Alright. Since we haven’t gotten around to officially adding someone to our team here at The Tanooki to take care of the bulk news while I’m gone, I’ll be around during certain hours of the day through Thursday. Matt and I have begun to read through your applications, and will likely make announcements by the end of Thursday (I will be completely computer-less from Friday until next Wednesday) as to who will be joining the team immediately, as well as contact those who we want to keep trying to improve because we see potential in you. You can still apply to write for The Tanooki here.

In other news, it started out an exciting night in baseball for at least two of us here at The Tanooki. I watched the Cubs win yet again while Matt was eagerly awaiting for Hark Aaron’s home run record to be tied. Unfortunately, the Brewers also won to hold the Cubs at a game back for one more day, and Bonds left the game before he could fulfill Matt’s hopes and dreams. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

News & Information
Smash Bros. site updates with Pitfall item
New Nintendo characters and franchises in 2008?
Mario Strikers Charged released in North America
Kaplan’s, Llewelyn’s job positions open for application
Super Paper Mario jumps onto Wii in Europe on Sept. 14
Wii becoming easier to find in Japan
Surprise, surprise: Pokémon tops UK sales charts
Partial Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party songlist
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass wins E3 Game Critics Award
Steinberg forgets his Wii vs. PS3 comments
Nintendo passing on Tokyo Game Show 2007
Chronos Twins headed to Nintendo DS in UK
Pachter says to expect a new Wii in 2009
Rare discusses Viva Piñata DS details

Rumors & Speculation
Gotta buy ‘em all… or so we assume.
George Harrison rumored to have announced retirement

Screens, Trailers, & Media
Five new Origami DS screen shots
Pointless: Wii Airplane Controller Bracket
New Spectrobes II trailer

Society & Culture
The NES MP3 player with matching portable speakers
E-mail virus takes advantage of your love for Mario
The history of Mega Man in 5 short minutes

While I haven’t played Disney’s Spectrobes on the Nintendo DS, I’ve heard generally good things about the new property. Spectrobes II is on the way, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing a lot about it on TV once I get back to Urbana (where I actually get Cable TV).

Disney has released a trailer to that sequel, Spectrobes II, which you can check out below.

GameSpot

At Comic-Con, where Viva Piñata was revealed for the Nintendo DS, Rare’s Justin Cook and James Thomas spoke with Gamasutra about the game. The game is controlled entirely with the stylus.

“They’ve modified the menu control so that it uses the stylus really neatly. And it actually works - dig in the garden and plant a seed.”

“They’ve done a good job of getting most if the important parts out of this big game, and getting it onto the DS, and I think it stands up really well,” continued Cook. “The DS WiFi service also lets you send prime Piñata specimens to your friends, making the act of parading your Doenut around in a humiliating pirate outfit easier than ever.”

Head on over for the full article with all the details.

Gamasutra

In an e-mail to GamePro, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes that Nintendo will go ahead and release a brand new Wii console in 2009, caving in and giving fans high definition gaming before the tradition 5-year life cycle is up.

“Consumers may hope for improved graphics, and my guess is that Nintendo will comply. In two or three years, commodity prices for graphics processors and CPUs may decline to the point that a High Definition Wii could be introduced. If so, Nintendo will likely introduce one.”

It still remains to be seen whether or not the tens or hundreds of millions more polygons the 360 or PS3 would be able to push by them will even be distinguishable to casual gamers, and whether or not they’re really care if the digital car they’re driving is in 480p or 1080i… at least before 2011.

GamePro

Official press release below.

TIME FOR CHRONOS TWINS!
Oxygen’s time-travelling adventure clocks on this autumn

July 31st 2007: Northamptonshire, UK: Oxygen Games™ today announces the early autumn release of its delightfully nostalgic retro platformer, Chronos Twins for Nintendo DS™.

Playing with the concept of time travel, Chronos Twins, sees the player in the driving-seat, as Nec – the last best hope for his planet - not only battles to save his world but also to avenge the death of his brother.

Continue Reading »

Hi There, Do You Like Mario Bross ? Test it, and you’ll like it ;] !

Have you seen that e-mail? If so, don’t open the attachments. It will tempt you into launching the attached game, which will run the Romario-A Worm on your computer. The virus spreads to your computer, any shared drives or computers, and will e-mail itself to other addresses as an attachment.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, had the following to say: “Fraudsters are constantly innovating to find new ways of tapping into users’ psyches to tempt them into clicking on infected links and attachments. Nintendo’s resurgence in the games market with the Wii console and Mario’s global retro appeal are factors playing directly into the hands of cybercriminals keen to dupe users. This kind of attack is particularly stealth-like because nostalgic gamers can actually play the game once they click, giving them no reason to suspect that something more sinister is lurking beneath.”

The Romario-A worm will scheduling a daily task to run on your computer at a regular interval, causing as much of an impact as possible.

Sophos
via GoNintendo

While the Penny Arcade Expo and Leipzig Conventions this month will have our full attention (since Nintendo will be there), it looks like Nintendo will once again be a no-show at this year’s Tokyo Game Show in September. Looks like they’re making this easier for us writers…not so good for the fans, though.

The current and mostly final exhibitor list does not feature Nintendo’s name anywhere on it, and Nintendo typically doesn’t make any surprise appearances. Luckily, there are some other publisher names on the list that are expected to be showing huge support for the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms. Expect to see a great show in terms of Wii and DS support, but obviously nothing ground breaking from Nintendo.

With TGS down, I can’t think of any major Nintendo appearances besides the Leipzig Games Convention, Penny Arcade Expo, and E for All Expo (which Nintendo will headline) that Nintendo will be attending. I wonder when we’ll get to see Brawl playable?

Check after the break for the full exhibitor list.

Continue Reading »

Insider reports are coming in that Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communication, George Harrison, has announced his early retirement to the company today. The rumor comes right after reports that Nintendo has posted job openings for the current positions held by executives Perrin Kaplan and Beth Llewelyn, despite Harrison’s position seemingly filled. George Harrison has been with the company since 1992, just after the Super Nintendo was launched and directly after Nintendo and Sony went their separate ways in the video game industry.
The rumor report comes from an unidentified publisher in the industry that claims to have discovered a voice message going around Nintendo internally, announcing the retirement. As expected, the report does say that Harrison will be involved with helping the new San Francisco offices open shop and that his rumored retirement will not immediately be in effect.

We’ll be waiting for a confirmation or denial on Harrison, as well as Kaplan and Llewelyn, sometime soon. Thanks to Robert for the heads up.

GameDaily

SEGA’s VP of Marketing, Scott Steinberg, doesn’t seem to remember his earlier comments about the Wii eventually giving way to the PS3.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Did I say that?” asked Steinberg.

“Are we placing bets? No one can tell right now who’ll ‘win.’ It’s still too early. All three consoles have got the right materials for success. That alchemy is there across all three different platforms. I guess that’s being defined a bit differently with Nintendo, but they definitely have their own consumer-oriented track, which we think is great. So I think from a third-party publisher’s standpoint it’s not wise to make bets right now that don’t include all three consoles.”

You can head on over for the rest of the article, which goes on to talk of Virtua Fighter 5 on the 360 and PS3, as well as SEGA’s physical expansion to more locations.

Next-Gen

The winners of the 2007 E3 Game Critics Awards have been announced, and not surprisingly, Nintendo has gotten the full shaft treatment. For the second year in a row, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has won the Best Handheld Game award. Other than that, Nintendo comes away from the show empty handed.

So which game rocked the rest of the awards?

Rock Band. Harmonix’s golden boy has scooped up awards for Best Hardware/Peripheral, Best Social/Casual/Puzzle, and of course, Best of Show. Harmonix, please bring this game to the Wii sooner than later.

Game Critics Awards