It started in the usual manner. A rumor popped up on 2chan about a Chrono Trigger remake for DS. A picture even surfaced of a supposed leaked magazine scan. No real cause to get excited. How many times have we seen rumors of a Chrono resurrection? How hard is it to fake a magazine page with a Chrono Trigger logo? Exactly.

It’s slightly harder to fake a Square Enix website.

We know absolutely nothing about the game yet. Is it a new game? Is it a remake? Is it 2D or 3D? Will the old team be reunited? Heck, the game hasn’t even been officially announced. I guess we’ll just have to sit here and wait for that countdown to end.

I can easily say that I have never been so hyped for a game that we know so little about.

I saw WALL•E this past weekend and have to say that it’s probably my favorite Pixar flick yet. To continue my enjoyment I’ve been perusing the web looking for cool WALL•E related things that we didn’t cover in our last post. Check out a video of a real life WALL•E robot, a sweet WALL•E Lego creation and finally, a WALL•M… or Mitch’s version of WALL•E… or himself as a robot… I’m really not sure.

Real WALL•E Robot

WALL•E Lego Robot

WALL•M (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Mitch-Class)

Wii
July 1 - Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
July 1 - Purr Pals

Virtual Console / WiiWare
Magnetica Twist (Nintendo, 1-4 players, 1000 Wii Points)
FATAL FURY 2 (NEOGEO, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points)

DS
July 1 - AMF Bowling Pinbusters!
July 1 - Ducati Racing
July 1 - Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2
July 1 - Journey to the Center of the Earth
July 1 - 1 vs. 100

The Sequel to Trauma Center is finally here! Also, one of my favorite DS puzzle games is out on Wiiware, and it now has 4 player support.

Some people run miles for charity. Brian Brinegar plays Mario games. The 29 year old web developer from Indiana is spending this weekend making his way through seven Mario games. He’s broadcasting the effort and attempting to use it to raise money for Child’s Play.

We’re a little late to the party, but it’s not too late to join in. Currently, Brian is playing through Super Mario Sunshine and has raised $6640 (88% of his goal). Head on over and take a look! If you’re feeling generous, throw some money his way through the donation button.

Super Mario Marathon
Child’s Play

Submitter: Alec

A friend passed this link along to me this morning, via drawn.ca (an awesome illustration/cartooning blog). The site’s en français, but the pictures speak the universal language of Awesomeness. While some of the images aren’t exactly from retro games – such as the one above – it’s still neat to see this kind of artistic composition of real-life and pixel art.

UPDATE: 4cr Forumite fizban did something similar back in 2005 and shared his work with us in March this year: Virtual Console Campaign

SOURCE: Drawn.ca

This is turning out to be an awesome day for WiiWare news. Sunsoft has announced that they are developing a digital comic viewer for the Wii. This platform will allow gamers to buy manga directly from the WiiWare service.

The company has also announced a digital publishing outlet, Sunsoft Books, to distribute original content to the platform. The first series to launch will be a new title from Leiji Matsumoto, creator of such awesome series as Galaxy Express 999 and Captain Harlock.

The comic viewer and digital delivery service will launch this summer. No word yet on pricing or if we’ll see this outside of Japan.

source: Wired Game|Life

We knew it was coming, a listing appeared on the Australian Office Of Film and Literature Classification’s website a few weeks back. In an interview in the latest issue of Nintendo Power, series creator Keiji Inafune confirmed that the latest entry in the classic sidescroller series is coming straight to WiiWare. Inti Creates is handling development duties, more or less confirming Kawano’s (Dead Rising, Mega Man ZX) involvement.

In an interesting twist, Mega Man 9 will return to the visual style and gameplay of the original NES entries in the series. In the interview, Inafune claims that this was to please long-time fans of the series. The difficulty level will also be on-par with the classic entries.

Dr. Wily is back and apparently blames Dr. Light for the Robot Master attacks. Rush will also make an appearance. Bosses for the new sequel include Magma Man, Galaxy Man, Jewel Man, Concrete Man, Hornet Man, Plug Man, Tornado Man, and Splash Woman (yes, woman). As usual, Mega Man will gain new powers from his vanquished foes (for instance, beating Galaxy Man gives you “black-hole bombs”). When asked if Protoman will be playable, Inafune was notably slippery.

No release date yet, but we’ll bring you all of the details as they emerge. Inafune said that he hopes that this entry will surpass Mega Man 2, which alone is enough to get me to “clean out the fridge” in anticipation for this game.

Low-res Scans

It’s that time of year again. Summer’s at its peak, the movie season is also reaching its apex, and Pixar is getting ready to release their next feature film. As good a movie as last year’s Ratatouille was, something about it just missed that little bit of “oompf” that I kinda expected from a Pixar film. What I think that movie lacked, and this is a completely personal taste, was a fundamentally interesting premise to someone like me. And so, knowing how much I enjoyed Ratatouille anyway, it would be an understatement to say I’m immensely anticipating Wall-E. I tend to look at it this way: The most innovative and technologically groundbreaking animation studio in the world is making a futuristic science-fiction movie starring robots in space. There is so much right with that sentence that I don’t even know where to start.

To help you get ready for tomorrow, here’s a link to as much Wall-E related videos and features as I could find.

Official Wall-E Website
Apple Trailer page with all the Wall-E vignettes
Collection of High Resolution Movie Stills
Featurette about all aspects of the movie
“Lots of Bots” Featurette
“A Hero’s Journey” Featurette
“The Man and the Machine” Featurette
“The Look and Sound of Space” Featurette
“The Making of Wall-E” Clips <- this one is super cool

If this summer has taken its toll on your bills, be sure to check out Amazon.com’s “Nintendo Icon” event on Friday, June 27. Throughout the day, Amazon will be slashing prices on a selection of video games–and for the third time running, it’s just for you, the Nintendo gamer.

Does anyone else smell that? Is that… love in the air? Here’s how it’s going to work:

* At 12:01 AM PST the first deal will be the Gold Box Deal of the Day. Its special discounted price will be available all day only on Friday, June 27 (or until we run out.)
* Starting at 6:00 AM PST, the second deal will be featured as a Lightning Deal. This special price will be available for the following two hours.
* Each of the seven remaining deals will also be Lightning Deals. Starting every two hours that follow at 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM, and 6:00 PM PST, and 8:00 PM each deal will be available for two hours after it begins.
* Discounts on each deal will be available only while supplies last.

That’s one Gold Box Deal, plus eight Lightning Deals featuring Nintendo video games. Will we be rich in gold, or heaping piles of shovelware?

I pounced on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption when it was a Lightning Deal back in February, but when my cart finally loaded, the game had sold out. Sold out, in less than a minute! Come Friday, lay down your controllers: it’s time to put your gaming reflexes to the test.

Video Games Gold Box Deals: Nintendo Icons

Just when I thought it would be another slow news week, Nintendo went and confirmed four new titles for US release. All of these titles are coming by the end of the September, and none are truly surprising. Which titles are being localized?

Wario Land: Shake It (Wii)
The only one that I’m really excited about. It’s an honest-to-goodness 2D platformer on a modern console. You hold the Wii Remote on its side and occasionally shake it to attack Wario’s foes. If it’s anything like the old Game Boy Wario Land titles, I’m hyped. Wario Land comes out on September 29th.

Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS)
A remake of one of the classic Kirby games. New for this version is a collection of animated cutscenes, minigames, and multiplayer. Kirby also comes out on September 29th.

Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir (DS)
An adaptation of the popular board game. I have no idea what to expect here, but the press release promises “interactive logic puzzles that use both the touch-screen interface and built-in microphone.” Could be cool. MillionHeir comes out September 8th.

Mario Super Sluggers (Wii)
You know what to expect here. Mario and baseball. If the motion controls work well, this will probably be an awesome game. This one should be on store shelves August 25th.

We’ll probably see more of all of these titles at E3 in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more info and screens.

source: NeoGAF

Alright, Purr Pals has a pretty standard box for a pet game. It looks like every other generic pet simulator (and there are a lot of them). However, according to that tagline at the bottom of the box, Purr Pals hides a far more insidious secret.

More…

Wii
June 23 - Alone in the Dark (GameStats)
June 23 - Top Spin 3 (GameStats)
June 24 - Big Beach Sports
June 24 - Cocoto Kart Racer
June 24 - WALL-E

Virtual Console / WiiWare
Gyrostarr (1-4 players, 700 Wii Points)
Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Master System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
BURNING FIGHT (NEOGEO, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points)

DS
June 23 - Top Spin 3
June 24 - Cake Mania 2
June 24 - Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (GameStats)
June 24 - Gourmet Chef
June 24 - Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker x Ninja
June 24 - Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker x Saurian
June 24 - My Weight Loss Coach
June 24 - WALL-E

SRPG fans get their fix this week with FF Tactics A2. From what I heard, Top Spin 3 on the Wii is suppose to play great. It makes great use of the motions of the wiimote. Same goes for Alone in the dark, it’s been getting pretty good reviews across the board.

I am one of the few people I know that absolutely adored Secret of Evermore for Super Nintendo. I remember first seeing it in an issue of Nintendo Power, and from then on being totally hooked on the game. While it wasn’t quite the same caliber of Secret of Mana, it was still a solid, fun game, and very undeserving of the hate it gets.

Super-NES.com recently did an interview with Brian Fehdrau, lead programmer of Secret of Evermore. It’s chock full of some pretty nifty info. Check it out!

Super-NES.com Interview

I watch a lot of really bad movies. When some people say that, they mean that they accidentally go see craptacular movies, or that they occasionally enjoy a Zombie movie. When I say that, I mean that I’m a professional at watching absolutely horrible movies. I devise entire drinking games around bad horror movies. When I upgraded to digital cable, I was thrilled to discover that I can watch awful movies on the free “On Demand” service. Hell, I shudder to think about what the staff at Netflix thinks about my rental history (Diary of the Dead and.. children’s television?).

Thus, I’ve decided to share some of these cinema delights with you on what will surely become a completely irregular basis. Lucky you! Tonight’s treat? The masterpiece known as Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter.

More…

Even though I haven’t purchased a Guitar Hero game since 2 (which I sold after the first week), I am pretty excited for this game. IGN got a first look at the game today and it looks phenomenal. Not only are the peripherals higher quality than ever (don’t worry though, older guitars will work with the game), but there are also some really cool new features including a very robust song creator.

One of the reasons I didn’t like Guitar Hero 2 or 3 is because I hated the song lists. Fortunately, this will no longer be a problem. If you don’t like any of the 85 songs in the game, you can simply create your own. This feature alone may force me to buy this game.

Oh, and Wii owners don’t need to worry. Activision says that the Wii version will be fully featured, unlike the Wii versions of Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3.

Read more about the song creator and see pictures of the instruments over at IGN