Quartet of titles hit Wii's Virtual Console

The wave of old-school games continues to pile onto the Wii's Virtual Console. Nintendo today announced that four more games from the days of yesteryear are now available for purchase. Joining the ranks of Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, and Sonic the Hedgehog are one title from the Nintendo Entertainment System, a pair from the Sega Genesis, and one from the TurboGrafx-16.
Gamers who like their hockey 8-bit can now download Ice Hockey for 500 Wii points ($5). Originally released in 1988 for the NES, Ice Hockey features six national teams and three different weight classes of players, allowing coaches to go with a nimble lineup or a team of crushing bruisers.
Gunstar Heroes, which first appeared on the Sega Genesis in 1993, brings side-scrolling run-and-gun action to the Wii. Playing as one of the famed Gunstar twins, gamers will take on Colonel Red and a host of his minions in an attempt to foil his plans of destruction. Gunstar Heroes will set gamers back 800 Wii points ($8).
The curiously named Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, also originally a Genesis title, is a puzzle game featuring characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. Like the popular puzzle game Puyo Puyo, this game tasks gamers with matching four blocks of the same color and causing mayhem for opponents. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine costs 800 Wii points ($8).
Late last week, Hudson Entertainment dropped a few hints that a TurboGrafx-16 game would be making an appearance on the Virtual Console today. Based on clues, many suspected it would be Alien Crush...and they were right. Alien Crush was originally released in 1989 and sells for 600 Wii points ($6).
All four games can be purchased from the WIi Shop Channel. Nintendo plans to add new Virtual Console games each Monday.

Oblivion nabs Spike TV top honors

LOS ANGELES--Another Spike TV Video Game Awards show, another star-studded event that might not have exactly appealed to hardcore fans of the subject it's supposed to celebrate. However, in its fourth try, the "First Network for Men" did pull off one of its best awards shows, in terms of both production and worthy nominees.
The fourth annual Spike TV Video Game Awards were held at the Galen Center in Los Angeles Friday night, with veteran actor Samuel L. Jackson returning for the second consecutive year as the show's host.
The broadcast of Friday's event will be aired on the self-proclaimed "First Network for Men" next Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT and will feature musical performances from Tenacious D and AFI. But GameSpot was in attendance this eve, with the results of the judges' voting below.
Team Gears of War, including Cliffy B (left), took home four awards.
The big winner of the night was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which scooped up five awards including the coveted Game of the Year prize. It wasn't a runaway victory for the Bethesda Softworks-developed game though. Gears of War was neck-and-neck with Oblivion until the very last award--Game of the Year.
As the announcer listed off the nominees for Game of the Year, the greatest applause was aimed at Gears of War and Guitar Hero 2. But when Oblivion was announced as the winner, many in the crowd sounded stunned.
Oblivion also walked home with Most Addictive Game (voted on by the public), Best Performance by a Human (Male) for Patrick Stewart, Best Role-Playing Game, and Best Original Score. Gears of War took home four awards total, including Best Shooter, Best Graphics, Best Multiplayer Game, and Best Studio for its developers, Epic Games.
Tony Hawk's Project 8 won Best Individual Sports Game.
The Critics' Choice Award, the only category open for games released after November 7 (games scheduled for release before the end of the year were eligible for the Critics' Choice Award), went to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. By its requirements, the category was also the only chance for Wii or PlayStation 3 games to take home an award.
Tenacious D kicked off the ceremonies with the band's usual heavy-metal parody rock stylings, and Jackson continued the action with a few sketches before taking the stage in person. Helping Jackson out was Seth MacFarlane, bantering with the Snakes on a Plane star as the voice of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy. Presumably, Stewie will be animated in for the Wednesday broadcast.
There were some world exclusive premieres, including footage of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, TNA Wrestling, and the opening cinematic from The Burning Crusade expansion of World of Warcraft. WOW got the deluxe treatment, with a congregation of robed, lip-synching figures taking the stage while the trailer showed above them, occasionally accompanied by some light pyrotechnics.
Heroes' Hayden Panettiere charmed the red carpet before presenting Most Addictive Game to Oblivion.
Beyond that, most of the presenters were in good spirits as they delivered their hit-and-miss lines before an oft-indifferent crowd. Former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin let go of a Wii Remote three times on the backswing of a Wii Sports golf game in a staged event, Masi Oka of Heroes dissed the WNBA when presenting the Best Team Sports Game Award, and Tyrese used the opportunity to promote his upcoming CD in the only adlib of the night.
The highlight of the evening came when comedienne Sarah Silverman brought her usual shtick of sarcastic humor to the stage, which was unfortunately lost on most of those in the crowd. She went on a tirade against gamers, saying they "should get an award for their work in AIDS prevention" because they simply stand no chance of getting laid.
Thankfully for those in attendance, Silverman's remarks apparently didn't apply to them. The MTV-generation audience continually filed out of the auditorium throughout the night muttering, "I don't even play video games."
The results of the 2006 Spike TV Video Game Awards are as follows (winners in bold):
GAME OF THE YEAR The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)Okami (Capcom/Clover Studio)Gears of War (Microsoft/Epic Games)Guitar Hero 2 (Red Octane/Harmonix)Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)
CRITIC'S CHOICE(game to be released after 11/15/2006 but before 12/31/2006) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo/Nintendo EAD)Resistance: Fall of Man (Sony Computer Entertainment America/Insomniac Games)Medieval II: Total War (Sega/Creative Assembly)Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft Montreal)Wii Sports (Nintendo)
BEST DRIVING GAME Burnout Revenge, Xbox 360 (Electronic Arts/Criterion Games)Need For Speed Carbon (Electronic Arts/EA Black Box)TOCA Race Driver 3 (Codemasters)GTR 2 (10tacle Studios/SimBin Development Team)
BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAMERockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego)EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 (Electronic Arts/ EA Chicago)Tony Hawk's Project 8 (Activision/Neversoft )Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Electronic Arts/EA Redwood Shores)Top Spin 2 (2K Sports/Power and Magic)
BEST ACTION GAME Dead Rising (Capcom)New Super Mario Bros (Nintendo/Nintendo EAD)Okami (Capcom/Clover Studio)Saints Row (THQ/Volition)Bully (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Vancouver)
BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME NBA2K7 (2K Sports/Visual Concepts)Madden NFL 07 (Electronic Arts/Tiburon)NCAA Football 07 (Electronic Arts/Tiburon)FIFA 07 (Electronic Arts/EA Canada)NHL 07 (Electronic Arts/EA Canada)
CYBER VIXEN OF THE YEARLara Croft - Tomb Raider: Legend (Eidos Interactive/Crystal Dynamics)Alyx Vance - Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (Valve)Princess Peach - New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo/Nintendo EAD)Enrica - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent (Ubisoft Montreal)Jen - Prey (2K Games/ Human Head Studios/3D Realms)
BEST SONG"LocoRoco No Uta" by Nobuyuki Shimizu and Kemmei Adachi, LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment America/SCE Studios Japan)"Heavenly Star" by Genki Rockets, Lumines II (Buena Vista Games/Q Entertainment) "Helicopter" by Bloc Party, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (Atari/The Collective)"Summer Shudder" by AFI in Madden NFL 07 (Electronic Arts/Tiburon)"Lights and Sounds" by YellowCard, Burnout Revenge-XBOX 360 (Electronic Arts/Criterion Games)
BEST SOUNDTRACK Guitar Hero 2 (Red Octane/Harmonix)Madden NFL 07 (Electronic Arts/Tiburon)Scarface: The World is Yours (Vivendi/Radical Entertainment) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Leeds / Rockstar North)
STUDIO OF THE YEAR Clover Studio (Okami) Relic (Company of Heroes) Cliff Bleszinski /Epic Games (Gears of War) Todd Howard / Bethesda Softworks (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion) Harmonix (Guitar Hero 2)
BEST ORIGINAL SCOREThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks)Bully (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Vancouver)Electroplankton (Nintendo)Okami (Capcom/Clover Studio)Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
BEST FIGHTING GAMETekken: Dark Resurrection (Namco Bandai)Dead or Alive 4 (Tecmo/Team Ninja)Mortal Kombat Armageddon (Midway Games)Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (Capcom)God Hand (Capcom/Clover Studio)
BEST SHOOTERBlack (Electronic Arts/Criterion)Prey (2K Games/ Human Head Studios/3D Realms)Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (Valve)Gears of War (Microsoft/Epic Games)Call of Duty 3 (Activision/Treyarch)
BEST MILITARY GAMECompany of Heroes (THQ/Relic)Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)Call of Duty 3 (Activision/Treyarch)The Outfit (THQ/Relic)Battlefield 2142 (Electronic Arts/EA UK/DICE UK)
BEST GRAPHICSGears of War (Microsoft/Epic Games)Okami (Capcom/Clover Studio)Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks)Company of Heroes (THQ/Relic)
BEST HANDHELD GAMENew Super Mario (Nintendo/Nintendo EAD)Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (Nintendo)Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Leeds/Rockstar North)Tetris DS (Nintendo)LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment America/SCE Studios Japan)
BEST WIRELESS GAMEDiner Dash (Glu Mobile)SWAT Force (Vivendi/KAOLink)Tower Bloxx (Digital Chocolate)Super K.O. Boxing (Glu Mobile)
BEST MULTI-PLAYER GAMEGears of War (Microsoft/Epic Games)Company of Heroes (THQ/Relic)Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (Konami/Kojima Productions)Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent (Ubisoft Montreal)
BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY Wii (Nintendo) PS3 (Sony Computer Entertainment America)DS Lite (Nintendo)Electroplankton (Nintendo)
BEST PC GAMECompany of Heroes (THQ/Relic)Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (Valve)Battlefield 2142 (Electronic Arts/Digital Illusions CE)Star Wars: Empire at War (LucasArts/Petroglyph)The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)
BEST RPGThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)Kingdom Hearts II (Square Enix)Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (Square Enix/tri-Ace)
BEST GAME BASED ON A MOVIE OR TV SHOWLego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts/Traveller's Tales)The Godfather (Electronic Arts/EA Redwood Shores)Scarface: The World is Yours (Vivendi/Radical Entertainment)The Sopranos: Road to Respect (THQ/7 Studios)Family Guy (2K Games/High Voltage Software)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN (MALE) Seth MacFarlane in Family Guy (2K Games/High Voltage Software)Gerry Rosenthal in Bully (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Vancouver)Patrick Stewart in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks)Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow (Bethesda Softworks/7 Studios/Buena Vista Games)Kiefer Sutherland in 24: The Game (2K Games/SCEE Studios Cambridge)
BEST SUPPORTING MALE PERFORMANCESeth Green in Family Guy (2K Games/High Voltage Software)James Woods in Scarface: The World is Yours (Vivendi/Radical Entertainment) James Caan in The Godfather (Electronic Arts/EA Redwood Shores)Philip Michael Thomas in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Leeds/Rockstar North)James Gandolfini in The Sopranos: Road to Respect (THQ/7 Studios)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN (FEMALE) Vida Guerra in Scarface: The World is Yours (Vivendi/Radical Entertainment) Tia Carrere in Saints Row (THQ/Volition)Emmanuelle Vaugier in Need For Speed Carbon (Electronic Arts/EA Black Box)Keely Haws in Tomb Raider: Legend (Eidos Interactive/Crystal Dynamics)Rosario Dawson in Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (Atari/The Collective)
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE PERFORMANCERachel Leigh Cook in Kingdom Hearts II (Square Enix)Elisha Cuthbert in 24: The Game (2K Games/SCE Studios Cambridge)Brittany Murphy in Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (Atari/The Collective)Mila Kunis in Family Guy (2K Games/High Voltage Software)Lynda Carter in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)
BEST CAST IN A GAMEThe Godfather (Electronic Arts/EA Redwood Shores)Family Guy (2K Games/High Voltage Software)Scarface: The World is Yours (Vivendi/Radical Entertainment) Saints Row (THQ/Volition)The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)
MOST ADDICTIVE GAME The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (Nintendo)Gears of War (Microsoft/Epic Games)Guitar Hero 2 (Red Octane/Harmonix)Company of Heroes (THQ/Relic)

Two new games invade PS3 store

PlayStation 3 owners doing a little online shopping on the PlayStation Store may have noticed a few new items they could put in their cart. Yesterday, the downloadable games Lemmings and Go! Sudoku were made available for purchase online.
Lemmings is a new version of the classic PC game of the same name that pits gamers in charge of leading mindless critters to safety by assigning certain lemmings specific tasks. The PS3 version has more than 50 levels, is single-player only, and features an online leaderboard. Lemmings costs $2.99.
Go! Sudoku brings the popular number-sorting game to the PS3 with animated backgrounds and dynamic music, both of which respond to players' actions. The initial download of the game is free, with extra puzzle packs (sorted by difficulty level) costing $2.99 apiece. Previously, Sony said that approximately 1,000 puzzles would be available for download.

Firefly licensed for Multiverse MMO game

Sci-fi geeks can attest to the fact that one of the best television shows that wasn't given its proper due was Fox's short-lived Firefly. The show was created by Joss Whedon, who also brought to the small screen cult favorites Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The show ran just 14 episodes but was momentarily resurrected by a big-screen continuation, 2005's Serenity.
Now it appears the television series is getting a third shot at life in another form of media--a massively multiplayer online game.
The Multiverse Network today announced that it has attained the rights to develop an MMO game based on Firefly from 20th Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising. Multiverse has yet to announce the production team that will develop the game, but it hopes to have the product ready sometime in 2008.
"Fox's Firefly series is set in an incredibly rich and exciting universe. It's going to make a very compelling and unique online experience filled with adventure, humor, and mystery," said Multiverse cofounder and executive producer Corey Bridges. "It's our hope that Firefly's passionate and dedicated community of fans will enjoy the chance to become part of the story as they develop and explore the worlds of Firefly."
Eschewing the traditional practices of developing MMO games, Multiverse is creating middleware dedicated to MMO games, which can be licensed to developers who then use the technology to easily create a game. The company's profit is made off of revenue sharing.

XBL trailers: Mass Effect, Lost Planet out now

Following just behind the latest trailer for Halo 3, which was released on Monday, a few new trailers for another pair of highly anticipated games are invading Xbox Live Marketplace.
Now available on Microsoft's online service is the "Theater" trailer for Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, the upcoming sci-fi shooter from Capcom. The 60-second trailer shows the snowy setting of the game and a large battle between opposing forces, and it features the tagline "Blood runs cold."
Mass Effect Trailer
A five-minute tour of BioWare's upcoming Xbox 360 action RPG.Watch Download
Fans of Mass Effect will be happy to know that a new trailer of the supersecret action role-playing game will be released this Friday, according to Chris Priestly, community coordinator at BioWare. In a post on the game's official forums, he says that after a long time coming, the X06 walk-through trailer will appear on both Xbox Live Marketplace and the BioWare Web site.
Priestly goes on to detail some of the trailer's contents in a separate post. "You will be seeing the video that was shown at X06 almost in its entirety, with only a very little filler material removed." He also says the X06 demos, which were given independently to media outlets, ran about 20 minutes long with pauses in action and replaying certain scenes. However, he did not give any indication how long the Xbox Live Marketplace trailer would be.
[UPDATE] The Mass Effect walkthrough trailer is now available to view on GameSpot, and clocks in at almost five-and-a-half minutes long.
Lost Planet is due in stores January 12. Mass Effect will be released sometime in 2007.

Nintendo falling short of US Wii targets?

Source: Straight from the horse's mouth...an official correction in a Nintendo press release.

The official story: Nintendo could not be reached for comment as of press time.
What we heard: When talking about the two recently released gaming consoles, Nintendo's Wii is largely regarded to be plentiful when compared to the scarce PlayStation 3. Even though Nintendo's console has sold out across the United States, gamers have found that getting a Wii has been much easier than purchasing one of Sony's new consoles.
Nintendo reported that 600,000 Wiis were sold in "the Americas" in its first eight days in retail, with almost half a million being sold in the United States. Shortly after the Wii's launch, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said Nintendo was on target to ship 4 million Wiis worldwide by the end of the year.
Yesterday, Nintendo sent out a press release touting the sales success of Nintendo hardware in November, saying that of the 3.9 million systems sold in the US in the month, 2.1 million (55 percent) carried the Nintendo brand.
The press release also carried the statement, "Despite spot shortages in some locations, well more than a million Wii systems will be available in the United States by the end of the year."
For those gamers still waiting to get a Wii for the holidays, well over a million Wiis is indeed good tidings. Unfortunately, Nintendo may accidentally be playing the role of Grinch.
About four hours after the initial press release hit the wires, Nintendo sent out an updated version with one major correction. In the head of the updated release from Nintendo's PR agency, a correction reads, "...we are advised [by Nintendo] that the fourth paragraph, last sentence which reads, 'Despite spot shortages in some locations, well more than a million Wii systems will be available in the United States by the end of the year,' should be disregarded. (Emphasis added.)
Two days after launch, Fils-Aime told Reuters that approximately 2 million Wiis would be available in the US by early January, with 1 million available in early December. But with yesterday's updated release, Nintendo doesn't seem too sure about that number.
Yesterday's European launch (remember--they don't get the PS3 until spring 2007) and last week's Japanese launch may be bad for American gamers. Nintendo could be feeling a pinch on supply and may be moving some units destined for the US over to those regions.
On the other hand, Nintendo could simply be covering its bases, not wanting to promise something it can't deliver in light of the incredibly high demand for the console.
Bogus or not bogus?: It's still speculative, but also very fishy. Rumor Control will abstain until we hear back from Nintendo.

GRAW 2 debriefed

One of the first next-generation games to show off the power of the Xbox 360 was Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. The game was a success in retail and with critics, with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awarding the title Best Game of the Year at its annual awards in October.
During a recent earnings call, Ubisoft unsurprisingly revealed that a sequel was in the works. But what was surprising was the game's timetable--the company was aiming for a first-quarter 2007 release, just about one year after its predecessor.
GRAW 2
The first trailer of the latest French game about US Special Forces!Watch Download
Today, Ubisoft narrowed down Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2's worldwide release date to spring 2007 and revealed which platforms it is in development for. The Advanced Warfighter era of Ghost Recon will go for a second tour of duty on the Xbox 360 and PC and will make its debut on both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable.
GRAW 2 takes place in 2014 and follows the events of the original GRAW. Insurgent rebel forces have sent Mexico into a nationwide civil war, which poses a threat to the United States. Scott Mitchell and his fellow Ghosts are called on to neutralize the potential risk to the US and will have to fight on both sides of the border, including in El Paso, Texas, to be successful.
Ubisoft promises that GRAW 2 will include changing weather systems, improved artificial intelligence, an advanced Cross-Com system, and more types of military support, including air strikes from jet fighters. There will also be new weapons and a new soldier class, the medic.
No details of the multiplayer portion of the game were given.
GRAW 2 is being developed by Ubisoft Paris and Red Storm Studios. No rating or pricing information has yet been announced.