Pardon our absenteeism lately, life and freelance work have kept us away from you, and our beloved Wii.

There’s some buzz lately about new games coming out at E3, and one of them is a Wii-centric version of the old favorite F-ZERO.  Nintendic writes:

The F-Zero franchise has never been able to reach the heights of the original Super Nintendo game’s sales despite stellar efforts hitting the Nintendo 64 (F-Zero X), GameCube (the SEGA-developed F-Zero GX) and Game Boy Advance (F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, GP Legend, and the Japan-only Climax). But Nintendo has continued to push the game that pre-dated the WipEout franchise and has out-lasted the Extreme-G series of racers by bringing the SNES and Nintendo 64 games to the Virtual Console over the past year.

Real?  Who knows.  Hopeful?  We are!

(for what it’s worth, Gametrailers.com has some good movie clips of F-ZERO on the Virtual Console.   Good times!

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!

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!