Rockstar is remaining mostly tight-lipped about the Wi-Fi modes in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, but Stephen Totilo used tickling the fact that he is Stephen Totilo to lure an interesting tidbit from the developer.

By swapping Friend Codes (yes, they're present), players will be able to send mapped waypoints to one another via the sorcery that is Nintendo Wi-Fi. This is executed using the miniature map that appears on the touchscreen, and works very much like the satellite navigation tech you may have in your car. By tapping on a location on your map, the game draws the shortest route to that point. You can then transmit that data to a buddy.

The idea here is that players will work collaboratively, helping each other to uncover hidden items, complete missions, and generally find their way around the very large Liberty City. This may turn out to be only one small part of Chinatown Wars' Wi-Fi play, but it's still really nifty!

This pretty sweet Sonic and the Black Knight boxart emerged last month, inadvertently revealing that Sega had a whole new "Storybook Series" planned for Sonic. It also sported the Nintendo Wi-Fi logo, but the exact nature of the game's online mode wasn't clear -- until now.

For those of you hoping for online sword duels: sorry, that's not happening. Siliconera's Spencer discovered a listing for the game on the site of Japanese retailer Rakuten which revealed Wi-Fi play would consist of trading items (Black Knight has 200+ items for you to hunt down) and ... some kind of ranking system. As it stands, you'll have to wait a bit longer for your chance to impale fellow Wii owners on the pointy end of Excalibur.


[Via Siliconera]

The DS has a lot of great multiplayer games, even if Nintendo Wi-Fi isn't always on the ball (and even if too many games have only local multiplayer). Still, with the option of multiplayer added into the mix for so many already-great games, it's hard to complain. What's your favorite DS multiplayer game lately, and your all-time favorite? What is it about these games that keeps you turning the handheld on?

There's not much going on this week unless you're a DS fan in North America. If not, you're a bit out of luck, as Europe, Australia, and Japan have no new games scheduled this week, and here ... well, there's a slight scattering of other games, but mostly? It's the DS show. We've got at least one interesting title headed out, too: the Elebits follow up. Moon is scheduled, but we think that one's really headed out next week rather than this week. Time and the store shelves will tell, though.

• Animated
• Bigfoot: Collision Course
• Elebits: The Adventures of Kai & Zero
• Jumble Madness
• Moon
• Paws & Claws: Pampered Pets

If you see your Wii's slot light a-glowing in the next few hours, then don't worry -- it's not some homebrew-destroying firmware update (or, regrettably, the storage solution as an early surprise Christmas present). Rather, it's Nintendo trying to bend your ear with an e-mail advert for award-winning WiiWare hit World of Goo.

It's massively heartening to see the big N spreading the message for 2D Boy's puzzler (and for anything on WiiWare, actually). Next time some chump complains about Nintendo failing to lend a hand to third-parties, point them this way, eh?

Activision has revealed the January line-up of downloadable content for Guitar Hero World Tour will be fronted by Mancunian professional scowlers Oasis. On January 29, the eight tracks from 2008 album "Dig Out Your Soul" that haven't already appeared as World Tour DLC will be yours to download.* Other than that, we'll be getting various themed weeks: one on country music, one with Australian bands, and one based on, um, the works of Travis Barker.

* INCOMING: Wii Fanboy opinion on modern music to show we are 'down with the kids': "Dig Out Your Soul" is probably their best album since 1995 -- not difficult to believe, because they've recorded some real nonsense since then.

December 23:

• "Use Me" by Hinder
• "Because of You" by Nickelback
• "Light it Up" by Rev Theory
  

January 8th:

• "Me and My Gang" by Rascal Flatts
• "Ticks" by Brad Paisley
• "Hillbilly Deluxe" by Brooks & Dunn
  

January 15th:

• "What's My Age Again" by Blink-182
• "Lycanthrope" by +44
• "Low" by Travis Barker
  

January 22nd:

• "Tomorrow" by Silverchair
• "Dimension" by Wolfmother
• "Outtathaway!" by The Vines
  

January 29th: (Oasis)

• "Dig Out Your Soul" by Oasis (full album, each track available separately)

See embedded footage of these on the other side of the jump.

With the onset of winter, the latest Mario Kart Wii tournament features a thematically appropriate choice of track: the snowy peaks of DK Summit. From today, you can hop online and complete a single lap of the twisty course in the quickest time possible. On your way, you'll also have to pass through a bunch of deviously placed gates, or your time won't register. The closing date for this is December 25, so you've got another ten days to work on beating the whole world at Mario Kart Wii.* You won't be short of challengers.

* Note: Beating the world is not as great as winning Wii Points, primarily because beating the world won't buy you River City Ransom. But it's still to be encouraged.


[Via Nintendo Everything]

As Phantasy Star Zero's Christmas Day release (in Japan) draws closer, we're being taunted with more and more media. The newest video showcases the excellent Pictochat-style chat system, which comes across as a more flexible, expanded version of the Symbol Chat system from previous games.

As well as simply writing/drawing what you wish to say "live," you'll be able to save a bunch of preset sketches (because drawing stuff like this as a Rappy pecks your face off isn't practical), and simply tap a menu to bring them up. We don't know how many preset speech bubbles you can store in this way, but the player in this video has around twenty in his inventory, so ... at least that many. Also, if somebody sends you a drawing you really like, you can save it and pass it off as your own use it yourself!

We knew it was coming and it's finally available for download. The Nirvana track pack for Guitar Hero: World Tour features songs "Negative Creep," "Sliver" and "You Know You're Right," with each costing you a cool 200 Wii Points. As usual, if you want to hear the songs before you go spending, head past the break.

• "Negative Creep" - 200 Wii Points
  
• "Sliver" - 200 Wii Points
  
• "You Know You're Right" - 200 Wii Points
  

Because Activision loves you all equally, it's decided to offer a bunch of downloadable Guitar Hero World Tour tracks from European bands.

Our knowledge of non-UK European music extends to ABBA, Kraftwerk, and, embarrassingly, 2 Unlimited, so we're laughably out of our depth commenting on these (though Swedish group Backyard Babies already appeared in Guitar Hero III, so that name does ring a bell). Mind you, some of them sound pretty good (videos of all six follow the break), and we're certain our millions of Dutch readers are going wild over the inclusion of Di-Rect. 200 Wii points each, if you're interested.

• "'54, '74, '90, 2010" by Sportfreunde Stiller (Germany)
• "Dis Moi" by BB Brunes (France)
• "Por La Boca Vive El Pez" by Fito Y Fitipaldis (Spain)
• "Mama Mae" by Negrita (Italy)
• "Degenerated" by Backyard Babies (Sweden)
• "Johnny" by Di-Rect (Holland)
  

Square Enix has announced plans to release Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time in North America next spring. The cross-platform ARPG will let players of the DS and Wii editions fight, level up, and build junk together, regardless of which console they're playing on. Both versions will come out on the same day, because that's kind of the point. Worryingly, GameStop has the Wii game priced at $10 more than its DS cousin -- in Japan, both cost the same.

Lumping DS and Wii players together means both games are pretty much identical (minus some on-screen furniture), but also allows us to pass the DS gallery off as a Wii gallery. Handy!

[Via press release]

Those online Tetris Party tournaments won't just enhance your fearsome internet reputation -- they'll also offer Wii Points as prizes, a pretty awesome way of keeping player interest high. The first tournament kicks off December 1st, and contains four rounds, each featuring one of Tetris Party's eighteen variations. After you complete a round, the game will give you a rank and confirmation code, which you can register at the official Tetris Party tournament site. Perform strongly over all four rounds, and you could win!

Five hundred prizes are up for grabs (though how many points will be given away isn't known), and we're fairly sure this is a global contest -- there's no mention of regional restrictions in the press release. Skip past the break for start dates, end dates, and other details of the first tournament, then get practicing!

It's not to say that the company hasn't been mindful of community features in the past. They've launched the Check Mii Out Channel, as well as the Everybody Votes Channel. Sure, they were flops, but it's good to know that Nintendo is at least trying. And Reggie wants us to know that Nintendo has some things coming down the pipe.

"Nintendo has always had a vision on community," he said. "The issue is that we define community differently than our competitors. ... Our consumers do want a sense of community, and we're going to deliver that--but in a way that is unique to Nintendo." Thanks for being so vague, Reg!

Regardless, it's good to know Nintendo is thinking about it. Stacked up against Xbox Live and, even worse, PSN, the Wii is lacking in some very necessary community features. Why don't you all take a guess? What do you think Nintendo has up its sleeve? Personally, we'd appreciate Virtual Console and WiiWare demos and maybe more online multiplayer.


[Via GameDaily; thanks, Mr Khan!]

Contrary to what we originally heard, it looks like the Wii Speak Channel won't be launching alongside Animal Crossing: City Folk on November 16th.

IGN snapped a picture of the WiiSpeak box, complete with a disclaimer that the Channel (which allows chat outside of Animal Crossing) will actually appear in December. When in December isn't clear, though we know the Channel will be available in Europe from December 5th, so maybe then. Until then, you're just going to have to pick fruit and chat simultaneously. We can probably cope with that!

Game Watch has a dozen new Dragon Quest IX screens, all of which are now ensconced in our gallery.

Besides revealing the obvious (the obvious being: Dragon Quest IX is totally beautiful), they include the first glimpse of the Wi-Fi cooperative multiplayer in action (right). It seems to work logically enough: players take turns to issue commands, with each human participant's choices marked out with color-coded symbols, so you can tell what your allies intend to do, and curse loudly when your mage friend neglects to save you with an antidotal herb and decides to attack instead.

Another nice touch is the way your on-screen character's appearance changes as you load him up with equipment and accessories. Just imagining you're wearing all that alchemical bling is soooo 2004.