The first first-party cover feature in six months heralds an excellent issue, full of some great details, reveals and surprises. Read-a-long!

Issue #233, October 2008
featured games: Wario Land: Shake It!, Time Hollow, House of the Dead: Overkill, Kirby Super Star Ultra

The main article this month is the promised E3 coverage, “The Big 15.” Nine upcoming Wii games, one WiiWare game (guess!) and five DS games are highlighted, to varying degrees of depth. In order – presumably a meaningful order – the Big 15 are Facebreaker KO Party, Sonic Chronicles: the Dark Brotherhood, Wii Music, Castlevania Judgment, Major Minor’s Majestic March, GTA: Chinatown Wars, Wii Sports Report, Wario Land: Shake It!, Chrono Trigger, Rhythm Heaven, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Mega Man 9, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, The Conduit, and MadWorld.

Um, where’s Fatal Frame 4? A no-show at E3, missing from the Big 15, still no US release date (and it’s getting veeeery close to October and Halloween)… and it’s been out in Japan for a month. If I were the worrying sort, well, I’d start to worry.

We’ve already covered the surprises on the Animal Crossing front (short version: can carry over DS character, city area is Friend only, can save photos to SD card, and Wii Speak microphone will not be bundled in), so let’s find some other interesting news about the Big 15.

Nintendo Power is probably contractually obligated to pretend Wii Music is actually worthwhile. At #13 in the list, Wii Music is described as being “all about playing an instrument without the anxiety that comes with trying to perform as perfectly as possible.” That’s some ripe spin right there. Do I love the screens with a pile of Miis assembled in rock band and orchestra configurations? Yes. Do I wish there was an actual rhythm game attached? Absolutely.

GTA: Chinatown Wars on DS will not be a mini-game collection, despite my prediction on one of our podcasts. Frowny.

Wii Sports Resort will feature ten events, but we still only know about three: Disc Dog, Power Cruising (jet-skis) and Sword Play. Sword Play will be the one-to-one swordfighting that people have been begging for since the first Red Steel was announced, thank to the bundled Wii Motion Plus peripheral. The MotionPlus’s secret, by the way, is “a device called a gyroscope.” WSR+WMP will also come with a new version of the Wii Remote Jacket that fits over the entire Remote and MotionPlus plug-in. Yes, MotionPlus has a pass-through so you can still use your Nunchuk.

The Conduit section begins by lamenting the lack of first-person shooters on Wii, and then launches into a long diatribe about how awesome Conduit is. “Few, if any, console first-person shooters feel this good,” NP boldly proclaims. Apparently the graphics are superb, but I let my eyes go out of focus while looking at the page and the screenshots all turned to muddy black.

Now I regret buying Dr. Mario Online RX, because Tetris Party is coming to WiiWare. Sure, sure, it’s tough as balls to screw up Tetris. but we might have a contender with at least one of Party’s eighteen modes:

…there’s even a mode that lets you control your blocks with the Wii Balance Board – you shift your weight to the left or right to move your pieces… squat to rotate, and shift forward or backward to drop your piece. It’s crazy but it works.

No, it will not.

Sonic is in the new Samba de Amigo, which is probably no surprise to anyone. (Ulala from Space Channel 5 is also playable!) I quite like the Emerald Hill Zone stage in this screenshot. And I like that there are Miis everywhere. The official tracklist for Amigo has over 40 songs, half of which are covers… and DLC is forthcoming.

You can coddle me on this one. Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers will be good, right? Right? I’m a little confused on who is wearing the bikinis though.

I’m sure you’re all set to write off Disney’s upcoming Rock Band clone for the Wii, Ultimate Band. It’s another no-peripheral rhythm game with guitar, bass and drums, and since there’s no USB mic, the singer has to dance. But how does this grab you: there’s a DS version as well, and if you own both, you can have a fifth player use the DS and play as the stage special effects guy, activating smoke blowers, flashpots and lighting. Note to Harmonix: rip this off right now.

Comic artist J. Scott Campbell has never been more embarrassed. The creator of Gen 13 and Danger Girl (and due to handle a new Spider-Man series next year) won a Nintendo Power contest when he was 15 years old. The contest was to design the ULTIMATE VIDEO GAME and his submission, “Lockarm” included a ton of character artwork and level ideas. NP has reminded us about this in previous issues, but that did not stop them from running it again as part of the ongoing 20th Anniversary column.

Hideki Konno is about to change the way you feel about Mario Kart Wii. In his “Power Profile” interview, the guy behind the Kart series, Nintendogs and NES Ice Hockey reveals this stunner:

In Mario Kart Wii, you can escape [the blue spiny shells] if you use the Mushroom at the right timing. Please give it a try.

WTF.

And he admits that snaking in Mario Kart DS was bull****.

Lightning Round
Virtual Console Staff Picks: Super Fantasy Zone (Sega Genesis)

Top scoring Wii review: a tie for 8.5: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play and SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 (all scores out of 10)
Top scoring DS review: a tie for 7.5: Dragon Quest IV and Disgaea DS
Lowest rated Wii review: Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, 6.5
Lowest rated DS review: three-way tie for 6.0: Stars Wars Force Unleashed, Pop Cutie! Street Fashion Simulation, and Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli

Now that’s fan service: Luminous Arc 2 (DS) will ship with a soundtrack CD. And that’s not a retailer exclusive or pre-order bonus, that’s every friggin’ copy of the game.

Vomit as puzzle solution: SPRay, a Wii game you’ve never heard of before today, features a couple of spirits who spew liquids… one of the liquids happens to be vomit, which exposes hidden platforms.

Bring it on: THREE Duke Nukem games are coming to DS next year. The blurb doesn’t say if these are ports of various Duke Nukem 3D games (remember “Duke in D.C.”?), a return to the side-scrolling originals, or some entirely new creation.

Next month in Nintendo Power… Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. This game has been completely unvisible since its reveal at E3. Will Nintendo Power be the first to show off screenshots and gameplay info? Or will the internets get there first? We’ll find out next month!