onm
Latest
Future shutters last official Nintendo UK magazine
The Official Nintendo Magazine in the UK will be shut down on November 11, Future Publishing and Nintendo announced today. The magazine's staff will be shifted to other positions within the company. "Nintendo will continue to speak directly to fans via Nintendo Direct, our social media and online channels and public events," noted the magazine on its website. Future's unofficial Nintendo UK magazine stopped publishing in 2012, the same year that North America's Nintendo Power ceased operations. Future Publishing continues to try and find its financial footing in an online world.
Official Nintendo Magazine launching down under
Cheer up, Aussies and Kiwis -- even though your local Club Nintendo appears to have gone completely AWOL (checking ... nope, still nothing), you'll shortly be getting your very own version of Official Nintendo Magazine, basically the UK equivalent of Nintendo Power. That's ... almost as good. Right?Like its Brit cousin, Official Nintendo Magazine - Australia and New Zealand will be assembled by the talented folks at Future, the same name behind such excellent time-wasting periodicals as N64 Magazine, Amiga Power, and Arcade, and who currently churn out Edge. The first issue, a special edition no less, should be hitting shelves in December for AU$8.95.[Via press release]
Nintendo UK mag promises Animal Crossing deets
Animal Crossing is coming. This is a fact. What form it will take when it does arrive is a deeper mystery. Somebody at the UK edition of the Official Nintendo Magazine knows the answer to this, damn them, and they aren't afraid to shout about it.The above image (art from Animal Crossing: Wild World on the DS) appears on the "Coming Next Month" page in the latest issue of the mag, and was dutifully scanned and internetalized by a Go Nintendo reader for all of us to speculate about. "It's been a while," reads the accompanying caption, keeping us on tenterhooks. "It's time to revisit an old friend. How's your village doing these days?"All of which is very exciting, but by the time the next edition of Official Nintendo Magazine appears (August 1st), we may have already heard more from E3. Either way, we'll know something about this game soon. Prepare your Golden Shovels, everybody!
Sonic scanned and Unleashed
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Tons_of_new_Sonic_Unleashed_info'; The latest edition of the UK's Official Nintendo Magazine comes with an extensive eight-page preview of Sonic Unleashed, complete with gameplay details, fresh screenshots, and an interview with the project's lead designer, Yoshihisa Hashimoto. There's also new information aplenty on Sonic's darker alter-ego (dubbed "Were-Sonic" by the magazine). Apparently, this character only appears at night, can traverse stages using his longer arms (ONM describes this as "Donkey Kong-esque"), and is slightly slower (yet more agile) than regular Sonic. Oh, and he's not evil. Just ... different.Speaking of being different, Hashimoto appears super keen to disassociate the game from more recent Sonic outings, insisting that Unleashed will have "more in common with the older Sonic Adventure games" and "no relation to Sonic the Hedgehog (PS3/360) or Sonic and the Secret Rings." Hit up French site Wiiz for the rest of the preview.%Gallery-19031%
ONM reports no snaking in Mario Kart
You can all breathe easier now ... considering, of course, that you trust the UK's Official Nintendo Magazine, which has been known to be wrong on a few issues here and there.When we reported rumors that the dreaded snaking technique would worm its way to Mario Kart Wii, many of you vented your irritation in the comments. According to ONM, though, snaking won't be exploitable in the upcoming Wii racer. The magazine reported in its review of the game, "Ever since the N64 game, practically every Mario Kart game has included the ability to get a speed boost by waggling the controls left and right as you powerslide. This has finally been scrapped, and now your speed boost is determined by how long you can hold the slide." Sounds like a better system to us.Yet, we're sure that some of you are advocates of snaking, and are not happy by this turn of events. So, now it's your turn to vent in the comments -- let us hear your woes, snakers.%Gallery-4772%[Via GoNintendo]
Night of the Living Wii Remote
Were it our decision, the streets would be choked with the undead, suffocated by their sloth and numbers. What little remained of the human race would have to go into hiding, their once-magnificent kingdoms now ruled by zombie majesty. It's a terrible vision that we hold onto in our heads every night before drifting off to sleep, hoping to carry it along with us in our dreams. Given our affection for the undead here at the Fanboy offices, we couldn't pass up mentioning this month's cover of Official Nintendo Magazine. The issue advertises May's Resident Evil features with a corpse hand breaking through its earthen grave. Gripped by cold, gray fingers, a Wii remote kicks back into life, properly strapped to the undeceased's wrist. Head past the post break for a better look, but take care not to attract the attention of brain-eating revenants on your way inside.
ONM says 'world exclusive' not April Fools prank
Yesterday we reported Official Nintendo Magazine created quite the hype-storm surrounding a cluster of stars and touting "world exclusive" information about a returning franchise. The European magazine owned by Future publications, in hopes of calming things down a bit, had ONM Editor Chandra Nair make a statement on Future's website. Nair says this whole brouhaha is not an April Fools joke and goes on to say, "Inevitably the situation might change between the time of the mag going to print and the release of the next issue (it is a good six weeks after all). The game may end up being announced online before we hit the shelves. Occasionally these things happen and it's completely out of our control. However, the point is that we are not misleading you -- there is a new game due to be announced."Wait, how will it be announced online if they supposedly have the "world exclusive" in the magazine? Sounds like damage control is kicking into gear. While wild rumors are being thrown around, a source of ours in the U.K., heard from a product manager at Sega Europe, that NiGHTS Wii has been in development for six months already and that the recent Sega poll was designed to reassure Sega that its decision to resurrect NiGHTS is shrewd.
Rumorang: NiGHTS returning on the Wii -- Part 2
We are reporting on this because we continue to get tips on it, but we emphasize that next month is April and this could all be one giant hoax. GoNintendo reports April's issue of Official Nintendo Magazine says, "Step back in time as a classic game makes a long overdue return! Only in next month's Official Nintendo Magazine." Looking at the picture and connecting the dots shows what appears to be the NiGHTS logo. Earlier this year there were subtle hints about the return of NiGHTS via the Nintendo Wii, so we'll give this rumor a little bit of wiggle room.This isn't the first time ONM has been a hype creator. Last year they created Resident Evil hype by using a Leon Kennedy silhouette to promote their next issue, a fact they later swept under the rug. That was actually strike two. Strike one came in early 2006 when ONM, with their "unrivaled access," said the Wii's stand would double as the power supply. Is this NiGHTS related hype strike three, or will ONM knock it out of the park?See also: NiGHTS returning on the Wii Rumor: Sega Saturn games to appear on Wii Virtual Console [Thanks to all who sent this in]
Twilight Princess Impressions [update 1]
You've read "impressions" of Twilight Princess before, from those lucky enough to get some time with it at a Fusion Tour or at either of the previous two E3 conventions. But this close to launch time, we're starting to see impressions ... people who have had extended time (dozens of hours) with the absolute final version of the game.The Official Nintendo Magazine forums are giving a sneak peak of their upcoming issue, detailing a player's experiences throughout the whole of the game. ***THERE ARE HEAVY SPOILERS IN THIS POST.*** Be careful. If you're not willing to ruin anything (and there's nothing major), then the gist of it is, it kicks ass in every way possible. The controls don't hinder the gameplay at all, and as expected, the game itself is an impossible masterpiece of gaming. Seriously, what did you expect?If you'd like to read a few less spoiler-tastic impressions from the Japanese, Kotaku has posted some translated impressions from Famitsu and Game Watch. Once again, both laud the immersive control experience and just about everything else.[For a large, wallpaper-sized version of the post picture, check it out here.][Update 1: loltypo.]
Thumbs up to Red Steel
The Official Nintendo Magazine (a European publication) recently got their hands on the very latest build of Red Steel, one of the most anticipated launch titles for the Wii. They seemed extremely impressed. Some of the major points: The controls of the game felt vastly improved, thanks to software tweaks by Ubisoft and the final remote/sensor bar hardware from Nintendo. The player is able to gesture toward defeated enemies to direct their movements. The graphics have also undergone improvements of epic proportions. The excessive hyperbole involves "forgetting everything you've seen" and the visuals are compared to a prettier version of Resident Evil 4. Which is really damn pretty. Apparently, the fire effects look really effin' good. Red Steel might just be the bar to which all other first-person shooters are measured. Why, it might even start ... a revolution.
ONM falls flat on "secret exclusive"
Supposedly, ONM (Official Nintendo Magazine UK) was holding out on a pretty big exclusive set to grace the cover of their next issue, set to release in September. They hyped up that this was something we'd yet to see, so the fact that it turned out their "secret exclusive" was none other than Battalion Wars 2, a game revealed at Leipzig, is equal parts laughable and pathetic. We haven't been following the coverage of this rumor as it snowballed on various message boards and blogs because it isn't in our nature to be a gossip rag. We respect our readers and even though ONM hyped this "secret exclusive" up for some time, we felt it did not need to be commented on. We'd let the guys at ONM handle their business. And handle it, they have.
