via kotaku



French gaming site Jeux-France has posted scans from the Portuguese magazine Maxi Consolas, featuring exclusive images from the soon to be announced NiGHTS game for the Nintendo Wii that has fans of the original peeing themselves in delight. In order to understand the article I contacted Kotaku's French correspondent, Google Language tools. Google?


Sega reveals finally the first images of NiGHTS Wii envisaged exclusively on Wii in the Portuguese magazine Maxi Comforted. This new opus of the series seems to preserve the same graphic style that the original play, one notes the graphics very coloured with many effects. Playable to 2 players, NiGHTS Wii was to propose an on-line mode, new characters, and new movements with Wiimote. The official advertisement of Sega should take place at the beginning of April, we will thus be entitled to more details on this play in a few days.

I had been keeping my fingers crossed for very coloured graphics with many effects. I'm also glad they are including new Wiimote movements, as the old ones were just...not in existence. They've got three full scanned pages over there, plus a kind of joie de vivre you just don't find at English-speaking gaming sites.

More Scans ...

Heres the sales figures:

Nintendo DS Lite - 130,549
Wii - 75,571
PSP - 41,546
PLAYSTATION 3 - 20,459
PlayStation 2- 16,961
Xbox 360 - 3,492
Game Boy micro - 765
Game Boy Advance SP - 607

The Wii-DS Lite are really kicking ass over in Japan, should be interesting to see the US and Europe figures over the next few months. ...

via kotaku

Yesterday's Grand Theft Auto IV trailer sparked a ridiculous amount of internet debate, with fans combing over every frame attempting to glean every minute detail from the minute-long clip. The trailer brought web servers to their knees and eventually showed up on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Sadly, no such trailer appeared on the PlayStation Store yesterday. Instead, PLAYSTATION 3 owners were given trailers for Warhawk, Super Rub A Dub and PlayStation Home. The demo for 2K Sports' Major League Baseball 2K7 also went up, alongside some Hollywood fodder. Not bad, but no GTA IV trailer.

I realize that the fledgling network may have actually caused the Sony data center to explode from the data transfer, but I can't help feel a bit jealous of my Xbox Live brethren. I'd have loved to easily watch the HD trailer on my HDTV via my PS3.

What, if anything, fellow PS3 owners, would you like to see more or less of on the PlayStation Store? ...

via kotaku

After hearing the bad news that the highly anticipated Play Adaptor for the PLAYSTATION 3 had been shelved due to a lack of Guitar Hero controller support, we contacted manufacturer Nyko to get more details on what led to the decision.

Nyko reps explained to us in an e-mail earlier today:


Current technology makes it impossible to properly pass the special functions of the guitar controller to the PS3 with its existing protocol. Features like the whammy and strum bars do not function properly. Being adamant players of Guitar Hero we know how important precise controls are to fans of the series. We will not produce a product if it falls short of those expectations.

We are disappointed that we need to shelve this product as it has been one of the most requested items since its announcement at CES 2007 with numerous inquiries from consumers on a daily basis. If new technology or a firmware update is released that enables us to provide full support for Guitar Hero 1 and 2 on the PS3 via the Play Adaptor, we will reactivate the development of this product.

Again, we would like to express our regret for needing to put this product on hold as we know many people were looking forward to its release.

Unfortunately, I'm going to set realistic expectations for myself and others looking forward to Guitar Hero I and II on the PS3 and cast doubt upon a firmware update addressing this any time soon. Back to waiting for Guitar Hero III, then! ...

Via 99Lives comes a great rundown of the Top 5 Hoax Consoles of the last few years.

With April Fools fast approaching this Sunday, its time for the yearly tradition of fake news, bogus systems and wild, baseless speculation.

Which is why I’ve felt its most appropriate to compile this list of the top five hoax game consoles. Would you have purchased any of these if they actually did exist?

Number Five - The Sega Phoenix

Part Xbox 360 clone, part God-awful looking — introducing the Sega Phoenix. Born out of fanboy nostalgia of Sega’s glory days, this fake system started popping up in late Spring 2005 in discussion forums over the internets.

Promising backwards compatibility with all previous Sega systems and bogus specs boasting of “four AMD processors” and a 120gb hard drive (remember, this was in 2005) would have easily challenged Sony’s PS3 for the title of most expensive console ever.

Number Four - Sony and Nintendo’s PSPboy

Oh, PSPboy, if you only you existed. Then, gamers everywhere could have the best of both worlds - a crisp lcd screen, 2 GB Memory Sticks with emulators, cartridge load times and Nintendo innovation. Sigh, some things are never meant to be…

Number Three - The Apple iGame

The iGame appeared in EGM’s April 2006 issue as their April Fools joke. In the fake article, EGM writers claimed Apple was hard at work producing an ipod clone that would serve solely as a portable game system offering iTunes support and a rich game library through their online store.

Experienced EGM readers immediately smelled hoax but that didn’t stop the collective of mac fanboys to lust for Apple’s return to games after the ill-fated Pippin.

Number Two - The Sega Hedgehog

The Sega Hedgehog would be every retro gamer’s wet dream. “Leaked from Sega France”, this bogus console was a new Sega handheld that was in addition to playing new games, would be able to emulate past Sega consoles. Under the hood would be a 566Mhz Samsung processor, and 128MB nVidia graphics processor based on the GeForce 3D 4500 and a LCD display capable of 640X360 resolution and touch-screen capabilities.

Other features included were USB support for syncing with a PC, DiVX playback and support SD and Compact Flash. To ensure gullibility amongst skeptical gamers, grievances were aired about Sega’s concerns on backwards compatibility and low battery life with the original rumor.

Number One - The Nintendo ON

The Nintendo ON was released when demand for information on the Nintendo Wii (known then as Revolution) was at fever-high levels.

Produced by Pablo Belmonte from Spain whom posted his creation on various boards, claiming to have found a leaked video of the Revolution. Quickly, it spread like wildfire with many believing it was indeed Nintendo’s next console due to its professional production values. Silence from the Big N only fueled speculation until after E3 2005 when official pictures were revealed, confirming that the Nintendo ON was indeed a hoax. ...

via kotaku

Grand Theft Auto fans may have to wait until Game Informer's May issue hits the racks in the coming weeks to get further dirt on the fourth proper GTA game. In addition to having details on 2K Sports Madden competitor, they've wrapped up an exclusive look at Rockstar's latest, so you may want to rethink that decision to pass on a magazine subscription. Who am I kidding? These GI scans will show up on the internet within seconds of some attention whoring subscriber getting his copy in the mail. ...

via kotaku

Grand Theft Auto fans may have to wait until Game Informer's May issue hits the racks in the coming weeks to get further dirt on the fourth proper GTA game. In addition to having details on 2K Sports Madden competitor, they've wrapped up an exclusive look at Rockstar's latest, so you may want to rethink that decision to pass on a magazine subscription. Who am I kidding? These GI scans will show up on the internet within seconds of some attention whoring subscriber getting his copy in the mail. ...

via kotaku



Typically, parents generally can't be bothered to exert more effort beyond sweeping a dozen artery clogging, obesity causing Lunchables into their shopping cart every two weeks then slapping them into Chubby Timmy's backpack. When I was in elementary school, I set the packed lunch bar low, only hoping for an PB&J sandwich that hadn't been flattened by a Red Delicious and praying that the bananas were some shade of yellow.

However, this Japanese mom goes to extreme lengths to keep her children interested in their food, creating gorgeously handcrafted lunchbox creations, most of them loaded with Nintendo character references. From Super Mario Bros. to Animal Crossing to Mario Kart, these food creations look too good to eat. Not that I'm a fan of carved Vienna sausages and boiled fish paste mind you, just that the craftsmanship is out of this world. ...

via kotaku



Typically, parents generally can't be bothered to exert more effort beyond sweeping a dozen artery clogging, obesity causing Lunchables into their shopping cart every two weeks then slapping them into Chubby Timmy's backpack. When I was in elementary school, I set the packed lunch bar low, only hoping for an PB&J sandwich that hadn't been flattened by a Red Delicious and praying that the bananas were some shade of yellow.

However, this Japanese mom goes to extreme lengths to keep her children interested in their food, creating gorgeously handcrafted lunchbox creations, most of them loaded with Nintendo character references. From Super Mario Bros. to Animal Crossing to Mario Kart, these food creations look too good to eat. Not that I'm a fan of carved Vienna sausages and boiled fish paste mind you, just that the craftsmanship is out of this world. ...