Wii News

Stumbling Towards Greatness: A Batman Retrospective

The intro to Batman: The Animated Series ... reimagined with game footage

Batman has had a long and (mostly) horrendous career as a video game crime fighter. While his big screen adventures have evolved into masterpieces, most of Batman's video game outings have made players want to poke out their eyes with a Batarang. To celebrate the arrival of Batman's latest and (we assure you) greatest adventure - Batman: Arkham Asylum - Joystiq looks back at the rest of the Caped Crusader's games.

Don the cape and cowl and bring a flashlight. We're going to have to crawl through a lot of darkness to get to the light at the end of this licensing tunnel.

Continue to the Batman Retrospective

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Level-5 invites players into a 'Fantasy Life' ... in a doomed town

In addition to the London Life RPG inside Professor Layton and the Devil's Flute, Level-5 announced another collaboration with Brownie Brown, the Sword of Mana developer and Mother 3 co-creator: Fantasy Life, a town simulation in the vein of Animal Crossing.

Fantasy Life occurs in the world of Fantazeal, which shows prophesied signs of impending destruction after a shadow passes over the moon. If this were a normal RPG, you'd portray some kind of teenaged hero fighting to save the world from this catastrophe, but in this game, it basically doesn't seem to matter: you choose a job and undertake daily "Life Quests" related to that job, to improve your wealth and happiness levels. The game includes local and online wireless functionality, allowing others to visit your town.

Aside from Level-5 and Brownie Brown, Fantasy Life features more big names. Nobuo Uematsu is composing an opening theme, as well as ending themes for the ending of each job's "life," and character design is being done by Hideo Minaba, a Final Fantasy series alum who most recently designed the characters in Little King's Story.

[Via Andriasang]
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PlayOn video streaming beta playing on Wii now

MediaMall Technologies has opened up a beta of the Wii version of its PlayOn streaming media software, already available for PS3, Xbox 360 and other devices. Basically, that means that you should be able to download the PC software and then use the Internet Channel to watch Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and other content on your TV. There's a 14-day free trial of the software, after which you have to pay $39.99 for the full version -- by the way, we couldn't help but notice that the price has increased, and the duration of the trial decreased, since last year. $40 is kind of a lot, but not when compared to the cost of an Xbox 360 or another Netflix-capable device. Unless it turns out not to work well -- which many of us are no doubt on our way to determining right now. [Via Engadget]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Kirby's Dreamland 'movie' trailer is the stuff of nightmares


The Kirby we know and love is "one tough cream puff," but in this short from the mind of one MB McClain, he's a serial killer who ingests his victims in order to absorb their souls. His lovable antagonist from the games, King Dedede? He's a grizzled detective who vows to capture Kirby ... dead or alive. Yep, folks, it's another day of disturbing gaming videos here at the 'stiq.In fact, if you have any little ones, we suggest you shoo them away before watching the trailer (more of a short film, really) after the break, lest they grow up to make the kind of video you're about to fuel six months' worth of nightmares with. While we're not sure McClain's Kirby could ever carry an entire film, he could make a good second-rung slasher absorber in the next Freddy vs. Jason.[Thanks, BPM!]

Continue reading Kirby's Dreamland 'movie' trailer is the stuff of nightmares

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The pre-order bonus of your dreams: A Bakugan pillowcase


Let the losers keep their night vision goggles and Batarangs, those of you pre-ordering Bakugan Battle Brawlers at Game Crazy are going to get the real premium: A pillowcase featuring BBB's lead character Dan. Just imagine how cool it's going to look this October as the neighborhood bully spirits it into the night, filled with your freshly collected Halloween candy.

What's that? Still not convinced? Did we mention that the reverse side features Dan's guardian Bakugan Dragonoid? Seriously, check it out after the jump.

Continue reading The pre-order bonus of your dreams: A Bakugan pillowcase

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Nintendo patents football controller, looks a lot like a football


At some point, it really behooves a gamer to ask the question, "How many peripherals is enough peripherals?" The Wii remote is a pretty sweet piece of technology. We get that. The nunchuk adds some much-needed flexibility, sure. MotionPlus adds some extra sensitivity for 1:1 play. Okay, we all want that, right? But a football?Siliconera reports that Nintendo vice president of R&D, Howard Cheng, has submitted a patent for a Wii football peripheral. Specifically, it's a football shaped shell for the Wii remote with different variations, like the tweaked MotionPlus version featured above. The patent cites different examples of how to use the peripheral. Obviously, throwing motions are mentioned. The Wii remote could also detect body motion and interpret it as "running." Call us cynics, but can't the Wii remote do all of that without a squishy football wrapped around it?Then again, it's probably awesome for Punch-OutII.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Nintendo, Hillcrest Labs settle patent infringement case

According to a Bloomberg report, Nintendo and Hillcrest Labs have settled a patent infringement case that was initially brought to the attention of the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2008. Had the case, er, yielded a consumer worst-case scenario, Nintendo could have faced a U.S. import ban on its Wii, the device cited by Hillcrest as containing infringing motion-sensing techno-thingies (academic term). Neither of the involved companies cared to comment on the settlement's particulars, leaving the question of whether Nintendo reneged and domestically licensed the technology from Hillcrest well in the realm of speculation. Still, the end result has surely been deemed preferable to the Wii's banishment from the United States -- as interesting as that would have made the monthly NPD results.[Via GamePolitics]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Capcom announces release date for Resident Evil T-shirt, also Darkside Chronicles


Once a Comic-Con exclusive, the fan-tastic Resident Evil zombie face T-shirt that is GameStop's pre-order bonus for Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is being released on November 17. Oh, and so is the game. (Darkside Chronicles, that is -- not a game based on the shirt, although that would be ... interesting.)OK, so back to the T-shirt. Capcom's also making it available via its online store for $24.95. Of course, for just $25.04 more you can get the shirt and the game, which we guess you could play when you're not freaking people the eff out in your awesome shirt.

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Dress Travis Touchdown for this No More Heroes 2 contest

A few months ago, Marvelous and Famitsu held a No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle contest in Japan, allowing fans to submit t-shirt designs for possible inclusion in Travis Touchdown's wardrobe. Today, Ubisoft announced that it is giving American fans the chance to outfit Travis as well.

From now through September 5, you can submit a t-shirt design to Ubisoft through this site. Suda 51 will personally select the winning design. Amusingly, this is the only contest we can remember whose official rules state that the prize has an approximate retail value of $0.00. That's the most exciting nothing we've ever considered competing for!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Japanese Nintendo Downloads: Escape from Various Locations

Marvelous's distinctively drab, enticingly bizarre adventure game Discipline launched today in Japan. We're eager to hear if the You Fluid weirdness overpowers the interesting puzzle-adventure concept. Also available on WiiWare: a couple of educational games, one of which is based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar; a haunted-house-themed minigame collection from Gameloft, and D3's room-escape adventure game.On Virtual Console, Activision's Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is now available, along with Finest Hour, a jetpack-enhanced run-and-gun from Namco.

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