This is the third week of Nintendo of Europe's Hanabi Festival for the European Virtual Console, where US and Japanese imports are made available to be downloaded. Whether this week will be the last for the Hanabi Festival is unknown, but there's a good chance it will be, given that WiiWare will launch in Europe next week.

After last week's release of Cho Aniki, NoE returns this week to release another three games, two of which are even more shoot-em-ups for the Virtual Console.

The fi...

The NPD Group recently released their tracked sales numbers for April 2008, for the four week tracking period that ends on May 3rd, 2008. Many thanks to sonycowboy at NeoGAF and the NPD Group for the numbers.

April saw the release of two major games: Grand Theft Auto IV, which shattered industry records, and Mario Kart Wii, the latest installment in Nintendo's Mario Kart franchise. You would think that there would be strong sales all around for the three current generation consoles, but ...

"Speaking to British newspaper the Daily Mail, an "aghast" Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum called for children to be banned from playing Wii Fit."

It's no secret that Japanese companies use celebrities and popular bikini models to promote their goods. Sony has done it for PSP, Nintendo has done it for their games, and let's not forget the booth babes and show girls that appear at many gaming expos.

These girls are usually paid to look good and act excited while playing a game or console, no matter how awful it might be.

But if you take a look at many Japanese celebrity's blogs, you will often find them talking about their favorite...

From JeuxVideo Magazine comes word of an interview with Michel Ancel, the father of Rayman and creator of Beyond Good & Evil. In the interview, Ancel reveals that he and a team of about 10-12 people are working on the project. However, Ubisoft has not greenlit the project.

Beyond Good & Evil, released in 2003 to critical success, but was a commercial failure, with the game receiving less than satisfactory sales, being sent to die against games like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. T...

"After being officially confirmed yesterday, the first proper screenshots of Lost in Blue for the Nintendo Wii have emerged. And if their awful quality is reflective of the gameplay we can expect, we’re not holding out much hope.

Whether these shots are from early development of Lost in Blue Wii or not isn’t clear, but even still, they’re really rather awful. The Nintendo Wii has been around for a year and a half now (and developers will have had kits to create games before then), so why so..."

The previous rumor of Sega and PlatinumGames purportedly agreeing to a three-game deal is now confirmed by Sega, with the embargo on all related materials now over.

The most interesting fact is that there will now be four games developed by the developer, the former Clover Studio, instead of the original three mentioned. Again, Sega will handle the publishing of all four titles. Other than the three previously-mentioned games (Bayonetta, Infinite Line and MADWORLD), there is a fourth unn...

Got a Wii? Got the itch? Mad World will fix you right up. A bloody actionfest with a visual style ripped straight out of the Sin City graphic novels (but hey, who's complaining), it looks like Nintendo has loosened up a bit. Let's just hope there aren't any tearful moments featuring the musical stylings of Gary Jules.

The title is developed by Platinum Games (the developer formerly known as Clover), who created the similar God Hand, the Viewtiful Joe series, and Okami. A trailer was leake...

Nintendo have always prided themselves on their originality. Unfortunately in this case the courts do not agree.
Back in 2006 a small Texas based gaming company called Anascape sued Nintendo for patent infringement in the creation of the Wii, Wavebird and Gamecube controllers. After almost two years the courts have ruled in favour of Anascape, and Nintendo must now pay $21 million compensation to Anascape and while Nintendo can certainly spare the cash this is definitely a humiliating blow.

"Rejoice! For many years the zany Nintendo peripheral was a diminishing phenomenon. But no longer. Thanks to the Wii, all manner of weird and wonderful accessories are being released again, while the Virtual Console continues to churn up deep feelings of nostalgia for the games and peripherals of ages past. In honour of this new golden age, we thought we’d root around our collective memories for some of the more bizarre, wonderful and downright useless peripherals we’ve encountered over the ma..."

With North America seeing the launch of WiiWare this past Monday, Japan gets the first real Virtual Console update this week. There are a couple gems in this update.

The first game is the Taito classic, Bubble Bobble for the Famicom. With gameplay that stands the test of time, join the two Bubble Dragons Bub and Bob through multiple levels, defeating enemies.


Next up is a game featuring Sega's top mascot before Sonic, Alex Kidd. This game is Alex Kidd in Miracle World for the Sega...

Game Informer recently reported that Guitar Hero 4 will be adding a drum set and now the first picture of the drum set has been released. Red Octane plans to overtake the competition with the help of an ex-MTV games employee. The person who designed the drums was John Devecha, who also helped create the drums for MTV's Drumescape game. The drums use three pads, two cymbals, and one foot petal. Also, Activision won't let players use the drums from Rock Band.

"EA has lifted the lid on another Sims game for Wii and DS. And this one is all about adventure, discovery and exploration in the name of King Roland bringing life back into his kingdom.

The Wii version features said Roland character who needs your help to make his kingdom a better place. The official blurb says you must help new and old friends discover new lands and build "to the limit of your imagination". Sounds a little like Civ to us.

Action begins in The Capital, the centre of the..."

A few weeks ago a Gamegrep article mentioned that there hasn't been any news of an Eternal Darkness sequel since 2006.

Well it looks like fans can now rest at ease. Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack revealed that there is a "strong chance" a sequel will be made. But since Silicon Knights are now a second-party developer of Microsoft, the game will most likely be an XBox 360 exclusive.

Well, this sounds interesting.

It appears the next 'true sequel' (read: not Guitar Hero: Aerosmith) of the Guitar Hero franchise will feature custom soundtracks. So, you and your band will be able to upload custom instrumental tracks that you created. Pretty rad, neh?

It isn't surprising that the vocal aspect would be excluded, since (as the article states) it would be hard to do voice (to text) recognition (even modern software is a bit iffy, especially considering different people h...

"Rock Band may be currently cornering the full-band music game genre, but Activision and Neversoft have come out swinging, revealing loads of new info on the next installment in the franchise, aimed at unseating EA and MTV games' reigning rockstar simulator.

According to a cover-story spread in this month's issue of Game Informer magazine, Guitar Hero IV will introduce massive changes to the traditionally guitar-focused series, starting with a drum set addition meant to knock Rock Band's ki..."

"Nintendo has announced the European WiiWare launch line-up, which is headlined by LostWinds from Frontier and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King by Square Enix.

Nintendo has been in touch to say "not all eight titles will be immediately available from the May 20th launch date". The wording in the press release was, "From 20th May onwards a whole host of brand new creative games from developers across Europe and the rest of the globe become available, including..." followed..."

With the upcoming release of Fatal Frame IV, Gaming_Issues has given a quick rundown of the entire series, for anyone who hasn't played the games and/or has no idea what they are about.

(go to source for full article, including the Pros and Cons of each game)

You can also read IGN's rundown of the series here.

""

PlatinumGames is the studio that was formerly named Seeds, which currently houses ex-employees from the now-defunct Clover Studio. In a now-removed report from Videogaming247, Sega has apparently struck a deal with PlatinumGames to publish its first three titles.

Those three titles are the following (some info via Kotaku):

Bayonetta, directed by Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya, an action game featuring a "witch battling angels", with guns on her feet.

Infinite Line, a DS Sci-fi RPG ...

"Looking like a humongous Rubik's Cube, the Wii Fit ad in Times Square actually comprises of several screens that each show people doing various exercises with Nintendo Company Ltd.'s fitness program. It's a pretty neat sight, especially during the evenings."

As most of us know, Majesco Entertainment picked up Sandlot Games' Cake Mania and was working on it for the Wii. Majesco Entertainment has finally named the game, calling it Cake Mania: In The Mix! Players will be helping out Jill as she goes from one bakery to another. You will be able to serve cakes, advertise the bakery, and you can even run a catering business by phone!

"“Pitfall is one of the most legendary franchises in the history of videogames, so we look forward to releasing a new version exclusively for Wii,” said Dave Oxford, Activision Publishing. “What could be more fun than using the Wii Remote to swing on a vine over blood thirsty crocodiles as retro-cool Pitfall Harry?!”"

"Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the "greatest" Star Wars game ever made, according to the game's producer.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com at an Activision/LucasArts event in London last week, Cameron Suey, the producer in charge of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, said that in his opinion The Force Unleashed, which sees you play Darth Vader's previously unknown secret apprentice in an adventure that takes place in between the two movie trilogies, has the greatest story of any Star ..."

"LucasArts is planning an Xbox LIVE and PSN demo for upcoming Star Wars game The Force Unleashed.

Cameron Suey, the producer in charge of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, revealed the news in an interview with VideoGamer.com at a recent press event in London. The details and timing of the demo are, however, still under wraps.

"I'm not certain about the specifics, but we definitely want to get this game out into people's hands," Suey told us. "There are people who are excited ab..."