Nintendo.com News : Who's Making Games for Nintendo Systems? Everyone!

After a few days of absolutely nothing interesting popping up, I found a week-old article listing upcoming Wii games, and it's quite a list!

Oct. 1: MLB Power Pros from 2K Sports Oct. 1: Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire from D3Publisher of America Oct. 2: Crash of the Titans from Sierra Entertainment, Inc. Oct. 5: Balls of Fury from DSI Games Oct. 8: Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast from Nintendo Oct. 9: FIFA 08 from Electronic Arts Oct. 9: Bleach: Shattered Blade from SEGA Oct. 9: LOONEY TUNES: ACME ARSENAL from WB Games Oct. 10: Arctic Tale from DSI Games Oct. 15: Sea Monsters from DSI Games Oct. 16: Thrillville: Off the Rails from LucasArts Oct. 22: EA PLAYGROUND from Electronic Arts Oct. 23: Backyard Football from Atari, Inc. Oct. 23: The Sims 2 Castaway from Electronic Arts Oct. 23: Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis from Rockstar Games Oct. 23: The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night from Sierra Entertainment, Inc. Oct. 23: NARUTO: Clash of Ninja Revolution from TOMY Corporation Oct. 25: M&M’S Kart Racing from DSI Games Oct. 28: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock from Activision Oct. 29: Battalion Wars 2 from Nintendo Oct. 30: Ben 10: Protector of Earth from D3Publisher of America Oct. 30: Showtime Championship Boxing from DSI Games Oct. 30: NEED FOR SPEED PROSTREET from Electronic Arts Oct. 30: THE SIMPSONS from Electronic Arts Oct. 31: Manhunt 2 from Rockstar Games October: Spider-Man: Friend or Foe from Activision October: Bee Movie Game from Activision October: Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground from Activision October: Ultimate Duck Hunting from Detn8 Games Ltd. October: Mercury Meltdown Revolution from Ignition Entertainment October: Namco Museum Remix from NAMCO BANDAI Games America October: Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity from The Game Factory October: Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth from THQ October: Bratz: The Movie from THQ October: Cars: Mater-National from THQ October: Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots from THQ October: SpongeBob’s Atlantis SquarePantis from THQ Nov. 5: Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn from Nintendo Nov. 6: DanceDanceRevolution Hottest Party from Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. Nov. 6: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga from LucasArts Nov. 6: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games from SEGA Nov. 12: Super Mario Galaxy from Nintendo Nov. 13: Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 from Atari, Inc. Nov. 13: Godzilla Unleashed from Atari, Inc. Nov. 13: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary from Eidos, Inc. Nov. 13: BLOCKS from Electronic Arts Nov. 13: MEDAL OF HONOR HEROES 2 from Electronic Arts Nov. 13: LUXOR: Pharaoh’s Challenge from MumboJumbo Nov. 13: Geometry Wars: Galaxies from Sierra Entertainment, Inc. Nov. 19: Link’s Crossbow Training (packaged with Wii Zapper) from Nintendo Nov. 19: SMARTY PANTS from Electronic Arts Nov. 20: Jenga World Tour from Atari, Inc. Nov. 20: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords from D3Publisher of America November: Trauma Center: New Blood from Atlus USA November: Star Trek: Conquest from Bethesda Softworks November: Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey from Disney Interactive Studios November: Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour from Disney Interactive Studios November: High School Musical: Sing It from Disney Interactive Studios November: Garfield Gets Real from DSI Games November: Furu Furu Park from Majesco Entertainment November: AMF Bowling: Pinbusters! from Mud Duck Games November: Ghost Squad from SEGA November: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 from THQ November: Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 from Ubisoft November: CSI: Hard Evidence from Ubisoft November: My Word Coach from Ubisoft November: Petz: Catz 2 (name not final) from Ubisoft November: Petz: Dogz 2 (name not final) from Ubisoft November: Petz: Horsez 2 (name not final) from Ubisoft November: Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 from Ubisoft Dec. 4: Alvin and the Chipmunks from Brash Entertainment Dec. 4: The Golden Compass from SEGA December: MX vs. ATV Untamed from THQ December: Super Swing Golf Season 2 from Tecmo, Inc. December: Rygar: The Battle of Argus from Tecmo, Inc. December: Cranium: Kabookii from Ubisoft December: Nitrobike from Ubisoft Holiday 2007: NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams from SEGA Winter ’07: SoulCalibur Legends from NAMCO BANDAI Games America Jan. 21: Endless Ocean from Nintendo Feb. 10 : Super Smash Bros. Brawl from Nintendo Feb. 15: Yamaha Supercross from DSI Games Feb. 19: Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity from SEGA February: No More Heroes from Ubisoft February: Wild Petz Tigerz from Ubisoft March: Obscure: The Aftermath from Ignition Entertainment Q1: LUXOR 3 from MumboJumbo Q1: One Piece: Unlimited Adventure from NAMCO BANDAI Games America Spring ’08: Mario Kart Wii (name not final) from Nintendo

Yikes...that's quite a lineup! I'm excited about DK's Wii debut, LEGO Star Wars, Super Mario Galaxy (of course) and Mario Kart particularly. I'll be interested to see how the Petz lineups are...Kyla may like them. I'm intrigued by the Duck Hunt title, and that DDR is on this list...are they actually coming to the Wii!!? Link's crossbow training sounds interesting...but I'll wait to see if it's a game that has replay value...it sounds like something that will lose its interest after playing for a bit.

Titles like Puzzle Quest, Jenga and Geometry wars sound intriguing on the Wii's unique platform. Who knows how they'll actually be, but it's good to see game makers realizing the potential for quasi-educational, fun quick games on the Wii. Anything that has the potential for building hand-eye coordination better than just pushing buttons, all while stimulating your mind just a bit while you're at it, sounds like the right idea to me!

I'll be glad when they start releasing Wii games in the Mario Sports series...hopefully there will be a little more time invested in them than in the bundled Wii Sports...I'd love to play a good game of Wii Mario Golf where the controls worked like you expected!

On a related note, I was at a friend's house last night, and we got to talking about the Wii. He's got Madden '08 (I have '07, but not this one), and he told me that he plays head-to-head using the internet connection. I couldn't believe it at first...I thought there were only two such games so far; Pokémon and Super Mario Strikers. I looked at the box, and indeed, it doesn't have the Nintendo Wi-Fi emblem on it, but it advertises internet play! What did they do, throw it in without telling Nintendo? Or does the emblem mean that the game uses Nintendo's servers, and the Madden game is run through their own servers? I didn't know the game makers could access the internet connection directly without going through Nintendo...sounds like a stupid move that might have security implications (if I'm right, of course). Fortunately, it's not too easy for people to distribute homebrew Nintendo software (they can't exactly stick them in Target for people to get duped into buying, only to find out it's got a trojan or virus, and you can't download anything from the internet onto your Wii directly), so maybe that's what they're relying on...they probably thoroughly check out all the Nintendo games that actually get marketed to make sure they're clean.