Shigeru Miyamoto said that he was working on a new Wii channel. Apparently, the new channel will allow users to compare their Miis with others around the world and hold popularity contests to see which Miis are the favorites.

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More About: Wii channel

A jury of Nintendo’s industry peers has honored the video game company with Game Developers Choice Awards for innovation and game design for Wii Sports™, which comes packed with Nintendo’s hot-selling new Wii™ home system. Nintendo also won an award for writing for The Legend of Zelda®: Twilight Princess.

The awards were presented the evening of March 7 at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. They represent the peak of video game excellence, as voted on by game developers from around the world. The Game Developers Choice Awards Advisory Board also honored legendary Nintendo video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Wii Sports continues to resonate not only with consumers but also with the creative soul of the industry: the game developers themselves,” says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “Wii is designed to allow creativity to triumph over technical and financial barriers, and Wii Sports is a perfect example of how a great idea can succeed on its own.”

Wii Sports and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess were nominated for five awards in four categories.

Nintendo press email

This is an excerpt from the interview with Reggie Fils-Aime by GamePro

GamePro: Where would you say the Wii stands now? Did it meet your expectations or exceed them?

Fils-Aime: I’ll be honest with you — I’m blown away. We knew we would sell every piece of hardware put into the market, but we did not expect all the buzz and the advocacy…especially from non-gamers. I can’t tell you how many people I have talked to or read about who played Wii Sports during the holidays and were suddenly surrounded by relatives who wanted to give it a shot. Everyone, from kids up to grandma and grandpa.

We knew Wii was a system for the masses, and yes, we were confident that was going to happen-but this fast? Personally, I’m just blown away.

GP: When was “the moment” that you knew the Wii was going to live up to everything — and more — Nintendo had hoped?

Fils-Aime: I think most people began to understand on the show floor at E3 last year, waiting in those lines, or just looking at them, anxious to see what the Wii fuss was all about.

But for me personally, it really “clicked” a couple days before, when we were rehearsing for our media briefing. You see, I had played an early version several months before, but when Mr. Iwata, Mr. Miyamoto, George [Harrison, VP of NoA] and I got up there on stage and fired up that game of Wii Tennis…well, not only was I having a blast, but I could see the faces of the handful of crew looking on from the audience. They were psyched. I was psyched! That was the moment I suspected we were in for even more than we expected.

Full Interview

This is an excerpt from the Preview of the Nintendo Wii Game Super Mario Galaxy by CVG

Secretive? Nintendo are keeping Super Mario Galaxy closer to their chests than the PIN to Miyamoto’s Swiss bank account. In May ‘06, we dodged Bullet Bills, headbutted spiders, offed Goombas who got in the way of our durian fruit kickabout sessions, and soared between planets. We were left begging for more. Almost a full year later, we’re still begging.

Full Preview 

More About: Preview, Nintendo Wii, Super Mario Galaxy

Codename revolution has a summary of the contents of the Nintendo Power January 2007 issue:

Here is the January 2007 issue of Nintendo Power featuring first Wii reviews and with Twilight Princess on the front cover!

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.” (Comments: I don’t hear anyone complaining about the Wii-mote being used as a whip? Come on Iga, you’ve been asked a million times about this and have gone on and off about it…make it for the Wii will ya! Heck even use the classic controller, I’m sure gamers would still get the game.)

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.

UPDATE 12: The ratings once again for those who missed out:
Wii Titles:
Zelda TP: 9.5
Trauma Center SO: 8.5
SMB BB: 8.5
Excite Truck: 8.5
Madden 07: 8.5
Wii Sports: 8.0 / 8.5
Marvel UA: 8.0
Red Steel: 8.0
Metal Slug Anthology: 8.0
Rayman RR: 7.5
Need for Speed Carbon: 7.5
Tony Hawk DJ: 7.5
Spongebob: 7.0
CoD3: 6.5
Monster 4×4: 6.5
Rampage TD: 6.5
Splinter Cell DA: 6.0
DBZ BT2: 6.0 (9.0 for DBZ fans)
GT Pro Series: 5.0
Happy Feet: 4.5

Gamecube Titles:
Tomb Raider Legend: 7.5
The Sims 2 Pets: 6.5
Bionicle Heroes: 5.0

UPDATE 13: Former World Wrestling Entertainment “World Champion” Rey Mysterio dropped by Nintendo’s headquarters for a hands-on the Wii and went up against (in multiplayer-mode) Nintendo Power’s Chris Hoffman (who also wore a lucha libre mask). Rey Mysterio had the following to say after playing Wii Boxing: “(it was) awesome…exactly like real-life boxing, except for feeling the punches.” He also made a comment about how he was one of the first to play the Wii and it makes “King Booker” jealous. (Comments: Glad you enjoyed it Rey…now can you convince THQ to bring Smackdown vs. Raw on the Wii?)

UPDATE 14: Next Month will take a look at WarioWare with a review and the 50-floor “Cave of Ordeals” guide from Twilight Princess.

Tidbits: Eragon coming to Gamecube is still in question. Nintendo Power speaks about the game for DS and GBA. Odd thing though is the advertisement doesn’t show a Gamecube logo BUT it says “Also Available on Console”. Will this game be on the Wii instead? This issue also includes (besides the pokemon comic) a Twilight Princess poster and Wii stickers (with Wii Sports)! Also Sonic the Hedgehog on the GBA and it’s history is also featured. Also this is your chance to subscribe to Nintendo Power if you haven’t as yet, as a free copy of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Official Guide and Soundtrack CD will be made available!

Source: Codename Revolution

Here is an article on Daily Game believes that Nintendo will save the videogame industry. You can check some here:

So what happens as we get older and stop playing games, and our children aren’t as interested in videogames as we were at their age? We grew up with Pong, Centipede and Pac-Man. We graduated to Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. and Paperboy. Games grew up with us, so it’s to be expected that the average age of a gamer increased along with the age of the industry. But with few mainstream games now appropriate for a younger audience, what happens when the industry wakes up and notices its bread-and-butter generation is too old to play games, and that the next generation, the only one that can keep the industry going, has been ignored for so long that it’s not playing games either?

That’s where Nintendo comes in. Like a knight in shining armor, Nintendo is going against the grain in this Xbox 360/PS3/Wii console war, and it could very well save the videogame industry in the process. Miyamoto-san isn’t afraid to work on games that appeal to kids, and he seems to actually prefer it to the dark games favored by id Software and Epic Games. Iwata-san isn’t against trying something completely new, even somewhat wacky, with a control mechanic that will get people’s attention and stir creativity. And Reggie-san (sorry, it just fits) isn’t afraid to defy conventional wisdom and shun horsepower for the promise of an inexpensive system that working families can afford.

Miyamoto itself announced the arrival of Health Pack Wii without more precise details. It is the code name of a software which should relate to the health of the family.

More About: Miyamoto, Health Pack Wii

Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed what many Zelda fans have feared. Yes in the Wii version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Link is right handed and the game is mirrored. Here is what Miyamoto had to say:

Although Link is [traditionally] left-handed, at E3 we noticed people seemed to be using the right Wii controller to swing his sword. That’s why we decided to make Link right-handed. The interesting this is, on the GameCube Link is still left-handed; because of the mirror mode the game map is reversed.

source: IGN

More About: Wi, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii controller

The central menu of the Nintendo Wii, is not more than simple, smooth, and intuitive variable menu in that we can sail between the channels available. Its a variable menu because it is personalizeable

Now Lets see The Wii Channels:
Disk Drive Channel
Go here to start up Wii and GameCube games.
Wii Disk Channel Video

Picture Channel
Access the pictures that are stored away on your SD Memory Card. The Wiimote is used to shrink and enarge pictures by moving the controller away and towards the screen. You also have access to image modification tools including paint brushes and paint buckets, and can view your images as a slide show.
WiiPhoto Video

Internet Channel
Go here to access the Opera internet browser. In addition to supporting flash (making this a step up from the DS browser), the browser uses the Wiimote to zoom in and out. The browser will normally cost money, but Nintendo will make it available for free download until June of 2007.
Wii Internet Channel Video

Weather Channel
This free weather service requires an internet connection. In addition to daily weather based on region, you also have access to a weekly forecast. The service gives you a view of the Earth, which you can rotate to access different regions.
WiiWeather Video
News Channel
The latest news is automatically updated and viewable through this free service, which also requires an internet connection. The new channel is said to have “functions indicative of a game machine.” Users can also change the font size for easy viewing.
WiiNews Channel Video
Avatar Channel
In this channel, you create your own avatar, which is referred to as a “Mii.” Your Mii is used in Wii games (as in Wii Sports) and can be transferred to your Wiimote and used on other Wii consoles. Nintendo chief software producer Shigeru Miyamoto commented at Nintendo’s Japanese Wii press conference that this is a feature he’s always wanted to have.
MiiChannel Video

Virtual Console Channel
The unloaded classic games for the Virtual Console are in the main menu of Wii
Virtual Console Channel Video

More About: Nintendo Wii, Wii Channels

Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo Dream publication producer), revealed that the game will now allow players to swing the controller for sword slashes in Zelda: Twilight Princess Wii.

At E3, players used the B button to swing Link’s sword, with Nintendo explaining at the time that players would likely get tired having to actually swing the controller. “Upon actually playing it, it’s more interesting this way,” said Miyamoto to Nintendo Dream about the new control scheme.

Going along with this change, Nintendo has made modifications to the game’s bow and arrow controls. In the E3 version, players aimed with the Wiimote, then actually shot out arrows using the D-pad. With the B button now free, Nintendo has moved the action to the B button. Miyamoto felt that that shooting the arrow with the D-pad was too difficult, and the B button allows for quicker and easier shooting.

It’s unclear if the game will require the new control scheme or if players will be able to chose between different methods of control.

source: IGN

More About: Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo, Zelda: Twilight Princess Wii