Quote:At Nintendo's news conference today, President Satoru Iwata announced the company is planning a new gaming product which would "give a fresh surprise to consumers." No specific details were given about the product, only that more information would be announced in the Spring of 2004. As to whether or not the product would be a rival to Sony's PSP, Iwata had this to say: "Basically I believe Sony's multi-function handheld device will not have big impact on our business, but we are, whether Sony releases a new product or not, preparing for our future... and we'll be able to tell you specifics next spring." Iwata declined to comment on whether the product would be hardware or software, and also had no information on when said product would hit the market. He did, however, confirm that Nintendo would be releasing it's new home console in 2005 or 2006.

Iwata also announced a new program called 'Club Nintendo', in which gamers can accumulate points by buying Nintendo games. These points can be saved up in order to earn Nintendo related products. "We plan to begin the new program in Japan and the United States by the end of this year. We aim to have 300,000-500,000 users to sign up for the program in the first year after release," he told the press. No details were given as to the nature of the products earned with the point system.

http://www.n-philes.com/php/epypkpvpfufvykylppz.php

All along I've been intrested in this game... it looks like it'll be a nice improvement over XG3, which is nice. XG3 was fun but badly lacking in some ways, especially when compared to XG2. :)

But this one looks better... better weapon system, better track designs and look, better bikes, more tracks, etc... it sounds like a great racer in many ways.

XG3 has a clumsy system where you switch weapons with Z or the d-pad... from a list you predetermine before the race depending on which you choose/can afford. Its quite hard to switch weapons at high speeds and many of the weapons are just completely impractical for use on the high speed classes.

XGRA changes that to one where you, like XG3, have a predetermined list of weapons before the race... but you have just one loaded on your car at any given time and switch them by going over weapon change/powerup spots on the track. Closer to XG1/2's 'pick up single-use special weapons on the track' system, which is good. :)

It also has only one bike model, and the various teams you choose from have the sole purpose of changing your car color... they have NO gameplay impact.

XG3 has three bike types, each quite different... I think the teams might even modify the performance of bikes some now too, adding two layers there. :)

Etc.

These shots are really nice... and really confirm how much progress they have made since XG3 (which, it was VERY clear, wasn't made by the same team as XG2).

... but you don't care about the gameplay system and just want to see shots, right?


Click the link then. :)

Haha, don't you just love my ingenious puns?


...


*dead silence*


:erm2:


Oh shut up. Anyhow, in today's ign cube rumor section they offered a very interesting theory on why Dead Phoenix hasn't been seen since it was first shown last year, and it makes perfect sense especially when one considers the recent rumor that Capcom is working on a Nintendo franchise.

Quote:One of the initial Capcom titles announced for GameCube was Dead Phoenix, a third-person flight game in which players controlled an angelic, winged man armed to the teeth with massive guns -- and not afraid to use them. The action title looked to take inspiration from some of developer Treasure's classic shooters, except in full 3D and with full freedom of movement. The game has never been shown in playable form and was mysteriously absent from this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo 2003. Even Killer 7 was present on video. The game's producer, who last referred to the title as "Little Phoenix," refused to discuss the reason for the game's absence when questioned at E3. Naturally, none of this bodes well for the game's future. Couple all of the above with reports that Capcom had decided to cancel some of its 2003/2004 games and there's a strong chance that Dead Phoenix is in fact dead.
The other possibility is that it's quietly being transformed into an official Kid Icarus sequel. This, too, would also make sense. The angelic main character would be the perfect fit and the game's dark, edgy style would instantly transform the aged Nintendo franchise into something far more hip. We're keeping our fingers crossed, of course.

Quote:9 - Depending upon the number of players the play mechanics change. If you have the possibility to play with friends, you should absolutely buy it. The game is great compared with all other GameCube games.

8 - It looks at first like a further action game of roles, but it feels new. The longer one plays, the more fun one has.In the multi-player mode the degree of difficulty and play mechanics change.

7 - In the single player mode I feel isolation and repetitions, but in the multi-player mode the fun doubles itself. Guest characters can unfortunately return no articles. It depends on if you have friends with you whether the play makes fun for you.

8 - It is good that another player can join the play at any time. However the action is weak. It is worth it much to be played. In order to have fun, one needs a friend, who is experienced with video games. It gives more action elements than first expected.

So celebrate the one group of people who have had the biggest effect on civilization, the inventors! For truly, politics come and go, but inventions survive from one civilization to the next!

I submit the fellow who invented those rubber thingies at the bottom of some stuff you set on... things... It's nice to support stuff like one's computer on those instead of on the metal which might cause scratchies.

Talking about DK64 with made me think about the registration dates that we have under our avatars. I came to this place just a few weeks after it was created (back when it was the official Nintendojo board) and I thought that it was in August or September of 1999, but I could have sworn that I was in Croatia when I first joined the board, which would mean that the real birthday of TC was around August or September of 1998. Dk 64 came out in November 1999, and I'm pretty certain that I was at TC for more than just a few months before that game came out. Do I have my dates completely screwed up or did TC really come about in 1998? I think it's 1999, but so many things don't make any sense.

Quote:Masahiro Sakurai is the creator of Kirby and also the director of the Smash Brothers series and he has now left Nintendo's first party developers HAL Laboratory.

It was first announced in Famitsu Weekly where Sakurai-San stated that he resigned out of his own free will. Other reports suggests he felt unable to create the games he would like at Nintendo.

For the time being he will be doing freelance work. Although Kirby will stay under the control of HAL Laboratory Sakurai-San stated he is unsure about the Smash Bros. series.

"I needed a dummy character to represent what the real character would be doing in the game," he stated in a recent interview. "I just put a Kirby-shaped blob in my presentation as a place-holder, but everyone liked it so much we decided to keep it in the game without any major changes." He also spoke about the colour of Kirby. "Mr. Miyamoto, on the other hand, envisioned Kirby as yellow. Since Kirby's first game was on Game Boy, no one knew what Kirby's true colour was unless we told them."

Nintendo have yet to comment on the matter but may do so at Thursday's conference.

Quote:Square Enix announced Front Mission First for PSone, a remake of the original Front Mission for Super Famicom. Front Mission First will be based on the WonderSwan remake version, with improved graphics and new scenarios not found in the original.

Quote:RUMOR: After releasing Front Mission 1st, Square Enix will release a remake of Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2) and Final Fantasy III for PSone, both games were never released in North America.

But only GBA games.

Quote:Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge was revealed a long time ago, but once Microsoft took over Rare things got a little hairy. Good news for Nintendo fans that still want some Rare games. Some time ago we passed along to you that Rareware would be using THQ to release its GBA games that are in development. This turns out to be correct as EBGames now lists Banjo-Kazooie for GBA with THQ as the publisher. The release date is September 15th, 2003. We also told you before that Rare changed Diddy King Pilot into Banjo Pilot, so we'll watch for that and other Rare GBA titles.

Quote:Nintendo reports that in the 1st business quarter of the year (April to June) 3.24 million Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP units were sold, quite a large number compared to the only 800,000 Gamecube units sold in that same period. At the end of the business year in March Nintendo reported a 37% decline in net profit, but with higher profit in the 1st business quarter at 11.45 billion yen ($95 million) their 15 billion yen goal for the first half of the year was met. Overall sales are up 5% from the same period last year. As far as operating profit, only 21% of their 35 billion yen goal for the first half has been achieved. "Although we are keeping our full-year forecast unchanged, we think we can expect upside potential," said Yoshihiro Mori, Nintendo's Senior Managing Director.

Nintendo also said that the low reported sales of the GameCube are because that number represents orders from retailers, and many retailers still have a large inventory left over from last year. Analysts predict the number of GameCubes in inventory at somewhere between 5 and 6 million units. Because if this high number Nintendo has temporarily haulted the manufacturing of the GameCube, but plans to resume as usual in the fall.

Nintendo plans to have a news conference on Thursday in which President Satoru Iwata will discuss the business strategy of the company. I think one business analyst spoke for us all when he said, "We want to hear something new and specific from Nintendo on Thursday to tackle rivalry with Sony."