It’s time again for your special thirteenth yearly issue of Nintendo Power, your last chance to double-check the 9.0 review for New Super Mario Bros Wii before hitting the Black Friday deals. There’s also plenty on the new DS Zelda, a taste of Epic Mickey, and a look back at five years of the DS… so read-a-long!

Issue #249, Holiday 2009
featuring The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS), Monster Hunter Tri (Wii)

All I need to hear about Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is that they did away with that horrible repeating temple crap that ruined Phantom Hourglass.

They did.

Set 100 years after Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks recently hit the big time by revealing the game’s key spirit: Zelda herself. Her body kidnapped and her soul left as a ghost only Link can see, Zelda is the cutest in-game item since the Tingle Tuner. You’ll use her intangible form to possess guardians, leading to the usual weapon-beats-puzzle adventure dynamic. She’s afraid of mice, however, so I imagine bombchus are right out.

The train theme seems to promise a fairly quirky Zelda riff. This Link begins the game as a humble engineer (is this the first Link to have a genuine career path at the outset?), and those train tracks are actually ley lines that have been set up to hold back some terrible evil force. Naturally, some idiot wants to release the beast, so Link and Ghost Zelda (Soulda?) must ride the rails and save the day.

Now if I can hear that Spirit Tracks offers the kind of sidequests and non-linear exploration that I prefer in my Zelda games, I’ll be fully prepared to let it redeem the sour taste left by Hourglass. The release date is December 7th.

Please back away from your monitor and look at this image from No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle.

Knowing the No More Heroes franchise (yay! it’s a franchise now!), I’m sure that pose is entirely intended. What’s funny is that Nintendo Power chose to print it.

Game Informer may have had the exclusive reveal, but NP also talked with Warren Spector RE: Epic Mickey. The screenshots and production art are the same images we’ve already seen (including creepy robo-Donald!), but Spector jauntily summarizes the game’s key points. Kicking things off by suggesting Mickey needs a return visit to his early, anarchistic cartoons… which, honestly, is a topic that comes around every couple of years. The last time this happened, we got the forgettable cartoon “Runaway Brain.”

The article does not talk a bit about the control scheme, but it does cover some broad takes on the game’s use of paint thinner. Mickey is able to erase parts of the environment to screw with enemies, or he can just erase the baddies entirely. Knowing that you’re likely already thinking “Nice, I’ll just erase everything and walk through a giant blank canvas to the credit roll,” Spector points out that the as-yet-revealed simplistic paint thinner examples are not all there is to it.

For the Disney geek like me, the most fun part of Epic Mickey is the promise that the game is dipping into the untouched corners of Walt’s catalog. Much internet hay has been made about the usage of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit… positioned as a guy who was destined for greatness but then usurped by Mickey’s popularity. However, Spector says Oswald is not the villain. Mickey must redeem Oswald over the course of the game, suggesting that perhaps Oswald returns to the side of good. Which sounds to me like one of those Dragon Ball plot twists… when suddenly Vegeta is wearing a pink shirt and filling the role of Earth’s Grumpiest Z-Warrior.

Other sources have mentioned the Phantom Blot as another obscure Disney ref in the game. How about including Ranger Woodlore and those stupid ugly bears? Ferdinand the Bull? Lambert the Sheepish Lion? Can we finally find out who is Molly Cunningham’s father?

If anybody wants to know what the guy who brought us Wing Commander, Thief and System Shock is doing working on a Mickey Mouse game, I should point out that Spector was a key developer of the 1980’s paper-and-dice role-playing game Toon. Which was pretty much a love letter to the violently madcap cartoons of the 1930s through the 1950s.

NP lists Epic Mickey’s release as Fall 2010. Spector’s dream project Deus Os: The Lucky Rabbit War will follow in 2012.

Let’s get behind games that combine lame internet memes with public domain IP. Games like Zombie Panic in Wonderland, coming to WiiWare by the end of the year. It’s a two-player shooter using the Remote+Nunchuk configuration, starring anime versions of Snow White and Dorothy (of Oz). It’s from the same people who brought Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ to the Nintendo DS last year (and to DSiWare shortly).

While I can’t see a zombie without rolling my eyes, I do dig the game’s global selection of playable mythic characters… Snow White represents Europe, the Oz books are an American invention, and Momotaro (the peach boy) comes from Japan. I also dig anime Dorothy:

I’m currently re-reading the century-old Oz books, and this kind of wanton violence isn’t as far off as Judy Garland may have led you to believe.

According to Nintendo Power, the five most important DS games are:

• Nintendogs
• Trauma Center: Under the Knife
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
• Mario Kart DS
• Dragon Quest IX

Four of those came out in 2005. The line graph really doesn’t speak too well for the system’s growth. Let’s make this list a top ten and include Brain Age (2006), Elite Beat Agents (2006), Cooking Mama (2006), Professor Layton (2008) and Scribblenauts (2009).

Rationale: Brain Age led (and won) the charge for new categories of gamers. EBA demonstrated that stylus controls can be fast and hip. Cooking Mama showed that even $20 budget titles could become franchises when done right. Professor Layton brought cinematic flair to the casual brainteaser. And Scribblenauts proved that a five year old handheld can still make some serious waves, even as the industry marches into the bold HD future.

Download Staff Picks: LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias (WiiWare), Pokemon Rumble (WiiWare), Excitebike: World Rally (WiiWare), Dragon Quest Wars (DSiWare)

Top scoring Wii review: New Super Mario Bros Wii and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare; Reflex, tied at 9.0 (all scores out of 10)
Top scoring DS review: Bookworm DS, 8.5
Lowest rated Wii review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, 5.0
Lowest rated DS review: C.O.P.: The Recruit, 4.0

Other notable review scores this issue… Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii) and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Wii) both scared up an 8.0, as did LEGO Rock Band (Wii). Rabbids Go Home rated 7.0 for both the Wii and DS versions. Naruto Shippuden 3: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 (Wii) was ranked 7.5. Need for Speed Nitro (Wii) hit 7.0. DJ Hero (Wii) almost cracked the top with an 8.5.

There goes that theory. – I’ve been speculating for months that New Super Mario Bros Wii would include Peach as an unlockable playable character, but Shigeru Miyamoto himself says no. The reason: they would have had to model her dress.

Vampires trump zombies for pop culture supremacy! – “Almost everybody loves vampires these days,” begins NP’s look at Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth. NP has spoken. Zombies are dead. Er.

Gotta code ‘em all! – Complete your Pokemon Rumble pokedex with this password for a morbidly powerful Venusaur: 1589-3955. You can use him right away, but his power level will be capped according to the last Battle Royale zone you have defeated. As you work up the zones, his power will increase to the next cap. Nice!

This issue’s fap material: – The character sketches of Risky Boots, the sexy pirate villain of DSiWare’s Shantae: Risky’s Revenge. Enjoy.

Are you freaking kidding me. – The natural resource that triggers the man vs nature plot of James Cameron’s Avatar is called “unobtanium.” I’m going with “uncreativum” and definitely “uninterestium.”

Better bundle. Better price. – Papa John’s pizza is currently teaming with Best Buy for a deal on Wii Sports Resort. Buy two Cokes and you’ll get a $10 coupon for Wii Sports Resort… but only if you also buy a second Wii MotionPlus. So that amounts to $60, which is the regular price of the Resort double-bundle that comes with two MotionPlus accessories. As that bundle is supposedly a limited edition, maybe this Papa John’s/Best Buy is your next available option.

Next month in Nintendo Power… issue #250. Expect a celebration.