Friday, February 27, 2009

Nintendo's latest press release

Being the sneaky ninjas they are, Nintendo did a press release early yesterday morning. There were several new game announcements and some clarification of dates. The standout items (in my mind at least) are announcements of Excitebots: Trick Racing and a WiiWare game titled Night Game, and a release date for Punch-Out!!

First up is Excitebots. This one's really interesting. And since very little was announced other than the title and a small tidbit following that, it becomes even more intriguing. Does the "bot" part have something to do with modifying and customizing vehicles, or is it more of a Transformers vehicle/robot hybrid. I don't know if it's been confirmed, but I'm guessing this is the top secret game that was rumored to be worked on by the developers of ExciteTruck for the Wii. Since this is one of those games that Nintendo announces a few months before it's release date (which is April 20th to be exact), I'm sure we'll be getting a lot more info in the coming weeks.

Down the press release were some WiiWare games. The first two I recognize and am excited for: Eduardo the Samurai Toaster and BIT.TRIP BEAT. But then I scroll down a bit more and read, "Night Game, developed and published by Nicalis: Exclusively for WiiWare..." and I think, "What the"? Reading on I become more and more interested. From how it's been described in the PR, Night Game is a really unique game with it's physics and combination of action and puzzling. The premise is guiding glowing spheres through various locales. From the description of how it is a really unique and pushes the boundaries of design, I'm feeling another game perfect for WiiWare. With it's unique, experimental take on games, I can see this being something like World of Goo or even LostWinds to a lesser extent.

While those were the two big announcements, there were also several release dates confirmed. The biggest being Punch-Out!! for the Wii, which'll be shipping out to retailers on May 18th. This is good to hear, and I'll definitely be checking this one out. Another new release date we got was for New Play Control Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (or NPCDKJB for short). It's already seen a release in Japan, and us in North America will finally be getting it on May 4th, which is a little less than two months after the NA releases of NPC Pikmin and NPC Mario Tennis. Another of the big announcements was Starfy finally seeing a release stateside, which is a pretty big deal for a lot of Nintendo fans. The release date on that one is the 8th of June.

There wasn't much else except games we already knew about and release dates that have already been announced. Though it does seem the list was incomplete. Some may have wondered where Wii Sports Resort was, as there were many games with June release dates, but no mention of the Wii Sports sequel. But I think this may just be due to this not being a complete list, I mean, there's not even mention of Sonic and the Black Knight, nor MadWorld. Whatever the case may be, Nintendo's latest PR brought some big news for Nintendo fans. And I'm especially excited to see what Excitebot and Night Game turn out to be.

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

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