5th Cell’s Scribblenauts is getting boatloads of attention after its appearance at this years E3, and deservedly so. The premise is simple: you play as Maxwell, a child sporting a pair of headphones and “Rooster Hat”, and you have to solve puzzles using words. After typing in the desired word it will appear on your screen, available for use to solve the puzzle at hand. Afterwards, you’re awarded points and achievements according to how you figured it out. For example, if your character is hungry and you simply use the word “cheese”, you’ll pass, but “hamburger” would net your more points for creativity. Simply put, the more inventive you are, the more you’re rewarded.

The vocabulary is said to be deep, with the developer going as far as saying, “People won’t write half the things that exist in this game…” The video above shows Scribblenauts in action, displaying its unique gameplay. I mean, where else would you be able to see Kraken and God duke it out?

Nintendorks

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Tetris is receiving the Google treatment today in celebration of its 25 year anniversary. It is one of the (very) few titles that exists on nearly every console, in addition to calculators, portable media devices, smartphones–the list goes on.

It was developed by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov while he was working for Dorodnicyn Computing Centre and was created this date, June 6th, in 1984. The name “Tetris” derives from the greek numerical prefix “tetra-” and tennis, Pajitnov’s favorite sport. What’s more, Tetris‘ popularity took off during the Cold War, a time period when the United States and the then USSR’s relationship was not exactly on the best of terms, making it one of the only cultural trends to reach the US from the USSR.

Happy birthday, Tetris!

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Get ready to get some uber-precision gaming going, because Wii MotionPlus has been given a June 8th release date. The accessory has been priced at $19.99 when purchased alone, but if you’re the patient type – which you should be since no game besides Wii Sports Resort supports the peripheral just yet – you can wait till July 26th, the release date for Wii Sports Resort, and get it bundled for a nicely-priced $49.99.

While Wii Sports Resort is the only game as of now to support MotionPlus, Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing, promises that developers around the world are hard at work excited to make some cash to provide unique gaming experiences for consumers around the world. Hit the break for the press release.

NINTENDO TO SET SUMMER ’09 ABLAZE WITH WII MOTIONPLUS AND WII SPORTS RESORT

Advanced Motion Controls Arrive June 8; Wii Sports Sequel to Follow

REDMOND, Wash., April 14, 2009 – Nintendo is setting the stage for a blockbuster summer with the announcement of two hotly anticipated product releases. The new Wii MotionPlus™ accessory will hit U.S. retailers on June 8, taking the motion-sensing controls of the popular Wii™ system to new levels of precision and performance. What’s more, these control enhancements will be on vibrant display when the Wii Sports Resort™ game launches on July 26, offering a beach-themed follow-up to the groundbreaking Wii Sports™ game. Wii Sports comes packed with the Wii console. It grew into a worldwide phenomenon and continues to attract millions of new players to the world of video games. Each Wii Sports Resort game comes packed with a single Wii MotionPlus accessory.

When used with specially designed games, Wii MotionPlus tracks players’ movements in finer detail and with greater accuracy than ever before, building upon the innovative wireless function of the motion-sensing Wii Remote™ controller. Even the slightest twist of the wrist or turn of the body is replicated exactly on the TV screen, allowing users to become even more immersed in Wii game play. Designed for easy attachment to the Wii Remote controller, the Wii MotionPlus accessory will be offered at an MSRP of $19.99.

Wii Sports Resort takes the inclusive, fun and intuitive controls of the original Wii Sports to the next level, introducing a whole new set of entertaining and physically immersive activities. With the deep control enhancements of Wii MotionPlus, veteran Wii users and newcomers alike can enjoy unprecedented gaming precision as they cruise on a water scooter, duel with swords, throw a Frisbee® and much more. Wii Sports Resort and Wii MotionPlus will be offered together at an MSRP of $49.99.

“Wii MotionPlus represents a new evolution in video game control. The variety of fun games in Wii Sports Resort show off its incredible precision,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Developers around the world are busy working on new ways to incorporate Wii MotionPlus controls into inventive experiences for consumers.”

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com. For more information about Nintendo, visit www.Nintendo.com.

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Rhythm Heaven, also knows as Rizumu Tengoku G?rudo in Japan, will be the DSi’s launch title come April 5th. It has sold over 1.6 million copies in Japan since its release in July of 2008 and continues to sell well today. No price point has been released just yet.

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“Ever since the arrival of the first Game Boy, consumers worldwide have turned to Nintendo for their portable gaming,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Nintendo DSi builds on Nintendo’s commitment to bringing fun and creative entertainment to everyone, and will allow consumers to personalize and share their very own experiences.”

Full press release after the break.

NINTENDO DSI LAUNCHES APRIL 5 IN THE UNITED STATES

New Portable System Offers Customized Gaming Experiences

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 18, 2009 – Nintendo pioneered hand-held entertainment in the ’80s and made it fully mobile with the Game Boy™ video game system. Now, Nintendo is transforming the way people access, experience, create and share content with the new Nintendo DSi™ system, the third iteration of the world’s best-selling portable video game system. Nintendo DSi launches in the United States on April 5, 2009, at an MSRP of $169.99. The colors available at launch will be Blue and Black.

“Ever since the arrival of the first Game Boy, consumers worldwide have turned to Nintendo for their portable gaming,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Nintendo DSi builds on Nintendo’s commitment to bringing fun and creative entertainment to everyone, and will allow consumers to personalize and share their very own experiences.”

Some features that will be built into the system and ready to enjoy upon purchase include the Nintendo DSi Camera, Nintendo DSi Sound and Nintendo DSi Shop. The most noticeable feature of the slim Nintendo DSi system is its two cameras – one camera is on the external body, and the second one points at the user when the device is flipped open. As the first truly interactive digital camera in a video game system with 10 different interactive “lenses” that can manipulate your photos, the Nintendo DSi Camera offers an easy way to take and share your photos with family and friends. The cameras also present people with unprecedented ways to interact with their games while giving developers a new tool to devise creative games and experiences. If the touch screen gave Nintendo DS a sense of feel and the microphone allowed it to hear, the two cameras give Nintendo DSi the sense of sight.

Another enhanced feature is the Nintendo DSi Sound application, which serves as both an interactive voice recorder and music player that allows users to play with their music while they listen to it. Users can access different audio filters or control the pitch and speed of recorded voice or music files to alter voices or change the tempo of a song. The mic is located between the two screens when the device is flipped open, and there is also a stereo headphone output that lets users listen to music saved on an SD card, even with the screen shut.

In the world of software, Nintendo DSi will be the platform for the most relevant and fun on-the-go games and applications. The Nintendo DSiWare™ application will populate Nintendo DSi with software that can be downloaded using Nintendo DSi Points directly to the portable system, just as WiiWare™ has with Nintendo’s Wii™ console. Developers big and small are invited to create software that makes use of the properties and functions of the hardware. Nintendo DSiWare games and applications will be available at a range of values, starting at 200 points.

In addition to downloadable games, Nintendo DSi is able to play games made specifically for the system and sold at retail. The system can also play most Nintendo DS™ games, and will have access to a library of more than 850 titles originally made for that system.

Also on April 5, a new Nintendo DS game, Rhythm Heaven™, will join this roster of games available for both Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DS owners in the United States. Having sold more than 1.6 million copies since its July 2008 launch in Japan and still increasing sales today, this infectious game challenges players to tap and slide the stylus on the touch screen in time to original music created by legendary Japanese pop-star producer TSUNKU?. Simple gestures with the stylus combined with fun music and quirky visuals make Rhythm Heaven a completely unique musical experience for players of all ages.

Additional features and news of Nintendo DSi will be revealed as April 5 approaches.

For more information about Nintendo DSi, visit www.nintendodsi.com.

About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 2.8 billion video games and more than 485 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii and Nintendo DS, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™ and Nintendo GameCube™. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™ and Pokémon™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.

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EA has just released the first video for the Dead Space Wii remake called Dead Space Extraction. It has the usual things one would expect from a Dead Space game: scary things, scary voices and even a soiled seat after watching the entire trailer. However, what I didn’t expect was to see the game portrayed as a light shooter a la Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. Don’t get me wrong, rail shooters can be fun, but when you’re expecting a full port of the 360/PS3 version, it’s hard not to get a little disappointed. When a better quality trailer is released, I’ll be sure to post it.

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Even though we know it’s coming already, the Dead Space website has a message encoded in alien-speak that hints at the upcoming release of the Wii version of said title. The message was decoded, by way of Gaming Bits, and says:

The End Will Be Set In Motion

Get it? Motion. Wii Controls. Yea? Awesome. Of course this is just speculation until we receive further confirmation of something that has been confirmed already. So just sit tight and wait for confirmation.

Dead Space Website
via Gaming Bits

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Activision Blizzard, publisher of all things Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and creator of World of Warcraft, predicts that the Wii will continue to sell in 2009. In fact, it will nearly double the sales of the Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3 — 8 million and 8 million, respectively — in North America and in the UK, with around 16 million units sold. With that said, this could go one of two ways: First, more Imagine games or second, the development of some new IP’s. I prefer the latter.

In terms of profit the Wii brought in the most money for Activision, raking in 15% of its earnings for 2008, while the DS took in 7%, taking first in their respective hardware categories. Oh boy, the sight of all these numbers and money gives me butterflies.

MCV
via Joystiq

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Forgive me for the horrible subject line. Moving on. Those of you with an extra $7,000+ in your pocket and a knack for game-related jewelery prepare yourself, we have something in mind for you. A 10K yellow gold Mario pendant fully equipped with Lil’ Jon-esque diamonds that will glisten upon hitting sunlight, surely blinding the innocent bystander walking past you. If this is a bit out of your price range, you could always buy a Cracker Jack box and get a free whistle ring.

eBay
via gameSniped

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Square Enix has decided to push back the release of Dragon Quest IX in Japan from March 28 to July 11, citing bugs and game flaws as the culprit. While this is a bit of a disappointment, with no concrete release date for North America (or anywhere else in the world for that matter) it’s not too upsetting. Plus, more time to work on the game ensures a better gaming experience, right? Let’s just hope we are able to get our covetous hands on the game before the end of 2009.

Square Enix
via NeoGAF

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Get ready to talk some smack, because this month the Nintendo World Store in Midtown Manhattan will be holding tournaments dubbed “Blast to the Past”. Every Saturday competitions will be held, being played on various Virtual Console and WiiWare titles. All you have to do is head down to the NWS and register — quickly, space is limited — then show up at 1pm and play your heart out. Tournaments end at 4pm, but I’m sure it’ll strech a bit longer depending on how smoothly the tournament is run.

Nintendo World Store

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DS Lite Onyx hardware systems have been discontinued and stores will no longer be replenished on this product. Once your store sells through its current stock of this item, please remove any empty DS Onyx display boxes (onyx color only) from the sales floor and discard. Please continue to display the other colors of the DS Lite system display boxes on the sales floor (eye level and above perimeter of DS software section, above the DS accessory section, etc).

This is more than likely a move in preparation for the release of the Black DSi, and coincides with the discontinuation of the White DS Lite, which was replaced by the Silver DS Lite. So many colors, so many DS’s! If you’re a collector of DS’s or are still debating on whether or not to pick up a DS Lite and black is your favorite color (or the lack of color, technically) then head out to stores soon.

Kotaku

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News Blaze
via Destructoid

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The Wii isn’t exactly known for its vast library of m-rated titles like Grand Theft Auto or Epic’s brutal third-person shooter Gears of War. One would think it’s geared more towards party titles like Mario Party 8, or “casual games” such as Ubisoft’s Petz series. But with Rockstar Games bringing GTA: Chinatown Wars to the DS later this year, it could open up the gates for other developers to create more games geared toward the maturer Wii audience. In response to an analysts question, Take Two CEO Ben Feder praised the Wii’s install base, but still argues that some of their best content isn’t suitable for the Wii:

“We’ve got a bunch of sports titles that will take advantage of the Wii. Some of our best content really isn’t appropriate for the Wii. That said, “Carnival Games” has been a massive success for the company. We’re looking, in a disciplined way, of extending that brand to other areas. All of our sports titles are looking at the Wii as a potential platform. And, frankly, even the M-rated content that we think is much more appropriate for the PS3 or 360,w e have to look at the Wii as a viable platform across all our labels. You just have to because you can’t ignore the installed base. You just can’t. We’re going to do a lot of learning with “GTA: Chinatown Wars” on the DS in terms of bringing that kind of content to a Nintendo platform. Our partnership with Nintendo is as strong as it’s ever been. We’re really excited about it. We talk to them all the time. They provide great feedback for us. We’re highly focused on it.”

Wii games, just like any other titles released today on any console, go through the ESRB’s rating system. Why shouldn’t it see some of Rockstar’s “best content”?

MTV Multiplayer

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