Category Archives: Mini-games

GoNintendo is reporting that Caffeinated Games is weighing up whether or not to bring its latest “board and collectible card game” from PC to WiiWare.

All that’s needed to make it happen is for you to leave a comment over at GoNintendo and ask for it, apparently.

We love board and collectible card game, so we’ve already spammed it to kingdom come.

Join us through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Nintendo UK has confirmed that Wii Wario Land Shake is a real title and will release in Japan in July, as previously rumoured.

“Wario Land Shake has been announced in Japan where it is scheduled to be launched in July,” a rep told videogaming247 this morning. “Nothing announced for Europe right now.”

The spokesperson also confirmed the following for Japanese launch and gave dates, a list that differs slightly from the previous story:

DS

• June 26 – Band Bros DX
• July 10 – Densetsu no Starfi
• July 31 – Rhythm Tengoku Gold
• Aug 7 – Fire Emblem

Wii

• June 19 – Super Mario Stadium Family Baseball
• July 24 – Wario Land Shake
• July 31 – Zero

A list of new Nintendo titles and dates just popped up on NeoGaf, including a Wii version of Fatal Frame (first scans on GoNintendo) and something called Wii Wario Land Shake. The info’s ostensibly translated from this Japanese blog.

• July 10 – DS Densetsu no Starfi
• July 24 – Wii Wario Land Shake
• July 31 – Wii Rei (Fatal Frame)
• July 31 – Rhythm Tengoku Gold
• Aug 7 – DS Fire Emblem DS
• Aug 22 – DS Inazuma Eleven

We’ll check with Nintendo now.

It’s a Wii game that isn’t made by Nintendo and it’s out on Friday, so you should be interested.

“Combining chaotic arcade driving with a huge range of mini-game challenges, players must race against the clock in one of three emergency vehicles – a fire-truck, ambulance or police patrol car to reach different incident scenes,” said a Codemasters press release.

Hot diggedy. See the screens after the link.

More »

Colour us shocked. Joystiq’s reporting that the Boom Blox head-tracking feature – that was supposedly going to allow players to move the game’s camera with head movements – has been pulled. From the site:

At the Nintendo Media Summit, Boom Blox senior producer Amir Rahimi confirmed that the final version of the game will lack the head-tracking mode. We understand that it was always an Easter egg, requiring gamers to set up Wii Remotes as cameras, and hacking together their own IR LED glasses. But you didn’t have to go to TED to see the promise, and we’re disappointed to see it removed.

More here.

Want to read some sketchy notes about a really long WiiWare presentation in America? Course you do. IGN live blogged the second day of Nintendo’s Media Summit just in case you do. There’s stuff in there about Strong Bad, World of Goo and the fact Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Major League Eating were playable but no one can write about them until next week. Enjoy.

The US press has been embargoed on some of this – we’re guessing one of the games you’re going to have to wait to hear about is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – but GoNintendo’s kindly posted a list of everything shown at Nintendo’s American Media Summit yesterday. What’s “Pop”?

Wii

• Wii Fit
• Boom Blox
• Samba de Amigo
• Mario Kart Wii
• de Blob
• Rock Band
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

DS

• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness
• My Weight Loss Coach
• Sonic Chronicles
• Crosswords DS
• Space Invaders Extreme
• Zenses Ocean
• Kung Fu Panda

WiiWare

• World of Goo
• Major League Eating
• FFCC: My Life as a King
• Pop
• LostWinds

505 Games is to get YO! Sushi diners playing Cooking Mama 2 by pre-loading the game onto DSs and rolling them around the little conveyor belts found in the UK restaurants.

The campaign will start at the Farringdon Road and Poland Street restaurants in London from Monday 14th April, with many more of the chain’s 30 UK restaurants following suit over the coming months.

“We’re overwhelmed with YO! Sushi’s enthusiasm and support for our Cooking Mama 2 campaign,” commented Ian Howe, Managing Director, 505 Games. “The YO! Sushi brand is colourful, cool, fun and essentially Japanese, which are all values shared with our Tokyo-developed Cooking Mama series. This is going to be an exciting and creative campaign and we’re looking forward to getting some great feedback from family sushi diners across the UK.”

Cooking Mama 2′s already out, in case you were wondering, but this gives you an opportunity to eat raw tuna and test it out simultaneously. It will never get better than that.

We had to post this. Gamespot’s had a go with LOL, the recently announced Agetec DS party game. To summarise, some people get together and draw stuff. LOL.

Its blank-slate nature makes it one of the more minimalist games you’re likely to find on the DS, rivaling the simplicity of Pictochat–or even just a blank sheet of paper. If you feel as though your imagination is up to the task, you can find LOL in stores next month at a retail price of $20.

Good luck with that.

According to this, SCEE’s dated LittleBigPlanet and Killzone 2 for September this year, with Insomniac’s launch title sequel, Resistance 2, down for a November release.

We’re just checking with Sony now.

Update: Got this back from SCEE: “Yes this information is all correct – although it has been in the public domain for a while now.”

Posting on its company blog, Media Molecule has said that anticipated PS3 oddity LittleBigPlanet should soon move into its Alpha phase.

“We’ve been slaving away pushing LittleBigPlanet toward the Alpha stage of its development cycle,” said a spokesperson here. “Basically, this means all the cool stuff we said will be in there should be playable, even if it isn’t pretty enough to release. The game seems to change every day at the moment and it is very exciting to be able to sit down and play what feels more and more like a complete experience.”

LittleBigPlanet’s down for a September launch.

It really is called LOL, as in lol. Apparently, Agetec’s DS game is “a unique, free-form gaming experience,” and “LOL’s motto says it best: ‘If the game is boring, then you are boring.’”

Right.

“We decided not to include a single-player mode in the game because that would defeat the purpose. This game was created to be a social game that allows you interact on and off Nintendo DS with your friends,” said producer Mark Johnson. “LOL concentrates on the comedic joy of using the imagination of everyone in the room.”

God knows if it’s coming out in Europe. You can read more about LOL here. Be sure to wear your corset before you hit the link.

Gameloft’s Brain Challenge and Bliss Island will be made available on Live this week.

Brain Challenge is “an entertaining brain training program that helps players develop stress-management skills through a wide variety of games,” according to Xbox.com. This helps players “develop their abilities in five areas of cognitive function, including logic, math, memory, visual thinking and concentration, in a fun and easy way.”

In Bliss Island you play as “Hoshi the Zwooph, a mystical blue creature that emits precise puffs of air to create clouds and become the Bliss Island champion by winning over 25 unique challenges across nine intense levels.”

Both Brain Challenge and Bliss Island will be released this Wednesday and will cost 800 and 400 MS Points respectively.

By Mike Bowden

Majesco probably can’t believe its luck. The Cooking Mama franchise, now a Wii and DS favourite, has acheived US sales of 1.6 million units with games like the original Cooking Mama for DS (September 2006 launch), Cooking Mama: Cook Off for Wii (April 2007 launch) and Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends (November 2007 launch). That’s a whole world of cooking.

“The success of Cooking Mama has been akin to catching lightning in a bottle,” said Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton. “A unique concept, iconic main character and gameplay execution that fully utilizes the stylus and Wii Remote have proved to be a winning combination. We appreciate the continued support from all of Mama’s fans and look forward to launching the fourth title in the franchise later this year.”

A sequel to Cooking Mama: Cook Off is releasing for Wii later this year. 505 handles Cooking Mama in Europe. No idea if it’s been as popular over here. Maybe someone should ask.