Well, let us begin the catch-ups so be can go to business as usual as soon as possible. First off, on a personal note, the Mario carving sold, but the Yoshi chainsaw carving sold is still up for grabs. In late November, I also got an Xbox 360, bundled with Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. I also recent bought Call of Duty: World at War.
Nintendo announced the release of the DSi. The new system is 12 percent thinner than the DS lite and the GBA slot is now gone. The new system will have an external 3 megapixel camera, as well as a front-facing camera, an SD slot, internal storage, and a DSi Shop(like the Wii Shop channel for the DS). The system was released in Japan on November 1, 2008, and will be released in North America in Spring of 2009.
Rather than Wii points, the DS and Wii will now have Nintendo Points. Once you buy the new points, you will have to chose whether you will use all the points for the DS shop system of the Wii Shop system; you will not be able to split the points between the new systems. The DSi will be somewhat, if not completely region locked.
Now on to homebrew, many new updates to thwart home brewers where released, but the home brewers found work arounds. The Wii Homebrew Channel turned 1.0. The DSi render all the old hombrew cards useless, but it appears that one new card, called Acekard 2i, will work on it.
Some big games that where released during Game Influence down time include: Call of Duty: World at War, Animal Crossing: City Folk(with the Wii Speak peripheral), de Blob, Wario Land: Shake It!, Guitar Hero World Tour, Chrono Trigger, Spore, Resistance 2, Fallout 3, the re-franchised Prince of Persia, and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. A personal favorite, Wrath of the Lich King, was released in November, My girlfriend gave me this for my birthday, if you think about it, it’s quite ironic.
Not much in terms of digital releases, although Mega Man 9 was released for the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3World of Goo was also released as a Wii Ware title.
Some big games that where announced or gained a greater popularity with a future release during Game Influence’s down time include: No More Heroes 2, Resident Evil 5, Sin & Punishment 2, Sega’s The Conduit, Killzone 2, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and games from the Wii remake program. The Wii remake program will release games from the Game Cube to the Wii, with updated controls. Games in the Wii remake program include Metroid Prime 1, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Pikmin, Mario Tennis, Chibi Robo, and Pikmin 2.
Recently, Nintendo finally provided American with a service that Europe and Japan have had for quite some time, Club Nintendo. Club Nintendo launched December 15. Before the service’s launch, Nintendo confirmed that Club Nintendo allowed users to earn Coins for registering Nintendo products and completing surveys, redeem Coins for limited edition Rewards, earn a set amount of Coins each year to gain Gold and Platinum status, create a Family Account and invite members of your family to join, and register your newly purchased Wii console or Nintendo DS on Club Nintendo and extend your warranty.
Well, I’m sure I missed a lot of news, If I remember anything I missed, I’ll try to bring it up laiter.
According to Playstation Blog, God of War: Chains of Olympus is now fully developed and will be releasing here in the United States on March 4th. This game will be priced as a $40 PSP game.
