Wednesday, October 17, 2007

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.

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