Nintendo has been full of surprises recently, but perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that they keep on coming. Have a read of this little lot just announced at a Japanese press conference. Which was held in Japan.
To be honest the first announcement isn’t really that much of a surprise. To wit: Sonic will indeed be in Super Smash Bros. Melee. There’s no sign of Tails, but this trailer shows Super Sonic towards the end. Staying with the blue-haired one for a moment, it was also revealed that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games will let you play as your own Miis. In addition to the standard track and field events there will be some fantasy ‘dream events’ too including a power-up packed sky-dive and sci-fi influenced table tennis. Sounds like they had more development time than they needed.
The first games for WiiWare – Nintendo’s answer to Xbox Live Arcade – have made themselves known. Bomberman, 2D shooter Star Soldier R and Joy Sound Wii are from Hudson. Dr. Mario Bacteria Extermination, Pokemon Farm Channel, the Mii-featuring Puzz Loop for Everybody (aka Zuma/PuzzLoop/Actionloop) are Nintendo’s own offerings, while Square-Enix are readying Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Little King and The Promised Land. Namco-Bandai has just one in the works – Mojipittan Wii, a Scrabble style word game. And if you can’t get enough Ping Pong then you might be excited to hear about Okiraku Ping Pong Wii from the creators of Guilty Gear. According to Nintendo over 100 titles have been submitted so far.
Next: Mario Kart Wii will let you get to grips with motorbikes. Whether you’ll be able to have bike versus kart races is unknown, although we’d wager that side karts are a possibility – one player could drive and another aim and activate power-ups. Maybe?
As for new game announcements there was just one of note – Monster Hunter 3. It was originally down for release on PlayStation 3, but obviously Capcom thinks it’ll do better on Wii. The first two – both on PSP – were huge in Japan, with the second being the best selling PSP game so far. Online play is pretty much a given. Then there was Super Mario Stadium Baseball and Kirby Ultra Super Deluxe on DS. Let’s hope it doesn’t suck. Joke!