We know you don’t need an incentive to whip out your DS and join our LAN…but just to heat things up a bit Core Gaming has sponsored some cool prizes for our next get together.

So better start warming up your stylus because we have awesome Wii lanyards and Wii peak caps up for grabs.

Join us at the Twin Falls Spur in Kloof this Friday, the 29th of August at around 7. See how you fair against the El33tonline team and the Rebound crowd in Mario Kart Wii, Metroid Prime Pinball, Tetris and even Brain Training.

And remember, if it looks like fun, it is fun!

After waiting for around 13 years, the Super Nintendo classic, Super Mario RPG, has been released on the Wii’s virtual console service.

In what Nintendo calls its Hanabi Festival, where previously region-specific games are released for a limited time on the VC service, quite a few games have found new homes in completely new territories, including Ninja Gaiden, Super Mario Bros 2, Sin & Punishment, Gradius III and Mario’s Super Picross.

This latest update allows the Nintendo/Square Enix (known back then simply as Squaresoft) collaboration to finally see an audience in Europe, although it’s currently only available in English. It’ll set you back 900 points, or roughly £6.50.

If you have been devoting your racing time to Mario Kart Wii, be warned that the next DS LAN will be held on the 29th of August and it will be clearly evident if you have been neglecting your Mario Kart DS daily practices sessions.

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, leave your inhibitions at the door because I can assure you that your opponents will not hesitate to leave you in the dust or hurl a red shell your way.

Join us at the Twin Falls Spur in Kloof on the 29th of this month at around 7. We also play Metroid Prime Pinball, Tetris and the occasional round of Brain Training.

Yesterday at the launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl we got the chance to sit down with Matthew Grose, General Manager of Core Gaming Systems, and ask some hard-hitting questions.

So, without further ado, straight from their mouths to your eyes.

Titles and pricing

The first question was regarding why we haven’t seen DS titles that have already been released in Europe arrive in South Africa yet. Titles specifically mentioned include the popular Phoenix Wright series and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Interest was also shown in Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which has not yet been released in Europe to the best of my knowledge, but which Core Gaming has luckily received one copy of to try out and which they describe so far as addictive. Grose answered that Core Gaming’s strategy is to bring the historical titles into SA first so these titles will follow after the back titles have been released here.

Next up was a query about the pricing of both the Wii and DS. Grose explained that Core Gaming works out the prices based on the European market. Core Gaming is given European prices and must add import charges as well as their own and retailers’ margins to the pot. He assures us that our prices are within 10% of Europe and reminds us that we should only look at European prices, not those of America or Japan.

Each time the exchange rate has increased, Core Gaming has absorbed this loss, bearing in mind that the exchange rate has just started to come down over the past week and that they have been dealing with fluctuating exchange rates since the Wii and DS were launched here last year. Both retailers and Core Gaming have been slashing their margins in an attempt to stay true to the consumer.

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Earlier in the week we brought you tidings of a listing for Link’s Crossbow Training surfacing on Nintendo’s website. Yesterday at the launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl we got the scoop on when the game will officially arrive here and how much we can expect to pay.

Link’s Crossbow Training should start appearing on South African shelves this October. The game will retail at R349, a fairly reasonable price tag considering it comes bundled with the Wii Zapper.

The Wii Zapper is a gun-like apparatus that the Wii Remote and Nunchuk fit snugly inside (with the Nunchuk’s chord wrapped safely inside a handy compartment). The latest accessory from Nintendo allows you to play arcade style games in your living room.

The Wii Remote slides on top of the gun, the barrel as it were, while the Nunchuk forms the gun handle. There is a grip beneath the barrel for your right hand, while your left hand wraps around the lower handle and the Nunchuk.

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According to Nintendo’s website, South African gamers will soon get the chance to try out the Wii Zapper when Link’s Crossbow Training hits our shelves this month.

Link’s Crossbow Training comes bundled with the latest accessory for the Wii, the Wii Zapper. The Wii Remote and Nunchuk fit snugly inside this gun-like apparatus (with the Nunchuk’s chord wrapped safely inside a handy compartment) and voila, you can play arcade style games in your living room.

The Wii Remote slides on top of the gun, the barrel as it were, while the Nunchuk forms the gun handle. There is a grip beneath the barrel for your right hand, while your left hand wraps around the lower handle and the Nunchuk.

Set in the Hyrule realm from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, this shooting-gallery-style game sees players stepping into the shoes of hero Link to guide him through a series of crossbow shooting tasks.

The Wii Zapper is also compatible with various other Wii games including Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad, Medal of Honour Heroes 2 and House of the Dead 2 & 3 Returns.

More details about an exact date and pricing when it hits the wires.

[UPDATE] Core Gaming has confirmed that Link’s Crossbow Training will arrive on South African shelves this October. It will cost R349 and will come bundled with the Wii Zapper.

Nintendo has unveiled a new Nintendo DS Limited Edition Pokémon Pack. The Pack includes a Pokémon-themed Nintendo DS and exclusive Pokémon premiums.

The custom Onyx DS is emblazoned with images of Dialga and Palkia, two characters from Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl. The set also includes a never-before-released animated special, based on the story of the two DS titles Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Darkness, as well as a Dialga and Palkia carrying case and collectible mini-poster.

The Pokémon Pack will be available across North America on the 17th of August for $129.99.

According to a report on The Times Online, Nintendo have issued an unofficial gag order on Miyamoto, banning him from speaking about his hobbies.

Quite a few Nintendo titles have been a result of Miyamoto’s favourite pass-times; his interest in gardening resulted in Pikmin. His dog-walking antics laid the base for NintenDogs. Miyamoto’s puzzles-solving beget Brain Training, keeping on eye on his weight sparked Wii Fit and now his love of music is the foundation for Wii Music. Even the first Legend of Zelda was influenced by his childhood explorations.

So the reasoning goes that, if Miyamoto speaks about any more of his hobbies, other companies will steal these ideas and try to mould games of their own from his innocent extra-curricular activities, potentially costing Nintendo ‘billions’…maybe not that much, but a lot.

This is going to be difficult, as it has been announced that Miyamoto will be delivering the keynote address at CEDEC, a Japanese game developer conference. Titled “From Where Should We Make Games?”, Miyamoto is expected to talk about the development of Wii Music, his thoughts on game development and design, as well as the smaller issues that show up during the development of a game. Good luck on keeping quiet, Mr. Miyamoto!

Source: The Times Online

If you cast your mind back a few weeks you will remember that Fayyaad Hendricks was the lucky winner in our Super Mario Galaxy competition.

Well now that he has had the chance to take the game for a spin, let’s find out what he thought about it. You can compare Fayyaad’s thoughts (below) to Pete’s in El33tonline’s review of Super Mario Galaxy.

Did the game live up to the hype?

It was expected that Super Mario Galaxy would receive good reviews; Nintendo’s chief mascot’s appearance on the Wii has been a well-anticipated game. Thanks to El33tonline, I’ve been able to play around with this game for a bit to see for myself what all the hype was about. I admit that I wasn’t disappointed. Galaxy delivers in terms of sheer fun. But then again, this review wouldn’t be worth reading if all I did was praise the game. Other Mario fanboys have that angle covered. But for completeness sakes, the good points about the game are that it can be consumed in bite-sized, 5 to 10-minute chunks per level, saving occurs frequently, and the levels are, for the most part, varied and designed to a degree to present enough of a challenge, but I’ll get back to this point again later.

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Earlier in the year Core Gaming (Nintendo’s representatives in SA) launched Wii Fit across South Africa. Not content to just see us in action at the Wii Fit launch event, Core Gaming challenged media to participate in the “25 Day Wii Fit Media Challenge.”

Journalists left the event with a Wii and a copy of Wii Fit, which includes the new Wii Balance Board, determined to put the latest health trend to the test. The challenge was simple, improve your fitness and Body Mass Index (BMI) in 25 days, but the rewards were great.

The four media who most improved their Wii Fit Age and their BMI rating would get the chance to donate the Wii review console, a copy of the Wii Fit game and Wii Balance Board to a charity of their choice.

“The plan was to put Wii Fit to the ultimate test,” says Matthew Grose, General Manager of Core Group. “We asked journalists to complete their Wii Fit workout, a programme tailored to their individual fitness needs, for the challenge period, and to report back to us with their findings. We were certain the proof would be in their overall fitness improvement.”

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Four new Nintendo DS games will soon be landing on South African shores.

According to the SA Nintendo website, 42 All-Time Classics, Metroid Prime Hunters, Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl as well as Super Princess Peach will be available “in the very near future.” This is great news for Nintendo fans and a sign that Core Gaming is looking to expand the DS gaming portfolio.

We have contacted Core Gaming so stay tuned for more details and specific launch dates.

Until then, here is a taste of what the new games are all about.

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Nintendo has faced a barrage of negative publicity following its media briefing at E3 last week. Many self-proclaimed hardcore gamers were expecting a new game to be revealed but instead were presented with games they either knew about or dubbed “casual” games.

Nintendo has since been working hard to win back the support of its fans. In a recent interview with Forbes, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata commented “If there is any perception that Nintendo is ignoring the core gamers, it’s a misunderstanding and we really want to get rid of that misunderstanding by any means.”

Iwata continued “We are sorry about [the E3] media briefings, specifically for those who were expecting to see Nintendo show something about ‘Super Mario’ or ‘Legend of Zelda.’ However, the fact of the matter is the so-called ‘big titles’ need a long, long development period. …We really didn’t think this year’s E3 media briefing was the time to do so.”

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After a company called Anascape Ltd. filed a lawsuit for patent infringement against Nintendo, they have since been awarded $21 million as compensation, to be paid by Nintendo. Nintendo’s attempt to overturn that verdict failed and their request for a new trial was denied by the ruling judge.

The patent infringement offenders in question are Nintendo’s range of GameCube and Wavebird controllers, as well as the Wii Classic Controller, for using Anascape technology without a license, despite Nintendo denying they incorporated that specific technology (six types of motion at the same time).

This means that the selling of those specific controllers will be banned, unless Nintendo post royalties in an escrow account. Nintendo is expected to appeal the ban as soon as it is handed down today.

Source: Bloomberg.com

The Nintendo DS dominated console sales in the US for June, however, Nintendo chose to focus on the Wii in their response to the latest NPD data.

Nintendo announced that the Wii has emerged as the best-selling console in the US, just 20 months after its launch in November 2006. NPD data shows that the Wii sold 666 000 units during June while almost 10.9 million Wiis have found their way into US gamers’ homes to date.

“Wii was created with the goal of expanding the gaming universe through its intuitive motion-sensing controller,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “As we have demonstrated this week during the E3 Media & Business Summit, Wii continues to pioneer new ways for people to interact with their video games and with one another.”

The Nintendo DS was the best-selling console in US, selling 783 000 units in June and recording sales of over 20.8 million units in the US to date.

Nintendo dominated the software side of things as well with six of the Top 10 games for June being for Nintendo systems. Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) was at number 2, Wii Fit at number 4, Wii Play at number 5 and Mario Kart Wii at number 6. The Wii version of Lego Indiana Jones came in seventh and the DS version at number 9.

Many Nintendo fans were still yearning for new games announcements following Nintendo’s media briefing at E3 earlier this week.

Many averted their eyes to Nintendo’s 2008 E3 Developer Roundtable held yesterday, hoping for the publisher to throw them any scraps of new information and perhaps reveal a new game in the progress.

Instead of revealing Super Smash Bros. Brawl at the media briefing at E3 in 2006, Nintendo chose to reveal the latest installment in the popular series at that year’s Developers Roundtable.

Attendees of the conference saw a demo of Animal Crossing: City Folk and Wii Sports Resort, hosted by Katsuya Eguchi. He also discussed the Wii MotionPlus before Shigeru Miyamoto took centre stage playing Yankee Doodle with Wii Music.

Well, it looks like the wait was worth it because Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that Nintendo is making a Pikmin game during the roundtable. In fact his exact words were “We’re making Pikmin.”

Eguchi and Miyamoto also addressed a question about Nintendo’s commitment to core games. Eguchi believes that anyone will enjoy Nintendo’s latest games and that he thinks a core gamer is someone who enjoys games, regardless of genre.