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This Week on the Nintendo Channel: Jazz
This week, the Nintendo Channel has plenty of videos and, much to our surprise, some new DS demos as well. Avalon Code is back, and it brought its friend Trackmania DS along for the ride. Then there's the lovely Nintendo fluff for Wii Music that you can see in the video above. Want the full list? Click past the break and you can have it for the low, low price of free.%Gallery-27713%
This week on the Nintendo Channel: Celebrities, Mac and Cheese
Another Monday means another Nintendo Channel update, and this week we've got a boatload of new video content, as well as some new DS content to love. On the demo side, there are two piping hot samples, one of which is Personal Trainer, and the other TrackMania DS. Check the full list of demos after the break.On the video side, there's plenty of new content to watch. You can check out some footage from Pokemon Platinum, as well a nice developer chat with the folks behind World of Goo, and some footage from Sega titles House of the Dead: Overkill and MadWorld.%Gallery-37398%
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: Repeat Performance
If you run to the Wii today to check for new demos on the Nintendo Channel, you will face disappointment for two reasons: first, none of the available demos are new, and second, one of them is Imagine Ice Champions again. The good news: if you missed the Avalon Code demo last week, it's back! For the rest of you, it's DS charging time, we suppose.The new videos this week feature footage of the upcoming New Play Control ports of Mario Power Tennis and Pikmin, along with a new Sonic and the Black Knight video and stuff like Henry Hatsworth for DS.%Gallery-22487%
February's Wii software usage: Smash Bros. still on top, Animal Crossing sees boost
MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo recently posted a breakdown of the amount of playtime users logged during the month of February for various Wii titles using statistics that are readily available on the Nintendo Channel. Most of the results are unsurprising -- the top three spots are currently occupied by Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Guitar Hero III and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, respectively. Those three titles have remained in said spots since September of last year.However, a number of games saw massive usage boosts over the past month -- most notably, the average user's monthly playtime with Animal Crossing: City Folk increased nearly seven hours, bringing the game to a fifth-place finish for February. Similarly, Call of Duty: World at War's average playtime increased over five hours, bringing it up to 13th place. Sadly, Ninjabread Man didn't place at all -- but that won't stop us from holding out hope for a strong March showing.
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: Avalon Code
Hey, is that -- could it be -- a demo available for a regular game? Somehow, a demo for Avalon Code, Matrix Software's action RPG designed neither for babies nor grandmas, has slipped past Nintendo's attention and onto the Nintendo Channel. Grab it before Nintendo notices and replaces it with My Fun Facts Coach! Also available is a demo for MLB Fantasy All-Stars 2K9, the sequel to last year's bizarre, cartoony baseball game. Head past the break for the list of available videos! A note about formatting: we've decided not to list the demos that are available every week. You guys know you can get the Flash Focus demo whenever you want, without us telling you.%Gallery-22487%
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: Rubik's World
The Nintendo Channel (or, more likely, publisher The Game Factory) is way late to the party with this Rubik's World demo, since the game came out back in November, but we're still glad to see it. Despite being a licensed puzzle game based on the toy, the DS game looks genuinely interesting -- at the very least, more interesting than Imagine: Ice Skating or Whatever, which returns this week. This week's videos include teasers for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and Pokemon Platinum, along with the usual weekly WiiWare game video and a random assortment of other stuff.
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: Imagine Ice Champions
Last week, Nintendo offered a demo of My DoItAll, and we didn't really mind, because despite being kid-focused and a non-game, it was kind of a novelty, worth trying out for a few minutes. This week, though, we're faced with the dreaded "I" word: Imagine. The one new demo on the Nintendo Channel this week is Ubisoft's Imagine Ice Champions, the sequel to Imagine Figure Skater. Maybe there's some novelty value in getting to try an Imagine game without any commitment -- just to see what it's like -- but we doubt this is going to send anyone running to the Wii.We've got the full list of returning demos after the break, as well as this week's rather large crop of videos.
This Week on the Nintendo Channel: My DoItAll
Tomy's My DoItAll may not be the most anticipated title on the DS, but it's kind of perfect for the Nintendo Channel's DS demo service. We're totally curious about the kid-friendly personal organizer "game" and its suite of activities, but not "pay money" curious. Now we can check it out for free, with no risk other than the possibility that we'll find it awesome and be forced to hide our enjoyment of a children's non-game from our Joystiq colleagues.That's the only new demo on the North American Nintendo Channel this week. If you missed the Big Bang Mini demo, it's back now, and we don't mind broadcasting to the world that it's worth checking out. The full list of available demos and new videos is after the break!%Gallery-18714%
Play a bit of Elebits now via the Nintendo Channel
If you're curious about how Konami has adapted Elebits' gameplay to the DS, and you're in North America, good news! Today's Wii Nintendo Channel update features a downloadable demo of Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero. Oh, obviously, in addition to those other conditions, you need access to a Wii, but you've probably got that if you care about Elebits.dThe rest of the limited-time demos (which expire on the 21st) are stuff we've seen before: Soul Bubbles (which you should absolutely play if you haven't!), Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Ruins, and the mac and cheese recipe from Personal Trainer: Cooking.%Gallery-26907%
Nintendo Channel: won't you take us to Ninjatown?
The Nintendo Channel has been great recently about giving Wii/DS owners the chance to try out quirky DS strategy games. Well, great in that there have been two. A few weeks ago, a Lock's Quest demo hit the channel (and we do hope you checked it out!) This week, SouthPeak's super-adorable tower defense game Ninjatown is featured.Limited-time demos returning for this week include Brain Quest Grades 3&4 and 5&6, MySims Kingdom, and Ubisoft's mysterious Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs. It seems to be some kind of touch-screen dinosaur fighting game for kids. We suppose we could actually play it and find out.%Gallery-15839%
Lock's Demo now available on Nintendo Channel
The DS demo section of the Nintendo Channel is usually swamped with bland Touch! Generations fare, but it now looks like Nintendo has abandoned that policy to bring us some potentially interesting games to try out. What a novel concept! Top of your "to download" list (if you haven't already bought it) should be Lock's Quest, 5th Cell's ace tower defense/real-time strategy, which reviewers have been throwing superlatives at from every direction (stay tuned for our review later this week). Spore Creatures is there also, and while it may not have attracted the same loving critical response as Lock's Quest, it still piques our curiosity, simply because it's not the Spore everybody else has been banging the drum for. There's a demo of MySims Kingdom as well, which looks adorable, and an anagrams demo for sdrsorsCwo SD. These all expire October 5th, so don't delay! %Gallery-19901%
DS Daily: Demo dreaming
With the ability to download demos through the Nintendo Channel, we've definitely been hit with more lows than highs. Demos are often repeated and we haven't seen a lot of third party titles available in demo form. Nintendo has kept the same roster of demos available week after week, but where's the variety? Where are the new demos each week?What would you like to be able to test drive? A game already released? A new upcoming game? What demo are you dreaming of?
Nintendo of Europe rubs it in with Hanabi Festival video
The strangest thing about this Hanabi Festival video, found on the Dutch Nintendo Channel, is seeing Nintendo promoting the Virtual Console at all. Nintendo of America grudgingly allows the bare minimum of content to be released to the (apparently) hated service, and would never dream of going so far as to have a special event like the Hanabi Festival or talk about it outside of that one press release every Monday morning. The trailer features video footage of all of the games in the latest Hanabi Festival, from the celebrated (Super Mario RPG) to the ... celebrated for some reason (Spelunker). We may have most of these particular games, but we want our own Hanabi Festival![Via GoNintendo]
Nintendo Channel update: Helix, baseball, and an old friend
A second Mario Super Sluggers video has hit the Nintendo Channel today, proving that Nintendo does mention the game ... occasionally. Good thing, since if they're going to promote the game at all, now would be the time! Other new(ish) videos include the official Helix trailer, designed to entice WiiWare fans into shaking along with a skeletal, metallic homunculus, and ... a Defend Your Castle video? Can't forget about "classic" WiiWare, we suppose. Here's the full list of new, very slowly streaming videos: Mario Super Sluggers Info Video 2 Helix Info Video Defend Your Castle Info Video 2 Mario Kart Wii: Who's playing Wii today? 4 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play TV Spot Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Video 2 MySims Kingdom Info Video High School Musical 3: Senior Year! Video Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Info Video Imagine: Rock Star TV Spot
New Nintendo Channel DS demos feature Arkanoid
While it's likely to be the same demo featured before (meaning there's no paddle support), it doesn't deserve to be ignored. Those of you who didn't check out Taito's revival of the classic on the DS should be heading over to your Wii (or, if you fail to own one, a friend's house) to give the demo a download now. Seriously, we thought it was a pretty decent game.Head past the break for the details on all of the demos available this week.%Gallery-19376%
Nintendo Channel video update shows off Mario Super Sluggers
This week, there's plenty of new videos to watch on the Nintendo Channel. Above, you'll see a pretty lengthy video on how to play the upcoming Mario Super Sluggers. We apologize for the audio, but the guy really does talk that low. It was hard to get the audio as clear as it is.For a breakdown on what's in store for you this week on the Nintendo Channel, head past the break.%Gallery-24326%
Practice crashing planes in latest downloadable demos
DS demo updates on the Nintendo Channel often get a disappointed reaction from us, but this week's batch does contain at least one interesting addition: Sonic Powered's Air Traffic Chaos, as localized (complete with generic and terrible boxart) by Majesco. At the very least, we're hopeful that the game can replicate the frenzied, panicked pace of a Trauma Center game.The rest of this week's update is fairly humdrum, consisting of a Crosswords DS wordsearch, a Pictoimage demo, and a chance to try out Carnival Games, which has stuck around like a bad smell. The full list of both old and new demos is past the break!%Gallery-20691%
This week's Nintendo Channel videos burninate your retinas
This week's videos have some choice snippets that you should watch. For those of you who got a kick out of last week's Madden 09 All-Play videos, there are some more of those up for grabs. The best of the best has to be what we embedded above, though. After you're done watching that, head on past the break for the full list.%Gallery-29377%
Nintendo Channel video updates take a look at Madden NFL 09
We're excited about Madden NFL 09. Oh no, sports on a game blog, run! But, in all seriousness, this year's Madden NFL 09 looks like it's going to be a solid title and unique from the other versions available. Plus, the All-Play stuff looks fun. If the video up top tickles your fancy, then the one past the break is going to blow you away.Also, check out the latest video updates to the Nintendo Channel tucked away back there as well.
DS Download Service aims to improve your vocabulary
Another week means another dose of demos available on the Nintendo Channel. If you've got a Wii, you're in luck. If not, then we suggest you cruise past the break to see one of the many reasons why you should own one.
