In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information.
Nintendo has enjoyed tremendous success thanks to the forward-thinking innovations of its DS and Wii systems, but the company’s lineup is focused squarely on the past. The publisher revealed today its first-party and third-party lineup of Wii and DS games through March of 2009, with a scattering of revamps and remakes comprising the majority of its own games.
For the Wii, Nintendo has only two releases planned, both remakes of GameCube games designed to support the Wii Remote’s motion-sensing capabilities. The self-explanatory New Play Control Mario Power Tennis and New Play Control Pikmin will both launch in March.
Nintendo UK has released a massive release date list of Wii and DS titles for Europe today. Eurogamer notes that this list features the first GameCube-to-Wii ports, dubbed “New Play Control!” titles, which include Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis. This new label sees classic GameCube titles revamped to utilize new Wii-specific control schemes. See below for the complete, huge list of upcoming European releases.
Wii Release Dates
Although they share Shaun White’s visage and a snowboarding theme, not much else ties Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip to its PS3/Xbox 360 counterpart – and that’s a good thing. While the more powerful console version looks arguably better, obtuse controls and a misleading map make exploring it feel like an uphill trek. For now, the underpowered Wii provides the best Shaun White experience.
As your close personal friend in the game, White has you racing to meet up with him and his friends as he jets Carmen Sandiego-like between exotic mountain locales around the world. When you first arrive at a hill, you can only compete in one event — it feels limiting at first, but the barrier to clearing each event’s low enough that you can easily progress through the main game thanks in large part to the excellent controls.
In a survey conducted by Japanese search engine Goo, the Wii Fit ranked third for the year behind the year’s two sweet sensations: salted sweets and raw caramel. Wii Fit became a national phenomenon because it was seen as an easy and fun way to get fit.
Around 3 million units of the software and companion “balance board” hardware are expected to be sold by Nintendo in Japan this year, it said recently. Worldwide the company expects to sell 10 million units this year.
Downloadable content hasn’t traditionally been one of the main selling points for Activision’s Guitar Hero series. That stance has perceptibly changed with World Tour, due in part to the fact that Activision now has a studio whose professed purpose it is to create DLC for the rhythm-game franchise. Examples thus far released for World Tour include tracks from the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Raconteurs, R.E.M., Boston, Foreigner, and Oasis.
Today, Activision laid out Guitar Hero World Tour’s DLC lineup for the month of December, injecting the game with a number of new songs from legendary rockers. Leading the show on December 4, The Smashing Pumpkins will reprise their on-disc performance of “Today” with “G.L.O.W.” from their new album, as well as “1979″ and “The Everlasting Gaze.”
Telltale Games’ frighteningly amoral tag team of freelance police are ready to protect and serve (for a reasonable fee) once again. As part of a bevy of announcements, Atari announced this week that it would be bringing the second season of the downloadable, episodic adventure series Sam & Max to stores around the world next year.
Season 2 sees the cuddly yet violent detectives investigate a giant robot attack on their beloved city, perform an exorcism on Santa Claus, and even visit Hell, a heavily bureaucratic limited-liability company. As part of the international release, Sam & Max Season 2 will introduce full French and German translations to the episodes, as well as Spanish and Italian subtitles.
Gene Simmons and the Interactive Game Group have come together to offer gamers the chance to play their very own ‘Axe Guitar’ in Guitar Hero, or Rock Band. Gene Simmons commented on the videogame accessory adaptation of his iconic guitar:
“I never do anything half way. My AXE controller is the closest thing you can have to being onstage in KISS. I created and designed the Gene Simmons AXE bass guitar and I can’t wait for the fans to experience it for themselves. The Gene Simmons AXE guitar is such a recognizable symbol – people have been asking for a gaming replica ever since Guitar Hero was first introduced.”
As the second stage in the series’ 30th-anniversary revival (following Space Invaders Extreme), Space Invaders Get Even turns the tables on the traditional franchise formula, putting you in the shoes (well, the saucer) of the titular invaders as you wreak havoc on Earth.
Get Even falls somewhere between overhead shooter and real-time strategy, as you’re not actually firing at the various structures and enemies that cross your path – rather, you’re instructing the iconic pixels to take down whichever target you specify with the Wii Remote pointer. Those little buggers can be killed in action, so you’ll need to occasionally shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to generate more, or unleash a screen-clearing special attack, which also replenishes your forces.
The venerable Atari brand has fallen on hard times recently, although signs are starting to suggest the possibility of a comeback. Sony alumn Phil Harrison recently took the reins of the beleaguered publisher, hoping to help turn business around. The recently-released Alone in the Dark Inferno on PS3 is the first step in a company makeover aimed at restoring the high level of quality we expect from this 30-year-old brand.
The company today announced its lineup of games due this coming spring 2009. There are a variety of console and handheld titles on the menu, suggesting that Atari will retain a broad publishing focus going forward. We are particularly interested to see how The Chronicles of Riddick and Ghostbusters turn out, after Atari snapped these franchises up in the fallout of the Vivendi-Activision merger.
