The famed creator of many of Nintendo’s biggest franchises recently commented on the idea of a first person Zelda. During the development of Ocarina of Time, Miyamoto himself suggested the use of first person to further envelope the player as well as give the CPU a little break from rendering the character model the entire time.

Interesting to hear this from the big guy himself. Could this perhaps be what he meant when he said Twilight Princess was the last Zelda game of its kind?

Iwata Asks
via Joystiq

CoroCoro Magazine has revealed Pokémon Platinum, the third game in the 4th generation series of Pokémon games.  It shows off the new “Origin” form of Giratina used in the upcoming movie, a revamped battle interface, better clothes for the male lead (thank God). Some other reported features include:

• September release (in Japan?), Giratina on the box
• Volkner is no longer the Sunyshore City gym leader
• The Underground is now Wi-Fi enabled
• Battle Island revealed; same concept as Battle Frontier in Emerald
• No new Pokémon (obviously), but some new forms including Giratina’s Origin Form, Regigigas’ Sky Form, as well as Shaymin’s Another Form. The former two gain the “Levitate” ability, while Shaymin’s new form is part Ice-type.

This isn’t one of our jokes, but it’s not been 100% confirmed by Nintendo either. For now, we’ll stick it in the same category as Kid Icarus for the Wii: it’s coming for sure, we’re just waiting on the Nintendo announcement. Thanks to piplupmaster for the heads up.

Serebii.net

No, no, not Mario Is Missing the game. Monday’s press release from Nintendo has leaked, and it reveals that Dr. Mario Online RX won’t make the opening day roster. On top of that, there won’t be any Virtual Console games for North America this Monday. Looks like it’s a no-go for a Mother’s Day theme.

No need to pout, though. Final Fantasy headlines the launch list, shown below:

• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Square Enix, 1500 Wii Points)
• LostWinds (Frontier Developmen, 1000 Wii Points)
• Defend your Castle (XGen Studios, 500 Wii Points)
• Pop (Nnooo, 700 Wii Points)
• V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack (High Voltage Software, 700 Wii Points)
• TV Show King (Gameloft, 1000 Wii Points)

How are your wallets looking?

VC Reviews

With the Wii having smoked past the lifetime sales of the GameCube back in January (and on track to surpass lifetime Nintendo 64 sales by September), I’m sure there are a lot of you whose GameCubes are sitting in a closet collecting dust. For others of you, you’re finding creative ways of showing off the little box that couldn’t, albeit reducing it to not much more than an over-sized timekeeper.

Of course, if it no longer works, maybe you’ll want to take a cue from Nick Magdoza and make something of it. Make no mistake, this would look pretty cool hanging in an office (by its handle, no less).

You can check out a video of the clock after the break.

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While a significant number of you out there won’t be picking up Wii Fit until its North American release on May 19th (and even more of you have to wait until second shipments…), Wii Fit is already wreaking havoc and causing psychological damage elsewhere in the world.

My DSD [relative] came round this weekend and we let her play on our wii-fit. We have all laughed and joked about being told that we’re fat and need to lose weight but I was gobsmacked when it told her that she is overweight. She is a healthy 10 year old girl with an active lifestyle, she swims and dances every week. She is 92lbs and 4′9″ tall and there is not an inch of fat on her. She is solidly built but not fat. She was [devastated] to be called fat and we had to work hard to convince her that she isn’t. I know it is just a game but seriously we already have to worry about young girls starving themselves to look like the magazine models and now we have a game that tells them their fat. This to me is very worrying and I hope that is doesn’t cause emotional problems for any youngsters out there.

It’s just a game, right? I get the feeling that Wii Fit is going to cause a rise in anorexia in little kids and lawsuits from angry parents. Way to go, Nintendo.

DISboards
via Destructoid

Jason Barnes and his friend Jason Letterman were asked to take Emily’s new Mini-ITX motherboard and build a custom casing for it. Apparently, a lunch box was decided on (somehow…) and they decided to pick a theme Emily would like. The result? This Super Princess Peach case mod!

Now, I’ve seen these lunch boxes in stores like Toys ‘R’ Us, but I’m not really into case mods. It’s probably no surprise that I’d never have thought to use a Nintendo lunch box as a PC casing. Any of you come up with some of your own case mods?

Couple more pics after the break.

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This week’s concert takes us to Play!’s tour through Norway, listening to a non-Nintendo video game theme. We’ve done non-Nintendo themes before, all the way from Final Fantasy VII to Metal Gear Solid 3, hopefully showing you that there’s more to quality video game music than just Koji Kondo.

The Halo theme, presented here in a special concert arrangement, was written by Martin O’Donnell with notable help from Michael Salvatori. O’Donnell has a Masters of Music Degree from the University of Southern California. You may have heard more of his work before, such as the Flintstones vitamins commercials. His kids sang in those commercials.

YouTube

While many people are welcoming Wii Fit into their living rooms with open arms, did anyone stop to think of the spandex-clad, headband wearing, always friendly 80’s style fitness gurus? I didn’t think so.

Wii Fit is on course to be the best selling fitness device ever. It has been and will continue outselling exercise bikes, the Gazelle, celebrity exercise DVD’s, you name it. I’m concerned that this leaves many video trainers out in the cold with only a thin layer of stretch pants to shield them from the winds of change. Don’t be surprised if “Richard Simmons: Sweating with Wii Fit” hits the shelves later this year. I’d buy it.

telegraph

Rumor has it that Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a pretty good game. Rumor also has it that the game isn’t out in Europe and Australia, much to the dismay of those Nintendo fans. Not to worry, since there’s word that the game might be arriving Down Under by June 26th.

We’re still waiting for a confirmation on this from anyone, of course, but if true, Aussies will have the game as soon as June 26th, Europeans on June 27th, and the four major regions will be happy - provided that there are no more game disc or Wii drive issues…

Vooks

In Activision’s conference call lots of things were talked about and confirmed, but three things caught my attention: Call of Duty 5 will be heading to the Wii and DS (this time developed by Treyarch, not Infinity Ward), Activision is working with Nintendo to release a Guitar Hero: On Tour bundle which will include the attachment, game and DS, and lastly, the already confirmed but wasn’t officially confirmed Guitar Hero IV has finally been confirmed. This time around Activision plans on expanding the Guitar Hero franchise by releasing it on all platforms — including the Nintendo DS — and with more peripherals.

No specific release date has been released for the yet-to-be-named Guitar Hero IV, but was given a “Holiday 2008″ label. Not too sure how they expect us to fit all these plastic instruments in our living spaces. Imagine where we’ll be in a few years. Any suggestions?