Thanks to our friend Valay for the info!

House of the Dead 2

- Basically two ports put together, but looks better - $29.99
- Gun calibration is good
- New feature: will talk about it next week

Sega Superstars Tennis

- Game looks very good, but slows down for some mini-games
- Essentially Virtua Tennis with Sega characters
- DS version isn’t as elaborate
- No online for both Wii and DS versions
- People can play with different controls against each other

Ninja Gaiden DS

- Craig doesn’t think it’ll do well (sales)
- Craig loves it so far - played training level
- Comfortable to hold as book setup

Mario Kart

- Not a pretty game: Craig, Bland look - Matt
- Fun - comparable to DS version
- Craig only played it for 10 minutes, feels there is a bit of a learning curve for Wiimote
- Control feels loser than Excite Truck
- Speed - very fast - 60 FPS. Good sense of speed, opportunities for boosting.
- Snaking seems to be gone because power slide is changed - Craig
- 12 people online. Can go online with friend at house (split-screen mode), 4-player local
- MANY stats in the game - 7 pages of stats
- 32 tracks (16 old, 16 new) - Mall level is crazy.
- Reggie feels Mario Kart Wii is a “bridge game.”
- Can choose from automatic/manual power sliding

Pay to Play

- Certain games will have red icon which means it’s a pay to play game - subscribe to particular game
- Bozon, Matt, Craig all think Animal Crossing will use it
- Downloadable content would go for AC as well

- Matt talked to Reggie during a lunch event about hard drive at E3 - Reggie said “Eh…We’ll see”

Soma Bringer

- Battles real time
- Looks great, has good style, music, presentation, animation
- Whole game looks smooth - Bozon

Battle of the Bands

- Craig thinks it’s cool
- Simple game, have Guitar Hero scrolling - follow along

GDC

- Nintendo announced Wii Fit will release for under $100
- Matt believes price will be $89
- Clones will follow: Ex: Nintendogs -> Petz
- 10 Wii balance board games in development
- 1 million units will be available at launch
- Wii Fit is like a real workout

Sakurai interview

- No new magic characters
- No downloadable content (just stages through level editor)
- Sakurai laughed when Matt said it was hard to believe that other third parties didn’t contact Sakurai about putting their characters in Brawl

Bloom Blox

- Has head-tracking

3DV -> Z-camera

- Camera you set up below TV
- Grabs locks on head, fingerpoints, etc
- IR camera to see 3D image
- Might be basis for Wii2 or PS4
- Can set cut off point for no interference

WiiWare

- LostWinds - looks better than many Wii games
- Direct wind, do puzzles. Like Kirby Canvas Curse
- Disc-based mini-games will have competition from WiiWare
- Tom Prata said WiiWare game releases will be like Virtual Console, Reggie said tons could release

- Craig was surprised about Commodore 64

Reader questions

- Voice chat coming, hopefully will happen in near future (E3?) -> Improved online system for pay
- Wiimote + Nunchuck MKWii setup (guess) - analog stick = steering, A+B = accel/brake, power-slide = Z, D-pad = items
- FFCC (not WiiWare project) - not canceled, in development
- Nintendo will be one of the last to get into head-tracking, if at all
- Mario Kart will be released later than Europe (we get Brawl first)
- Mario Kart graphics looked like it came from Nintendo’s B-team
- Storage: Something has to happen later - SD card or hard drive
- Craig will reveal DS game that people don’t know about soon (hopefully)
- No REAL hockey game for Wii yet
- Games can take advantage of other Wii channels
- Red Steel 2 was given to another team
- Okami version Matt has bars, doesn’t have filter
- Matt thinks some storage option coming because of downloadable content