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Dojo update: A double dose of spoiler goodness
You all know the drill by now. What's included after the break can be considered spoiler material, so continue at your own risk.
Friday Video: LEGO Donkey Kong
Aside from all of the blogging we do here at Wii Fanboy, our lives are pretty much a vacuum, as we lack any real kind of incentive to keep breathing other than how hard our overlords at Joystiq will beat us if our post count drops. It's just the way life is.But, we do have a lot of LEGOs. And it's scientific fact that anything combined with LEGOs is pretty much the most awesome thing ever. In fact, we have so many LEGO pieces, we're certain we could do our own version of classic NES games with them. Just like in this video.[Via Go Nintendo]
King of Kong underdog to cameo in upcoming film
When King of Kong director Seth Gordon was approached to direct a new Vince Vaughn comedy for Newline Cinemas, he couldn't help but include a small appearance by everybody's favorite underdog Donkey Kong legend. That's right, school teacher turned DK record-breaker Steve Wiebe will have a small walk-on role in Gordon's upcoming film Four Christmases. The role is uncredited by IMDB, but a representative from Newline reports that Wiebe will have a cameo appearance as Jim, Reese Witherspoon's character's brother, and brother-in-law to Vince Vaughn's character. No word yet if Wiebe's character will allude to Donkey Kong, record-breaking, or his unexplainable disdain for hot sauce.[Thanks, Edog]
Dojo update: Manaphy and Iwata asks
Today's dojo update is a pretty good one, as we not only get shown a new Pokemon that has a pretty unique skill, but also get another installment in Iwata Asks, where the Nintendo president not only apologizes for the Smash Bros. delay, but also talks about some other stuff. As interesting as that is, we're going to shift things back to the new Pokemon included in Smash Bros. Brawl.Manaphy has a unique ability where it will swap the hearts of two combatants. What this does is cause them to switch bodies, essentially changing your character should you get caught in Manaphy's ability. For example, you can see Zelda and DK switching bodies here.%Gallery-10206%%Gallery-6869%Read - Iwata asks SakuraiRead - Manaphy
Blades of Steel, Donkey Kong Country 3 and Rolling Thunder 2 land on Virtual Console
You already know that Ho-Ho's bringing a steaming pile of nothing to your favorite gaming retailer, but Nintendo's trying to make up for it with three new holiday releases on the Virtual Console. (And they're good, too!) Let's check it out.Blades of Steel (NES, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points): What, are you joking? It's Blades of Steel. Though maybe not the greatest hockey game ever made, it's at least the raddest. There are two team colors, there's fighting, what more could you need?Rolling Thunder 2 (Genesis, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points): Rolling Thunder 2 is sort of like a prettier N.A.R.C., except with a sexy lady cop. Except it has much better graphics and soundtrack. And there are no drugs. And no one explodes. OK, so it's nothing like N.A.R.C. besides the fact that they're both side-scrolling shooters. But at least it looks like a lot of fun.Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (Super NES, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points): "Hey Phil, we need to make another DKC game. What Kongs do we have left?" "Well, there's Falco Kong, the Euro rocker with the heart of gold." "I'm pretty sure you just made him up." "OK ... how about Dixie and that creepy baby?""Sold!"
Mario and Link's youthful indiscretions
This GameDaily article on "Mascots Gone Wild" exposes some of the horrible things done by Nintendo's flagship characters (and friends) back when they were young, and needed the money. We're all quite familiar with the CD-I Zelda games, of course, but we haven't talked so much about the similarly abysmal Hotel Mario, also for the CD-I. "There's no jumping, no shell squashing, no recognizable Mario gameplay whatsoever – just opening doors and going through corridors." Mario's other miscellaneous fringe material -- when he taught typing, was missing, and presided over a gallery of board games -- dominates the list, with appearances from other marred Nintendo characters, including Donkey Kong. Amusingly, Conker makes the list for his Game Boy Color game Conker's Pocket Tales, which failed to be filthy.
Donkey Kong becomes a monster truck
Much like getting a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, we're not sure if being transmogrified into a monster truck means that a icon has "finally arrived" or has leapt headfirst into the inky blackness of cultural irrelevance. For better or for worse, Donkey Kong, noted primate, kart racer and plumber antagonist, has just made the fateful jump.Just as informative of the images of the Monster Jam truck (which actually bears a striking resemblance to DK) are the (plentiful) reactions of children at the ape's automotive debut, all of who attempt to describe how "cool" and "awesome" the truck is, but seem to be incapable of capturing the grandeur with mere words. Luckily, the camera pans away before they result to guttural grunts and screeching.[Thanks, Shawn]
Donkey Kong: Bargain Blast
After only about a month of availability, Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast has had $20 knocked off its price. But it's not because it's a horrible failure or something -- it's just Amazon's Deal of the Day! It's not often that first-party stuff gets discounted so soon, even just for a day. If you're looking for a Donkey Kong-themed racing game on the Wii involving bongo-barrel-shaped jetpacks, then this is probably the game for you, as it's the only game that description fits. For now.With the extra money, you can go buy a couple of bongo controllers ... and ... not use them with the game!
Happy birthday, Miyamoto-san!
He created Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda. He has been indirectly responsible for using up thousands of hours of our lives. We sort of want him to be our Dad. Yes, Nintendo design guru and general gaming god Shigeru Miyamoto turned 55 years young today (hasn't he aged well?), so it felt only right that we took the time to wish Shiggy many happy returns.Here's to a long and prosperous future, sir! One with lots of cake.
Dojo update: The Kongs cometh
This short but sweet trailer starring Nintendo's simian twosome (along with cameos from Bowser's crack team of Mushroom Kingdom baddies) popped up on the Smash Bros. Dojo earlier today.Featuring a truck loaded with stolen bananas, much stomping and chest-thumping from the elder Kong, and Diddy Kong dual-wielding a pair of deadly Peanut Pop Guns John Woo-stylee, it's almost enough to make us choose Donkey Kong as our fighter in Brawl when it comes out. Almost, but not quite.%Gallery-6869%%Gallery-3347%
DS Fanboy interviews Treehouse's Rich Amtower
Today, DS Fanboy has a nice little treat for all of our readers. We sit down and speak with Rich Amtower, who works in Nintendo's Treehouse division. Responsible for adapting Japanese titles to the English, French and Spanish markets, you can imagine he's got quite the difficult job to do. That doesn't stop us from bugging him for an interview, though.First of all, explain who you are and what your duties are with the company?My name is Rich Amtower, and I work in the localization department. Our job is to take games made in Japan and make them feel like they were made in America, basically -- that means recording English voices if there are Japanese voices in a game, translating and rewriting Japanese text into English (and now French and Spanish), and doing whatever sorts of alterations need to be made so that when gamers pick up a title, they feel like they're playing something tailor-made for them.
Promotional Consideration: Multi Screen
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.Gunpei Yokoi, the same engineer who would eventually go on to father the Game Boy and Metroid, was riding home one evening on a bullet train when he spotted a bored businessman randomly pressing buttons on an LCD calculator to entertain himself. Believing that commuters would enjoy passing the time with handheld video games, Yokoi soon developed a set of portable gaming systems which also doubled as watches/alarms -- the Game & Watch.This week, we'll take a look at several ads for the fourth Game & Watch series, the Multi Screen, whose clamshell case and vertically stacked screens would later serve as inspiration for the Nintendo DS's design.
Paste Donkey Kong on photo, win a DS lite and DK Jungle Climber
Do people exist somewhere that don't own this system? If the Japanese sales charts are to be believed, then there have been enough Nintendo DS systems sold so that every man, woman, child, and dog on the planet could have one of these. And a spare.However, if you are DS-less and have a hankering to get onboard with the action, and you have some rudimentary photochopping skills, then try your hand at the Nintendo DS/DK contest at SmugMug. All you have to do is paste the little guy climbing to the top of pretty much anything, and then submit it. Keep in mind though, images must be under 12 mb in size (good gawd).It's a pretty easy contest to enter, and the swag is well worth the time, so why not whip something up and get in? We made one in just a few seconds (hint, it's the image for this post) so you should trump our skillz easily and submit it to them. Check out the rules on their site. Also, the comment on the first (and only) entry that's up so far is ... priceless. Ahh, the internets.
DK Jungle Climber celebrates release with photo contest
To celebrate the release of DK Jungle Climber, Nintendo is teaming up with photo-sharing site SmugMug.com to give away some DS Lites and copies of the newly-released title. A total of eight systems and eight copies of the game will be awarded to the creators of the five best images. But, photochopping experts don't have much time, as the contest will end October 1st.Any of you plan on entering the contest?
King of Kong opens in four cities today
Supporters of game-based movies have had to suffer through a lot in recent months. Dead or Alive, Postal and the DVD release of Game Box 1.0 have all assaulted our senses and our sensibilities since the start of the year. Now, finally, a good game-based movie has come along and, unfortunately, it's only viewable in five theaters nationwide.The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters opens today in New York (two theaters), LA, Seattle and Austin, Texas. The movie's limited release extends to seven more cities next week and four more the week after on its way to eventual release in 25 total cities.Reviews of the film continue to be overwhelmingly positive, with only one bad review among the 25 currently listed on Rotten Tomatoes (not quite 100% fresh anymore, but still close). If you want to encourage quality, non-fiction video game film-making and you're lucky enough to live in one of the above cities, vote with your wallets and buy tickets for the opening weekend. You'll be glad you did.
Conjecture Countdown: 5 days to go
Even with a diminished E3, there's no controlling the wave of rumors that hit the Internet every year before the show. Why fight it? From now until E3 hits, we'll be posting one piece of wild speculation every day. Some may be patently ridiculous, and others just might turn out to be true. Even some of the ridiculous ones might turn out to be true! Rest assured, everything will be totally made-up and unfounded. Except, of course, when we speak about all the ass Reggie is going to kick. That part? Totally true.Rumor: Super Smash Bros. Brawl's online mode will be revealed! It's an online store in which you can purchase different-colored ties for Donkey Kong.
The Joystiq Weekend: June 16 - 18, 2007
Nintendo and Sony united for a holy cause, picture provided to us by Joystiq reader Norm Wilson. Check out the highlights for the weekend:JoystiqueryJoystiq interview: Hal Milton, lead designer, The AgencyToday's full of stuff video: Beautiful KatamariToday's which-one-is-evil comparison: Skate versus Tony HawkToday's please-play-play-better-in-person video: DK Bongo BlastWeekly Webcomic Wrapup: criminal comic editionNewsHarry Potter website unleashes a little magicGTA IV episodes confirmed Xbox 360 exclusivesGamespot: Beautiful Katamari coming to Xbox Live ArcadeIndependent Games Festival submission open call Church of England thanks Sony for apology, it's not enoughA valiant attempt to get Xbox 360 failure rate answersWatch the exclusive Red vs. Blue content without a ZuneTomb Raider: Anniversary episodes hitting Xbox 360 in SeptemberBlockbuster stores boast for Blu-raySony not talking about rumbleVirtual Console Monday celebrates gentlemanly sportHalo 3 viral marketing begins, countdowns and flyers galoreDead or Alive movie dead on arrivalTake-Two chair talks Wii and DS focusLegendary Pictures producing Diablo filmThis Wednesday: Band of Bugs crawls onto XBLA (ick!)Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 kicking this fallNew games this week: DiRT edition3D Realms claims Earth No MoreTake Two got $50M for GTAIV episodic contentMcFarlane working on Halo 3 action figuresMicrosoft sues Immersion over alleged breach of contractPSP's Earthworm Jim gets the bird, goes 'on hold'Tiltboard for Xbox 360 shipping next week for $40Big Daddy's final look for BioShock limited editionMarathon: Durandal runs away from German ratings board80GB PS3 launches in KoreaEA reorganizes business into four labelsSoul Calibur IV's bountiful bouncing breasts bulge biggerAfro Samurai going the way of the video gameRumors & SpeculationGameStop: Wii Blaster due on June 27Rumorang: Halo DS exhumed by IGNCulture & CommunityIndie gaming blog Gibbage turns into a portalFan crafts unofficial Super Mario Galaxy box artThe Guile to show SSFIITHDROMGBlizzCon sold out, let the scalping beginGaming magazines influence boys' self-imageFather-son event at Nintendo world storeNintendo Museum tour video, with 8 bit musicDrown your 360 sorrows with Ring of Fire parody songCircuit City offers free copies of Shadowrun to Halo 2 Vista buyersGameSpite gets teary-eyed with Chrono Trigger
Today's please-play-play-better-in-person video: DK Bongo Blast
Is the Wii doomed to half-baked waggle games, or will developers harness the awesome power of apples gestures? For a game from Nintendo, Donkey Kong Bongo Blast doesn't give us a lot of hope, at least in video form. Watch the spastic drum-roll gesture to start Donkey Kong racing in addition to other control ... um ... schemes. (And we were sick of the drum roll after Rayman Rabbids, even with the reward of kicking a bunny or launching one off a train cart.)Oh, waggle, prove us wrong.See the video after the break.
DS Daily: Happy Father's Day!
In honor of Father's Day, we thought we'd ask a themed question: Who's your favorite father and son/daughter team? Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr., or, uh, hmm. Oh, how about Bowser and the Koopa Kids? Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man? Pitfall Harry and Harry Jr. from Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure? Man, we already had to go to Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure? Maybe you guys can think of more. We can't be retrogaming encyclopedias every day, okay? It would be pretty hard to limit this to the DS, but if you can think of DS characters, you win at commenting.
Completely unexciting DK Jet videos
We're still not clear on whether or not DK Jet will allow players to use their bongo peripherals, but even that might not be enough to save what looks like a half-hearted effort from developer Paon. The former GameCube title's official site has several videos illustrating its new control scheme with the Wii remote and nunchuck -- drum both to tear through the course at breakneck speeds of 30 mph, waggle with only one hand to veer right into a wall, and put them back down when you decide to play Mario Kart DS instead!There are a lot of movies and sections at the site that haven't been revealed yet, so there's still plenty of opportunities for DK Jet to impress us before its June 28th release in Japan. If you listen to the ridiculous noises Donkey Kong makes with every jump, however, it sounds like the depressed groan of a gorilla who just wants to go home. Throw a barrel past the post break for one of the demonstration clips we grabbed.
