Take a peek at what's in the VC pipes for July worldwide.

Today, Nintendo updated their Japanese Virtual Console release list with the upcoming games for July. Star Soldier, Flappy, The Super Shinobi II, and Splatterhouse arrive on July 3rd. The full list of nineteen games are listed below. In addition, the two announced MSX games have been given a price, but have also been delayed to an ambiguous summer release date. Eggy will cost 700 points and Aleste will cost 800 points.

Famicom (NES)

Star Soldier [Hudson]

Some more info trickled out of the blog this week.

While there were no huge announcements this week, a couple assumptions were confirmed regarding a new character and player profiles.

New Character: ZeldaZelda was officially announced as playable, making her the first character that wasn't previously revealed in a trailer to be announced on the blog. She isn't exactly surprising though, as the Sheik/Zelda combination was one of the most popular characters in Melee. It's important to note that nothing has been mentioned about Sheik yet on the blog. Did the transformation get pulled? Are they just holding back the announcement until they talk about Zelda's special moves? Only time will tell.

Cruis'n sequel for Wii, Ultimate Mortal Kombat for DS on their way.

Midway Announces Five Exclusive Titles for

Nintendo Systems

Custom Designed Games Include Cruis’n™ and Game Party for Wii™ and Ultimate Mortal Kombat® and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends for Nintendo DS™

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Midway Games Inc. (NYSE: MWY), a leading interactive entertainment publisher and developer, today announced that five new titles are in development exclusively for Nintendo systems. Only for Wii, experience the rebirth of action racing with Cruis’n and a collection of classic skill games with Game Party. Ultimate Mortal Kombat, The Bee Game™ and a title based on Cartoon Network’s top-rated, kids animated series Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends are all in development exclusively for Nintendo DS. All of the titles are custom designed to take full advantage of the unique controls and interface of the Wii and Nintendo DS and are scheduled to be available in 2007. In addition to these newly announced products, Midway has recently released Mortal Kombat®: Armageddon™ for Wii and Touchmaster™ for Nintendo DS.

Play as weirdly named creatures such as Gumpers, Dinko, and Swanky on 14th September.

RESCUE TOMMY IN THE CRAZIEST ALIEN ADVENTURE THIS YEAR

Pet Alien - Nick Toons' sensational CGI animated comedy lands on Nintendo DS from 14th September

Chertsey, United Kingdom – June 28 2007: Prepare yourselves for an alien invasion! The Game Factory today announce that Pet Alien - exclusive to Nintendo DS - will be taking over shelves across the UK from 14th September 2007.

Featuring both a humorous storyline and addictive puzzle gameplay, Pet Alien is based on the hit CGI-animated children’s comedy series currently airing weekdays at 4pm on NickToons. Fans already tuning in and chuckling out will be pleased to hear they can now take part in their favourite inter-galactic gang’s latest adventures on the Nintendo DS.

Tomorrow, Nintendo will reveal its plans for original downloadable games ... that won't be available until next year.

N'Gai Croal and his Level Up news blog has got the scoop on Nintendo's new downloadable gaming service. As of right now, WiiWare only has non-game software available, but soon it will be the launchpad for the original games Nintendo has promised are coming. Nintendo will announce its future WiiWare gaming plans to the general public tomorrow (or today, if you're reading this on Wednesday).

Allow yourself to be whisked off to the magical world of England by a teenage boy with a heart of gold.

EA and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Videogame Ships Today!

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced that the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix™ videogame ships across North America and will be in-store in Europe from June 28th. Available on multiple platforms, the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix videogame allows players to explore the many key locations within Hogwarts, each one a visual match to its film equivalent, while being engrossed in the thrilling adventures described in the rich narrative of the books and films.

King of the forum, king of the forum!

Last week, the Hot Topic was about Wii's 3rd party support. The poll results were split evenly between it being good and bad, but really, it's a lot more complicated than that. Our forum users lay it out; head on down the page to check out what they have to say, and maybe you'll want to throw in your two cents in the forum, too. Or maybe you'd rather hear about this week's hot topic!

This week: Is the ESRB effective? In your experience, are the content ratings on games an accurate, useful guide? Or are they wrong sometimes? Do you think people even look at them? Vote in the poll and post some words words words about it, and you can win a prize!

Thanks to the Wii and DS, the total value of Nintendo stock is now higher than that of its Japanese rival.

Word from Japan is that Nintendo's total market value has surpassed that of Sony. (Market value refers to the number of total company shares held by all investors times the value of each share, or simply, the sum of all the money invested in a company.) According to a Bloomberg report, Nintendo's value is 6.57 trillion yen ($53.2 billion), while Sony has a value of 6.48 trillion yen ($52.5 billion).

Realize that we're talking the companies as a whole, here. Sony is a company that does business in arenas outside of the game industry, and because of its involvement in consumer electronics it takes in eight times the revenue as Nintendo. Yet, Nintendo, with its mighty Wii and DS, is now a more valuable company to invest in.

Collection of touch screen games, or sequel to The Beastmaster? You be the judge.

Midway Masters Nintendo DS with the Release of Touchmaster™

Collection of Classic Touchscreen Games Touches Down in Retail Stores Nationwide

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Midway Games Inc. (NYSE:MWY), a leading interactive entertainment industry publisher and developer, today announced that Touchmaster™, the collection of classic tabletop touch screen games, has shipped to retailers nationwide. Touchmaster consists of 23 addicting games that utilize the unique touch screen format of the Nintendo DS and is now available for a U.S. MSRP of $29.99, exclusively for Nintendo’s wildly popular handheld game system.

This Wii games marks a lot of firsts for North America, as pointed out in this press release.

ONLINE GAMING STORMS ONTO WII WITH POKÉMON BATTLE REVOLUTION

Epic Franchise Reaches Several Firsts

REDMOND, Wash., June 25, 2007 - Today's launch of Pokémon® Battle Revolution heralds a number of firsts for Nintendo's hot-selling Wii™ video game system. Pokémon Battle Revolution is:

The first online Wii game in the Americas.

The first Pokémon game for Wii.

The first Wii game to wirelessly link to Nintendo DS™.