... Nintendo, hasn't that huge profit cut you got in the first half of this year taught you ANYTHING? The "We failed to release anything new that really caught consumer interest in the second half of 2008, and that hurt us" or whatever?
But no, it's business as usual, release lists with no dates, lots of games with improbable release dates on them, seeming plans for more games that get announced just weeks before they are released and then are never marketed (shocking the world when they don't sell well!), and lots of titles currently not scheduled for a US release? Awesome.
Wii:
Japan
Wii Fit Plus 2009/10/1
Sin and Punishment 2(Temp.) 2009/10/29
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games™* 2009/11/5
New Super Mario Bros. Wii 2009/12/3
NHK Kohaku Quiz Gassen 2009/12/17
Cosmic Walker(Temp.) 2009
Kensakusu(Temp.) 2009
Span Smasher(Temp.) 2009
Dynamic Zan(Temp.) 2009
100 Go de Start! Eikaiwa(Temp.) 2009
Hoshi no Kirby(Temp.) 2009
Line Attack Heroes(Temp.) 2009
Monado: Beginning of The World(Temp.) TBA
METROID: Other M(Temp.) TBA
Super Mario Galaxy 2(Temp.) TBA
The United States
Wii Fit Plus 2009/10/4
New Super Mario Bros. Wii 2009/11/15
Sin and Punishment 2(Temp.) CY2010 1st Quarter
Endless Ocean 2(Temp.) CY2010 1st Quarter
METROID: Other M 2010
Super Mario Galaxy 2(Temp.) 2010
Span Smasher(Temp.) TBA
Line Attack Heroes(Temp.) TBA
Monado: Beginning of The World(Temp.) TBA
Europe
Wii Fit Plus 2009/10/30
New Super Mario Bros. Wii 2009/11/20
Endless Ocean 2(Temp.) 2010
Sin and Punishment 2(Temp.) 2010
Spring Super Mario Galaxy 2(Temp.) 2010
METROID: Other M(Temp.) 2010
DS:
Japan
Mario & Sonic At the Olympic Winter Games 2009/11/19
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks 2009/12/23
Famicom Wars DS2(Temp.) 2009 (Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, which we got early this year)
Golden Sun DS(Temp.) TBA
The United States
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky 2009/10/12
Style Savvy 2009/11/2
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks 2009/12/7
Pokémon HeartGold Version 2010 Spring
Pokémon SoulSilver Version 2010 Spring
Glory of Heracles 2010
Golden Sun DS(Temp.) 2010
WarioWare D.I.Y. TBA
Picross 3D TBA
Europe
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story 2009/10/9
Nintendo presents: Style Boutique 2009/10/23
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky 2009/11/20
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks 2009/12/11
Pokémon HeartGold Version 2010 Spring
Pokémon SoulSilver Version 2010 Spring
WarioWare D.I.Y. TBA
And doesn't it look awesome? Yeah, it's a remake of the first GB title, and some elements of it can be seen there with things like the whip that shoots fireballs and the eyeball enemies, but it's obviously also mixed with a lot of NES/SNES/Genesis Castlevania elements as well, like the stairs, subweapons, multiple paths through the levels, with hidden alternate routes you need to find keys to play through, and more.
... Oh yeah, and evidently the music in that level there is a remix of some music from Castlevania: Bloodlines on the Genesis.
Anyway though, looks very awesome. It's a bit longer than the previous ReBirth titles too evidently, both of them were only five levels I believe...
It does look totally different from the original GB game in most ways, though, which makes it kind of odd that it's a remake and not just a new game. I mean, aside from those few things like the timer, the fireball-shooting whip and some enemies, there's nothing of the original game in this remake, it seems... of course the original game is considered one of the least good Castlevania games, so they wouldn't want to copy it too closely, and what's there looks pretty good. I mean, couldn't they at least have, like, kept the ropes and stuff? I know that the Wii has a much wider screen than the GB, but still...
Of course, Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania Chronicles (Castlevania X68000) are both Castlevania 1 "remakes" absolutely nothing like the original, to an even greater degree than this one, so there's plenty of history of this kind of thing in the series. It's just a little odd, that's all. :)
Here's a complete (tool-assisted) video of the original game, to see what I mean. They didn't even keep the music, it's different stuff in the 'remake' despite some of the original stuff being pretty good for early GB music.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QoEyt7XWMsI&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QoEyt7XWMsI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Overall though, the remake looks like a great game. Great music, good enough graphics, some great classic Castlevania gameplay... awesome stuff. :)
So, evidently, newer NVidia drivers are incompatible with these two games in an important way. The main map works okay, but when you try to click on units in battle you can't select anything. Awesome. The problem isn't Vista, it's NVidia drivers, evidently. Going back to very old drivers can help, but that might hurt performance in other games... for Shogun software mode does work, but looks absolutely awful, isn't fullscreen (there are black borders), and you can't move around the map by pushing the mouse to the edge of the screen, you have to use the keyboard. Ick. Medieval has no software mode, so no help there.
Looking around, there don't seem to be any real fixes for this besides trying different old driver versions. Thanks, Creative Assembly... I wanted to play these games again (the only two Total War games I have, and both great games), but I guess not. :(
...Oh, evidently with ATI there are a lot less problems. But of course I have NVidia.
"The latest issue of Nintendo Power teased a reveal that would pop up in this week's Nintendo Week feature on the Nintendo Channel. It looks like Nintendo has let loose with their secret, and it sounds like it was worth the wait! Nintendo Week has confirmed that 'Excitebike' is coming to WiiWare this time around! Nice to see the classic series making a return."
...haha. No screens yet, so no word if it's 2-D OR 3-D, I haven't checked the Nintendo Channel either. Will post screens as I find em!
For anyone who hadn't heard of it, it's an actual GAME from the Rayman team, not just another minigame collection! Amazing, I know, Ubisoft actually allowed them to make a "normal game"...
Well, here's footage of the first level. Looks decent, though those controls look like they take some getting used to, whoever's playing isn't very good at controlling it yet... still, from this team I'm sure the game will be at least good.
If developers weren't focused 99% on consoles instead of computers and actually cared about pushing PC hardware instead of just making games up to the spec of the PS3 and the 360, which are now well behind what PCs can do (not that you'd tell, looking at most PC games from the past few years)...
That is, a DirectX 11 benchmark was released. And wow, does it look absolutely stunning... I wish games looked like this, or things like this were actually coming soon! Awesome stuff...
