March 25 of this year will bring us the long-awaited Okami Wii by Capcom.  From Nintendic’s website:

In Okami, players assume the role of the wolf-embodied sun god Amaterasu to set the world straight after the legendary monster Orochi has come back to life and turned it into a wasteland. The action-adventure title was originally released for the Sony PlayStation 2 last year to great a great critical reception, so perhaps the firm’s decision to bring it to Wii will be more fruitful.

One of the most exciting things about the new release of Okami Wii is the high-er definition stats – Capcom confirmed this week that Okami Wii will support the 16:9 ratio at 480p for those Okami gamers who love their widescreen Wii gaming.

Interested in learning about the original Okami?  Check out this article at Eurogamer for PS2.

The 2008 Game Developers Conference is this week, and some big announcements have come out of the Nintendo camp. Namely, when Wii Ware and the Wii Fit will be released in the U.S. Wii Ware, which will allow you to download full Wii games from the Wii Shop channel, debuts its first releases on May 12. The Wii Fit will be out a week later, on May 19.

Keep up to date on upcoming Wii releases with our Release Dates page, which we update weekly.

Accessory company NYKO has produced a solution for a “problem” that apparently exists with Wii users – the really small cable that goes from the wiimote to the nunchuk. NYKO has created a wireless transmitter that takes that cable completely out of the loop and makes the Wii completely wireless. Once again, NYKO has brought  another innovative product to the world of Wii.  From the NYKO website:

The Cord-Free is a unique wireless adaptor for the Wii Nunchuk that easily converts your wired Nunchuk in to a wireless peripheral for your Wii remote. The ergonomic sleeve easily holds and organizes the Nunchuk, cable and batteries providing a compact, clean and convenient conversion system for the Nunchuk. Once the Nunchuk is inserted in the sleeve, you can now enjoy full wireless freedom with all your favorite Wii games without the hassle of any wires tethering your hands together.

Well, Wii Gamers, if you have the desire to take every single cable out of the loop between the player and the console, this new item from NYKO is your solution. What this writer has to ask about this new product, all of its awesomeness put aside: what kinds of excellent games are you playing that require no wire?

IGN reports that Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution for the Wii has been put on indefinite hiatus. According to a forum post, Firaxis Games does not have the manpower to put out four versions of the game (for PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and Wii), so they are dropping the Wii version.

This is a shame. Civilization 2 is one of my favorite PC games, and I’d love a game for the Wii like this one, where strategy is a bigger focus that shooting or jumping.

2008 IGF finalist World of Goo is now slated to be released on the Nintendo Wii, PC, Mac and Linux platforms.

According to a blurb on developer 2D Boy’s website, the title will hit PC and Wii in 2008, and will be coming to Mac and Linux at a later, unannounced date.

Normally this is the kind of information that would fly under the radar, but as you can see from the above video, World of Goo is a seemingly inventive, adorable amalgam of Lemmings and Worms wrapped in a strikingly well implemented physics system. Plus, to use a technical term, it’s wicked cute.

World of Goo Official Site (2D Boy, via WiiNintendo)

Any of you Nintendo 64 fans remember 1080° Snowboarding?  Nintendo has released 1080° Snowboarding this week for Wii’s Virtual Console.  Any of the old-school snowboarding gamers might remember this title as one of the first “truly realistic” snowboarding video games, with the famous Shigeru Miyamoto on the design team for 1080° Snowboarding.  You might know Shigeru from such classic titles as the Mario Brothers and Super Mario series, Legend of Zelda, as well as a ton of the super-selling games for Nintendo’s Wii.  Oh heck, here’s a full list of Shigeru’s games for Nintendo.

1080° Snowboarding allows players to choose from one of five characters (male and female) that each offer their own flavor of unique attributes and tricks.  The player is also able to choose from a selection of boards before heading down the slopes.

From the official Nintendo 1080° Snowboarding website:

Once you’ve got the gear, six different modes of play, including Match Race, Trick Attack, and 2-Player Versus, await. Pick a course and get ready to experience a sensation of speed that’ll make you forget all about the cold—but it might just send a shiver down your spine. Throw in hidden characters and boards, varying weather and snow conditions, multiple paths through each course, and a variety of tricks to master—topped off with rock-solid play control—and you’ve got a recipe for winter fun that you can enjoy any time of the year. It’s all the fun and excitement of the sport, without the bruises and frostbite!

This classic Nintendo 64 game is available on Wii’s Virtual Console via the Shop Channel.  Remember, you’ll need some Wii Points to purchase games from the Shop Channel, so go get a card!

Dassault Systèmes has announced that it has released its Virtools package of prototyping and full game production tools for the Nintendo Wii, giving developers for the console access to the Behavior Engine and the VSL compilation, as well as new Wii dedicated functionalities.

Dassault says the Wii solutions are “add-on libraries of building blocks specifically dedicated to Wii game prototyping and game development. Game developers will be able to test on the console anytime during the development, using the power of Virtools 4 and its 500 building Blocks and accessing the Wii Remote information from a Virtools application running directly on the PC.”

The company says its Wii-dedicated package will aid in the prototyping and production of not just retail Wii games, but also those for its forthcoming download service, WiiWare.

It also notes that developers will be able to prototype with the WiiMote and tweak the gameplay directly on PC, as well as test output on the console at any point during game development.

“Virtools Wii solutions give the developers the opportunity to validate game design decisions much faster and focus on gameplay production and optimization, creating games with outstanding graphics and cutting edge interactivity,” said Dassault.

thanks Gamasutra!

A current rumor of interest is the fact that a Wii user supposedly sent their console in for repair and it came back with the Repair Disc version 1.3 still in the drive.

I’m not sure if this rumor is a hoax or not, because the disc photo could have been easily doctored. The image originally surfaced on #wiidev on IRC/EFNET. If it is real, I’m sure someone will be posting pirated version on the net in the near future. Nintendo is extremely secretive with their software, so I’m sure they will not be happy about this.

Thanks to Gaming Today for the article.

January 26, 2008 - The 2008 Australian Open comes to a close on Sunday, and so does Nintendo’s Wii Championships, which have been running for the duration of the event at Nintendo’s tent, with the aim of finding the ultimate Wii Sports tennis champion to compete against tennis ace Mark Philippoussis.

Nintendo Australia ran a promotion on Mix 106.5 mornings this week with Sonia Kruger and Todd McKenny, and one lucky listener was given the chance to go to the Australian Open in style, competing head-to-head with Philippoussis, Kruger and McKenny in Wii Sports tennis on the big screen.

The showdown will take place on Sunday, January 27, at 5.15pm at Garden Square inside Melbourne Park, and prior to that, the two lucky – and undoubtedly well-versed – winners from the Wii Championships will duke it out on the big screen to decide the champion, who’ll then team up with Philippoussis, against Kruger and McKenny.

Courtesy of Aussie-Nintendo.com

Star Tropics was released for the Wii Virtual Console!

As far as I am concerned, this is one of the top three old NES games EVER, and you can very soon look forward to some screen shots and more in-depth information about the game. If you’ve never heard of Star Tropics, or have never played this fantastic classic NES title, check out the Wikipedia article for some in-depth background info.

You need Wii Points to purchase this game, since it is a Virtual Console title. Get a Wii Points Card here!

On Monday, January 21, The Nintendo Company announced a new round of Virtual Console titles for the Wii console. Among those mentioned was Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. Super Street Fighter II boasts some new characters as well – T. Hawk, Deejay, Fei Long, and Cammy will soon be fighting in your living room!

The Super Street Fighter II game retails for 800 Wii Points. You need Wii Points to purchase these Virtual Console games through the store on your Wii.

The Adventures of Lolo 2 for the NES is a sequel of the original, The Adventures of Lolo. The second entry, retailing for 500 Wii Points, Lala is captured by The Great Devil and challenges Lolo to rescue her.

More announcements as soon as we get them!

Game Developers’ Conference Executive Director Jamil Moledina unrolled an announcement that there will be not one, not two, but three Nintendo-centric talks at this year’s conference. Brawl, Wii Fit, and WiiWare are on the agenda, and the staff at WeKnowWii is getting ready to ride the torrent of news that we know is coming about the conference this year.

Check out Jamil’s notice about the Nintendo talks.

Since the release of Wii Fit in Japan in December, over a million unit sales have been recorded. Due to this rapid sales stint in Japan, Wii Fit has proven to be one of the fastest selling games in this new generation of games and consoles.

Wii Fit is a first-of-its-kind type of game, with the main attraction being a balance-board type device that acts as the primary controller. The Wii Fit Balance Board controller is designed to determine your weight and center of gravity, and acts as the liaison between the Wii and a real workout.

There has been no concrete release date for the United States yet for Wii Fit; as soon as we know, you’ll know. You can sign up on Amazon to be notified of Wii Fit’s release and availability.

For those fans of the game Sam and Max for your desktop, a German-language press release today made an allusion to a possible Sam and Max game for Wii! From the article:

“One of the next projects: Sam & Max. The Adventure of the year, as chosen by the readers of the German PC Games (2/2008 issue), Sam & Max will soon be hunting criminals on the Nintendo Wii.”

A Sam and Max Wii game? Outstanding! We hope to see some more information on this exciting possible release, and we will unveil it as it comes!

From The People, UK:

Make Way for the Q Wii N!
“The gadget-loving Queen has become HOOKED on Prince William’s new Nintendo Wii games console.  William’s girlfriend Kate Middleton bought him the £200 gift for Christmas – but he now has to share it with his grandma.

A Palace source told The People: “When she saw William playing a game after lunch at Sandringham she thought the Nintendo looked tremendous fun and begged to join in. “She played a simple ten-pin bowling game and by all accounts was a natural. “It was hilarious. William was in fits of laughter. He was enormously impressed at having such a cool gran.”

Read the rest of the article here

Thanks to Bryan for submitting this article!