Thursday, 10/30/03
Midway Removes and Delays GC Releases
The upcoming horror/survival/adventure/escape/etc. game The Suffering
is no longer listed as a GameCube release. In additional news, Midway says that
Midway's Arcade Treasures and Spy Hunter 2 are no longer scheduled
for a 2003 release. While this could mean they have been bumped to early 2004
(perhaps in an effort to avoid the GC Christmas rush and capitalize on the
relatively empty release period coming in early 2004), it could also mean they
are never going to actually arrive on the Cube. Midway is still posting large
losses for the year, so we assume their hope is to try to sell the games when
Mario Kart isn't sucking up all the GC gaming dollars.
Nintendo Interview Madness
Recently, a variety of Nintendo and Nintendo affiliated folks have been giving
interviews or appearing in the public eye. As we weren't part of any of these
interviews ourselves, we can merely direct you to the sites who managed to
snag the content.
George Harrison (Senior Vice President, NOA) interview with EGM: Harrison
discusses the relative strengths of the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube as far as
sales and market go at this point, mentions the need to keep the GC software
library vibrant for the next "two to two and a half" years, system designs, and
more.
Perrin Kaplan (Vice President of Marketing, NOA) interview with GMR:
Essentially, Nintendo is still making more money in software sales than either
Sony or Microsoft, it is struggling as far as product image goes, Microsoft
continues to dump money on the Xbox with no sign of any return, Nintendo
needs more third party support, Sony has an uphill battle in the PSP,
and much, much more.
it was really just a minor press release. In light of that, kindly ignore this
bulleted point.
Nintendo of Canada Media Day
When the editorial staff of N-Run isn't bemoaning the fact that we are never
invited to press conferences, we try to report on what is revealed during these
conferences. In the case of the Nintendo of Canada Media Conference (held on
the 28th of October), we really haven't been able to find out much, other than
the fact that Nintendo plans to spend $10 million advertising in Canada.
Nintendojo, however, managed to sneak someone into the conference; to read
their impressions,
visit Nintendo's conference report site.
Pokemon Bundles for Europe
In late November, European gamers will be able to purchase special GBA SP and
Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire bundle packs. What makes these unique is that
GBA SP units are decorated with Pokemon characters.
Budget Price for Pokemon Channel
As if the fact that Nintendo is bringing Pokemon Channel to the USA
isn't amazing enough (given the bizarre nature of the game and the relatively
little that anyone has actually been able to find out about it), it seems that
NOA plans to sell it for just $30. While we hope this is the start of a trend,
it should be noted that all information about the game point to a rather
"slim" playing experience, at best. Of course, we're open to being completely
surprised; we just sort of doubt it.
Atlus Loves Us
Atlus, the company responsible for bring such "obscure" titles as Tactics Ogre,
Cubivore, and Shining Soul to the USA after larger companies
backed out, has announced that it will be bringing Sega's Shining Soul II
to American GBA owners in 2004. The also plan to release King of Fighters
EX2: Howling Blood this December.
Online GameCube Games - Progress!
The Warp Pipe Project, an
independent effort to enable online play for LAN GameCube titles, has announced
that it has managed to get full speed internet gameplay on Kirby Air Ride.
It was done over an extremely high speed university internet line, and the odds
of this working on standard high speed connections is still a bit questionable.
The members of the project are quite optimistic about the possibility of
online GC gaming, especially in the case of Mario Kart.
More Nintendo Game Sites and Footage
NCL has started up Japanese websites for the upcoming
Mario Party 5 and
Mario & Luigi RPG games, complete with game footage and more.
Not That Many Wacky Game Deals, But...
The KB Toys website is
offering a $25 rebate check when you order $100 worth of games. While this isn't
as nice as the Toys R Us 3-for-2 deal, it's still pretty decent.
...a Wacky GameBoy Deal is Made in Florida
In Florida schools, the value of a Nintendo Game Boy appears to be equal to
that of a handgun. Two six graders were involved in a trade, one swapping his
Game Boy for the empty handgun of the other. When the incident was discovered
by the staff, the boys claimed to have found the gun behind the school itself.
Monday, 10/27/03
Remember Virtua Fighter Quest?
It appears that, as far as Sega is concerned, Virtua Fighter Quest for the GameCube is
still in active development. According to The Magic Box,
Sega's AM2 division said development was still ongoing in a recent interview with the
Japanese magazine Dorimaga. Perhaps they are aiming for a new delay record?
GBA Super Mario Bros.
On the Japanese Club Nintendo site, Nintendo has announced an upcoming contest in which 3,000 custom
GBA SP's with Super Mario Bros. games will be given away. At this point, no one is quite
sure as to what these Super Mario Bros. games will be. They could be a mere NES emulation
on a GBA cartridge (much like the way you can play SMB on your GBA via an Animal Crossing
download), or it could be a graphical enhanced version, much like the various Super Mario
Advance titles. Hopefully when Club Nintendo comes to the U.S.A., we'll see nice bonuses
like these as well.
Pictures of Club Nintendo Famicom GBA SP
One lucky fellow has managed to win a Famicom styled GBA SP, and has made pictures of it
available on his webpage. Go take a look.
Media Player for GBA
AM3 has officially announced an Smart Media Memory Card media player for the GBA, to go on in Japan
in late November. The device can store up to five 24 minute films on a 32 MB memory card,
and new films can be purchased from kiosks in convenience stores. At e3 this year, several
models of GBA media players were demonstrated, and most offered MP3 playback as well.
Kingdom Hearts Media Playback
It appears that the upcoming GBA Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories game will feature
a subset of the AM3 media player chipset on the game cartridge, allowing for video playback
in the game. It seems Square just can't get make a game without packing it with prerendered
animation sequences these days.
New Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Information
The fansite www.mariokartdoubledash.co.uk/
is filled with all kinds of screenshots of the upcoming racer, including information on the tracks,
hidden characters, and more. If you don't mind spoiling the surprise, visit the site to find out
more. Toad is playable, it seems.
$5 for Home Run King
Sega's Home Run King is now available for a mere $5 at the
EBGames website.
