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North American Kinect launch window games rounded up
When you get your shiny new Kinect, what games will you get with it? Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has provided a handy guide to the full Kinect launch lineup -- including launch day games and those arriving soon after. If you wagered there would be four sports minigame collections (Kinect Sports, Deca Sports Freedom, Game Party In Motion and MotionSports), you win! The seventeen-game lineup also includes three dancing games (Dance Central, Zumba Fitness, and DanceMasters), four exercise games (Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout, EA Sports Active 2.0, and the aforementioned Zumba Fitness), and two 'boarding games (Adrenalin Misfits and Sonic Free Riders). See the full list after the break. Major Nelson notes that the Xbox 360 launched in North America with 18 games, just one more than Kinect is launching with -- bearing out Shane Kim's comment that Microsoft would treat the Kinect launch like a new system. Or, it would, if this list didn't count the Kinect games coming out weeks after the Kinect release date as "launch games" vs. the 360's 18-game launch day. In any case, the Kinect has a lot of choices, even if they're all within a few categories.
Hudson finally announces Deca Sports on DS
We first heard rumblings from Hudson about a DS version of the surprisingly popular Deca Sports back in May of last year. Those ... offhand remarks have finally come to fruition, as Hudson has officially announced Deca Sports DS, for release in North America at the same time as every other game ever (Spring 2010). Scans of the Japanese version have also appeared, providing a first look at the handheld sports game.The DS game includes customizable team designs, multiplayer modes and, most importantly, new sports. The events on this cartridge include golf, ping pong, wall climbing, bobsled, rugby, arm wrestling, clay shooting, cheerleading, and sepak takraw, only one of which we had to look up. (Wall climbing? What is that?)Will Deca Sports be a hit on DS? Will the kind of inexplicable success of Deca Sports counteract the super-crowded release schedule? It should be interesting to find out.[Scan via GoNintendo]
Deca Sports 2 ready to deliver more minigames this fall
Thanks to the success of the original, Deca Sports 2 is ready to be the newest not-Wii Sports minigame collection for the console. The latest iteration will add 10 new sports, including motorcycle road racing, speed skating, hockey, moguls, dodge ball, tennis and darts. It'll release this autumn.As it wouldn't be a proper sequel without some enhancements, Deca Sports 2 will allow competition against "DECAthletes" from around the world country and allow customization of uniforms, teams, skill sets and team appearance. We can't wait to see the Admiral Ackbar synchronized swimming team.%Gallery-49997%
Shameful: Deca Sports ships 2 million units
Hudson has apparently shipped two million copies of Deca Sports since last spring, reports Kotaku. Although one could say that's not so much given the time that's passed, it also means that people continue to purchase the badly reviewed -- well, mostly badly reviewed -- title. Raise your hand if you're guilty, another commenter will be there shortly to "deal" with you.Oh well, folks certainly love their sports minigame bundles on the Wii. Imagine how much Deca Sports could have sold if it had Mario and Sonic in it.%Gallery-7109%
Deca Synchronized Swimming, and more new sports
The first Deca Sports, while selling well, wasn't a perfect game, generally failing to achieve the (high) standards Wii owners expect from their sports minigame collections. Maybe Hudson will work to improve the quality of the gameplay in the new sequel, Deca Sporta 2. Or maybe they'll just present a bunch of new sports in the same way.All we can tell for now is that there are new sports involved. The latest set of screens reveals ice hockey, speed skating, tennis, mogul skiing, and, amusingly, synchronized swimming. We look forward to seeing how Deca handles tennis, a sport that is already pretty well done on the Wii. And, of course, we look forward to seeing how the game makes a single-player game out of something like synchronized swimming, the whole point of which is that it is done by multiple people. That's what makes it hard! Maybe you control one member of a team and have to mirror the other swimmers' movements.
Two dollars per sport is hard to beat
Amazon's latest Deal of the Day is once again a Wii game, this time Hudson's cute sports minigame collection Deca Sports for $19.98. If you've been searching for a Wii curling game to play with your friends, with occasional breaks for figure skating, this is the game for you. We can't offer you an unqualified recommendation: our impressions of four of the games were quite positive, but reviews have been less than enthusiastic. It's fairly popular, for what that's worth!We can never talk about Deca Sports without mentioning its super-upbeat, catchy theme song. The game came out in May and we still get the song stuck in our heads!%Gallery-7109%
Masked heroes emerge in Deca Sports to give you money
Hudson has revealed a super-secret society of, uh, people who play sports while masked, hidden away in their sports minigame collection Deca Sports. And if you reveal them in your copy of Deca Sports, you could win a $200 gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods! We suppose that's useful for people who like that particular variety of goods. The catch is that the method for unlocking the Deca Superheroes Team is a secret, which, in order to be eligible for the contest, you must describe in an email to Hudson.Except GamesRadar spoiled it. Which makes the contest significantly easier. Should you happen to enter and successfully identify the method to unlock these mysterious athletes, you'll get a Deca Sports wristband in addition to a chance at the gift card.%Gallery-7109%
Deca Sports reaches 700,000 units shipped
We've been unable to verify recent speculation (which we totally made up, just now) that Hudson has shipped all those units directly to a New Jersey landfill, but we have our suspicions. Still, we can't help but wonder if a few copies of Deca Sports have actually passed through retail checkouts, purchased by Wii owners desperate to rediscover the riotous, wrist-racketing revelry that faded from the living room once they ran out of friends who hadn't tried Wii yet. Well, they sure got what they paid for: a Wii Sports knockoff ... made with the craft and care of a drunk baboon.
Deca Sports does more than Deca Sales
The Wii Sports formula -- accessible sports-based minigames -- has worked once again. Hudson sent out a press release announcing that 700,000 copies of Deca Sports have shipped worldwide. Just imagine how much business the company would have done if they had kept the ridiculous Sporta name around the world? Probably a bit less, actually.Hudson, naturally pleased by this development, announced that they are committed to creating more hit franchises like Deca Sports, which probably means that they're going to hang around on Nintendo consoles. We expect Deca Sports to continue doing good business, as exactly the kind of "evergreen" game that Nintendo loves.%Gallery-7109%
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 5/19-5/25
No new Wii games debuted last week; at least, none that ended up in the top thirty. There was one teensy weensy title that was introduced into the Japanese market, though. You may have heard of it: Guitar Hero III.To put it bluntly, sales for the game were low. In fact, it didn't even make the top fifty in Media Create's charts, and Famitsu reports that the title only sold 1,300 copies. Compared to sales in other regions (like North America and Europe, for example), where Guitar Hero III performed fiercely, you can see that tastes often differ between western and eastern gamers.Other than that, there's not to much to report about the software charts. Battalion Wars 2 managed to hang in the top ten, while Mario Kart Wii slipped into third place. Meanwhile, Smash Bros. Brawl might be in danger of falling out of the top thirty soon.In hardware, the gap between the Wii and the PSP lessened as sales for Nintendo's console rose, while sales for Sony's handheld fell. Still, the PSP had a lead of about 15,000 units last week, keeping the Wii locked in its second place spot:The software numbers are located after the break, so go on and take a look.
Deca Sports possibly multiplied by two screens
In an interview with Cubed3, Hudson's Mike Pepe floated the possibility of a future DS version of their sports minigame collection, Deca Sports. It's far from OMG CONFIRMED, but Pepe remarked that Hudson is "exploring other platforms. The DS being one of them." He followed with a disclaimer that, to us, sounds more like support, saying that the controls were central to the Deca Sports experience. Which system has the control scheme best suited to translation from Wii games? The DS is the only one we know that also involves waving a stick around to control things.If Hudson decides to port or remake Deca Sports, the DS seems like a natural choice. It's already got a built-in "DS" name!
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 5/12-5/18
The new kid on the Japanese Wii software block last week was Battalion Wars 2, which faired well enough in its debut to hit the top ten. Will it stay there? Our guess is no, sadly. Still, it's nice to see the game get some recognition in Japan.Once again, the only non-Nintendo title for the Wii that made the top thirty was Deca Sports, which dropped thirteen spots from the week before. Ouch. We're not sure what made Japan fall so out of love with Deca Sports in one week, but the game seems to have lost some of its legs. Smash Bros. Brawl also took a spill, falling from tenth place to nineteenth.The other noticeable drop was Mario Kart Wii, which only fell one spot, but an important spot -- from first to second -- and finally succumbed to the frightening power of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. Hardware was also a PSP victory, as the handheld beat all other systems by a convincing margin. Now that you've seen the hardware numbers, check past the break for the software sales.
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 5/5-5/11
The gap between Wii and PSP sales is slowly but surely decreasing, making us wonder if the Wii might be able to overtake Sony's handheld once the Monster Hunter hype dies down: PSP: 89,884 Wii: 67,308 Nintendo DS: 51,228 PlayStation 3: 8,054 PlayStation 2: 7,464 Xbox 360: 1,298 Yet, the true triumph for the Wii last week was in software. Nintendo scored big all-around, but the Wii claimed six of the top ten spots in the chart. Keep in mind, though, that all the Wii games that made it to the top thirty are first-party titles, with the exception of Deca Sports.In other news, Smash Bros. Brawl managed to hop up five spots, showing us that it won't be disappearing any time soon. Meanwhile, Mario Kart is inching nearer to Brawl's total sales, making it a close race between the two games. To see how they're currently fairing against each other, just click past the break.
WRUP: Not one, not two, but ten whole sports edition
Looking over this week's releases, we're pretty dead set on wanting to get some quality time in with Deca Sports (previewing it got us intrigued). Sure, there's We Ski, but until the Balance Board releases (well, until Wii Fit releases, we should say), we're not down with it. Almost all of the appeal for us is the Balance Board support, but, hey, maybe we're alone in that.So what will you all be playing this weekend? Checking out WiiWare titles? Got another game you've been working on? Picking up one of this week's releases? Interested in Deca Sports, like us?%Gallery-7109%
Wii releases this week: Deca Sports edition
Hudson's attempt at an accessible game full of sports is finally hitting shelves this week. We're anxious to see how it does, considering we found our preview build that Hudson sent over pretty fun. On top of that, the title looks like it might be a great match for playing with some friends. Of course, the $29.99 price point doesn't hurt Hudson's chances for success, either!This week's Wii releases are: We Ski Deca Sports Castle of Shikigami III Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian So ... who's picking up what?%Gallery-7109%
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 4/28-5/4
Ah, remember Link's Crossbow Training? The game that was bundled with the Wii Zapper last November (December, for PALs)? It was only released in Japan last week. If sales are any indication, though, Japanese gamers were clamoring for the goron-junk shooter rail shooter, as it claimed the third place spot.Even so, Link had to hail to the king (baby), as Mario Kart Wii still dominated the charts. The other big news for Mario Kart Wii? It passed one million sales in the Far East, denoting its success. Meanwhile, Deca Sports clamored back into the top ten, but Brawl only slipped further downward, thus answering our question from last week. Also proving that the Japanese love their sports games for the Wii, Bandai Namco's Pro Baseball Family Stadium debuted at spot twenty.The Wii triumphed in hardware last week as well. While the console continues to trail behind Sony's handheld, Wii sales went up almost 30,000 units from last week -- perhaps from the Link's Crossbow boost. Go on and check things out for yourself after the break, if you feel so inclined.
Deca Sports teases three of ten
Hudson's latest trailer for Deca Sports provides extended looks at the archery and soccer events, along with the badminton game that was part of our preview. By now you know the format for Wii minigame-collection trailers: shots of gameplay punctuated by shots of people standing in front of a couch in a well-appointed apartment, waggling with giant smiles affixed to their faces.Most importantly (to us), the trailer features that ridiculously catchy Deca Sports theme. Hearing it makes us want to go get into some workout clothes and run around or something. Everybody move your body into our gallery for new screens!%Gallery-7109%[Via press release]
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 4/21-4/27
Mario Kart Wii continues to top the charts in Japan, but a lot of movement happened with the Wii's other software. Because a bunch of new games came out last week, Wii Sports, Deca Sports, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl were all knocked out of the top ten. We know that Wii Sports will return to top ten fame soon enough, since it always does, but we'll be interested to see whether the other two titles can pull that off as well.On the hardware side of things, the Wii got sandwiched by the two portables as it jumped up into second place: PSP: 92,411 Wii: 48,796 Nintendo DS: 42,435 PlayStation 3: 9,107 PlayStation 2: 7,108 Xbox 360: 1,283 To see the software sales, just bring your super smooth moves past the break.
Hudson serves up a new Deca Sports trailer
We don't have to tell you that we're excited for Deca Sports from Hudson. After giving 4 of the game's 10 final sports a test drive, we're anxious to see if the other 6 sports are the fun we think they're going to be. Until the game releases next month, we're just going to have to settle for this new trailer above.Be sure to give our gallery a look, as well. We just put in a bunch of new screens for you all to check out.%Gallery-7109%
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 4/14-4/20
The Wii had a good week in Japan, as far as sales are concerned. With Mario Kart Wii continuing to champion the cause, the little white console almost nabbed second place in hardware: PSP: 85,421 Nintendo DS: 44,551 Wii: 44,241 PlayStation 3: 7,438 PlayStation 2: 6,545 Xbox 360: 1,076 Even in software, five of the top ten games were Wii titles. Wii Sports found its way back into the coveted ten once again, managing to coexist peacefully with Hudson's Deca Sports. Wii Play, meanwhile, performed the worst in relation to the rest of the Wii games in the top thirty, but still ended up in spot twelve.Check after the break to see just how well Mario Kart Wii did last week in Japan.
