Dear Reader:
Nintendo Power January issue summary
Yes, it’s that time again, and we have the NP scoop from CR
UPDATE 1: Nintendo plans to bring more Wii console colors “down the road”, but there is no set time-line of their release.
UPDATE 2: Nintendo Power has confirmed that it made a mistake about the Opera Web Browser in the previous issue and that you WILL be able to download it for free until mid-June 2007.
UPDATE 3: Current top selling Gamecube game is LEGO Star Wars II.
Wii’ Most Wanted:
1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
2. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
3. Super Mario Galaxy
4. Fire Emblem
5. Harvest Moon Wii
UPDATE 4: Nintendo Power confirms that Wii Play (w/Wii Remote) will be available in January! Also new screenshots (that were shown from Nintendo World 2006) of Fire Emblem, MP3, Disaster, Hammer and Mario Part 8 are shown and Metroid Prime 3 looks really sweet!
UPDATE 5: The BIGS, a baseball title from 2K Sports and Big Castle Games will include online play! Cooking Mama will include more than 300 real-world recipes from 10 different countries. Super Swing Golf will be released in December 2006.
UPDATE 6: First feature is on WarioWare: Smooth Moves: Some of the mini-games included are scrubbing a cow, a “wild wild west” classic duel shoot-out, a can-shooter, a slapping game, samurai “microgames”, sketch artist, number matching (from brain age), paper airplane, Balloon fight, darts, a diner game, a waiter game, a chauffeur game, a soccer game and more. In multiplayer mode, you can have up to 12 players (switching Wii-motes from one player to another) and throughout the game itself it will include Mii’s. In a multiplayer mini-game your Mii’s end up tightened by a rope, hanging and below your Mii is a swamp filled with crocodiles and your goal is to survive. There are also mini-games involving Nintendogs and even Link in Wind Waker (parachuting).
UPDATE 7: Next feature is on Virtual Console and while there is nothing new, Ristar is listed as one of the “31″ games for the launch window. Next feature is on Twilight Princess: (Note: Skip to the next update if needed, this one contains Spoilers) When you start the game (in Ordon Village) for a third-time, you’ll earn a piece of heart. Get some explosives at Kakariko Village and to earn two extra pieces of heart, hit a rock on a high ledge wit ha bomb arrow and use a boomerang to collect it. Destroy a larger rock on the ground to open a path to a pool and another treasure. Get help from Gorons after you return from the mines, to climb the tower on the north end and at the top you’ll be able to start an archery mini-game (you can earn a piece of heart). Visit Malo Mart to purchase a “telescopic” Hawkeye for sniper-like shooting.
When you fill the third Vessel of Light, Castle Town will be “full of life” and you can find a man on the east road who accepts donations and for 1,000 rupees, he’ll give you a piece of heart. Give 1,000 rupees to the Goron at Malo Mart for fixing the bridge, give an additional 2,000 rupees to bring the shop at the center of Castle Town so oyu can purchase a Magic Armor for 598 rupees. There is a STAR Minigame, and with a Clawshot you can grapple onto cage walls so you can earn 60-arrows and if you win again you can get 100.
Go to southeastern part of Castle Town to meet Agitha, round up 24 Golden Bugs for her and give her one bug for Big Wallet (holds 600 rupees) and all 24 for Giant Wallet (1,000 rupee capacity). Speak to the fortune teller Fanadi in Castle Town and speak about your career so she can point out your next challenge and speak about love to get a piece of heart. There are 45 Pieces of Heart in the game. (Note: the next two pages are dungeons which have been reported before in spoiler posts except the last one) There is a “Rollgoal Minigame” where you press the C button to look at the game and you have to roll a ball through a maze (in Hena’s shop) and you can earn a “frog lure” if you win the eight maze. There is more info and I suggest getting a copy of this magazine or read the official guide itself.
UPDATE 8: Interview with Zelda director Eiji Aonuma, the following is an excerpt: “I think it’s safe to say that Twilight Princess has a lot more Miyamoto influence than other recent Zelda games…The total scale of the world, has definitely surpassed that of Ocarina of Time. There are a lot more dungeons as well…I must warn you that this game will take a lot longer to complete than Ocarina of Time…there were actually instances whee the control changes made for Wii were adapted to GCN, and they ended up improving the gameplay in the Gamecube version…Twilight Princess is set about a hundred years after Ocarina of Time…Twilight Princess has elements in it that were made so that people who played Ocarina can say ‘Oh, I remember this!’…releasing Twilight Princess for the Gamecube and creating a whole new Zelda for Wii immediately after (as it was planned) that would have been extremely diffciult to do time-wise.”
“I haven’t decided whether we’ll make Link right-handed or left-handed in future Zelda games…(he likes Goron Mines the best and his favorite character in the game is Link)…(in the future) I hope to offer more guidance to these talented young creators (on the TP team) so they can create a Zelda that I would never be able to make.”
UPDATE 9: Next feature in Excite Truck and in Summary (point-form):
1. Most of it you’ll have to see the screenshots (they are new) to read about it
2. You’ll earn 50 stars for finishing first in the game
3. Later tracks you’ll need to get a minimum of 100 or 150 stars
4. Strategies to use is Smash-Tested (crashing into opponents by boosting), end faster and hit a morph switch when trucks are in front of you
5. The feature looks at “Super Tree Run” in Scotland and Canada, “Super Air Spin” in Finland and Mexico, “Jump Combo” in Fiji and “Super Drift” from China.
UPDATE 10: Castlevania creator “Iga” on the Wii: “I am still thinking of all the possibilities, but right now I am thinking about all the systems the next game could be on. For me, the Wii controller doesn’t yet connect with the core gameplay of Castlevania. I definitely don’t want to make a game with gimmicky controls where you swing the controller like a whip, so I’ll have to think about it longer.”
UPDATE 11: The reason why Twilight Princess got a 9.5/10 was because of Wolf Link and Music. Although the gameplay was great, the issue was in the early goings when you’re forced to remain a wolf for extended periods and seek out creatures of darkness (meaning it can be a drag). The other issue was Music, and the tracks are too “subtle” for their own good.