Wii Rally

Hello everyone I have an announcement; it’s almost “Party Time!” and by that I mean Mario Party time. Yes the long awaited release date is fast approaching but does Nintendo have any surprises in store?

Gamers first learned about Mario Party 8 for the Nintendo Wii when it was announced officially at a Nintendo press conference way back in September 2006, long before many of us had even laid hands upon a Wii.

Fast forward to March 2007. The long wait for mini-game goodness is almost over. Mario Party 8 is slated for a March 5th release and all seems to be going well. Then a day before the game was supposed to be on store shelves, Nintendo announced a delay the new release date? “Q2 2007″ I love it when they get specific.

Which brings us to the present. As of right now Mario Party does have a release date which is listed by GamePress, GameSpot and Nintendo as May 29th 2007. Will we see Mario and his game playing ilk on the Wii that day? I remain skeptical but if the “party” goes off without a hitch then I will be left wondering why was there a “delay” in the first place.

Or

It will be my party (or lack thereof) and I’ll cry if I want to. You would cry too if you had to play TMNT just for something to do.

Mario Party 8 releases in

North America on May 29th 2007
Europe on June 22nd 2007
Japan on TBA

Bashcraft over at Kotaku is reporting that Nintendo will have a full blown booth at this years TGS (Tokyo Game Show). Nintendo has always had a presence at the show but this will be the first time where they will have booth space set up. Nintendo normally saves it’s budget for the other industry trade shows like CES, E3, or Nintendo’s own exposition Space World but since E3 has been scaled down this year I guess Nintendo had some extra money and no where to spend it so they decided to up the ante at TGS.

Well as always I like to play the speculation game here at Wii Rally. So what big announcement(s) do you think Nintendo will make as the summers trade show season gets underway next month. New Zelda? Online play? How about a new and exciting 1st party IP? Who knows? All I know is that with the warm weather comes the summer game drought which according to Reggie shouldn’t happen. Maybe that’s why the latest virtual console release have been less than drool worthy. Nintendo could be saving the big dogs for when they have no new games coming. Any thoughts?

Fighting Game Fans Rejoice!

Earlier this year I reported on the possibility of NeoGeo games coming to the Japanese Virtual Console. Now Joystiq and IGN are reporting that these game may not only be available to those lucky ducks in Japan. IGN interviewed SNK Playmore USA President Ben Herman where he revealed that the games have the definite possibility of beinf made available to Wii gamers the world over.

SNK is known for it’s high quality arcade games and really tight fighters. Now according to Nintendo’s Japanese website the NeoGeo and MSX games are marked as conditional. The condition being that they sell. I could be wrong on that seeing as how I can’t read Japanese but still remember that your most powerful weapon as a gamer is your credit card. So if you want to see more NeoGeo on the VC be sure to download the first batch when they become available sometime this summer.

Now who wants to guess who is going to make the first Arcade style joystick for use with the Wii Remote?

Here are today’s Japanese Virtual Console releases

Donkey Kong Jr. Math (NES, 500 Wii Points)
Alien Storm (Genesis, 600 Wii Points)
Wonder Boy in Monster World (Genesis, 600 Wii Points)
Snow Bros. Nick & Tom (Genesis, 600)

There’s another game coming to the TG-16 virtual console but I have been unable to find a suitable English translation. As far as I know “Remodelling Merchant” should be enjoyed by all.

Well what started last week continues unevaded. Here are the Japanese Virtual Console games for this week. Starring a Zelda clone, an old school fighter, an arcade classic, a crazy mixed up adventure, and one of the best early SNES games. I can’t wait till we get Actraiser on this side of the planet. Translating Japanese is hard work but I do it all for you so what are you waiting for? Go out and spend those Yen.

Valkyrie no Bouken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu (NES, 500 Wii Points)
Actraiser (SNES, 800 Wii Points)
Virtua Fighter 2 (Genesis, 800 Wii Points)
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (Genesis, 800 Wii Points)
Galaga (TG-16, 600 Wii Points)

Sorry everyone but I’m really not feeling too well today so no witty banter, jokes about Republican loving Australians or anything of that sort. I’ve been getting a couple requests from readers lately that Wii Rally should cover more news related to Japan well here goes. These are the Japanese Virtual Console Releases for this week.

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (SNES, 800 Wii Points)
Excitebike (NES, 500 Wii Points)
Sonic Spin Ball (Genesis, 600 Wii Points)
Fire ProWrestling D (TG-16, 600 Wii Points)