The Stupid Gamer

Nintendo’s Japanese Media Summit conference has just concluded, and I must say it was one hell of a ride. In addition to a flurry of announcements regarding the Wii and the new DSi, they also released a list of the Wii’s line up for the remainder of 2008 and a preliminary lineup for 2009 in Japan. The titles in BOLD and marked as NEW are games announced at the conference. (List stolen from Neo-GAF)

2008

• Wii Music (Nintendo) 10/16
• Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo) 11/20
• The Melancholy of Haruhi (Kadokawa Shoten) 11/27
• Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes (Capcom) 12/11
• 428 (Sega) 12/4
• Samba de Amigo (Sega) 12/11
• Let’s Tap (Sega) Dec. 2008
• Cooking Mama 2 (Taito) 12/4
• Rygar: Muscle Impact (Tecmo) Dec. 2008
• Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (Activision) 10/16
• Karaoke Joysound Wii (Hudson) 12/18
• Sky Crawlers (Bandai-Namco) 10/16
• Happy Dance Collection (Bandai-Namco) 10/23
• Family Ski: World Ski & Snowboard (Bandai-Namco) 11/13
• Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (Bandai-Namco) 12/4
• Taiko Drum Master Wii (Bandai-Namco) 12/11
• Tenchu 4 (From Software) 10/23
• Harvest Moon: Exciting Animal March (Marvelous) 10/30
• Rune Factory Frontier (Marvelous) 11/27
• Shape Boxing (Rocket Co.) 10/30

2009

• Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo) Spring
• Start w/ 100 Conversations! English Conversation (Nintendo) 2009   NEW
  
• Punch-Out!! (Nintendo) 2009   NEW
  
• Trace Memory: R, Gateway of Memory (Nintendo) 2009   NEW
  
• Kensax (Nintendo) 2009   NEW
  
• Cosmic Walker (Nintendo) 2009   NEW
  
• Spawn Smasher (Nintendo) 2009   NEW
  
• Dynamic [illegible] (Nintendo) 2009   NEW
  
• Takt of Magic (Nintendo) 2009
• Sin & Punishment 2 (Nintendo) 2009   NEW
  
• Forever Blue 2: Beautiful Ocean (Nintendo) 2009   NEW
  
• Everyone’s the Star on the NHK Red-and-White Quiz Battle (Nintendo) 2009
• Line Attack Heroes (Nintendo) 2009
• Castlevania: Judgment (Konami) Winter 2008-2009
• Dead Rising: Zombies’ Sacrifice (Capcom) Winter 2008-2009
• FFCC: Echoes of Time (Square-Enix) 1/29   NEW
  
• Sonic and the Black Knight (Sega) Spring
• Fragile (Bandai-Namco) Winter 2008-2009
• Arc Rise Fantasia (Marvelous) Winter 2008-2009
• Oboro Muramasa (Marvelous) Spring   NEW
  

This doesn’t mean much, and it doesn’t tell us really anything new, but dang it, you’re going to keep reading because you can’t get enough of what I have to say. Yesterday I was visiting Amazon.com, a little web site you might have heard of, and I took a look at their top selling products in the video game section. I remember when fanboys used to draw on this to show just how awesome system A was or just how crappy system B must be based on what appeared on the list. Now, we all know Nintendo is doing quite well. At this point each NPD is like McDonald’s telling us how many hamburgers they’ve sold.

Anyway, this is what I saw on the top 10 list:

1. Mario Kart Wii with Wii Wheel by Nintendo
2. Wii Fit by Nintendo
3. Wii Play with Wii Remote by Nintendo
4. Rock Band Special Edition by MTV Games (Wii version)
5. Official Nintendo Wii Wheel by Nintendo
6. Wii by Nintendo
7. Wii Remote Controller by Nintendo
8. Super Smash Bros. Brawl by Nintendo
9. Wii Nunchuk Controller by Nintendo
10. Wireless Kama by Nyko (wireless Wii nunchuck)

Now that’s pretty insane. I would have expected a strong Nintendo presence at any given time, but I would never have guessed a complete Nintendo wash. I think it’s safe to say that all the analysts that called the Wii a fad were wrong. I know I’m going out on a limb there, but hey, I’m kind of crazy like that. I like Risk. The key is to getting Austrailia wrapped up early for the bonus troops per turn. Screw Greenland though, everybody hates Greenland.

GameCube games? Who cares, right? Wrong! The GameCube was awesome, and despite it’s lackluster performance on the sales charts, it was probably the console that I put the most time into during the past generation. Since the Wii is fully backwards compatible with all GameCube software, now is a great time to grab some of the GameCube classics. So, here are my personal top ten games that were released for the Nintendo GameCube (you’ll notice I cheat the total a bit, deal with it).

• Metroid Prime 1 & 2
• Super Mario Sunshine
• Resident Evil 4
• Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
• Pikmin 1 & 2
• F-Zero GX
• Animal Crossing
• Eternal Darkness
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
• Beyond Good and Evil

Funny enough, picking a top ten for the GameCube was actually harder for me than picking a top ten for either the PS2 or Xbox. I’ll share those lists at some point down the line. I fully expect all of you to be waiting with the highest degree of anticipation.

Nintendo’s latest earnings report showcased some insane sales numbers and some pretty lofty sales expectations for the DS and Wii. The numbers also provided lifetime sales for the GBA and GameCube. While there are still a few Cubes and GBAs getting sold, the numbers are so insignificant that we can effectively take these numbers as their final sales totals. Here are the numbers pulled from the report:

GameBoy Advance (all versions): 81,060,000
North America: 41,640,000
Japan: 16,880,000
Other: 22,530,000

GameCube: 21,740,000
North America: 12,940,000
Japan: 4,040,000
Other: 4,770,000

Current hardware (lifetime to date):
Nintendo DS: 70,600,000
North America: 22,390,000
Japan: 22,380,000
Other: 25,820,000

Nintendo Wii: 24,450,000
North America: 10,610,000
Japan: 5,900,000
Other: 7,940,000

Other Fun Numbers:
DS has 57 million-selling games (LTD)
Pokemon Diamond/Pearl: 14.77 million sold
Brain Age 1 and 2 (combined): 23.81 million sold
Smash Bros Brawl: 4.85 million as of March 31
The Wii has 26 million-selling games.

Sales Forecast For Next Fiscal Year:
Nintendo Wii hardware: 25 million sold worldwide
Nintendo DS hardware: 28 million sold worldwide
Nintendo Wii Software: 177 million sold
DS software: 187 million sold

So in less than half the time, the Wii has already surpassed GameCube (and Xbox) lifetime sales. That’s pretty impressive and a big turnaround for Nintendo who has struggled the past two generations. The DS is just crazy. There’s not a lot that needs to be said there, because the monstrous numbers speak for themselves. It’s easily going to fly past the GBA lifetime sales,especially if the DS is around for as long before a true successor hits.

For the next 5 days you can have a crack at owning the complete collection of NES games without having to track anything down individually. An eBay seller has listed his entire collection of 739 NES games, many with boxes and manuals, for sale in one giant auction.

At the time I was writing this, the bidding had topped $6,100. With 5 days left, I’m guessing the final bid may break the $10,000 barrier.

Here’s a link to the auction (this link will die about a month after the auction ends): http://tinyurl.com/2k8apu

I’m down and out with a migraine today, but this was so cool I still had to share. This is a remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus. I’ve always felt that the game has been criminally underrated, but I can understand why many Metroid fans aren’t immediately drawn to it. Follow the YouTube link below to check it out.

Metroid II remake.

Side note: For some reason I can’t get YouTube videos to embed properly in posts. When this raging headache disappears, I’ll figure out why and I’ll start making videos a regular part of the site. Excited? I’m sure you are.

Neomoto, over at the NeoGAF forums put together a great summary of the recently held Nintendo conference. Instead of just ripping off his info and work, I’ll just link to it directly. Lazy? Yep. Does it make my day a bit easier? You betcha.

Check out the full summary here: NeoGAF

There’s a lot of good stuff to look forward to for Wii and DS owners.

In a conference today, Nintendo unveiled new plans for the DS and Wii. While information is still trickling in at the moment, here are some of the highlights:

Games Shown/Announced:

Fire Emblem DS
Wii Music
Super Mario Stadium Baseball
Mario Kart Wii
Famicom Wars Wii (Battlion Wars II)
Dragon Quest IX

Games and Features Coming to WiiWare:

Dr Mario
Star Soldier R
Pokemon Ranch
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - The Little King and the Country of Promise
DS Station Channel (DS demo download)

Exhanced Wii Voting Channel - recommend games. Search based on recommendation.

So how awesome is it that we’re finally getting a Fire Emblem on the DS? Too awesome? Maybe. Also, the DS demo downloads are sure to be a great asset to those that own both a DS and a Wii. It seems that you can download demos to your Wii and transfer them via wireless connection to your DS. Pretty slick.

More information is still coming in, so we’ll update with anything worth noting.

Wow, now this is cool. TUAW.com has a video showing off the iPhone’s coolest new app…a NES emulator! The video shows somebody using the touch screen input to play Super Mario Bros. It looks a little bit hokey, but it’s a pretty impressive and inventive use of the touch screen.

Check it out here: NES emulator on the iPhone

The Nintendo E3 Press Conference was pretty tame overall. I couldn’t give it the full not treatment due to that whole 9-5 thing that gets in the way, but I have some thoughts on it anyway. While the conference was pretty weak on the game lineup front, the show was entertaining. Reggie, Iwata, and Miyamoto all came out and were candid, open, and witty. Not much was announced, but here are the highlights:

• Mario Kart Online is coming to the Wii early 2008 and comes bundled with a steering wheel attachment
• Wii Zapper will come bundled with software or $19.99 standalone - promises of a lot of game support from 1st and 3rd parties
• Super Mario Galaxy looks outstanding and just shot to my #1 most anticipated title
• Phantom Hourglass was shown and looked great
• Metroid Prime 3 was shown on stage and seems to be all that we hoped it would be
• Promises of way more 3rd party support
• Wii Fit is shown and uses a new peripheral - the Balance Board. This thing will probably sell millions
• TONS of games were revealed after the conference, but weren’t even talked about on stage
• Nintendo is ready to push gaming into the mainstream even further, hopes to not alienate core gamers

Overall I’d say the conference was more fun than either Microsoft or Sony’s efforts, though Sony definitely showed the most in regards to killer software. I think Nintendo could have spend more time on the games they have to offer, because their lineup is strong this year (Metroid, Mario, Zelda, Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Donkey Kong, Resident Evil, EA Sports online games, and much more). I’m willing to bet that Nintendo was aiming to capture the mainstream press’ attention once again, and in that they probably succeeded.

Oh, and there is some little Smash Bros. event tomorrow. But who cares about that, right?