GoNintendo.com has some very strong evidence taken from this months Official Nintendo Magazine showing that NiGHTS may be coming to the Nintendo Wii. What started as a simple picture from the preview section, ends up as a near perfect solved puzzle showing a constellation outline of the character from NiGHTS. Check the shots below and great work by the readers of GoNintendo for putting this together:

Still a rumor at this point, but this is all but forseen from this clue and other rumblings. All we need now is the official announcement and I can’t wait to see what they do with the franchise and how they work it with the Nintendo Wii controls.

GoNintendo has been investigating a rumor that Blazing Angels is going to have online play and has some interesting bits of information available. First up is this boxart which has the Wifi enabled icon in the upper left area:

Then there’s this blurb from GameFly:

Engage the enemy at Pearl Harbor, make strafing runs over German industrial targets, and more. Over the course of a 20-mission campaign spanning the entire war, you and your squadron will develop into a seamless fighting force. Use the Wii’s wireless function for epic multiplayer dogfights or to team up with other squadrons for co-op missions.

And they also point to Ubisoft’s official site with the following bit:

Multiplayer for up to 16 players online (with one new PS3/Wii mode)
Engage in head-to-head dogfights or cooperative team play between squadrons on huge maps with large formations.

The Ubisoft site does show a different boxart without the Wifi icon though, so right now, it’s still kinda up in the air as to what’s going on. Will Blazing Angels be the Nintendo Wii’s first offering with online play? Check out GoNintendo.com for more information on this mystery.

According to ComputerandVideoGames.com, Axis Electronics may be shipping an Ethernet solution for the Nintendo Wii. It appears to be a device that plugs into the console’s USB port with an Ethernet adapter so you can connect your Wii to your router or switch via RJ-45 cabling instead of using the Wireless features. This would be very handy for those that do not have wireless or just wish to hardwire their internet connections. CVG is working on getting more information for this and we’ll keep tabs on it as well.

GoNintendo.com has an interesting bit up with news that a Looney Toons game may be coming from Red Tribe based on information gleaned from an investigation by Vooks.net. Here’s a quote from Vooks.net regarding the situation:

Red Tribe have a piece of concept art on their site that features what appears to be Looney Tunes character, Foghorn Leghorn, with the art featuring a very cartoon similar style, most notable with the Cat Statues.

Click the Image for a Larger Version

There’s also information in the latest issue of Nintendo Power magazine that talks of a Looney Toons game coming in the future with the following quote from Vooks.net:

You’ll be joining Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck as well as Taz, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian and Gossamer in the game. You can play through in either single or two player co-op as well.

We’ll keep an eye and ear out for more news regarding this title. Check out Vooks.net for the full story.

GameDrift.com has a fairly sad rumor up claiming Mario Galaxy has been pushed back to Christmas 2007, but in more positive news, Metroid Prime 3 would be coming around the springtime with online wifi gaming. Check the quote, then the link for more info:

An anonymous local Nintendo rep, (the kind that checks in on EB stores) gave me a little inside info today. The word around the company is that promises of Mario Galaxy in the spring are not going to be kept. Although, the New Metroid for Wii will be coming sometime between April and June. He also told me that Metroid will be the first Wii game to be playable over the internet.

Ouch.. but yay! Mario Galaxy sure looks like a lot of fun so far, but so does Metroid Prime 3. That reminds me I need to get back to work on Metroid Prime 1, such a great game.

A post over at the Official Nintendo Forums is claiming that the latest issue of Nintendo Power notes that The Legend of Zelda: The Link to the Past and Donkey Kong Country from the SNES are coming to the Wii Virtual Console in January. Here’s a piece of the post:

In the new edition of Nintendo Power that came in my mail box today, it noted on pages 38/39 that two VC releases in January are Zelda:Link to the Past and DK Country.

We should be getting our issue ofd Nintendo Power in very soon in which we’ll verify this as well as posting our coverage of the issue, so stay tuned. Thanks to GoNintendo.com for the heads up!

Not that EB Games is the word of truth by any means when it comes to actual release dates, but this is interesting none the less. EB Games is showing on their Mario Galaxy preorder page a date of March 1st 2007 as being the date they expect Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii to ship.

We haven’t heard much of a hard date ourselves, but it would be great if the game was this close to launching. We’ll believe the date when we have it in our grubby little hands, until then, let’s categorize this as a rumor.

Now, this is a rumor and it’s still being looked into, but it sure is a tasty one. According to Play-Nintendo.com and their community’s research, Rainbow Six: Vegas may be headed to the Wii and showing up as soon as March.

They talk about Ubisoft’s page having it listed for the Wii at one point and certain retailers still taking pre-orders for the Wii version. Yeah, it’s a stretch, but R6:Vegas is a fun title that could be just as much fun on the Wii if ported properly.

Here’s to hoping, we’ll keep an eye out for more news regarding the situation.

While this is just a rumor, it would be a fantastic idea, that’s for sure. Verdicts.co.uk is claiming unconfirmed sources have said wireless nunchuks may be in the works for the Nintendo Wii with the following blurb:

There’s no reason for Nintendo not to make future wireless devices for the Wiimote - a wireless reciever would plug into the remote in place of any wires linking the two. Communications between Wiimote and Console would be as normal. The downside to this is the added drain on batteries, though with Nintendo’s track record with their previous wireless technologies, we’re sure they will leap this hurdle.

That would be fantastic, next step: Wireless Classic Controllers, hooray! Well, we’d be happy with just the nunchuks so let’s not get ahead of ourselves. :D Thanks to GoNintendo.com for the link.

Translated from a Japanese website, these rumors from the NeoGaf forums sure are juicy! We can all dream, right?

- From Software is developing a Kingsfieldesque 1 person action RPG on Wii

- Swords of Legendia will be the first game of the Swords of series.. a Spinoff series of the Tales of series..

Nights on the Wii!?! Kingdom Hearts!? Ahh.. How nice that would be. Thanks to GoNintendo for the tip.

Intro

Elebits is Konami’s first jump into the Wii world, and this strange little game is part First Person Shooter, part Hide and Seek with a ray gun.

The Game

In Elebits you take on the role of a kid holding a gravity gun that allows him to collect Elebits, little creatures that are the power source in this game world. The tiny creatures are hiding all over the place, though, and you have to use the gravity gun to move objects around, turn objects on, and open doors and closets so you can find the little buggers and blast ‘em.

The game features a variety of game play, including the ability to edit your own levels, play online with friends, and with others at home.

As the game starts you’re in small rooms looking for Elebits in timed areas. As you progress your areas get bigger, eventually landing you with an entire city street to hunt for Elebits on.

The levels are fun to play, and you my find yourself having more fun messing the room up, than actually hunting for Elebits.

The Controls

The controls may be a little hard to understand at first, but after taking the tutorials you should be able to get around the Elebits world with ease. The game controls alot like a first person shooter, but the advancements with the Wiimote give you the ability to move things forwards and backwards in the 3d space, giving you a kind of control that you just can’t have on any other game system.

The Bottom Line

Elebits is a fun game, but for me, it got old quickly. If you find yourself loving the game, then you’ll having hours, and hours of gaming ahead of you. From the frantic online play, to the level editing, and main storyline you’ll be able to get your moneys worth from this title.

Rent It.

With all three ‘next-gen’ consoles out, the major talking point for each has been the following:

• Nintendo Wii - Will the ‘gimmick’ controller work? Will the lack of graphical power leave it behind?
• PlayStation 3 - Is it too expensive? Are people going to buy it, are developers going to create games for it (considering how many copies they need to sell to make a profit), or will it get stuck in a catch-22
• XBox 360 - Will it be able to take advantage and gain the lead? Can it lure away the PS3 exclusives?

Nintendo has maintained the entire time that they are not going the same route as MS & Sony. But what if that means more than a different controller scheme. Let me elaborate …

One thing Nintendo has taken pains to do with the Wii is provide backwards compatability. This has been done in two ways:

• Emulation of older generations. From the NES to the SNES to the n64 (with the Genesis and Turbographix in there for good measure), Nintendo has spent considerable effort in letting the Wii play games from generations past. While I assume there were some cinks to sort out, I am sure the process was actually 99.99% smooth. Instantly, the system has a huge catalog of games available. Or well, it could - the Big N is being shrewd with their releases.
• More importantly - direct evolution for the GC architecture. While being given the ‘GC 1.5′ tag by many fanboys (non-fanboys know better than to call something ‘1.5′), Nintendo has essentially taken the GameCube architecture, given it more performance under the hood (how much is debatable), and pushed it out. This was a very PC-like thing to do - use a base architecture (like x86), and improve it (eg 286, 386, etc). Anything written for the x86 will still work on the 286, 386, and so forth).

And so my idea: What if Nintendo’s entire game-plan is to do micro-updates to the hardware instead of massive macro-updates. Instead of pushing out a new ‘generation’ every 5 years, what if we see a Wii2 in two years, a Wii3 two years after that, and so forth? No need for anything game-changing - just a bump in power/features with every release.

Just like PC-games provide different scales of graphical power depending on your system, the same could happen here. Have the latest Wii3? Sweet - you get full 1080p support. A Wii2? Its okay, 720p for you. A ‘classic’ Wii? 480i for you. Alternatively - too bad. A developer could simply require a Wii3 to play their game.

Nintendo has mentioned over and over how the Wii is suppoused to be easy to develop for because of how similar the architecture it is to the GameCube.

By simply choosing to extend the Wii architecture, supporting older versions of the Wii would instantly give it an existing player-base, while at the same time giving developers power to make their upcoming games even more compelling.

The PlayStation 3 has a (supposed) shelf-life of 10 years. By then the Wii5 could be launching, with Duke Nukem Forever as its flagship title.

We just heard a rumor that Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on Wii, and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on DS will not see light of day until Christmas 2007, which could mean anything from October to December.

This is what Nintendo had to say:

“We never confirmed a date for Super Mario Galaxy, but I can confirm that Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3 and Phantom Hourglass will all release in 2007. We can’t confirm an exact release date for any of these titles at this time.”

We just hope that Nintendo can get enough titles out to keep Wii Remotes and touch screens busy over the typically quiet summer period.