It’s still Metroid-week. :)

Tonight’s concert features Melissa Schoenack from the Longy School of Music. Melissa is a bassoon major and part of she and her colleagues call the Nintendo Quartet. On April 12th of this year, Melissa, Graham St-Laurent (oboe), Karen Oosterbaan (violin), Akiko Sato (harpsichord/organ), and Bud Durand (electronics) performed “Music from Five Nintendo Games arr. for Baroque Ensemble, Electronics, and Media” at Edward M. Pickman Concert Hall. Above, you can watch their performance of music from Metroid on the NES.

Of course, an 80-second performance isn’t enough for a Friday night concert. Since the above clip was part of a multi-movement work, you can check after the break for several more songs from the recital! In order, the next four videos feature The Legend of Zelda, Bubble Bobble, Castlevania 2, and Super Mario Bros.

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Nothing unexpected, the name says it all in each case. Although I’m relieved to get confirmation that the Monster Magic class is a summoner.

Long Sword – a damage dealing class that wields a double edged sword. While the Long Sword class has higher defense than the mages, he is not meant to be a tank.

Black Magic – your standard attack mage who casts elemental spells and barely shows his face. Don’t put these guys in the front row since they have low defense.

White Magic – the healer and buffer of the group who shares a lack of defense power with the black magic class.

Battler – can’t use magic, but this class can deal decent physical damage. The battler also has the highest defense, which makes him the obligatory tank character.

Itemer – similar to the chemist class, the itemer can use and throw items from a distance.

Stealer – a renamed thief class that steals and has a high evade. The latter trait makes the stealer a possible decoy for enemies.

Monster Magic – this class can’t attack on its own. Monster Magic class users need to summon a monster to attack or support the team.

Siliconera

Nintendo has just updated Zelda Universe, the official Zelda site, with a bunch of new screens and a trailer.

The Quest

With Tetra missing, Link must enlist the aid of several fairies as he explores dangerous wilds, uncharted seas and baffling dungeons. As he does, he meets an array of fascinating characters, hunts for powerful weapons and collects sand for a mysterious artifact called the Phantom Hourglass. Over time, it will enable him to progress deeper and deeper into the ultimate dungeon.

The game has unfortunately dipped a little below the radar in the wake of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. It will be coming to North America October 1st. So wipe those tears away, we’ll be playing it in about a month!

Zelda Universe

We all know the WarioWare games, regardless of whether or not you’re a huge fan. The game is built around several, quick mini-games where sometimes you barely have time to think about the mini-game you’re on before you’re on to the next one! Well, guess what? Mr. Sakurai is bringing the fun to Brawl.

The WarioWare stage has a typical battle stage layout, but it seems that at times, the stage will cycle through various mini-games, requiring you to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge…as if this game weren’t insane enough as it is!

Smash Bros. DOJO!!

Nintendo is prepping to launch their next training game series in North America, and we now have the final box art for Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day. Look familiar? That’s cause it’s the Brain Age cover in the shape of an eye instead of a head. Still, it gets the job done, and it’s somewhat appealing.

Nintendo of America has gone and given the press an updated fact sheet on the upcoming Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn release for the Wii. That fact sheet can be read after the break, though it’s mostly rehashing what we know from the game’s previous release in Japan earlier this year.

At least one other thing besides the game’s language will be significantly changed for the game’s debut in North America, however. When Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn hits the Western Hemisphere, it will do so in widescreen. 16:9 support will be added as a new feature for the release in North America and likely for European and Australian release as well. Epic, hm?

The full fact sheet can be read after the break. UPDATE: Apparently, the fact sheet has a few character spoilers, so read on with precaution!

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Two VC games for Australia this week. Not really an update to get too excited about, but it’s a couple of new offerings nonetheless. Post a comment if you actually check them out!

• Vegas Stakes (SNES, 800 Wii Points)
• Bonk 3: Bonk’s Big Adventure (TG16, 600 Wii Points)

Giant drops all around this week from last, except the original GBA and DS managed to see some increases. Last week was full of pluses across the board, so maybe there was some special occasion last week that I’m forgetting about (I’m a little distracted these days), and sales are simply dropping back to “normal.”

• DSL: 100,430 (-53,411)
  
• Wii: 46,283 (-27,655)
• PSP: 26,089 (-7,626)
• PS3: 16,393 (-5,327)
• PS2: 15,139 (-101)
• X360: 2,044 (-401)
• GBM: 423 (-2,022)
• GBASP: 163 (-49)
• GC: 116 (-29)
• GBA: 65 (+41)
• DS: 30 (+15)

Media Crate

For those who don’t know, Wayne Gretzky holds the record for the fastest 50 goals in a season in the NHL. The previous record holder, Maurice “Rocket” Richard, held it with the famous “50 in 50″ record (50 goals in 50 games). Gretzky shattered that record by scoring 50 goals in only 39 games.

Now you’re probably wondering, how does this relate to the Wii? Well, the Wii just recently broke the Playstation 2’s record for fastest total console sales to reach 1 million in the UK. But here’s the interesting part, the Playstation 2 held the record with 1 million units sold in 50 weeks. The Wii sold 1 million in 38 weeks. If only we had known about this earlier, it would have been pretty intense!

Sorry Wayne, 50 goals in 39 games is great and all, but 1 million consoles sold in 38 weeks is way more impressive.

gamesindustry.biz

via Cubed3

E3 2007 revealed lots of Super Mario Galaxy related goodness, including a possible box art for the game. Turns out they weren’t happy with the original design. Nintendo just sent us this new official box art.

I can’t decide if I like the older, simpler design or the newer one with the cute little space bunnies.