Wii Fit date, bikes in Mario Kart

By Tom Bramwell Published 10 October, 2007

Plus Wii Ware games, Fire Emblem DS, DS download channel.

As well as adding Sonic to the Smash Bros. roster, Nintendo's Japanese press conference also brought us the local release date for Wii Fit, news of motorbikes in Mario Kart and a few details on the first games for downloadable service Wii Software (Wii Ware), announced this June.

It all comes courtesy of live blogs on Gemaga and Famitsu (diligently translated by IGN), and kicks off with news that the wobble-board fest that is Wii Fit will arrive in Japan on 1st December. That's my birthday, well-wishers.

As you will know from excitable write-ups like our one, Wii Fit is roughly equivalent to exercise. It's going to cost JPY 8800 in Japan, which is roughly equivalent to GBP 37 / EUR 53. Expect it to cost about 48 times that much in Europe, obviously, where a release date has yet to be confirmed.

Also loitering around was news that Mario Kart Wii will be out over there in spring (it's listed as first-half 2008 over here), and it will include motorbikes! That's about all we know for now, but in our experience you don't need much more detail than that to zoom around the comment thread making silly noises.

There was also talk of the first titles for the service known here as Wii Software and in the States and Japan as Wii Ware. You'll remember that the idea was, in Nintendo's words, to "provide developers with big ideas - rather than big budgets - an easy and very accessible way to create new games and bring them to the marketplace".

For now though there's no sign of those smaller developers, with Nintendo (Pokemon Farm, Dr. Mario), Square Enix (a Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles title), Namco Bandai (Mojipittan Wii) and Hudson (Bomberman, Star Soldier R, Joy Sound Wii) the first names on the list. The Pokemon game apparently allows you to import your little friends from DS games Diamond and Pearl, while Joy Sound Wii is a karaoke machine and Mojipittan is described by eagle-eyed bloggers as a word game of some sort.

Elsewhere at the conference, there was also a sighting of Super Mario Stadium Baseball on a video reel and - we thought we'd save the best for last - the first news of a new Fire Emblem game for Nintendo DS.

All of which sounds rather exciting, although Nintendo in the US and Europe has yet to release any statements regarding the announcements, so we're reliant on the integrity of the Japanese blog circuit and wily translators to ensure their veracity. In other words, allow a small amount of salt to creep into your digestive remarks, but don't be surprised if it's all true. After all, SEGA Europe just confirmed the Sonic Smash Bros. connection.

And... rest.

Update - Do not rest! Word from a friend of Eurogamer's "man in Japan" is that Nintendo also announced a DS download channel as well, featuring demos, "special content" and the best entries in game design seminars. "Coming soon", apparently. Interesting!

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Darkedge #1 4 years ago

    WiiFit at £53 is WAY too expensive. may rethink buying it now as that just seems unreasonable

    *edit - Okay £37 is still pricey considering every other ninty product has basically doubled the Japanese price. I'd pay £40 for it, maybe 45 but not over 60 ever.
    Edited by 1 at 10/10/07 @ 12:33

  • Eraser #2 4 years ago

    Darkedge, that's 53 euro's, not UK pound. According to the article, that equals 37 pound. 53 euro/37 pound is a rather normal price for a videogame.

  • Physically_Insane #3 4 years ago

    so mario kart shouldn't really be called mario kart anymore

  • Darren #4 4 years ago

    It's £37 or €53 in Japan not £53! That said, it'll likely be £50 by the time it is released here, living as we do in Rip Off Britain(tm). ;)

  • mostly_harmless #5 4 years ago

    @ Darkedge: £37, that 53 is the euro figure.

    Will probably be 39.99 though. Depends how much they want for the board. Remeber Wii Play comes with an extra remote for £35, so hopefully they won't go mad.

  • X201 #6 4 years ago

    "53 euro/37 pound is a rather normal price for a videogame."
    And a bloody good one when it comes with a piece of hardware like the Wii Fit Board thing considering Guitar Hero + Guitar is £65 ish

  • oceanmotion #7 4 years ago

    Another excuse for Nintendo to release some shit motorbike handles I bet.

  • mossychops001 #8 4 years ago

    Can we get this free on the NHS?
    Edited by 1 at 10/10/07 @ 12:35

  • gizmo #9 4 years ago

    So, with regard to Mario Kart,

    ARE THERE MOTORBIKES IN IT?

  • Floppy #10 4 years ago

    Jesus Nintendo. The clue's in the title... Mario KART. You were stretching it a bit with the two man tag-team vehicles in Double-Dash, but add bikes in and you may as well just call it Mario Racing and be done with it.

  • smoison #11 4 years ago

    Excellent news with me Motobikes!!! That should defenity add some freshness to Mario Kart;

  • erp #12 4 years ago

    the DS download channel sounds very interesting! all it needs now is the ability to actually buy commercially released games - ie. a proper digital distribution model - so you can legitimately do the whole "i've got all the DS games i own on one big fat SD card" thing, and frankly the DS will be nigh on perfect.

  • rhinoxious #13 4 years ago

    Double dash didn;t do it for me, but the DS version of Mario Kart was excellent.

    Maybe Nintendo should learn not to fuck with a winning formula?

  • pyrat6 #14 4 years ago

    "Jesus Nintendo. The clue's in the title... Mario KART."

    Aye cos authenticity is important in a game where dinosaurs chase mushrooms round a track made of chocolate ;)

    "Maybe Nintendo should learn not to fuck with a winning formula?"
    I agree lots. Though I wouldn't mind seeing some of the excitetruck antics in a cartoooney world. IMHO they should consider a premium rate downloadable version of MKSnes with online play.
    Edited by 1 at 10/10/07 @ 13:24

  • Caimbeul #15 4 years ago

    Not saying anything about Mario Kart apart from the fact that I am now a little concerned...This is Nintendo though and I doubt they would deliberately balls up one of their bigest franchises.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #16 4 years ago

    So all we know about Mario Kart is that it has motorbikes. No gameplay details, nothing.

    So perhaps people should chill until we find out how it's all going to work?

  • Carrybagma #17 4 years ago

    DS download service? Oh, now that's something interesting.

  • JetSetWilly #18 4 years ago

    I would just like to go \o/ once more for Fire Emblem DS. Please let there be an English language option in the Japanese release.

  • Ace_McCloud #19 4 years ago

    /Punches rhinoxious in the face.
    /Leapfrogs off him into a flying kick to the face of pyrat6

    No no no no no. MK:DD is the most fantastic, deep MK that gets no respect because no one delved to its wonderful depths to find the gold that lay on its sandy bed.... But I did fellas! And it was glooOOOOOoorius!

  • pyrat6 #20 4 years ago

    AceMcCloud

    Ouch.

    Not saying DD is bad as such. It's just that MKSnes is arguably one of the greatest games ever. I know a few people who still play it regularly. It's almost guaranteed that the wii version will be compared to it unfavourably. Whether it's justified or not.

    Oh. And you're wrong by the way ;)

  • Ace_McCloud #21 4 years ago

    You're dead...

  • smelly #22 4 years ago

    BUT .. BUT .. BUUT...

    *SONIC IS IN SMASH BROS!!!*

    If that doesnt make it a must buy, i dont know what will

  • twinbee #23 4 years ago

    Hooray for more Fire Emblem! Even if it's a remake, give it to me!

  • smelly #24 4 years ago

    smash bros is getting a european release in december (along with us).

    japanese get in in january.

  • pyrat6 #25 4 years ago


    If they have bikes I hope they are those dodgy undersized ones. I fiund the idea of one of the larger characters on these mildly amusing.

    Leaning round corners with the wiimote while firing off a red shell sounds pretty good to me ... no matter what it's called.

    Smelly ... yeah yeah ...

    I wish it had been tails. That little c'nt really deserves a beating.

    Or the Sonic from the cartoon series. He's a twat.

    Edited by 1 at 10/10/07 @ 20:20

  • mostly_harmless #26 4 years ago

    @ Floppy

    I take it then that if your boss offered you a bonus you'd refuse it on the grounds that the resultant income would be more than you've previously had?

    "The clues in my paygrade...it's only £xyz a MONTH!!! Keep your bonus!"

    Feck's sake. As long as there's still karts in it who cares. People bleating on about free bonus features is one of the most depressing things about videogaming forums these days.

  • varsas #27 4 years ago

    Fire Emblem DS! \o/