Win a Wii at Wendys', Japan Sales and more...

[Cockwaffle 0]

Thanks to DJango for the following Nintendo News yes it's a long post but it was 5 seperate topics so I just made it one post. The seperate News sections are in bold... (gametap)

In bundle of Nintendo News We go from Winning a Wii a Wendy's to Phantom Hourglass news.

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[b]

Win a New Wii at Wendys'[/b] - Via NintendoGossip:

WRAL.com has published an article that Wendy's fast food stores are giving away free Nintendo Wii systems to lucky people who enter a winning code on frostyfloat.com

A code can be obtained by purchasing a Vanilla Frosty Float dessert. It is located in the cup.

The total number of Wii systems that will be given away are 800. However, there are also other prizes such as 800 cards which are cards that people can use to purchase classic games on the Wii shopping channel. The downside of this is that these cards are useless to people who don't own a Wii because the only way to spend the card is by buying something on the Wii Shopping Channel.

The article did not say when this promotion started but it will lasts until June 30.

Wii systems are still rare these days and the odds of seeing one sitting in a store shelf are very low. Therefore, this promotion will probably be a huge success for Wendy's as it gives people an extra chance of getting a Wii system.

You hear that? GO OUT AND GET A FROSTY FLOAT AND TRY TO WIN A WII!

[b]Japan Sales[/b] - Via NintendoGossip

A new record for this week has been set on the weekly software sales record in Japan according to Media Create who gathers information on the sales figures of software sales in Japan.

Usually, a lot of DS games occupies the top twenty list but sometimes it includes games from other systems such as its competitor, the Sony PSP.

This week, the top twenty-one games are either a Nintendo Wii or DS game. Leading the list is Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for the DS. The next two games, Super Paper Mario and Wii Sports are Wii games.

Four of the top seven games on the list are Wii games. Wii Play came in fifth place while Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree came in seventh place.

The twenty-second game which is neither a DS or a Wii game is called Monster Hunter Freedom 2. It's a game for Sony's PSP.

A lot of games in the list have non-english names and all of them are DS games. They are Momotarou Dentetsu DS, Kahashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu: Motto Nou o Kitaeru Otona DS Training, Gyakuten Saiban 4, Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Motto Eigo, Layton Kyouju no Fushigi na Machi, Otona no Joushikiryoku Training DS, Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan DS.

Interestingly enough (Not!), Nintendo is DOMINATING JAPAN!

[b]New DS controller[/b] - Via DCEmu

Stylus not enough control for you? Then you'll want to pick up Nintendo's newest DS game. The latest issue of Famitsu has the first word on Slide Adventure: Mag Kid, a new DS game that will make use of a bundled "slide controller" peripheral.

The slide controller plugs into the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot and, laying beneath the system, looks somewhat like a stand. As you slide the DS around on a table, the controller picks up your movements. This is how you move the main character about the overhead fields of play.

The main character in question is the Mag Kid of the title. This peculiar circular creature has special magnetic properties which makes things attach to him. You'll have to use this special power to solve puzzles that take place about a house.

Mag Kid has a few special moves that make use of the slide controls. Sliding the DS in an enemy's direction makes Mag Kid ram into and paralyze the enemy. Paralyzed enemies can be attached to Mag Kid, giving him, depending on the enemy type, special powers, including lasers and fire breath. Finally, when you've lost interest in your support crew, you shake the DS to release them.

Mag Kid seems capable of attaching a small army of enemies to himself -- at least eight from what we've been able to gather. Some stages require that you create chains of enemies in the correct order.

As one example of the gameplay we can expect from the game, Famitsu details a boss fight in which Mag Kid faces off against the flames from four burners on a stove (the Four Flame Brothers, as they're known). To defeat the boss, you attach water drops to Mag Kid, then toss them at the flames.

Sounds like another cool gameplay concept from Nintendo, although we're wondering if the game will support the stylus for situations where you can't place the system on the ground (like on a train, or when you're hang gliding). A Japanese release for Mag Kid is set for 8/2, so expect further details to surface shortly.

Sounds fun! I can't wait for it to come out in America.

[b]Nintendo Game Cube RETIRED[/b] - Via Gamespot

This week, NPD Funworld released its sales numbers for the first five weeks of 2007. Though the original Xbox was completely absent from the hardware list--further indicating the format is pushing up daisies--the GameCube was represented...barely. Even though the GC edition of Zelda sold more than 144,000 copies, just 34,000 GameCube units were sold during the month.

Well, it turns out there's a perfectly good explanation for the GameCube's spiraling numbers. GameDaily's interview was with none other than Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America's doyenne of publicity. With surprising frankness, she told the AOL-owned publication straight-out that Nintendo has officially pulled the plug on its perky purple box.

"Are we producing any more GameCubes? No," Kaplan said bluntly. "But do we have the inventory there for people to still purchase? Yes." She went on to also say that Nintendo is no longer developing any GameCube titles, which is tantamount to a deathblow for the first-party-game-dependent console.

"You're a core gamer; you wouldn't buy a GameCube. It's not aimed at you anymore," she continued. "But it's still a great starter system because of all the great games."

Rest in piece, Purple Box.
I shall have one last Super Smash Bros Melee salute..
*Turns on SSBM on his Gamecube and plays it*

[b]Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass Discussion [/b]- Via Gamspot

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was almost the last-ever Zelda, Nintendo's manager of software development, Eiji Aonuma, said. Speaking through a translator, he told how the previous game, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, hadn't been hugely popular in Japan, although it had been reasonably well received in the West. One of the reasons for this was that the Japanese market in general was moving away from games, he said, and this was well publicised and known as "gamer drift."

So, to make a successful game that would appeal to this disenchanted audience and continue his beloved Zelda series, Aonuma said, "We needed a new style of gameplay to breathe life into the market."

Aonuma was speaking at the Game Developers Conference in a talk titled "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Reflections in the Hourglass." The event was hugely popular, and before he started the talk, Aonuma posed for photos and signed autographs while a long line of attendees filtered in hunting for seats in the hall.

The company found that Wind Waker's cartoon-like graphics were alienating the lucrative teen audience in North America, who would look at games of that style and think they were for kids, he continued. With the Japanese market in the midst of the dreaded gamer drift, and the North American market much stronger, Nintendo decided to give the US what it wanted--a realistic Zelda. He said, "We had to make a game that met expectations of fans in North America. If it didn't, it could mean the end of the franchise."

The decision was also made for Link to have the ability to turn into a wolf. "This kind of disruptive breakthrough was just what we needed for the staff to change their way of thinking."

But still, the game needed something more, something to make it truly innovative. It was around this stage that Aonuma was talking to Nintendo senior managing director Shigeru Miyamoto, who told him something along the lines of, "It's as though the Revolution (later renamed the Wii) was designed just for Zelda! Why don't you try making a Zelda for the Revolution?" In the end, believes Aonuma, the kind of direct control offered by the Wii Remote was exactly what was needed to breathe life into the game.

So the decision was made to bring the game to the Wii. "Creating a launch title was a first for the Zelda franchise, and we had no idea what a challenge it would be," he told the audience.

The company also felt strongly that it did not want to disappoint all the GameCube owners who had been waiting patiently since the game's announcement back in 2002, so it decided to push the game back to 2006 to be able to release it on both formats.

Developers experimented with switching to a first-person session for Twilight Princess' combat sequences with Link's sword movements being controlled by moving the Wii remote. However, it soon became apparent that there was a fundamental problem with this idea. "Link is left-handed, so when a right-handed player swings the sword, it felt awkward...so we abandoned the idea." In the end, the problem was partly resolved by flipping the world laterally to make Link right-handed.

Aonuma said he realised that the game was a success when, "I saw some of our female employees swinging a sword to defeat a huge monster. Then I was convinced Zelda had been reborn."

He also filled in some gaps on the upcoming Nintendo DS version of the series--The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. There will be a Wi-Fi-enabled battle mode nicknamed Wi-Fi Hide and Seek. The game is a Pac-Man-style chase, with two players taking on red and blue versions of Link.

Players must pick up "force gems" to see the positions of the phantoms on the board. However, carrying these also has a penalty--they will slow the player down, making it easier for the player to be caught. The other controls the phantoms, using the stylus to move them around to chase Link and hopefully bring him down. Aonuma commented, "The more you play, the more you get to experience the other player's habits, so it's very addictive."

I liked Wind Waker.

The multiplayer Phantom Hourglass mode sounds fun.

[Gingerlink 2]

the last bit didn;t quite make sense, according to that WIND WAKER was almost the last Zelda game...

anyway, otherwise a pretty cool article with lots of info

[Crowned Twili Princess 0]

Yay! News!

[Embear 0]

Doesn't the new side controller for the DS defeat the purpose of how great the DS is??

[ma118uller 0]

[quote name='Embear' post='49019' date='Jun 13 2007, 01:08 PM']Doesn't the new side controller for the DS defeat the purpose of how great the DS is??[/quote]
i agree, it sounds cool and all, but then turns it into just a wii with smaller screens(more or less) it isn't a handheld anymore, if they want to do something like this, it shoudl be on the wii, DS~HAND HELD WII~HOME CONSOLE:major difference

[eyeoftruth 2]

nice find=)

[GoldenTriforce 0]

[font="Palatino Linotype"][color="#ffa500"]Well. I already knew about two of those things: The Wii at Wendy's (via Nintendo Power[b][i][u]========[/u][/i][/b]) and the Phantom Hourglass minigame thingy... (also via Nintendo Power[b][i][u]========[/u][/i][/b].....) But still, the Mag Kid part looks interesting!!!

Yours Truely,

Mr.Triforce[/color][/font]

[Crowned Twili Princess 0]

Strange, I went to go get a Vanilla Frosty yesterday at Wendy's, and I didn't find any code inside my cup.