Eurogamer in blog format - Wii

Special edition armours are all the rage in Mass Effect, and buying from Game Stop gives you these special treats.

More split infinitives from the Cryptic team.

A brief teaser for the charming murder mystery from Relentless.

Shigeru Miyamoto has said that if he were applying for a job at Nintendo these days with his original qualifications, he probably wouldn't get in.

"Nintendo has become one of those companies that graduates from colleges and good universities really want to work for," Miyamoto told Edge in its latest issue.

"Because of that, the competition's really become so fierce for positions. And that means that a lot of the recent recruits for Nintendo have tended to have the higher degree from the prestigious colleges and universities and whatnot. Read more...

Classic SNES racer Super Mario Kart is set for a Virtual Console release in the US.

According to Gamespot the 17 year-old game will cost 800 Wii Points (around £6 / €8).

Also on the way to VC are Pilotwings, another SNES title, and Nintendo 64 hit Super Smash Bros. There's no word on a price for those yet, or when we can expect to see the trio of games on the European Virtual Console - but we'll keep you posted. Read more...

Why deal with the enemy on their terms when you can turn up in a massive steel robot and crush them without mercy.

Unremittingly wholesome.

Three short sections of combat gameplay from Capcom's 'vertical shooter'. Turns out, best way to deal with robots is a quick slap to the face.

These chaps look terribly familiar, no? Wonder if the Geth were really little space slugs in robot suits too?

Twee popstrel Pixie Lott signs her corporate soul over to the Sims.

Footage of the current PS3 beta for Battlefield Bad Company 2, captured by our Portuguese comrades.

Dinosaurs and guns have always been an incongruous mix, but any game which tells you to 'kill albino velociraptors to get grenades' has to be worth a look.

War's road to redemption begins.

Square Enix will release Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers in Europe on 5th February.

The Wii adventure has just launched in Japan and will be available in the US on Boxing Day, bizarrely.

Crystal Bearers was revealed at E3 2005 long before the Wii (then the Revolution) had gone on sale. The idea, we presume, was to use the momentum generated by GameCube's excellent Crystal Chronicles from 2004. Read more...

Croteam's high-def update of the PC blasting classic gets a formal release date.

Rock Band gets light-hearted with the minifigs.

Dotnia experiences an expansion into an entirely new dimension.

Wheee! We're suckers for a bit of dog-fighting, especially with those crazy rear-prop driven Japanese planes.

Sneaky tactics and sharp headshots in the sequel to DICE's jolly battlefield romp.

Capcom has confirmed that the three planned Ace Attorney WiiWare ports will be released in Europe next year for 1000 Wii Points apiece.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney will be first, in "early 2010", followed by Justice for All in "spring" and Trials and Tribulations at an unspecified later date. The US got a bit more specific information: January for AA, March for Justice and May for Trials.

Interestingly, the first instalment will actually be slightly split, with the first four of Wright's court cases in the core release, and the fifth one released separately for another 100 Wii Points. The latter will arrive in the US in May, apparently, with no immediate word on a European date, although it will happen. Read more...

Blood Bowl gets its first new race in the lithe and dangerous form of the Dark Elves.

Nintendo has announced the launch of Pokemon Rumble for WiiWare, available today for an eye-watering 1500 Wii Points (approximately £10.50 / €15).

There's a demo version of that to try too, along with a demo of the totally and utterly lovely World of Goo, which came out earlier this year.

They're all joined on the WiiWare shop by Shootanto: Evolutionary Mayhem (500 WP - £3.50 / €5), a third-person shooter that takes you through the stages of evolution. Read more...

As an ancient and powerful Umbra witch, Bayonetta has a few handy tricks up her tight sleeves. Here, learn about her flashy, demon-powered killer moves.

Video on demand streaming is coming to the PS3 very soon, with a massive wedge of entertainment waiting at your digital fingertips.

When you're heading into a life or death battle against uncaring robotic overlords, you want to be wearing the right dress.

Shigeru Miyamoto has given an interesting interview to Famitsu - translated and summarised by 1UP - about the design processes behind New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

It's the most closely he's been involved with day-to-day game design in a while, he said. "It's been a nostalgic time for me. I've been getting into the game and making the sort of fine-tuning adjustments that I made with Super Mario World and Mario 3."

Miyamoto says that the decision to go with "a very orthodox Mario" in the modern day and age was "courageous", but motivated by the decision to focus on multiplayer. Read more...

Konami has alerted us to an upcoming and free bout of DLC for the Wii version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2010.

Simply, the update brings all player stats and data in-line with the real world. So, imagine a crazy universe where Robin Van Persie had been injured during international duty - if that was the case the game would reflect it. You might even find he was out of the Arsenal squad for six weeks! Just imagine.

We expect Konami will issue a few of these data refreshers as the season goes on. Read more...

An update on the Wii Vitality Sensor and a first look at its software applications are already part of Nintendo's plans for E3 2010, according to a new interview with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.

Although he offered no more details about the Vitality Sensor, which reads biometric data from a person's finger, the relatively frank interview on Kotaku did offer some insight into Nintendo's other future plans.

Fils-Aime admitted that the company's policy of only starting heavy marketing on new games a few weeks prior to their release has not proven as successful for less mainstream titles. Read more...

Any Formula 1 fan will tell you that March 2007 feels like a lifetime ago. The season that saw a young Lewis Hamilton - too young - miss out on the championship by a single point was also the last time an F1 game rolled out of a developer's pit. In fairness, by the time Formula 1 Championship Edition showed up on PS3, the sub-genre was already misfiring. A series of mainly monotonous and predictable real-life seasons combined with the restrictions that accompany any official Formula 1 game production resulted in F1 titles that, like the sport they emulated, had lost their spark. Read more...

Charles Martinet, better known as the voice of Mario, has admitted that at one stage he also wanted to be the voice of Link, star of the Zelda games.

"I spoke to Mr. Miyamoto and said, 'I wanna be Link, I wanna be Link,' and Miyamoto told me that Link isn't going to have a voice, he is going to stay the way he is," Martinet related to thatgamingsite (thanks vg247).

"Of course Mr. Miyamoto is always right!" he added. "The way it works right now is the way it is supposed to be. Read more...

Nintendo has made good on its promise to release demos of WiiWare games by uploading three of them to the European Wii Shop.

However, it sounds like they are only temporary treats, as the small print mentions they will be free to download until 31st January 2010.

The demos in question, which should be available now, are a six-level version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord, a one-level slab of NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits, and a little bit of Bit.Trip Beat. Read more...

Asked by Official Nintendo magazine if Super Mario Galaxy 2 will use the Super Guide feature that makes its debut in this week's New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Shigeru Miyamoto said he "cannot tell".

But he indicated that the game would probably be difficult enough to warrant it. "Well, as far as the challenge of Super Mario Galaxy 2 is concerned, I think it's going to be a really challenging game, but whether or not we are going to incorporate the Super Guide, I just cannot tell," said the famous designer.

"In general, wherever and whenever appropriate, I think we will want to incorporate that kind of thing, but I cannot commit to anything specific right now." Read more...

Reggie Fils-Aime has said that if Nintendo were to introduce HD to the Wii, it would have to be part of a broader revamp - and that such a console wouldn't be released until "far into the future".

"The way we at Nintendo do things is, you know, when we will move to a new generation, it's because there are some fundamental things the console cannot do," Fils-Aime, who is president of Nintendo of America, told Kotaku when asked whether the company was considering an HD Wii.

"What that says is that simply the addition of HD capability will not be the next step for us. There will be more to it. There will be additional capability. There will be additional elements, and, given that, it is far into the future." Read more...

As mindlessly enjoyable as The Umbrella Chronicles was, the absence of the Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica storylines was conspicuous. Capcom said there wasn't enough time to include the full story and has tried to make amends by releasing a follow-up to its successful on-rails take on the franchise. Read more...

Shigeru Miyamoto is in the habit of saying he imagined his latest invention years ago, and has been waiting for technology to make it possible. He always wanted Mario to have his dinsosaur companion Yoshi, but it wasn't possible on the NES. Zelda always looked like Ocarina of Time in his head. And, apparently, he'd always envisaged a multiplayer Super Mario Bros., but for some unspecified and difficult-to-imagine reason, it's taken the world 24 years to catch up. Read more...

Oh, drumbeater. I was on board. I could not wait to rope the animals. I have never visited Ocean City, New Jersey, but I would have if I'd known there's a Jambo! Safari arcade cabinet there. I even started a petition to bring the series back and when SEGA announced a console game was in development I, like you, rejoiced.

Now it's here, and the good news is Jambo! Safari for Wii is still about driving and roping ferocious animals. The bad news is there's more of an emphasis on petting them kindly. Plus there's a whole new range of dull, worthy missions to complete, based around tedious things like environmental responsibility and taking photographs of ostriches.

At least the visual style is the same. Once again you get to drive a jeep with poor handling around a badly rendered reimagining of the African savannah, complete with blurry textures, boulders which pop up from nowhere and trees you can drive straight through. The plains are populated by big game such as lions, cheetahs, zebras and gazelles, all of whom are so shoddily animated they appear to have rickets. Read more...

Nintendo and the BBC are launching an entire Wii iPlayer Channel next Wednesday, 18th November.

The improved player will offer radio on demand and a full-screen user interface. There are promises of the service being "faster" and "high quality", but the statement doesn't go into detail.

David Yarnton, boss of Nintendo UK, said that features like the iPlayer as well as the news and weather channels give Wii owners "another reason to turn on their console every day". Read more...

With large chunks of the gaming world busy getting in a right old lather over Modern Warfare 2, the belated appearance of a Wii port of the 2007 original the other day had all the impact of a Johnstone's Paint Trophy scoreline on a wet Wednesday night.

And just like the Swindon vs. Norwich match this week, it has nil-nil written all over it, with Activision hoping for the best by fielding its Treyarch reserve team. The bold intention was to release a fully-featured conversion, complete with all the levels and multiplayer features that have turned the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 game into a 13-million selling blockbuster over the past two years.

Sadly the result is only ever passable. While all of the basic gameplay elements that won the game such wide acclaim are retained, much of its visual appeal is reduced dramatically thanks to muddy visuals which don't even come close to reaching the standard reached by other Wii titles in the genre. This "Reflex Edition" is a wobbly Telesync compared to the cinematic presentation you'll get elsewhere. Read more...