Welcome to the strangest news of the week, or maybe of the year.

SEGA ANNOUNCES BIOWARE WILL CREATE SONIC ROLE PLAYING GAME FOR THE NINTENDO DS

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (June 21, 2007) -- SEGA® of America, Inc., SEGA® Europe, Ltd., and Canada-based developer studio BioWare® Corp. today announced a partnership to create a new video game based on the classic SEGA flagship icon Sonic The Hedgehog. The exact name of the game is undetermined, and it will ship in 2008.

A limited time Ouendan 2 downloadable creates series crossover.

For two weeks from June 28th through July 11th, Ouendan 2 owners in Japan will be able to take their DS cards to in-store DS Stations and download new characters into their games. These characters are none other than iNiS's other DS mascots, the Elite Beat Agents.

Once downloaded, an Elite... Read more...

It's being developed by WayForward Technologies and is due out this year.

KONAMI ANNOUNCES CONTRA 4 FOR NINTENDO DS™

Explosive Action Series Celebrates 20th Anniversary with Unique Dual Screen Presentation, New Gameplay Elements and Cooperative Multiplayer Mayhem

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – June 20, 2007 – Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., today announced Contra... Read more...

The journey to internet superstardom begins with a single post. This week: win a Decepticon!

Last week, we asked our readers if they used the Virtual Console. The results are in - according to the poll, a little over half of the forum posters do, even if only a little bit. Our posters posted a lot of words about this, too. You can mosey on down the page to have a look-see, but first, maybe you'd like to hear about this week's hot topic and prize!

The ESRB decided that they are giving Manhunt 2 an Adults Only rating.

Kotaku is reporting that Take-Two confirmed that the ESRB has given Manhunt 2 an Adults Only rating. The rating is not Wii specific, as the PS2 version received the same.

This announcement comes hot on the heels of a recent announcement that the game will be banned all together in the UK. Much... Read more...

Play through the Rise of the Silver Surfer on Wii, DS or any other major platform near you.

2K Announces Fantastic Four™: Rise of the Silver Surfer Video Game Now Available

Multi-Platform Game Based on Marvel’s First Family of Super Heroes™ Released Simultaneously with Highly-Anticipated Movie

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software,... Read more...

Wii, DS, Pokémon and Mario Party lead the way as the industry continues to grow.

Here are the hardware sales figures for each system through the month of May:

Nintendo DS - 423,150

Wii - 338,278

PlayStation Portable - 221,120

PlayStation 2 - 187,765

Xbox 360 - 154,932

PlayStation 3 - 81,604

Game Boy Advance - 80,554

GameCube - 10,728

Nintendo once again... Read more...

All you have to do is register your copy of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree and fill out a quick online survey.

Nintendo of America has been slipping those "Register your Software" codes into their first party games for a few years now, but the people who do so have not been rewarded with much. There have been nowhere near as many free goodies offered in North America as there have been in Japan.

Well the customer service site just threw us a bone with this offer.

Post here to be an internet superstar!

Last week, we asked our forum posters what they thought of the current Wii library. The posts and poll (39% to 43%) were split fairly evenly between satisfied and disappointed. We'll highlight some of the more interesting posts here, but first, let's get to this week's Hot Topic and the attached prize!

The mouse ears sees future opportunity and plans to ramp up involvement to capitalize on it.

Disney spent $100 million on making games in 2006. This year it will increase that spending to $130 million. Five years from now, Disney is planning to spend $350 million a year making games.

Such an large increase in spending wouldn't come if the company didn't think there was that much money... Read more...

Take your pick.

Most of the Smash Bros. Dojo daily updates have so far been either minor item reveals or write-ups about characters already shown a year ago. But today's update is more newsworthy -- the official website has commented on how the game will be controlled.

Details on each scheme are still unknown,... Read more...

The development studio isn't closing, but instead moving everything to its existing New York operation.

Vicarious Visions, the Actvision development studio that primarily handled the handheld versions of most of the publisher's multiplatform games, has announced that it will be closing down its Mountain View, California offices. An Activision spokesperson told GameDaily.biz that the reason for the closure was because the developer is "refocusing its development efforts in its New York headquarters."

The former Nintendo saw an increase in his net worth in part due to all of those Nintendo shares he still owns.

Forbes Asia magazine compiled a list of the 40 richest Japanese, and former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi ranked in at number three with net worth of $4.8 billion.

Last year, the magazine put him at position 14. The 11-spot jump was due to Nintendo's skyrocketing stock value, stock that Yamauchi still owns a lot of. Yamauchi retired from Nintendo in June 2005 after 55 years at the company.

Availability begins in July with 60 games planned for 2007.

Answering cries from the Land Down Under, Hudson is making their Turbografx titles available on Virtual Console, making it the first time its games are available in that region. As in other regions, TurboGrafx games will cost 600 Wii points.

Service begins on July 6th with Bonk's Adventure and... Read more...

Top execs have decided not to follow Nintendo to San Francisco or New York.

Three top executives and 90% of Sales and Marketing staff at Nintendo of America have decided not to relocate to New York or San Francisco when the division moves later this month. George Harrison, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications, Beth Llewelyn, Senior Director of Public... Read more...

The state's attorney general has learned of the game's violent nature...from a certain notorious lawyer.

Industry gaming blog GamePolitics.com has learned that Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has taken notice of Rockstar's Manhunt 2, specifically the Wii version, because it will likely incorporate motion controls that mimic acts of violence, like stabbing or clubbing. In a statement released... Read more...

A former Activision executive will head EA's venture into the world of "highly accessible games."

EA Appoints Kathy Vrabeck to Lead EA Casual Entertainment

New Group to Focus on Lighter Games for Family and New Consumers

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced the formation of EA Casual Entertainment, dedicated to developing and publishing... Read more...

Presenting a new forum feature and a chance to win a prize!

We're starting a new forum feature here at Nintendo World Report: The NWR Community Hot Topic! Every Tuesday, we'll put up an open-ended hot topic question as a forum thread for you to debate and discuss with your fellow NWR readers. Great, well-thought out responses will be highlighted in a weekly... Read more...

Developer Milestone seeking to release it in North America on Wii.

Radio Allergy was to be the GameCube's last game, but it kept missing its proposed release dates in February, and later April. Speculation that the game was cancelled is now confirmed. A representative of publisher O~3 Entertainment sent an e-mail to press today notifying them that the game will not... Read more...

To boost sluggish sales of the handheld, Nintendo falls back to the time-honored tradition of releasing new colors.

Nintendo Co. Ltd. has revealed two new shell colors for their ubiquitous DS Lite system. Metallic Rose looks almost identical to the Noble Pink color released a year ago, but Gloss Silver stands out a bit more.

These new colors would no doubt increase demand for the system beyond current levels, if that were even possible within the physical laws of the universe.