This week in the Nintendo Download we have three catchy new WiiWare titles, one welcome to the Fantasy Zone, and another clock/calculator combo for the DSi.

It's a triple dose of WiiWare this week, and at least two of them seem pretty interesting. You can't help but be curious about a game called Eduardo the Samurai Toaster (800 Wii points), Semnat Studios' co-operative multiplayer food shooter, and Taito's Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure (800 points) features rainbow-spewing children, which is always a plus. The only questionable title of the three is Sega's Let's Catch (1,000 points), which presents variations on the game of catch, with special features unlocked when you own both this game and Let's Tap.

The Virtual Console adds another arcade title to its lineup today with Space Harrier (800 points), the original arcade version of Sega's classic 3-D scrolling shooter, which I've played so many times at this point I can simply close my eyes and recreate it in my head.

Finally we have DSiWare. Sad, sad, DSiWare. Remember the Animal Crossing clock and calculator they released for 200 DSi points apiece? Well now they've got Mario versions. We need to come up with some sort of term for weeks like these, when the DSi only gets utilities. How about clock-blocked?

As always, check out the official descriptions below for a more marketing-friendly view of this week's offerings.

WiiWare

Eduardo the Samurai Toaster
Publisher: Semnat Studios
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) - Mild Cartoon Violence
Price: 800 Wii Points™
Description: Fight your way through 13 diverse locations on your own or with up to three friends in this frenetic and stylish side-scrolling action game. Play as Eduardo and his fellow toaster buddies as you fire an assortment of pastries at all kinds of dastardly food products. Hop onto laser-mounted scooters and fly across the screen in rocket packs, and learn to cooperate with your teammates or simply annoy each other in an awesomely fun way by throwing each other around the screen. The choice is up to you.

RAINBOW ISLANDS™: TOWERING ADVENTURE!
Publisher: TAITO
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) - Comic Mischief800
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: In Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure!, players control the rainbow-magic-wielding Bubby or Bobby as they climb the seven seamless areas of a tower reaching the heavens while defeating enemies with their rainbow powers. Bosses controlled by the scientific genius Dr. Crescent await players at the end of every area. Race through every area within the allotted time to meet the rainbow-colored Holly's Comet. There are three game modes: Story mode, which tells the tale of Holly's Comet; Challenge mode, where players attempt to climb as high as they can; and Time Attack, where players select an area and see how fast they can climb it. Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! is an exhilarating action game where you use rainbows to climb into the heavens.

Let's CATCH™
Publisher: SEGA
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) - Comic Mischief, Mild Suggestive Themes
Price: 1,000 Wii Points
Description: Play catch with friends in multiplayer party games and compete for high scores using your Mii™ character and others. Choose from six different single and multiplayer modes such as Speed Catch, which tests your ability to catch a fastball, and Bomb Catch, an elimination party game for up to four players. Select from a variety of characters or use your Mii character to play other favorite catch games. Unlock special features when you own both Let's TAP and Let's CATCH.

Nintendo DSiWare

Mario™ Calculator
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: N/A
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points™
Description: Mario and Luigi™ take a break from their normal adventures to dedicate their heroic talents to working with numbers. Mario Calculator features the full functionality of a traditional calculator, including a Memory key and the ability to display up to 13 digits, and adds a layer of atmosphere reminiscent of the original Super Mario Bros.™ Use the Unit Converter to turn one unit of measure into another (such as length, weight, volume, age and others), or track the history of calculations you've performed with ease. Listen to the Mario-related sounds and watch the coins fly as calculations are performed. Now, back to adding up those high scores...

Mario™ Clock
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Turn back time and enjoy a bit of classic game play based on the original Super Mario Bros. with Mario Clock. Help Mario and Luigi collect more coins than ever (POW block anyone?) while they run through a variety of stages. Gather enough coins and you'll be treated to another scene bound to bring back fond memories for many. Mario Clock includes both analog and digital clocks that use the system's internal clock or allow you to offset the time however you like. Program up to three alarms (with snooze functionality ...

This week in the Nintendo Download we have three catchy new WiiWare titles, one welcome to the Fantasy Zone, and another clock/calculator combo for the DSi.

It's a triple dose of WiiWare this week, and at least two of them seem pretty interesting. You can't help but be curious about a game called Eduardo the Samurai Toaster (800 Wii points), Semnat Studios' co-operative multiplayer food shooter, and Taito's Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure (800 points) features rainbow-spewing children, which is always a plus. The only questionable title of the three is Sega's Let's Catch (1,000 points), which presents variations on the game of catch, with special features unlocked when you own both this game and Let's Tap.

The Virtual Console adds another arcade title to its lineup today with Space Harrier (800 points), the original arcade version of Sega's classic 3-D scrolling shooter, which I've played so many times at this point I can simply close my eyes and recreate it in my head.

Finally we have DSiWare. Sad, sad, DSiWare. Remember the Animal Crossing clock and calculator they released for 200 DSi points apiece? Well now they've got Mario versions. We need to come up with some sort of term for weeks like these, when the DSi only gets utilities. How about clock-blocked?

As always, check out the official descriptions below for a more marketing-friendly view of this week's offerings.

WiiWare

Eduardo the Samurai Toaster
Publisher: Semnat Studios
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) - Mild Cartoon Violence
Price: 800 Wii Points™
Description: Fight your way through 13 diverse locations on your own or with up to three friends in this frenetic and stylish side-scrolling action game. Play as Eduardo and his fellow toaster buddies as you fire an assortment of pastries at all kinds of dastardly food products. Hop onto laser-mounted scooters and fly across the screen in rocket packs, and learn to cooperate with your teammates or simply annoy each other in an awesomely fun way by throwing each other around the screen. The choice is up to you.

RAINBOW ISLANDS™: TOWERING ADVENTURE!
Publisher: TAITO
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) - Comic Mischief800
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: In Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure!, players control the rainbow-magic-wielding Bubby or Bobby as they climb the seven seamless areas of a tower reaching the heavens while defeating enemies with their rainbow powers. Bosses controlled by the scientific genius Dr. Crescent await players at the end of every area. Race through every area within the allotted time to meet the rainbow-colored Holly's Comet. There are three game modes: Story mode, which tells the tale of Holly's Comet; Challenge mode, where players attempt to climb as high as they can; and Time Attack, where players select an area and see how fast they can climb it. Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! is an exhilarating action game where you use rainbows to climb into the heavens.

Let's CATCH™
Publisher: SEGA
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) - Comic Mischief, Mild Suggestive Themes
Price: 1,000 Wii Points
Description: Play catch with friends in multiplayer party games and compete for high scores using your Mii™ character and others. Choose from six different single and multiplayer modes such as Speed Catch, which tests your ability to catch a fastball, and Bomb Catch, an elimination party game for up to four players. Select from a variety of characters or use your Mii character to play other favorite catch games. Unlock special features when you own both Let's TAP and Let's CATCH.

Nintendo DSiWare

Mario™ Calculator
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: N/A
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points™
Description: Mario and Luigi™ take a break from their normal adventures to dedicate their heroic talents to working with numbers. Mario Calculator features the full functionality of a traditional calculator, including a Memory key and the ability to display up to 13 digits, and adds a layer of atmosphere reminiscent of the original Super Mario Bros.™ Use the Unit Converter to turn one unit of measure into another (such as length, weight, volume, age and others), or track the history of calculations you've performed with ease. Listen to the Mario-related sounds and watch the coins fly as calculations are performed. Now, back to adding up those high scores...

Mario™ Clock
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Turn back time and enjoy a bit of classic game play based on the original Super Mario Bros. with Mario Clock. Help Mario and Luigi collect more coins than ever (POW block anyone?) while they run through a variety of stages. Gather enough coins and you'll be treated to another scene bound to bring back fond memories for many. Mario Clock includes both analog and digital clocks that use the system's internal clock or allow you to offset the time however you like. Program up to three alarms (with snooze functionality ...

Tetris father Alexey Pajitnov thinks his creation can adapt to fit a world where mental fitness will soon replace physical fitness.

Pajitov and Tetris Company co-founder Henk Rogers explained that Tetris sells more copies now than ever, thanks to mobile phones, and that the Western world will soon emulate the casual-game explosion of Korea.

"People ask me, 'Are you still alive? I think you are a legend,'" Pajitnov told Kotaku. "I expected [Tetris] to be a good game - not worse than anything else. I never expected this."

Henk Rogers added: "We are going to turn Tetris into the first real virtual sport. Sports like baseball and football were created at a time when our future was a lifetime of physical activities and physical fitness. But now that's not as important, it's more about mental fitness today.

"Tetris is a virtual sport that exercises the mind. That is the definition of a virtual sport," said Rogers.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/te...-virtual-sport ...

EA is being attacked by Christian bloggers for staging a fake religious protest against Dante's Inferno during E3 week.

A viral marketing agency hired 20 people to picket the game outside the Los Angeles Convention Center, bearing signs reading "Hell is not a game" and "Trade in your PlayStation for a PrayStation". They even blamed a rare day of rain in LA on the godlessness of EA's game, based on Dante Aligheri's Divine Comedy.

Although the LA Times fell for it, Associated Press later exposed the stunt.

Now Christian, specifically Catholic, bloggers are taking exception to EA's marketing tactics, reports GamePolitics.

"It's been clear for a while now that the entertainment industry views Christians on the whole as priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers," said Maragret Cabaniss of InsideCatholic. "Has anybody at EA actually read the Inferno?"

Catholic Video Gamers was more direct: "Gamers of all varieties will buy this product if it's, well, actually a good game. So instead of engaging in a shamelessly anti-Christian stunt to promote your poor excuse of a product, maybe you ought to work on making this game, you know, something better than a blatant God of War rip-off and make it, ya know, something worthwhile?"

Touché. Dante's Inferno is out next year for PC, 360, PS3 and PSP.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ch...-dante-protest ...

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima will have more involvement in MGS Rising than he has previously let on.

"I'll be working more deeply on the project then a normal producer," Kojima explained to Japanese magazine Dengeki (translated by GamerCenterOnline). "It's a completely different kind of action than what has appeared in the series so far."

Hideo Kojima will let "young-bloods" within Kojima Productions do the bulk of the work on MGS Rising, which will retain the stealth espionage core but otherwise be a "new experience".

As the first Metal Gear Solid title to appear on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, Rising will need a new engine - a task Kojima Productions is eager to live up to.

"We're redoing the engine from scratch, and it's going to look amazing. It's going to be a big project like Metal Gear Solid 4. The entire team is serious about making it look as good as possible on every platform," said Kojima Productions' podcast host Sean Eyestone.

Meanwhile, Kojima will boss development of "true sequel" to MGS4, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for PSP. But, originally, he very nearly had nothing to do with it.

"At first, I was just going to create the overall guidelines and concepts for the project, and leave it in the hands my excellent staff," said Kojima. "I was going to have a hand in the project as a producer, and make titles other than MGS.

"But, I set the game in the South American [sic] country of Costa Rica and created a story with themes about nuclear deterrence and The Cold War. It looked as if it might be very confusing to young people, because of generational differences. So, in the end I finally said, 'I'll do it.'"

MGS: Peace Walker is a 1970s-set sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3 starring Naked Snake, otherwise known as Big Boss. It will be released next year. Little is known about Rising other than that it will star Raiden in his cybernetic ninja suit and, is in development for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ko...-on-mgs-rising ...

The new Bionic Commando sold a mere 27,000 units during its first month of sale in the US this May, reports Gamasutra. Well, its "first month" might be stretching it (like a grapple arm) a bit. The title went on sale May 19, which means it was at retail for the Xbox 360 and PS3 for a little under two weeks. Although, even with that caveat, those sales figures still aren't good for the modestly reviewed title, which had plenty of promotion.

Terminator Salvation, also developed by (the allegedly downsized) Grin and released around the same time as BC, sold 43,000 units with exceptionally poor reviews. To really put things in perspective, Bionic Commando Rearmed -- the high-def remake of the classic game -- sold 130,000 copies during its first week late last year.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/15/bi...-sales-in-may/ ...

Electronic Arts' The Sims 3 remains the number one best-selling title in the UK according to data from GfK Chart Track, despite sales dropping 48 per cent.

Activision's new IP Prototype enters the charts at number two this week, nudging THQ's Red Faction: Guerilla down to number three as sales fall 31 per cent.

The biggest climber this week is Activision's Call of Duty: World at War, with sales jumping 79 per cent off the back of price promotions.

And EA's Grand Slam Tennis – the first title released to use Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus – entered the charts at number 13 in its first week on sale.

The top ten follows:

01 The Sims 3
02 Prototype
03 Red Faction: Guerilla
04 Wii Fit
05 UFC 2009: Undisputed
06 EA Sports Active
07 Call of Duty: World at War
08 Pokemon Platinum
09 Infamous
10 FIFA 09

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-drop-in-sales ...

Palm have "politely" warned the Pre homebrewers behind the Pre Dev Wiki not to talk about hacking the handset for internet tethering on their site ... because Sprint might complain.

The caution from Palm suggests that 'they' don't have a problem with someone figuring out a tethering solution for the easily hackable handset, but that Sprint - who don't allow tethering, even on their $99 everything plan - might.

Palm warned that if Sprint complained, they would be forced to react against the people running the site with legal action. As a result the guys at Pre Dev Wiki have pulled any tethering chat and posted an explanation as to why it has gone.

We have been politely cautioned by Palm that any discussion of tethering during the Sprint exclusivity period (and perhaps beyond-we don't know yet) will probably cause Sprint to complain to Palm, and if that happened then Palm would be forced to react against the people running the IRC channel and this wiki.

They have however, added a note stating that Sprint does not have a Pre plan which allows tethering under the Terms Of Service. It seems like everyone involved is sticking a finger up at Sprint, though not necessarily to their face.

http://gizmodo.com/5290871/palm-warn...t-wont-like-it ...

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed that it will introduce a new, patented help system into future titles, starting with this holiday's New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Speaking to USA Today, Miyamoto explained that the "demo play" technology Nintendo patented earlier this year will be introduced in the four-player Super Mario title revealed during E3 earlier this month.

"In New Super Mario Bros Wii, if a player is experiencing an area of difficulty, this will allow them to clear troubled areas and take over when they're ready," said Miyamoto. "And yes, we're looking into this for future games, too."

The patent in question, "Method and apparatus for fraud reduction and product recovery", outlined a system for helping players through difficult gameplay scenarios by allowing them to have the game automatically play through them.

The patent's illustrations show a close resemblance to Miyamoto's The Legend of Zelda series, leading some to speculate that it would be applied to the next entry in the franchise. In a private press event during this month's E3 expo, Miyamoto confirmed that a new Zelda title is currently being developed, though he made no mention of whether the game would use the tentatively-named "demo play" feature.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...demo-play-tech ...