An excerpt from a Game Informer interview with Eiji Aonuma:

GI: Have you been consulted at all for the usage of Link or Sheik or Ganondorf for Smash Bros. Brawl?

Aonuma: I’ve been working with Sakurai for a very long time with this new Smash Bros., because the Wii came out and when discussion for a new Smash Bros. took place nobody could think of anyone other than Sakurai working on it. He was kind of the default, and I was very happy to hear that he would be working on it. Actually, my designers did work on the designs for Sheik and Link and Ganondorf. So they submitted the initial designs, and so it would fit in the Smash Bros. Brawl environment, they’ve had to tweak some of the designs. But Sakurai has brought those altered designs to NCL. We’re working very closely with the team of Smash Bros. Brawl to make sure the characters look their best.

Civilization Wii / DS Announced

Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution will be the first offering in the legendary Civilization series to appear on next generation consoles and handheld systems. In development by legendary designer Sid Meier and Firaxis Games, this game will deliver Civilization’s renowned epic single-player campaigns featuring vast re-playability and unmatched addictive gameplay. In addition, with revolutionary features like real-time interaction with leaders and advisors, extensive multiplayer capabilities and integrated video and voice chat, Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution will completely transport the Civilization series to a level of gameplay that fans have never seen before.

Developer: Firaxis Games, a 2K studio

Platforms: Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo DS

Available: Spring 2008 for the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and DS and fall 2008 for the Wii

More About: Civilization Wii

Spielberg’s Wii Game Details from an MSNBC article:

A true artist can find inspiration anywhere. But not many get to find it while playing Wii Tennis against Nintendo’s legendary designer, Shigeru Miyamoto. For director Steven Spielberg, however, that’s just another day out of the office. “Afterwards, we were talking about the Wii and I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if we could dot-dot-dot?’ ” Spielberg says of his meeting with Miyamoto at a 2006 videogame conference. That dot-dot-dot turned out to be an action-puzzle simulator—code-named PQRS—that neatly blends the creativity of the building-blocks game Jenga with the charm of a Saturday-morning cartoon. It runs on top of a physics program that lets you manipulate blocks with the Wii remote as if it were an extension of your hand. Or, as Spielberg explains for all the non-geeks out there, “It just seemed like a great thing for the entire family to play together over Christmas. Although you don’t need the excuse of a holiday to enjoy it.”

source 

More About: Spielberg’s Wii Game

Sony Talks High Velocity Bowling/Wii Sports Bowlin:

It’s a pretty common misconception that High Velocity Bowling is Sony’s “answer” to Wii Sports Bowling. We came up with the idea of using the SIXAXIS controller for bowling on August 23rd, 2006 - I know the exact date because it was my birthday…Eddy Cramm (who is a Sr. Designer on MLB ‘07) and I had taken the day off to get a couple rounds of golf in, a rare luxury these days. Out on the course, we talked about using the controller as a bowling interface (we both carry 200+ averages in our current bowling league) and both loved the idea. He sent a text message to our studio director that night and my team (small, but dedicated) started work on it the next day. While we weren’t surprised by the inclusion of bowling in Wii Sports a month later, we knew that we were taking it a step further once that game launched.

Full Article 

More About: High Velocity Bowling, Wii Sports

Secret Files Tunguska comming To Wii  and DS

Basingstoke, 12th June 2007 - Koch Media has assigned the exclusive production rights in the Secret Files Tunguska PC game to 10TACLE STUDIOS MOBILE (implementation for Nintendo DS) and to Keen Games (implementation for Wii). This fun adventure. leading the player all around the globe, will soon be ready for all owners of Nintendo DS and Wii.

Pete Walentin, Development Director of keen games, stated: “It is a real pleasure to implement one of the best adventures of recent years for Wii in cooperation with Koch Media. We will optimise the controls for Wii Remote and Nunchuk in order to turn a game that is very good already into a ‘perfect-match’ for Wii.”

“Secret Files Tunguska is one of the most successful adventures of recent years. We are happy that we can bring this gaming adventure to a new platform by developing a Nintendo DS version and that we can also enhance it in a useful way with our innovative touch screen control,” says Alexandra Gerb, Managing Director of 10TACLE STUDIOS MOBILE.

The Nintendo DS version of Secret Files Tunguska will hit the shops in the 4th quarter of 2007, the Wii implementation is expected to be published in the 1st quarter of 2008.

About Secret Files Tunguska:

Background: On the 30th of June 1908, an explosion with the destructive power of 2,000 Hiroshima bombs rocked the Tunguska region in central Siberia, felling more than 6,000 square metres of pine forest. The explosion could be heard within a radius of 1,000km. Witnesses saw an oblong object, glowing in a blueish-white light, fall from the sky. A 20km high pillar of light was followed by a mushroom-shaped black cloud. The three following nights were so bright all over Europe that you could read a newspaper outside without additional light. In California, on the other hand, they noted a continuing reduction of sun light.

Up to this day it is still not clear what really triggered the Tunguska catastrophe. These are the most prevalent theories:

• An asteroid or comet crashing to the earth - but why was there no crater to be found?
• A vulcanic-like eruption, probably of natural gas - but how does this explain the growing radioactivity in the Tunguska region?
• A (natural) nuclear explosion - but why do the trees bear no evidence of a fire?
• A small black hole - but where is the exit hole?
• The crash of an extraterrestrial spaceship - but why was there no UFO wreckage to be found?

So far, no hypothesis can logically account for all of the facts and features surrounding the Tunguska catastrophe. It could have been a thermal, chemical or even nuclear explosion.

The story: Nina is torn from her normal life when she finds that her father has disappeared without a trace. The police cannot (or will not?) help her, so Nina begins searching for clues about her father’s whereabouts on her own. In the course of her investigations, she meets Max Gruber, a young colleague of her father’s, who spontaneously offers to help the pretty young woman. Together they soon find out that Nina’s father was involved in a previous expedition to Siberia that set out to investigate what lay behind the mysterious Tunguska catastrophe of 1908. At the time a huge explosion triggered an inferno, and the reasons behind that remain a mystery to this day.

Nina and Max soon realise that events of that time are linked to her father’s disappearance. Their search for answers leads Nina and Max to the most distant corners of the earth (Berlin, Moscow, Cuba, China, Antarctica etc.). Soon it becomes very obvious that some mighty opponents are also interested in the secret of Nina’s father. In the end it turns out that this is about much more than just the disappearance of an old man.

“Secret Files Tunguska represents a challenging mystery design, a long gaming duration and is state-of-the-art technically,” promises Lead Designer Jörg Beilschmidt. And Marco Zeugner, founder of Animation Arts, adds: “We are looking forward to our cooperation with Deep Silver, as the past has shown that in particular German developers’ teams are in very good hands with them.”

Features:
• 2D/3D symbiosis – the best of both worlds (2D backgrounds for optimum clarity and richness of detail, 3D characters for smooth animations and atmospheric light and shade effects)
• 110 highly detailed and atmospheric pre-rendered backgrounds
• 25 movie quality motion captured 3D characters
• Real time light and shade effects of the 3D characters
• Atmospheric weather effects (e.g., snow and rain)
• Backgrounds that can be scrolled over several screens
• Facial animation to show emotions and speech
• Cinematic-quality videos for intro and cutscenes in wide screen perspective
• Real time light and shade effects
• Powerful 3D animations system
• Well thought out story and riddle designs (up to 25 hours of gaming fun)
• Lively locations thanks to numerous background animations

More About: Secret Files Tunguska, Wii

Nintendo in the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies at number 39:

39. Nintendo
2006 rank: not ranked
Think video games are only for misfits and geeks? The designers of the Wii video game console came up with a revolutionary motion-sensing wireless controller that shatters the stereotype, targeting consumers of all ages. Its best brains have called on game creators to go beyond game sequels.

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Mario And Sonic At The Olympics Press Release: