via kotaku

The deadly flying wiimote epidemic of 2006 very well could have been avoided if only Nintendo had maintained the same safety standards it had back in 1982. Kotakuite Astrofox has unearthed evidence proving that the venerable company once dedicated itself to saving its products and customers from the vile infant scourge.


I just found my original donkey kong game and watch and it had all the documentation with it. You thought Nintendo of 2007 was paranoid, try Nintendo 1982. Stickers specifically designed to keep babies from breaking open the unit, and feasting on the sweet sweet batteries inside.

Back in '82 I may have been only nine years old, but I still remember the horrible things the packs of roving babies would do...the atrocities. Whole car batteries devoured as onlookers cried out for something...anything to protect their precious power cells. I shudder to think what the world would be like if Nintendo hadn't discovered anti-toddler sticker technology. We owe them a debt we can never repay, so the next time you take a wiimote to the forehead, you just thank your lucky magic stars that the batteries inside are safe. ...

Salvaged by Ubisoft following the lukewarm Driver: Parallel Lines, the once-massive franchise is going back to basics for its PSP debut tempting us with the Hollywood car chases that made us love it so back in the day, rather than the wannabe GTA elements that plagued later installments. Set in authentic 1970s New York, in addition to the lure of bombing down alleyways to escape the cops, the promise of a classic disco soundtrack has rekindled our interest.

Screens Here ...

Suda 51 has promised that he'll work as hard as he can on making No More Heroes, his latest project for Nintendo's Wii, at least as splatter-happy and violently entertaining as Rockstar's already-infamous Manhunt 2.

The oddly-monikered creator of the crazy-great Killer 7 swears that he'll try his best "to make No More Heroes as violent, or even more violent than Manhunt 2!" during a recent interview with website IGN.

Elsewhere the head of developer Grasshopper Manufacture sums up his new edgy, fruitloop-tastic project as an assassin's coming-of-age tale. We're sold already.

via gamesradar ...

Namco Bandai has posted a 112 per cent rise in profits for Q3, with videogame sales boosting the total figure to YEN 19.89 billion (EUR 126.8 million).

During the three months ending December 31, Namco Bandai released 88 games and sold 16.6 million units - a rise of 95 per cent with sales totalling YEN 100.22 billion (EUR 638.7).

More than a million copies of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 were shifted, while sales of PSP title Tekken: Dark Resurrection topped 800,000. Other titles which sold well included Tamagotch Connection: Corner Shop 2 for DS, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja and Mobile Suit Gundam II for PS2.

Apart from Tekken, all of the top titles would have been published under the Bandai label prior to the two companies' 2005 merger.

Q3 revenues rose by more than 95 per cent to hit YEN 330.5 billion (EUR 2.1 billion), while operating profit was up from YEN 7.73 billion (EUR 58.8 billion) to YEN 9.58 billion (EUR 61 million).

The arcarde and amusement park arm of Namco's business made an operating profit of YEN 2.32 billion (EUR 14.8 million). The figure for Bandai's toys and hobby business stands at YEN 14.76 billion (EUR 76.1 million).

Namco Bandai has forecast year-end revenues of YEN 460 billion (EUR 3.5 billion) and profits of YEN 23.5 billion (EUR 178.9 million).

via gibiz ...

via eurogamer

Nintendo Wii's European Virtual Console could play host to games that were never released here, Nintendo has confirmed.

"There is always the potential for games that haven't seen the light of day in Europe to be on the Virtual Console. The Virtual Console is the perfect platform for them," a Nintendo UK spokesperson told Eurogamer this morning.

"Obviously any game not ever released in Europe would have to under go the PEGI and BBFC ratings process," he added.

That doesn't just mean first party games either. We asked whether Nintendo could speak to the possibility of third party titles, like Super Nintendo RPG Chrono Trigger, finally being made available to European gamers.

"I can't speak for third parties, but if it's the right game then there's absolutely no reason why it should just be a first party game," the spokesperson told us.

That comes on the back of comments in the US, made by Nintendo of America vice president George Harrison, who said that the platform holder was "open" to previously unavailable Japanese games being released in the US "if we can get them translated properly".

The news may signal a shift in Nintendo's thinking, with representatives having previously indicated that Virtual Console would initially stick to versions of games released specifically in the target territory. ...

FPS fans eagerly awaiting the release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption could be in for quite a wait, with Reggie Fils-Aime pledging that it won't release until its perfect.

The Nintendo of America president told MTV News: "The focus on 'Prime 3' is to make that the stellar game for a first-person experience on the platform.

"What that means is we're going to make sure it's perfect when we launch it."

Could it become the next Twilight Princess, which was delayed for almost two years? Reggie counts on you considering the wait to be worth it, saying that if the release is "a little later than folks would have liked, I'm hoping they're going to be happy. They certainly seem to be happy that we took our time with 'The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess."

Advertisement:
CVG walked away decisively pleased after hands-on time with the demo Retro put on show at E3 2006, so the release can't be that far off. Unless it's delayed to add an online multiplayer mode, which would be nice.

A Nintendo UK correspondent has today told CVG: "We've made no announcements to when MP3 will arrive in the UK."

Fils-aime also apologised for the ongoing difficulty of finding a Wii, reaffirming that production of the console has been accelerated to one million consoles per month, and will see further increases in future.

via cvg ...

505 Games' mech fighting game, Armoured Core 4, will touch down on PS3 on April 27, just over a month after the console's European launch.

Armoured Core 4 promises to use the extra grunt offered by PS3 not only to look better than previous incarnations, but also to allow players to interact with the environments during battle.

This will, for example, enable you to destroy a wall to let extra light into a dark area or leap into water to hide just under the rippling haze on the surface, waiting to ambush an enemy. If Armoured Core 4 pulls off the fast, adrenalin-charged gameplay promised (i.e. not a bore like Chrome Hounds), we'll be looking forward to getting the full game in our hands.

Screens Here ...

via CVG

Since news of the first Wii mod chip, Wiinja, arose last month, competing hackers have stormed the net with Wii-cracking alternatives, but none with such an attractive proposal as the WiiXT.

This latest mod chip claims to, among other things, enable your Wii to play DVD video discs. If true, this is a major revelation for Wii owners that wished Nintendo had included the most basic of multimedia functions with Wii in the first place.

It also claims to be region free, and operate in stealth mode which renders it undetectable by any anti-modding software Nintendo may release.

However, phony announcements are a common occurrence in the modding scene. Until a chip is shown and tested, you have to take the 'creator's' word for it.

Reader comments posted in the report on Engadget downplay the chip's authenticity: "Just the fact that they claim stealth + region free is bull, if region free were enabled the stealth goes out the window. Believe me, its total bull", says one poster.

Another says: "It wouldn't work. The drive spins counter-clockwise." DVD discs spin clockwise when read, in case you didn't know.

We don't make a habit of opening consoles to find out which way the disc spins. But if you are one of those modding types, let others know if you think the WiiXT could be for real.

If the chip is real it will go on sale for around the $60 mark soon. ...

A new gameplay trailer from Activision's Call of Duty advance onto PSP, Call of Duty: Roads to Victory, can be viewed in our video player yonder right.

Like previous games in the FPS series, Roads to Victory relives World War II combat from the eyes of three Allied soldiers, in this case a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, a Canadian First Army rifleman and an elite British Parachuting Regiment commando.

Call of Duty's carved itself a dominant slice of the WWII FPS pie with its gritty and intense action and epic atmosphere. Exactly how well this translates over to PSP, we'll just have to wait and see. Roads to Victory is due out in spring.

Trailer at CVG ...