via Punch Jump

Namco Bandai Games America Inc. on Fri. announced that Namco Museum Remix will launch on Nintendo Co.'s Wii video game system this fall.

The title will feature five remixed Namco arcade games that will utilize the Wii Remote control and allow owners to whip, swing, twist, and shake the video game classics.

Remixed titles include Pac'n Roll, Pac-Motos Remix, Galaga, Rally-X, and Gator Panic Remix.

"Namco Museum Remix breathes new life into all time classic games like Galaga, Rally-X and Pac’n Roll by taking their fun and famous gameplay and adding new twists which are easy to grasp, involve multiple players and offers a level of fun that is only possible with the Nintendo Wii," Makoto Iwai COO and Senior Vice President, Namco Bandai Games America Inc., said.

In Pac'n Roll Remix, players can roll Pac-man through worlds that feature pac pellets and obstacles. In Galaga Remix, up to four players can shoot alien invaders. In Rally-X Remix players can use the Wii Remote to steer.

In addition to Namco Museum Remix, Namco Bandai will also release Tamagotchi Party On! in 2007.

Nintendo has sold nearly 2.5 million Wii units in the U.S. to date. It ranked as the top-selling home console in Apr. retail sales data. ...

via Advanced Media Network

The April NPD numbers have finally been released, and it looks like Nintendo has been performing all the right moves.

The company sold a combined 831,000 Nintendo DS and Wii units over the monthly period with an estimated 63% of total Wii games and 79% of all DS games sold developed by Nintendo themselves. Yet Nintendo’s success has come at the expense of many third-party publishers who depend on the younger demographic for a huge chunk of their monthly revenue.

Take for example Electronic Arts, whose sales fell an estimated 44% to $37.9 million in monthly revenue. EA’s Medal of Honor: Vanguard for the PlayStation 2 and Wii sold only 56,000 units combined, while only 53,000 copies of Tiger Woods PGA Tour for the Wii were sold. Indeed, Pacific Crest’s Evan Wilson stated that a recent "shift in interest to Nintendo products has clearly stolen share from third-party games across all platforms." He continued, "This has had the greatest effect on Electronic Arts due to its size."

Other companies that saw a slide in software revenue included Take-Two Interactive, which had a 54.5 percent decrease in sales ending at $19.8 million. THQ suffered a 27.6 percent fall to 13.4 million for the period.

According to UBS analyst Benjamin A. Schachter, “A key to the successes of many publishers during the last console cycle was market share gains at the expense of first-party publishers. We are concerned that this cycle may revert somewhat back to greater share gains for the first-party players, particularly as Nintendo rebounds and Microsoft focuses on and improves its AAA titles." ...

via GWN

We have some stunning new screenshots in addition to a video stock full of gameplay footage, what more could you possibly want?



Sega Rally Revo is set to be the latest installment in the popular Sega Rally series when it is released for the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 during the fall later this year.

The game is being developed by the UK-based development team Sega Racing studio, which is promising "to bring state of the art racing to next-gen console."

The final game will include online multiplayer for up to five players, in addition to an extensive single player ‘Championship’ mode, all set against six gorgeous and varied backdrops. ...

New version of the Nintendo DS emulator for PC.

Changelog:

* Added LDRD and STRD opcodes.
* Added HuffUnComp BIOS function.
* Added Square Root BIOS function.
* Added command line options.
* Added zipped rom support (the emulator slows down).
* Added basic frameskip.
* Added support for M3, Supercard CF and Supercard One files.
* Added Run to Cursor(F6) and Step Over(F8) in debugger.
* Added support for Shadow Polygons.
* Added support for .ds.gba and .sc.nds files.
* Added Rotation feature.
* Added Save/Load game capability.
* Fixed unaligned memory access on LDRH opcode.
* Fixed a bug in textures management.
* Fixed a bug in 3D matrices management.
* Fixed a bug in LIGHT_VECTOR register.
* Fixed a bug in NORMAL register.
* Fixed a bug in GXSTAT register.
* Fixed a bug in Extended Draw Mode management.
* Fixed a bug in microphone support.

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

There are new screens about the Seaman sequel (remember the first one on Dreamcast) called "Seaman 2: Peking Genjin Ikusei Kit"

Only 3 images here ...

via TECH.BLORGE.com


Nintendo is experimenting with “download stations” at three airports where users can wirelessly download free game demos to their Nintendo DS consoles. The free game demos currently available include…

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day
Elite Beat Agents
Cooking Mama

But Nintendo plans to swap in new games periodically. Nintendo also says the demos are “temporary” — meaning, presumably, that they expire at some point.

The game download stations appear at the international airports in New York, Atlanta, and Cincinnati, as part of a partnership with Delta Air Lines. There’s four stations at New York’s JFK airport (near Delta Terminals 2 and 3), plus stations at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International.

Delta had already been trying to distinguish their airline with special services like in-flight HBO shows and on-demand programming. (They bragged the Nintendo download stations were “yet another innovative entertainment offering to our global travelers.”) But the partnership also fits into Nintendo’s relentless quest for new customers, according to a Nintendo spokesman. “Because people typically have a lot of down time, airports are ideal places for people young and old to try out free new game experiences and see what they like.”

Nintendo says the game demos will “build on Nintendo’s goal to expand the world of video games to new audiences,” which seems a little disingenous. (You have to own a Nintendo DS console already, so you’ve probably also experienced the “world of video games”.) What they’re really after is higher game sales, and maybe some brand-building. But Nintendo has found a genuinely new and untapped marketing channel.

When a company is fighting both Microsoft and Sony, they have to be creative! ...

via Top Tech News

One of the most popular game franchises in history will emerge in a new version this summer -- but only one of the three major new gaming platforms will be invited to the party.

On Friday, SCi Entertainment, the owner of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider series, announced that PlayStation 2 and Windows PC versions of "Tomb Raider: Anniversary" will be released in Europe on June 1. A version for the handheld Sony Relevant Products/Services PSP will be released shortly thereafter.

According to reports in the London TimesOnline, SCi is working on a version of the game for the Nintendo Wii platform that will be released later this year. The owners of the other two major gaming platforms, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, will have to wait until the 2008 release of "Tomb Raider 9" for their next Croft fix. ...

via Nintendic

Sega Studio producer, Takashi Iizuka has made it known that he would like the upcoming NiGHTS: Journey into Dreams for the Nintendo Wii to utilise the Nintendo W-Fi Connection when it arrives on the console later this year.

“Currently, we are investigating a number of features that will utilize the Wii network capability,” Iizuka told IGN, “but, at this time we have not decided on any specific functionality yet.”

On a similarly vague note, he went on to tell the gaming website, “Ultimately, we would like to have multiplayer functionality as well as a way to tap into the Nintendo network where players could share their game experience on a world-wide level.”

Of course, whether this means, just an online leader board or, in actual fact, a fully functioning console-to-console multiplayer element in still unknown, although we bet that the majority of gamers would be praying for the latter. We already know that the game will interact with the Wii’s Weather Channel to synchronise weather conditions depending on the time of year, so who knows?

The Sega employee also revealed that work on the new Wii-exclusive title and follow-up to the Sega Saturn favourite had begun last year. He went on to explain some of the challenges that the firm faced in developing controls for the Wii remote:

“Initially, we envisioned using the Wii remote as sort of a “magic wand”, where NiGHTS could be directed simply by movements of the controller,” he revealed. “But with any new input device, we were finding some limitations using just the remote. That is why we are also designing the game to be played using the remote with the Nunchuk for a more “traditional” control configuration.”

Sega of America’s Vice President of Marketing, Scott Steinberg, has previously promised us the following in relation to the game’s control method, so we remain hopeful that the company can pull off something special:

“We plan to deliver a gameplay experience never before seen on the Wii with NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. The game takes full advantage of the unique Wii Remote controller enabling gamers to guide NiGHTS through spectacularly designed dream worlds intertwined with a story about hope and courage.” ...

via Cubed3

According to Nintendo Fanboy, animal lovers are in for a treat with a dog themed puzzle game brought to the DS by Hudson. Kyou no Wanko is based on a Japanese morning TV spot, allowing players to solve some adorable doggy puzzles by touching up their DSs. One to look out for on July 26th. ...