Wii Music is a compilation of music titles from Nintendo that use the motion control aspects of the Wii controller to simulate instruments. Since in December 2007 Nintendo of Japan’s schedule (page 9) confirmed that the music-rhythm game had been delayed to 2008, we thought it would be fun to do a recap of all known features. Let’s start off with two examples of included games that were demonstrated at E3 2006: …

1. Bang on a drum set like air-drums (with both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk), for one or two players:

2. Conduct an orchestra with a wave of the wand as The Legend Of Zelda Overworld Theme plays:

… As well as acting out other music — like the Super Mario Bros. Theme or The Overture from the Opera Carmen — with your Wii.

It is unknown how many Wii Music games may be included in final package. But an October 10th Nintendo Fall Press Conference 2007 Presentation in Japan revealed that: “Players will be able to select from around 40 instruments, including folk guitar, bass guitar, trumpet, maracas and marimba. Six characters take part in a performance, although the game only supports up to four human players. You’re free to go at the game by yourself, with the CPU taking care of the remaining parts.

Gameplay is timing based. You have to time your button presses with notes. The controls vary depending on the instrument. With the trumpet, you use A and B on the Wiimote. For the drums, you shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Some instruments have extra playing options, though. With the trumpet, you can aim the Wiimote up and down to simulate an increase in blowing strength. With the guitar, you can hold down the C button to get single notes instead of chords,” translated IGN.

You can see part of this press event here:

Lastly back in April 2007 a Nintendo distributor mentioned that Wii Music will allow players to create and save their own compositions and send them to other Wii users via the online WiiConnect24 to get exchanges going.

That’s to say on top of the Nintendo and orchestral classic pieces that will be included. It should be interesting to find out what other songs will make it in the game or if there will be entirely new compositions thanks to Nintendo composer Koji Kondo (of Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros. series fame) being one of the people overseeing the project along with Shigeru Miyamoto.

When released, this should be great fun and do well for itself if the Video Games Live concerts’ success is any indication. After Wii Sports and Wii Fit, this could be the next big hit. Nintendo is expected to show off Wii Music at the E3 Summit 2008 on July 15-17th.

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Iron Man, one of Marvel’s most indestructible Super Heroes, blast onto videogame platforms with this adaptation of the big screen movie. This third-person action game immerses players in the world of Tony Stark — the brilliant industrialist and inventor who both created and became the world’s toughest hero - Iron Man. By customizing the advanced technology in Iron Man’s suits, gamers can take advantage of a wide array of high-impact weapons to strategically blow-up and destroy any enemy force and fight to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction.

Drawing from both the movie and comic book storylines, Iron Man features the voice talent of the stars from the major motion picture — Robert Downey Jr, Terrence Howard, and Shawn Toub. Utilizing the power of next-gen gaming consoles, Iron Man offers photo-realistic graphics, non-linear gameplay and huge open worlds in which gamers can travel as far as the eye can see.

Is the billionaire hero’s game shiny and polished or covered in a thick layer of tarnish? Find out in this Iron Man game video review:

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Today Nintendo of Europe (and Australia) added new classic games to the popular Wii Shop Channel. The games went live at midnight CET. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at stores like Amazon UK (Card).

The third week of the Hanabi Festival 2 brings more Japanese exclusives (this week no American imports) to the Wii Shop Channel.

We’ve included videos of the games so you can see if it’s for you. This week’s new games are:

Star Parodier (priced 900 Wii Points = €9 / £6.75 / AU$13.50): A Hudson Soft top-down shooter from 1992 on the Japanese PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM) for 1 player.

Gley Lancer (priced 900 Wii Points = €9 / £6.75 / AU$13.50): A Sega side-scrolling shooter from 1992 on the Japanese Mega Drive (Genesis) for 1 player.

Digital Champ: Battle Boxing (priced 700 Wii Points = €7 / £5.25 / AU$10.50): A Naxat Soft sports game from 1989 on the Japanese PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16 HuCard, CD-ROM) for 1 player.

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This is the forty-fifth in a series of bad video game reviews by the Angry Video Game Nerd. Watch as the Angry Nerd reviews a ton of NES Accessories! From the NES Zapper and SNES Scope everyone knows to the hilarious voice-operated Laserscope and obscure U-force. Whatever the gadget, Duck Hunt causes some hilarious moments.

Why do you need all this stuff to play these games when all you really need is “a”, “b” and a “d-pad”? Find out in this video and as always, coarse language ahead.

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Did you enjoy last month’s Wii Virtual Console classic NES release River City Ransom? No doubt nostalgia led you to punch some gang thugs and save Cyndi once again. If that’s you, you’ll love Mega64’s real-life take on the scenarios taking place in that game.

“You’ve defeated me before… “

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The development team including Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil creator), Atsushi Inaba (Okami producer) and Hideki Kamiya (Devil May Cry creator) from Capcom’s Clover Studios has gone through quite a few name changes, from Capcom to SEEDS to now PlatinumGames.

These are the 3 PlatinumGames they are working on:

1. Bayonetta for PS3 and Xbox 360, directed by Hideki Kamiya, and is described by the site’s correspondent as a “stylish action game” with “a witch battling angels”. Apparently she has guns on her feet.

2. A science-fiction RPG for the DS called Infinite Line, where you play as a starship captain, customizing your ship and crew.

3. A Wii game called MadWorld. …it’s, “Black and white Sin City graphics, with red blood. Ultra ultra violent. Fatality moves like shoving a post through someone’s head. Chainsaw on your right arm.”

1UP reports that Sega will be publishing.

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This week on Zero Punctuation, Grand Theft Auto 4 is reviewed. We just rated Grand Theft Auto 4 with a 10 out of 10 fun factor. As Stuart put it: This game deserves the stellar recognition and record-breaking 6 million week-one sales it has received. It is an incredible achievement, an outstanding piece of entertainment, etc., praise, etc, more praise.

But it seems the Australian-based writer Yahtzee has some issues with every game, or rather, he has issues. As always, foul language ahead in this video.

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Niko Bellic receives letters and emails from his cousin Roman, speaking of wealth and luxury beyond his wildest dreams in Liberty City. After only a few years in America, Roman Bellic has a mansion, a sports car and many beautiful women in his life, and urges Niko to join him. After working the passage on a container ship, Niko is introduced to the truth -Roman’s seedy, cockroach-ridden apartment, crappy car, stressful job, and a struggle to appease the aggressive gangsters looking to collect on his gambling debts. Niko doesn’t like to see his cousin pushed around, and in the face of his defiance, the gangsters begin to negotiate - for Niko’s services. So begins Grand Theft Auto IV - a magnificently byzantine journey into a corrupted, rusting American dream.

It’s less than two weeks after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the largest entertainment launch in history. The game took US$310 million in its first 24 hours, and US$500 million in its first week, putting other blockbuster media events like Halo 3 (US$170million) and the movie, Spider-man 3 (US$148million) in the shade. Over the last few weeks we’ve been looking at the GTA games so far; we’ve seen the start, the roots, the amazing transition from 2D to 3D, and moved from a sunny island city to an entire state. Sam Houser, co-creator of GTA, said that the difference between the last games and GTA4 would be as great as the leap from 2D to 3D - an ambitious claim. GTA4 took four years and a record breaking US$100 million to make.
Let’s take a look at the results.
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From today, at 9AM GMT (2AM PDT), you can play Sierra Online’s Assault Heroes 2 on Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360. Assault Heroes 2 will be available worldwide for 800 Microsoft Points (that’s US$10 / €9.60 / £6.80 / CAN$12.40 / AU$13.20).

In Assault Heroes 2 you keep up the fight against new enemies with stronger weapons and vehicles. This sequel allows for more battling on foot and gives you the chance to go through the levels with a friend in co-op mode.

Key game features include:
* Enhanced multiplayer co-op: Quickly activate improved cooperative weapons to rain destruction on hordes of bazooka soldiers, kamikaze bombers, and more.
* Hijackable enemy units: Steal the attack helicopter, armored tank, or mechanical walker from the enemy base for surprise attacks.
* More powerful weaponry: Utilize a superior arsenal of weapons including the newly designed sub-zero freezing ice cannon, homing missiles, rocket launcher, and upgraded firearms from the original.
* Frantic on-foot action: Survive on-foot warfare while equipped with all your weapons in expansive underground areas.
* Monstrous bosses: Face off against challenging mechanoid beasts before they destroy you.
* New diverse and interactive environments: Blast through the Snowy Mountains, Rainforest and Outer Space with extensive destructible terrain from burning trees to shattering buildings.

Like every week, there were also various downloadable Rock Band tracks released for the Xbox 360 version of the game in addition to 2007’s downloadable Rock Band content. Below’s listing shows various new tracks:
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Battlefield Bad Company’s multiplayer will support up to 24 players, and will run on PC-dedicated servers. Gold Rush is one of the game modes, it has an Attackers vs. Defenders scenario, in which one team must defend two crates filled with gold while the other team attempts to destroy the crates. Once the crates are destroyed, more of the map is available to fight on with new crates appearing, along with added reinforcement numbers. The attacking team has a limited amount of respawns to achieve their goal of capturing the 2-3 gold stashes. The defending team has an unlimited amount of respawns available, but their goal is to exhaust the attacking teams respawns. The classes in this game will be: Assault, Demolitions, Recon, Specialist, and Support.

The DICE developers narrate a more detailed breakdown of features and classes in Battlefield Bad Company’s multiplayer.

Click on the bottom-right corner arrow to view it fullscreen.

Battlefield: Bad Company will be released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation in America on June 23rd and in Europe on June 26th, 2008.

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