Topic: Nintendo Announces Holdiay 2008, Q1 2009 Lineup

[Chessa]

Releases in North America include a variety of title for Wii, WiiWare and DS appealing to all crowds.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=16880

 The upcoming holiday season will bring many new games and peripherals from Nintendo. In a recent press release, Nintendo discusses their upcoming releases, hardware, and games due out in 2009.    

Two new Nintendo DS releases will be available this fall. Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, releasing November 10, allows players to catch Pokemon with the stylus. Protect people and nature with the power of Pokemon to become a top-ranked ranger.    

Also due out this fall for the DS is the next addition to the Personal Training series, Personal Trainer: Cooking, releasing November 24. It will include over two hundred recipes, transforming the DS into a personalized cookbook complete with dictionary and glossary. New Personal Training editions such as walking, which will feature a pedometer, and math are due out sometime next year.    

The Wii brings a combination of two highly anticipated games and a new set of original WiiWare games. Arriving just in time for the holiday season are Animal Crossing: City Folk and Wii Music. Animal Crossing: City Folk once again gives you an expanded opportunity to live in your own customized city. Nintendo's newest peripheral, WiiSpeak, adds an entirely new function to Animal Crossing, letting players talk with up to three other friends. City Folk will release on November 16 alongside WiiSpeak which can be purchased separately for $29.99, or in a bundle with City Folk for $59.99.    

Wii Music is the second big Wii holiday title. In production since the Wii's launch, Wii Music lets the player create music by mimicking the controls of a real instrument. This is a game for the whole family, as up to four people can cooperatively play together. Some song titles include, "Material Girl", "Ode to Joy" and even the original "Super Mario Brothers Theme". Wii Music will launch on October 20.    

WiiWare games have not been forgotten this season, with at least five new titles including Tetris Party, Strong Bad Episode 3, World of Goo, Cave Story, and Boingz. All expected additions due out sometime before the end of this year, with the exception of Cave Story which is due early next year.    

Additionally, Nintendo has addressed the common issue of a holiday season Wii shortage, assuring consumers that the number of Wii consoles shipped during October and November will be significantly higher than those during 2007. They will also be shipping out extra DS units to stave off any spike in demand    

As we reported from the Nintendo Media Summit, Nintendo has also officially revealed that Club Nintendo will finally be making its way to North America. Players who register Nintendo games and complete surveys will be issued loyalty coins which they can use to redeem special items through Club Nintendo.    

Finally, Nintendo discussed their plans for the upcoming year. For the DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Mario & Luigi RPG 3, and Rhythm Heaven have all been announced for 2009. Likewise a new Punch-Out!! and Sin and Punishment 2 will be releasing for the Wii.    

  NINTENDO'S HOLIDAY 2008: WII SPEAK CHANNEL, CLUB NINTENDO, MORE SURPRISES    

Nintendo Announces 'Significant Increase' in Q4 Wii Supplies over 2007    

REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 2, 2008 – Nintendo today disclosed a number of surprises, including new games, the ability to use the Wii™ console to chat with friends near and far, and the expansion of the popular Club Nintendo rewards program to North America.    

Continuing its commitment to supply new game experiences for every level of player, Nintendo revealed a wide range of games for the 2008 holiday season and beyond. A number of games are slated for 2009, including a new Punch-Out!! ™ and Sin & Punishment 2 for Wii, and Fire Emblem™: Shadow Dragon and Mario & Luigi™ RPG 3 for Nintendo DS™. Consumers also can expect a new "Personal Trainer" series of titles designed to help users enrich their lives and learn new skills in fun and interesting ways.    

Nintendo also announced that North American supplies of the Wii video game console between October and December will see a significant increase from 2007's levels, and that Nintendo DS will also be available in greater abundance than ever before.    

"We have new games and new experiences for every kind of player this holiday season, and that will certainly fuel increased interest in Wii and Nintendo DS," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "While there's no way to gauge total demand for our hardware systems, we're trying to satisfy as many of those players as possible."    

The new Wii Speak™ Channel arrives on Nov. 16 and uses the Wii Speak™, a microphone that sits on top of your television. This accessory is sold separately at an MSRP of $29.99. People who buy the microphone are given a code that allows them to download the Wii Speak Channel from the Wii Shop Channel at no charge. The Wii Speak lets people in up to four locations who have traded Friend Codes chat with one another at no extra cost. When you use Wii Speak in real time, your Mii™ appears on your TV screen and mimics your chat. You also can leave audio messages for your friends and family members or use Wii Speak to narrate captions for your photos.    

Gamers have longed for the expansion of Club Nintendo to North America for years, and now Nintendo is making it a reality for everyone. Club Nintendo rewards Nintendo loyalists who complete surveys and register Nintendo products with loyalty coins that can be redeemed for exclusive items available only to Club Nintendo members. Club Nintendo is set to debut in North America this holiday season.    

Key software available for Wii this holiday season includes:    

 
• Wii Music™: It's a new Wii experience that launches on Oct. 20 and gives you the ability to play a wide variety of musical instruments by using the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ controllers to mimic the motions used to play real instruments. Everyone in the family will enjoy jamming together, while music fans will enjoy creating their own fresh, stylized takes on a variety of songs. Songs range from classical favorites like Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," to pop hits like "Material Girl" or "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" to Nintendo standards like the Super Mario Bros.® theme.
   




• Animal Crossing™: City Folk: This game lets you live your life in a virtual community that's all your own. You can interact with the fun characters in your town, customize everything from your house to your clothing and even chat with other friends in the game using the Wii Speak. Animal Crossing: City Folk launches on Nov. 16.
 

   

WiiWare delivers great new games directly to Wii consoles that are connected to the Internet. Nintendo's downloadable game service will see games like:    

 
• Tetris Party: This game will feature 18 game modes, including 10 never-before-seen single-player and multiplayer variations of Tetris. Some modes will use the unique capabilities of the Wii Remote and the Wii Balance Board™.
   




• Strong Bad Episode 3: This third episode in the series features humorous story-driven game play, music-themed collectibles and achievements and an old-school side scrolling shoot 'em up mini-game, as well as a special celebrity guest appearance by rock gods Limozeen!
   




• World of Goo: This title is an award-winning, physics-based puzzle/construction game. Grab living, squirming, talking globs of goo to build structures, bridges, cannonballs, zeppelins and giant tongues.
   




• Cave Story: This title is an action-adventure game with new, exclusive content and features created only for the WiiWare version.
   




• Boingz: Developed by the award-winning studio NinjaBee and published by RealNetworks®, Inc., Boingz introduces players to bendy, stretchy little critters who've found themselves scattered about an alien world. Using the Wii Remote, players can grab, stretch and fling the rubber-band bodies of the Boingz to bounce them around the environments and help them find their way home.
 

   

Key games planned for Wii in 2009 include:    

 
• Punch-Out!!: Nintendo is reviving one of its most storied and popular franchises with the first new Punch-Out!! boxing game in 15 years. Players will once again follow the exploits of the up-and-coming challenger, Little Mac, and take on a series of opponents, including favorites from the past like Glass Joe and King Hippo.
   




• Sin & Punishment 2: The announcement of a sequel to one of the most popular Japanese import titles ever is a dream come true for avid Nintendo fans. This new sequel blends intuitive Wii Remote pointing controls with the shooting and sword-swinging game play that made the original an instant classic and fan favorite.
 

   

Some Nintendo products available this fall for Nintendo DS include:    

 
• Personal Trainer™: Cooking: This title launches on Nov. 24 as the first in Nintendo's new Personal Trainer series. Personal Trainer: Cooking includes more than 200 recipes from around the world and transforms the Nintendo DS into an electronic, interactive cookbook, complete with a glossary of terms and even instructional videos. In 2009, the Personal Trainer series will expand with Personal Trainer™: Math, a collection of basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division drills based on the Kageyama method. Meanwhile, Personal Trainer™: Walking will introduce a wireless pedometer, letting consumers not only track every step they take, but also turn walking into interactive entertainment.
   




• PokĂ©mon™ Ranger: Shadows of Almia: On Nov. 10, this new installment in the PokĂ©mon Ranger series allows you to use the power of PokĂ©mon to protect nature and help people in need as you strive to become a Top Ranger. Use the DS stylus to encircle and capture PokĂ©mon with the "Capture Styler" as you explore the vast new Almia region.
 

   

Key games planned for Nintendo DS in 2009 include:    

 
• Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon: A reinvention of the original NES™ titles with revamped graphics and intuitive touch control, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon will finally introduce longtime fans to the stories that gave birth to the series nearly 20 years ago in Japan, while introducing the Fire Emblem franchise to a broader audience of strategy and chess fans. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon also reveals the back story of Marth, the original lead character in the Fire Emblem series introduced and made popular in North America by the Super Smash Bros.® series of fighting games.
   




• Mario & Luigi RPG 3: The acclaimed Mario & Luigi series returns with another hilarious action role-playing game. Join the Mario Bros. as their travels take them far and wide.
   




• Rhythm Heaven™: If you can snap your fingers in time to music, you're ready to play this simple but infectious rhythm game. Just tap your stylus on the touch screen to the beat of the music.
 

   

Nintendo has a strong lineup of legacy games and accessories that have continued selling well, even a year after they launched. These include Super Mario Galaxy™, the Wii Zapper™ accessory, Wii Fit™, Super Smash Bros.™ Brawl and Mario Kart™Wii. These five products are expected to remain in high demand as shoppers look for ways to make their holiday dollars go further.    

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about these and other Nintendo products, visit www.Nintendo.com.

[AV]

i'm sad Nintendo didn't squeeze out a Release date of Disaster day of crisis this year.

I really don't see why its NOT EVEN a 2009 title yet. As far as NOA is concerned the game doesn't exist. 

I've done my research on Tetris Party and I do think its worthy of purhcase even at the high price of 1200 Wiipoints. It has 8 player online, 4 player split screen, and tons of NEW AND ORIGINAL modes that are well thought up remixes to the classic formula and clean graphics.

So I will buy that.

I might ask for Personal Trainer™: Cooking for Christmas as cafeteria food is sort of getting old in the dorms and I don't have a clue how to cook outside the basics of sandwiches and noodles. Seems like an investment.

So for me it looks like WiiWare and Virtual Console will sustain me until 09. I might eventually pick up Okami or Star Wars Force Unleashed I don't know.

[Ian Sane]

So Nintendo's two hoiliday DS titles are a sh!tty Pokemon spin-off and a non-game?  That's as bad as the Wii!  F*ck, no wonder their E3 lineup was so weak.  Their holiday lineup just outright SUCKS.  They were screwed no matter what.

I'm suspecting NCL for this.  From what I've heard in Japan Christmas isn't as big of a deal for shopping as it is in North America.  But here you release a big awesome game each Christmas.  That's how it's done and NCL obviously doesn't understand that.  They can talk about appealing to everyone and not forsaking the core or whatever but Christmas this year only comes for non-gamers and kids.

This is easily the worst Nintendo Christmas lineup I've ever seen since I've paid attention to gaming.

[nickmitch]

Wow, I can't believe that out of this whole Q4, I'm only getting GH:WT and Tetris Party for sure.  That's TWO games. Two.

Well, this could be a good thing since there I should be budgeting myself more and am a little back logged, but still.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Nintendo blew its load earlier this year, but it doesn't mean I'm not picking up Tales and Wii Music.

[ShyGuy]

It's beginning to look a lot like 3rd party Christmas...

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

It's what 3rd parties want, RIGHT?

Oh wait, 3rd parties don't want to make games for Nintendo systems.

NOBODY WANTS TO BE ON NINTENDO FOR THE HOLIDAYS

[NWR_Lindy]

Bring on 2009!

[Djunknown]

Nintendo's newest peripheral, WiiSpeak, adds an entirely new function to Animal Crossing, letting players talk with up to three other friends. City Folk will release on November 16 alongside WiiSpeak which can be purchased separately for $29.99, or in a bundle with City Folk for $59.99.

Now that's more like it. For the price of a PS360 title, I get a game I'll be playing day in and day out for 9 months straight, along with a useful peripheral.

Their holiday lineup just outright SUCKS.

At least they mentioned upcoming WiiWare titles. They didn't even do that at e3...

Oh wait, 3rd parties don't want to make games for Nintendo systems.

This holiday season is shaping up to be another sell-out period of Wii and DS alike for the 3rd consecutive time.The analysts, devs, and publishers can't cry foul, or cry fad anymore. That's money they're not making...such a shame...

[NWR_insanolord]

The lack of Disaster is odd and disappointing but I can put up with it as long as Nintendo keeps up this rate of quality VC releases. I still have at least a dozen third-party games that I'm interested in for the rest of the year and at least twice as many titles in my backlog as well, so the lack of Nintendo titles doesn't affect me much.

[NWR_Lindy]

Maybe the scorching-hot WiiWare lineups of late are the result of Nintendo's paltry lineup.  Using the VC to keep people interested, if you will.

[Ian Sane]

This holiday season is shaping up to be another sell-out period of Wii and DS alike for the 3rd consecutive time.

Maybe this is part of the "problem".  There are people that have been waiting for one of these systems for a while now and for them everything on the system is new.  Nintendo might be thinking a little too much about these people and assume that no big Christmas title is needed.  Hell Mario Kart Wii came out this year.  It's practically brand new, right?  Only geeks and otaku would have bought it already.  Or it's just "we'll sell out anyway so who cares if our lineup sucks."