If you’re one of those people unlucky enough to be going through some cold, dark winter months right now, then you’ll be wishing that Warner Bros. Interactive could get a bit of a move on and release their just-announced Vacation Isle: Beach Party game right now rather than in June when it’s scheduled for. Don’t they realise that we need it now?! It’ll be too late in June, we’ll have actual real sun to look at then! Anyway, regardless of when it comes out, Warner Bro. Interactive wants you to know that Vacation Isle: Beach Party is a game that invites families and friends to a virtual island paradise that’s brimming with fun and lively beach activities. Exactly where I should be right now, in other words. Sigh.

Up to four players get to compete in the game, with the aim of becoming experts in unique tropical holiday-style games, such as wakeboarding, surfing and fire dancing! Gameplay is compatible either with the Nintendo Wii Remote or  Balance Board. This is what Samantha Ryan, senior vice president, Development and Production, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, had to say about the game:

“Vacation Isle: Beach Party is a great escape with its family-friendly party games utilising the Wii Balance Board. Players of all ages and experience can surf, water ski and enjoy several activities of an exotic summer vacation in their living room.”

Source: WiiChat

New Super Mario Bros Video

Source: Nintendo Wii Zone

The long wait for FFCC fans in Europe is now finally over, and to celebrate the release of Final Fantasy Crystal  Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers in PAL territories on Friday February 5^th, Square Enix has unveiled some brand new screenshots, including an awesome one of a chocobo on the attack . Now fans in Europe will finally get the chance to experience for themselves the huge open-world universe, with a storyline that picks up a thousand years after the events of the original Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.  In this new era, a rare breed of powerful beings called “crystal bearers” has emerged, whose seemingly magical abilities have led them to be feared and made fun of by the general populace.  According to Square Enix, this next chapter in the FFCC saga “opens up a whole new style of game design never experienced in previous Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles games”. This is what Larry Sparks, Vice President Brands PAL Region of Square Enix said on the game’s release in PAL territories:

“Final Fantasy Crystal  Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers is a unique addition to the series and one which will appeal to Final Fantasy fans and to Wii owners with a thirst for an epic and immersive adventure.”

Source: WiiChat

A hacker by the name of Vash posted code he dug up from SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog 4 official website on Game-Hackers.com.  The code is pulled straight from the game’s official flash page, and may give insight into the new episodic title heading to all big three downloadable platforms.

First, this bit of info came up in the decompiled flash code:

preorderBtn1 = new preorderBtn();

This may indicate that there could be a retail release for the game, or an alternative method of purchasing it.  Given that it is a multi-platform game, there’s no guarantee that this would apply to the WiiWare release, but if Amazon could do it, why not SEGA?

broniksBtn = new Sprite();

Next, we can speculate on what a “Bronik” is.  Does the Eggman have an extra-evil brother?  This may be supported by this bit of supplemental XML line:

Next, we veer into how long Episode 1 of Sonic 4 is.  At least, we can assume that’s what we’re speculating on, given this:

zone1Btn

zone2Btn

zone3Btn

zone4Btn

zonesBtn

This could mean that the first episode has a total of 4 playable zones.  Sounds like a decent enough length, if we assume that each zone has two or three levels (like the classic games in the series).

Lastly, we have a series of four images that don’t seem to be in use for the flash site:

First, these images may be related to different playable characters in the game. As the Game-Hackers poster put it, “It could suggest a blue character (Sonic), green character (Vector? Jet?), yellow character (Tails), and a red character (knuckles).”

Even more likely is the second bit of speculation on the title: the method of delivery for the game.  Blue may indicate its WiiWare release, Green is Xbox Live Arcade, Red is Playstation Network, and Yellow may even confirm a release for the iPhone/iPod Touch (which Kotaku seems to have confirmed).

Of course, the nature of the news should be taken strictly as rumor, but keep in mind that this code comes from SEGA themselves.  Besides, the Sonic 4 site has a few countdown timers running, with roughly three days until we’ll see an update on characters, and 12 days until new concept art is revealed.

Any thoughts?  Would you welcome more playable characters to the game, or is Sonic enough?  Are four zones enough?

Source: WiiChat

Recently the company Game Developer Research published the results to a 100 page report to a survey sent to over 800 game developers in the US. Some of the results were published by PR Newswire, and they show a decline in Wii development over the last year.

According to the survey, development for the Wii dropped from 42 percent of the 800 developers, to 30 percent. This was in contrast to the PS3 and Xbox 360 who had a much higher development rate at 61 and 69 percent respectively.

Another large story of the survey is the acceptance of mobile games as a viable platform. It doubled its development, from 12 percent up to 25 percent. Perhaps Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata should be a little more worried about Apple’s iPad, with the rampant growth of mobile games.

Of note, the report also found that with the market currently in decline, developers are favoring smaller sized companies, with a rise of 7 percent in developers with 50 or less employees. Large development houses with 500 employees or more saw a 2 percent decrease.

What do you make of the shift away from Wii development? Is it a good thing, as smaller developers are focusing more on individual games, and compete with less volume of titles? Or perhaps it is a bad thing, as developers are giving up on the Wii? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: WiiChat

SEGA Europe has today released a new trailer from their forthcoming Iron Man 2 game. The trailer features the mighty War Machine joining in to lend a helping hand in spectacular fashion, all guns blazing!  The game is due for release on the Nintendo Wii in April 2010, to tie in with the movie of the same name. This is what Simon Jeffery, President of SEGA America had to say about Iron Man 2 the game, which is currently in production at SEGA Studios San Francisco:

“We are thrilled to build on the success of the Iron Man phenomenon and work with Marvel and Paramount on another epic project. SEGA and Marvel are collaborating closely to ensure we deliver an authentic Iron Man experience.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

The brand-new storyline, which has been penned by renowned comic book author Matt Fraction, includes familiar elements from both the movie and comic book universe, giving fans the opportunity to pit themselves against video-game exclusive enemies such as Crimson Dynamo. Tony Stark is still trying to make the world a better place by giving it new technology, but unfortunately it’s the sort of technology that the villains also want to get their hands on. This of course leads to the inevitable epic battles against massive enemies as Tony Stark/Iron Man, once again attempts to save the world from certain doom.

Source: WiiChat

Still, as Nintendo reminds us, this is your first chance to have a different-color Wiimote for each of four players. Unless you’ve already solved that “problem” by sticking one of your friends with the (perhaps undeserved) stigma of being Nyko Wand Guy.

Pink and blue Wiimotes coming Valentine’s Day originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo

“We wanted to develop a product line of quality fitness gear that can extend the functionality of the growing number of fitness titles for the Wii and Wii Fit,” said Riiflex creator Paul Holcomb. “We believe Wii Fit is tapping into a large market demand to make gym time feel more like play time. We are dedicated to develop products that help people meet this need.”

Holcomb adds that the Riiflex was designed as a traditional alternative for resistance bands. “Resistance bands can be convenient but they have their limitations. They typically require use of another body part to provide resistance and do not provide added weight needed for lower body exercises like lunges.”

Source: WiiChat

The Wiimote has been used for plenty of non-gaming needs, including tidying up the house and controlling robots. Even the US military got in on the action, using the Wiimote to defuse bombs in Iraq. And let’s not forget the groundbreaking work done by Johnny Chung Lee — a man who just happens to have inspired the creation of the setup you see above.

See, a team of scientists in Luxemburg (via Wired) figured out that using the sensor-filled gutty-works of the Wiimote would — through some tinkering — be a good way to measure water evaporation. See, this type of measurement usually requires sensors that can cost up to $500 a piece, making the $40 Wiimote quite the attractive alternative. This has applications outside of just measuring water evaporation, the team said — including measuring the speed at which a structure collapses.

[Via Gizmodo]

Wii Remote turned into water sensor originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo

Nintendo has been busy trademarking a new word, it has been revealed, one which is remarkably like the name of their successful games console, the Wii.

The word is, wait for it, Zii. What this actually means is unknown. All we know is that Nintendo decided to get its mucky paws on the Wii-like word moniker back in October, with the Japanese trademark database just releasing details of the acquisition this week.

From Wii to Zii

It may be that Zii has been snapped up because it doesn’t want the typo brigade in on the Wii name. This is unlikely though, considering you would have to have pretty big digits to mistake a W for a Z.

It’s more than likely that the name could well be the upcoming Wii update, which is rumoured to have a Blu-ray drive which would bring high definition to the console for the first time. Or, it could well be an accessory for the Wii.

Considering Nintendo changed the name of its stupidly successful console from the Revolution to the Wii, it may be that the Zii may never see the light of day.

Saying that, we’re betting that it’s a new Wii add-on for asthmatics to to improve lung power, called the Wii-Zii. Geddit? Whee… why do we bother?

Source: TechRadar