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VC/WiiWare Tuesday: Yet another game called 'Ninja Gaiden'
For its second Virtual Console Arcade release, Tecmo is offering the first, and perhaps least familiar, game to be called Ninja Gaiden. Originally known as Ninja Ryukenden in Japan (as the series in general is), the arcade game looks similar to the NES version millions of gamers love, but is totally different. Unlike the NES game's fast-paced combat and technical platforming, the original arcade game is more of a brawler. Like Bionic Commando or Strider, Ninja Gaiden became something else entirely in the transition to Nintendo. And now the arcade version is on the same Nintendo platform as the NES game! Magical. The other arcade game is a Namco shooter whose promotional video is more intro than gameplay.On WiiWare this week, the Okiraku sports/casual game series continues, the JoySound karaoke software arrives in downloadable form, and a game based on Tomy's toy car series is pretty cute.Virtual Console: Ninja Ryukenden (Arcade, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points) Phelios (Arcade, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points) WiiWare: Okiraku Tennis (1-4 players, 500 Wii Points) Karaoke Joysound Wii (1-8 players, 1,000 Wii Points) Tomika Drive (1-2 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
Keep your JoySound to yourself with new microphone peripheral
Karaoke JoySound Wii allows Japanese Wii owners to bring the karaoke experience home, with a full music subscription service. The only problem with bringing that experience home is that Japanese apartments tend to be tiny and thin-walled.Japan Trust Technology has solved that issue for late-night crooners with the Mute Mic USB. This specially-designed microphone includes a plastic cup that fits over players' mouths, muting the atonal, drunken screeches that would normally issue forth throughout the apartment building. As an added "bonus," it looks unidentifiably disgusting both in use and on its own, like some kind of medical device you wouldn't want to have to explain.%Gallery-33426%[Via GAME Watch]
Karaoke JoyTrailer Wii
Hudson is on a roll when it comes to super-upbeat game trailers! This trailer for the simple, yet awesome, Karaoke Joysound Wii makes us really hope that rumor about an American release turns out to be true. Not that the Wii particularly needs any more killer apps, but we think Karaoke Joysound Wii could turn out to be very popular. We'll see when it comes out in Japan on the 18th.It's a pretty simple idea, really: just a karaoke program on the Wii, with the ability to add vocal effects like echo and to use the mic as a tambourine. But it's got a super-cute look (that looks so much like Rodney Alan Greenblat's work, but is labeled as Dice-K Jackson) and the ideal DLC structure for a karaoke game. For 300 Wii Points, users get one day of unlimited downloads; 500, 1,000, and 2,000 Points buy three days, 30 days, and 90 days, respectively. Though we can't imagine buying 90 days' worth of unlimited access to a karaoke catalog unless we partied all the time, the 300 Point deal is killer for get-togethers.%Gallery-33426%
Karaoke Joysound Wii leaving Japan?
We're fascinated by Karaoke Joysound Wii, Hudson's karaoke program that allows players to turn their Wiis into karaoke machines and download selections from a massive library of songs for a 300 yen fee (for one day of unlimited downloading). But we believed that it was going to stay in Japan, for various reasons including the greater popularity of private karaoke in Japan, the reliance on a massive licensing deal that Hudson USA doesn't have, and the fact that Hudson said so.But 4cr's Keito reported in her hands-on preview of the game that "The game is going to be released in Japan on December 18th, and then in both the USA and Europe in 2009." Could Hudson be working on a deal with an American music publisher? If so, we may have $3 karaoke parties soon.%Gallery-33426%
Nintendo conference screen mega-roundup!
Click for full-sized image Nintendo announced a lot of games last night at their Japanese conference. Many of them, like Punch-Out!! here, were brand new. Some, like Supan Smasher and Cosmic Walker, we still don't know anything about. But we've got screenshots. So many screenshots. After the break, you'll find galleries of all the new games, along with new screens of some upcoming games we've known about for a while. Of special interest to us: the previously-announced Oboro Muramasa Youtouden, coming to the US as Muramasa: The Demon Blade, because it looks super hot, Karaoke Joysound Wii, which appears to have art by Parappa creator Rodney Alan Greenblat, and Takuto of Magic (Wand of Magic), which appears to be a followup to Taito's LostMagic on the DS. %Gallery-33381%
