Greenpeace dissected the current generation of home video game consoles in search of toxic chemicals, Nintendo was unimpressed.

Greenpeace recently announced a new study showing toxic chemicals inside each of this generation's home consoles. Techradar called it a "Playing Dirty" report and was first to provide Nintendo's response which outlined their position on Greenpeace as a whole.

The Greenpeace "Guide to Greener... Read more...

Gameinvest develops family adventure title to encourage ocean conservation awareness.

Little is known about this music puzzle game from Portugal based developer Gameinvest. Gameplay will consist of safely guiding your fish friends through the Amazon River; solving puzzles, joining in sing-a-longs, and learning about ocean conservation. Aquatic Tales touts an original soundtrack, intuitive controls and cooperative gameplay perfect for family participation.

Scheduled for a Holiday 2008 release, Shaun White Snowboarding will take full advantage of the Wii Balance Board.

Ubisoft appears to be embracing the Wii Balance Board as they announced Shaun White Snowboarding today and also revealed that the game will make heavy use of the aforementioned peripheral. While it is unclear just exactly how the Balance Board will be used in the game, Game|Life's Chris Kohler did say that "you'll actually do little jumps on the board to make your character jump."

Formerly known as Guitar Hero IV, it will contain two new instruments (drums and vocals) and allow players to create their own songs.

After a previous reveal by their CEO, Activision finally divulged official information about the newest game in the Guitar Hero series, Guitar Hero World Tour. This game includes a variety of new features that all circle around the addition of vocals and drums. Another big addition is the music studio that allows players to create their own songs and share them. However, 1up adds the addendum that the studio will be "sans vocals".

Nintendo sold 714k Wiis in the month that GTA IV launched and Mario Kart Wii sold 1.12 million units for second place. Nintendo claimed six of the top ten software titles, eleven of the top twenty.

The greatest challenge about reporting NPD numbers is the need to repeat the same question: "Will Nintendo slow down?" For the past couple years, the answer has been "no." April, 2008 is no different.

April 2008 U.S. Hardware Sales

Wii – 714.2k

Nintendo DS – 414.8k

PlayStation Portable – 192.7k

Dr. Mario Online Rx and Metal Slug mark a resurgence: four downloadable title releases this week.

The last time that four games were simultaneously released to Nintendo's Virtual Console download service was September 3, 2007. Now that WiiWare has joined the Virtual Console in providing downloadable offerings, Mondays may be marked by a return to a wider variety of downloadable gaming.

Probably... Read more...

Mario Kart Wii joins the Nintendo million-sellers club.

Famicom Wars 2 (Battalion Wars 2 to you and me) finally gets released in Japan, making a decent, but not outrageous, entry at No.6. Link’s Bowgun (Crossbow) Training is also still in the top 10, despite it being a spin off from Twilight Princess which didn’t sell that well over here in the East.

Cooking Guide with international dishes and three new DS Lite colours are coming to Europe next month.

Nintendo’s Cooking Navi interactive talking cookbook series has been very successful in Japan where three different versions have been released. The game series features synthesized voices for instruction, voice control, terminology and utensil guides, tutorials, and everything you would need to... Read more...

The Japanese remake of Dragon Quest IV will see an American localization. Its two sequels will also be remade for the DS and released in both Japan and America.

Today, Square-Enix published a North American Dragon Quest IV website announcing the pending release of the DS remake of the fourth game from the storied RPG series. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen will see release on September 16, 2008.

In addition to the launch of the Dragon Quest... Read more...

Nintendo looks to bring Hironobu Sakaguchi's DS strategy RPG to America.

Nintendo's ASH was rated E 10+ today by the ESRB. Since acquiring an ESRB rating is a typical step in gaining release for the American market, ASH is probably being localized into the English language.

Listing from the ESRB Website

Released in Japan last October, ASH is a strategy RPG... Read more...

Sheer number of titles to be localized is to blame.

In an interview with Official Nintendo Magazine (UK), Nintendo of Europe representative Laurent Fischer has accounted for the late arrival of Super Smash Bros. Brawl to the European market by stressing the size of the overall localization workload in the region.

According to Fischer, the European... Read more...

Digitally distributed Wii games arrive in PAL territories, with six (of a possible eight) titles making up the first batch.

WiiWare, a line of original games available to download from the Wii Shop Channel, has gone live across Europe today with six games on offer initially:

Dr. Mario & Germ Buster™ from Nintendo

FINAL FANTASY® CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King™ from Japanese developer SQUARE ENIX

Launching with six games, Australia's WiiWare service brings a broad genre selection.

Nintendo has announced the launch of the WiiWare service today in Australia. The launch of the service brings six titles including some that have already seen release in America over the past two weeks and others that are still yet to be released.

As of today Lost Winds, Star Soldier R, Dr. Mario... Read more...

This week brings two WiiWare titles and one NES title for the Virtual Console.

Week two of WiiWare has arrived, and with it comes two new titles: Critter Round-Up and the shooter Star Soldier R. Coming along with these two titles is the NES release, SKYKID.

Critter Round-Up is a puzzle-action game that tasks the player with quickly corralling the animals in the barnyard.... Read more...

New development partnership announces MADWORLD and Infinite Line as Nintendo exclusives.

The creepy-looking MADWORLD for Wii and sci-fi RPG Infinite Line for the Nintendo DS will be the first Nintendo console releases from the new worldwide partnership between Sega and Platinum Games, the development team made up of key members from the disbanded Clover Studio. They are also developing... Read more...

Agetec will publish this "hardcore" dart game for a June release in the U.S.

With a year between the British and U.S. release of Full Fat's fast-paced dart game, Agetec's Mark Johnson says Touch Darts is the still the most realistic dart game out there. "This is not just your ordinary dart video game; Touch Darts really takes advantage of Nintendo DS’s unique touch screen and allows players to accurately simulate throwing darts with a simple flick of the stylus."

Cabela's Legendary Adventures serves up more Wii Remote big game hunting.

The Cabela hunting franchise will headline a second title for Wii this fall. "The missions are based on encounters with some of the most famous animals ever hunted in the wild," said Activision's Dave Oxford. Like all Cabela hunting titles, the gameplay and gun schematics will aim to match those of real life.

MySims Kingdom gives the MySims formula more focus and more building options

Electronic Arts announced today that MySims Kingdom is set to release on Wii and DS this fall. MySims Kingdom is a sequel to the previously released Wii and DS title, MySims.

In this iteration, the game will have more of a storyline focus where players are set on an adventure of discovery and... Read more...

Includes a special "mat controller" for total body gameplay that the whole family can enjoy.

Atari announced yesterday that they planned to bring a continuation of Namco-Bandai's Family Trainer series to the Wii. Similar to the old NES series, Family Trainer will include a mat controller peripheral used to play the game. The Power Pad used on the NES is sure to be an inspiration for the new mat, as Bandai was the developer of the original.

Corner Shop 3 will bring new shops and WiFi compatibility.

Namco-Bandai announced yesterday that they are releasing another entry into the Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop series with Corner Shop 3.

Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop 3 will feature connectivity to WiFi allowing players to exchange journals with friends. More characters and thirteen new shops will be featured as well as a Create Your Own Park mode.