces. Mario couldn’t run up these almost vertical planes, and even Yoshi struggled to make much headway. Enter the dash pepper, a fiery looking veggie that Yoshi can gobble for temporary MACH speed. With fire and smoke amusingly shooting from his backside, Yoshi, save for some modest steering, becomes uncontrollable by the player, but succeeds in treading the previously unclimbable slopes. This jalapeño-like power-up is essentially a turbo boost for Yoshi. It only works in short bursts, but that’s probably a good thing given its chaotic control over Yoshi.

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ONM –
iven the choice of nine playable stages, I immediately opted for the ones starring Yoshi, and was treated to a couple of very well executed gameplay mechanics. First, there was one based around gobbling up Blimp Fruit to progress up through the stage. Your air runs down fairly quickly (in a similar way to how Bee Mario works), so you’re invited to continually seek out more fruit with a lash of Yoshi’s tongue or face plummeting to your doom. The next involved eating Bullet Bills and firing them back into the scenery or at enemies (including – shock! – a couple of Hammer Bros). Both felt immediately familiar and worked beautifully.

When you’re riding Yoshi, the pointer acts as your targeting reticule. The cursor changes to indicate you can eat or grapple your target and you give B a quick squeeze to unleash Yoshi’s famous tongue. (I tried to look up another, more interesting word for tongue here, but couldn’t find one. Sorry). If you’ve roped in an enemy at this point, you can fire them out again in any direction you wish using the pointer to specify the direction.

It opens up a plethora of new gameplay ideas – as does the drill power up, which was put to very clever use in both the stage and the boss battle you may remember from the trailer.

Combined, these two games represent Nintendo at the peak of its fan-pleasing powers. Releasing major new Mario and Metroid games outside the traditional Christmas period is a bold move, but one that proves that despite what you might read on the web, Nintendo is doing its level best to keep its legions of fans happy.

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IGN -
The levels, from first to end: Sky Station Galaxy, Spin-Dig Galaxy, Hightail Falls Galaxy, Tall Trunk Galaxy, Upside Dizzy Galaxy, Bowser Jr’s Fiery Flotilla, Supermassive Galaxy, Bowser Jr.’s Fearsome Fleet, and Flip-Swap Galaxy. Yes, I can take notes with the best of them, thank you very much.

The majority of the stages shown took place to earthy backdrops rather than some of the spacey locales in the first game. I was excited to see how Nintendo upped the ante with regard to gravity-based puzzles in the sequel, but sadly these types of stages were not demoed at the Summit. Oh well — something to look forward to then. What I did see were some really fresh areas built around existing Galaxy gameplay fundamentals and a few new items and characters.

Obviously, the drill. I’ve seen it, you’ve seen it — everybody’s seen it. Now that I’ve played around with it, though, I feel it’s definitely a worthy addition to the platforming environment. After Mario acquires the item, he can use it just about anywhere to drill from one side of a globe to another. In some cases, some clever puzzles encircle the concept. For instance, a huge pillar with a star might rest on the underbelly of a planet. There’s no way for Mario to reach the stretching obstacle unless he travels to the opposite end of the world and then drills through and directly into the pillar, coming out right-side up on the other end. This technique is also used frequently against bosses, many of whom sport weak spots on their underside — convenient, sure, but fun nevertheless.

Then, Yoshi. Eggs litter some levels and if you crack them open, your old friend appears. Mario can ride Yoshi as he’s always done. Hold down A button when you jump and Yoshi will flutter through the air temporarily before falling back down. Much better, though, is the character’s able tongue, which can snap out and grab onto all kinds of objects — star bits, various enemies, hanging latches, and so forth. In one stage, Bullet Bills fly toward Mario and Yoshi, the latter of whom can swallow them whole with his tongue and then spit them back out again. This is all done quite brilliantly with the Wii remote. Point at the Bills, lock on, and then suck in with the tap of a button — press it again to fire back. It’s great and really fun. I’m looking forward to more challenges based around Yoshi’s other abilities, too — the demo offered glimpses at the speed-enhancing dash pepper and the blimp berries, allowing him to float.