But despite being far ahead of the competition, there's reason to agree with Nintendo's president that the Wii is in an "unhealthy condition" in its home market.

Two years and four months after its launch in the Japanese market, Nintendo's Wii system has crested eight million units sold in its home market. This places it millions of units ahead of its competitors, a triumph given the fact that Nintendo was a distant second in the last era of gaming consoles.

For the first time ever, two players will be on the cover of Madden. It’s twice the curse for your Madden Curse dollar.

EA has announced that the Arizona Cardinals' Larry Fitzgerald and the Pittsburgh Steelers' Troy Polamalu will be the cover athletes for this year's Madden NFL 10. Fitzgerald, a wide receiver, matched up against Polamalu, a defensive back, in last year's Super Bowl, with Polamalu's Steelers emerging victorious.

Cooking highlights a motherly package.

As an apparent push towards capturing the adult female market, Nintendo will release a special Mother’s Day-themed DS Lite bundle featuring a Lime Green DS Lite, a green carrying case, and a copy of Personal Trainer: Cooking.

The bundle will be available at retail on May 3 and priced at 149.99 MSRP.

Details on the WiiWare title emerge, along with a Japanese release date.

Square Enix’s My Life as a Dark Lord, a sequel to last year’s My Life as a King, was first announced at this year’s Game Developers Conference. The title stars a demon named Mira (Miss as she is currently known in the American version) whose mission is to defend her dark tower from adventurers seeking to take her dark crystal.

Ada Wong will be appearing in brand new scenarios based on the Resident Evil 2 storyline.

This week’s Famitsu offers some new details on the sequel to 2007’s Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles. Ada Wong is confirmed to appear as part of the game’s Resident Evil 2-based scenarios. In the original title Ada worked alongside Leon Kennedy; in Darkside... Read more...

We're looking for some new San Francisco and Los Angeles correspondents to help us post news, write reviews, and cover press events in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Nintendo World Report is looking for volunteer (i.e. non-paid) Staff Writers based in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas.

Duties

Write/Edit news reports as stories come over the wire

Write/Edit game reviews

Write/Edit game previews

Write/Edit game impressions

Attend media events in the San Francisco/Los Angeles areas, and write accompanying news copy and impressions

This light but exciting week is led by Excitebots: Trick Racing. Also, Motörhead hits Guitar Hero and Toby Keith, Yngwie Malmsteen, and more hit Rock Band 2.

This week is a light one with only three releases, with Nintendo's exciting sequel Excitebots: Trick Racing being the only big name among them.

For downloadable content, Guitar Hero: World Tour has three re-recorded songs by Motörhead and Rock Band 2 has a little bit of country (Toby Keith), a little bit from a guitar god (Yngwie Malmsteen), and three other bands (Black Tide, Bullet for My Valentine, and The Shins).

New service to feature celebrity Miis, DSi connectivity, and both free and paid programming.

In December of 2008, Nintendo announced that it would be partnering with Japanese Media Giant Dentsu to bring a new video-on-demand service to the Wii. Today the channel was unveiled as “Wii no Ma”. The channel will offer a main menu that resembles a living room, and up to eight registered Miis can exist in the virtual room and interact with each other.

WiiWare title gets rating, and a new site and video footage are on the way.

Gravitronix was announced as a WiiWare exclusive in October 2007. Medaverse Studios, the development house located in Dover, New Hampshire, has kept quiet on the game’s progress since then. Small tidbits of info have been available through their developer’s blog, but not much has been revealed so far.

In June, Ashley returns to uncover more mysteries, this time on the Wii.

Another Code R: A Journey of Lost Memories is the Wii sequel to the 2006 DS title Another Code: Two Memories (known as Trace Memory in North America). It takes place 2 years after the end of the first game, and will once again star Ashley Robins in an adventure involving her past. At the end of her... Read more...

With everyday life, parties, and racing under their belts, the cute Sims return to Nintendo’s systems as secret agents.

The MySims franchise has been a successful one for EA. With My Sims Party released for the Wii and DS in March and MySims Racing hitting the tracks in June, EA has announced a brand new entry to the MySims franchise: MySims Agents.

Releasing under the EA Play banner, MySims Agents promises to... Read more...

Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger teases announcements from High Voltage Software at E3 in June and talks about The Conduit's multiplayer.

Despite the technical difficulties that happened during Sega's Conduit Multiplayer Event, Destructoid sat down with Eric Nofsinger, High Voltage Software's Chief Creative Officer, and discussed the importance of the game as a Wii third party release and detailed the multiplayer.

Among many topics,... Read more...

Details on Hudson's upcoming WiiWare release are unveiled, but no official date has been announced.

Adventure Island: The Beginning is the newest game in Hudson's long-running franchise that hasn't seen a release since 1995. As series star Master Higgins, players traverse through many stages across the island. The Adventure Island series is known for its challenging difficulty due to a constantly depleting hunger meter and the quick reflexes needed to avoid enemies and obstacles.

Ignition Entertainment steps in.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade was set to debut in the United States thanks to XSEED Games and Marvelous Entertainment. But recently, an official statement by XSEED confirmed that they are no longer working with Marvelous Entertainment in bringing the title to America:

"XSEED Games confirms that it... Read more...

The big online retailer starts selling WiiWare game download ticket codes.

Today, Amazon.com made a listing for recent WiiWare success World of Goo. The listing marks the first time a downloadable WiiWare title has been available for purchase outside of the Wii Shop Channel. The game has a price of $14.99 on Amazon, which matches the price of the game if purchased on WiiWare.... Read more...

EA will bundle Nintendo's new peripheral with Tiger Woods in America, and Tiger Woods and Grand Slam Tennis in Europe.

Today, EA announced that they will bundle the Wii MotionPlus with their two upcoming games that feature the new peripheral. In America, it will be bundled with Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10, and in Europe it will be bundled with Tiger Woods and EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis.

Tiger Woods 10 will be available... Read more...

Literally build your band and rock your blocks off.

Harmonix, Traveler's Tales, Warner Bros., and MTV Games announced today that LEGO Rock Band is coming to Wii and DS this holiday season. This edition of Rock Band is aiming to be a more family-friendly music experience that leverages the strengths of both the Rock Band franchise, and the humor and customization that exists in LEGO video games.

Belief in Naruto soars thanks to first gameplay footage of the next game in the Shippuden series

The fourth game in the Ninja Council series and the first on DS, Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Council 4 takes place two years after the original series and offers three=man squad gameplay, 17 playable characters, and powerful touch screen based jutsu attacks.

With Metroid Prime 2 and Chibi Robo set for a Japanese release in June, the first New Play Control lineup is complete

At last year's Fall Conference, Nintendo announced that they would be releasing GameCube games with Wii controls at a budget price. The games were placed under the New Play Control banner. The first games in the series were released in Japan in late 2008 and will be completed on June 11 when Metroid Prime 2 and Chibi Robo hit stores.

In addition to micro games, WarioWare: Made in Me offers players the chance to create their own comics and more

The WarioWare series has been built upon the idea of players beating a series of microgames in less than five seconds. With Made in Me, the latest game in the series, a new idea has surfaced: user-generated content. Players will now be able to create their own set of microgames. From the graphics... Read more...