The latest issue of Game Informer has the scoop on the upcoming Guitar Hero IV; including how their newly added peripherals will look. At first glance you’ll notice only three pads, but if you look a little above there are two “cymbals.” They look a bit awkward to me, but they had to compete with Rock Band somehow. This begs the question, again: how do they expect one to fit all of these plastic instruments in their rooms?

Destructoid

Even though Rare has long since gone to the Microsoft side of things, the company can never seem to get out of Nintendo’s shadow. It may be generations before the present work of the company isn’t held up against their games before the break up. With this in mind, it’s nice to see the company giving a nod to the partner Rare spent many a year with.

It’s sort of like trying to take over the reins in Green Bay next season like that one guy in going to have to do. What is his name again? I guess it doesn’t matter. He’s not Brett.

Joystiq

My friends and I just had a related discussion last night after a profanity laced four player romp through Coconut Mall. Why does Mario Kart have the undeniable ability to bring horrible language from the most placid of individuals? Xkcd’s comic states it very well. The incident that incited my worst personal curse-fest after the break.

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Luckily for those of you Down Under, the rumors have held true: Europe will be the last major region to receive Super Smash Bros. Brawl, now that Nintendo Australia has confirmed the game’s June 26th release date in Oz. Smashing news, isn’t it?

You know what would suck? If both the European and Australian launches are plagued with faulty discs and faulty drives just like the Japanese and North American launches were, pushing back your ability to play the game for another couple of weeks. …but we don’t even want to think about the possibility.

Vooks

We’ve got a higher quality image of the page in this month’s issue of CoroCoro magazine, giving you a better look at the sprite form of Giratina’s Origin Form, Cyrus summoning Giratina in front of Dialga and Palkia, among other things. The more detailed scan also clears up a few details:

• Platinum is set for a Fall 2008 release in Japan. Note that Beckett Magazine stated a game by the name of Pokemon Platinum would be released in the US in early 2009 - that bit is unconfirmed, but it would make sense.
• Giratina’s ability is labeled and ??? and is thus not known.
• You can clearly see a new battle interface by looking at the box showing Giratina’s name and HP.
• Lucas is wearing blue.

You can click the scan above for an even bigger look at the page.

PokeBeach

Nintendo has gone ahead and released the European WiiWare launch list, something us American didn’t get–well, if you count press leaks. Perhaps they did it to ease the pain for the Smash Bros. Brawl release … oh, burn, yes. However, the European launch list is arguably better than the Stateside one since you get all the games we received (minus Defend Your Castle) and Toki Tori. Yes, I’m jealous, so what?

• Dr. Mario & Germ Buster (Nintendo)
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Square Enix)
• Lost Winds (Frontier)
• Pirates: The Key of Dreams (Oxygen Interactive Ltd)
• Pop (Nnooo)
• Star Soldier R (Hudson Soft)
• Toki Tori (Two Tribes B.V.)
• TV Show King (Gameloft)

The service goes live on May 20th in Europe, so get your Wii’s and point cards ready.

IGN

Grand Theft Auto? Pssssssh. Despite the incredible amount hype behind Grand Theft Auto IV — which was well-deserved, don’t get me wrong — Mario Kart Wii sits comfortably on top of Amazon’s top sales list, a position Wii Fit previously held. When asked how it felt to be defeated, Niko gave Mario a smirk, threw him out of his kart and proceeded to drive away in it. Shouldn’t have been so arrogant, Mario. Hit the jump for the list.

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Rosie Millard just wanted to make her kids happy, is that so wrong? How could she have known that getting a single DS to share between the four of her children, along with what sounds like a bootleg 20-game card, could tear the family fabric apart? She talks of the horrible behavior her kids exhibit as they vie for time with the games, and going to any means necessary to do so.

I’m not judging or anything, but perhaps the problem lies not in Nintendo’s handheld, but in the children. I could be wrong, and Nintendo might be plotting world domination by possessing the younger generation. That is crafty of them. Rosie’s full story after the break.

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Sheesh. With all these VC games and now, WiiWare titles, we are going to soon be dry of our precious internal memory. Sooner or later it’ll be on the black market ala moonshine during the days of prohibition. We must learn to ration our space until Nintendo releases a first-party storage device or unlocks the SD Card slot. Hit the jump for the games and the amount of space they take up to help you manage your available memory.

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Not to be outdone, Activision is rumored to match their predecessor Harmonix’s Rock Band by adding drums and vocals to the next installment of the Guitar Hero franchise. No surprise there, right? What IS worthy of attention is the report in the latest issue of GameInformer suggesting the game will include some type of creation mode allowing you to make and customize your own songs. You create the “guitar” parts. The “drumset” parts. The album cover. You’ll then be able to upload and share your songs online.

No in-game songs were confirmed, but Van Halen, The Eagles, Linkin Park, and Sublime were all confirmed as bands. Also reported in GameInformer is that the new guitar peripheral will include a new mechanic, still to-be-patented, that will change how you play Guitar Hero in the future. What features could be so amazing that they don’t want Harmonix/MTV Games to even think about stealing?

NeoGAF
via Kotaku