Filed under: Rumors

We felt a brief jolt of excitement when we saw this graphic on the new Japanese Metroid series website. Right under the boxarts for the two New Play Control Metroid Prime remakes and Metroid Prime 3, this graphic teases "Another side story -- coming soon"! The Japanese text underneath says "Follow the history of Metroid Prime from the perspective of the Space Pirates", which would potentially be a pretty cool game.

However, we don't think it's going to be a new Metroid Prime spinoff at all. For one thing, Nintendo wouldn't really tease a new game like that, and certainly not in Japan, where nobody cares about Metroid. Given that the site provides quick synopses of each game's storyline, we're guessing this is going to be some story retrospective -- as in just a thing on the site. Most likely, it's some clever way of packaging the whole backstory of the series for new players. But for us, it'll be just more incomprehensible Japanese text.

It could be a new game, but it probably isn't. Whatever it is, we'll find out -soon-!

[Via NeoGAF]

Okay, so we already knew about Atlus's ridiculous surge of DS releases in the first quarter of this year, thanks to the ESRB and, later, Atlus. But what about Q2? In a discovery that will no doubt exasperate Atlus's PR staff, a Siliconera reader found five more unannounced Atlus games on Amazon.ca, all with projected release dates between April and June.

The four new DS games are: Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier, Sting's Knights in the Nightmare and Dokapon Journey, and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, known as Megami Ibunroku Devil Survivor in Japan. The one PSP release in the store's database is Crimson Gem Saga, which is known as Garnet Chronicle in Japan and Astonishia Story 2 in Korea.

The bad news is that all we have to go on is Siliconera's word and this image. The listings have all been pulled if they were there.

Last year's de Blob found a squishy, colorful place in all of our hearts and, more importantly, sold enough copies to make THQ keen on a sequel. Speaking to IGN, a representative for the publisher expressed pleasure at de Blob's performance worldwide, promising that we can "expect to see more of de Blob in the future." We'll hold you to that, THQ.

Something else of interest in IGN's article: NPD data shows that de Blob sold 230,000 copies in North America between September 22 and the end of 2008, whereas Wario Land: Shake It! moved only 150,000 copies in the exact same period. de Blob isn't just a third-party "core" success -- it's even outsold a rival title from Nintendo!


[Via NeoGAF]

March 26, 2009. That's when this mysterious Play-Asia listing says that Space Invaders Extreme 2 will be out in Japan (and therefore available from the importer). The listing has a DS product number that leads to other Japanese retailers' listings for the same thing -- which contain product descriptions! The most extensive description shows new features like a new "bingo system", boss formations, and enhanced multiplayer modes.

With all these details, we're inclined to believe that this is real, and it's coming (to Japan) really soon. We've been playing more Space Invaders Extreme lately, and we're more certain than ever that it was one of the best games of 2008. We are officially entering FEVER TIME! We're totally setting ourselves up for crushing disappointment if it turns out not to be. Won't you join us in getting our hopes way, way up?


[Via Siliconera]

Ubisoft has stopped short of saying HEY GUYS RED STEEL 2 IS TOTALLY COMING, but we can be reasonably certain it's on the way.

Previously, the game's producer has talked openly about the sequel to Ubisoft's Wii launch slash-a-thon, and now it seems Ubi CEO Yves Guillemots has really given the game away, with a careless slip of Gallic tongue.

Speaking at a conference call earlier today, Guillemots announced that "We have lots of products coming for the Wii next [fiscal] year. We have Red Steel --," before halting himself mid-sentence and apologizing. Whoops! Call us wild rumor-mongers if you like, but it's safe to assume that the next word out of Guillemot's mouth would have been "2."

For some reason, it never occurred to us that Sega would want to make a sequel to Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, but of course they would. Wouldn't you, if your game was one of the best-selling games on the best-selling console? Not even Sonic Team would botch that decision.

This purported scan from Nintendo Acción magazine teases a new Sonic and Mario title with the following text (as translated by Sega Nerds): "Who are these two and why do they come to see each other? Find out all the details on the mystery game in the next magazine. But before that, here are some clues: Games, Olympics, Cold, It's winter..."

Either this is a super obvious hint of a Winter Olympics-based sequel, or a fake magazine page, or intentional misdirection from the magazine.


[Via Joystiq]

According to Gamekyo, the Wii de Asobu/New Play Control remake of Retro Studios' Metroid Prime has been scheduled for release in Japan on February 12. We're not sure where they got that date, but it seems reasonable enough, given the biweekly releases so far in the series of Gamecube updates.

While it will be interesting to see how the Japanese Wii audience reacts to Prime, this is most relevant to gamers outside of Japan due to the fact that the Pikmin and Mario Tennis remakes are expected to be out in North America and Europe in February and March, very soon after the releases of those two games in Japan. This means that we could possibly see Metroid Prime sometime in the first half of this year -- although Donkey Kong Jungle Beat came out in Japan before either of those others, and we haven't seen that one yet.

Once again, GameStop has fuelled release rumors by posting a North American launch date for Guitar Hero: Metallica: March 29 is the date you'll want to circle (lightly, in pencil) on your Lars 2009 calendars.

Though that's obviously not a confirmed date, it is a plausible one. "March 29" is a little too random to be a placeholder date, and is also a Sunday, a popular release day for big-name titles. Even if the franchise has reached the peak of its popularity, we still feel pretty confident about calling Guitar Hero: Metallica "big-name."

Meanwhile, Activision had no qualms about revealing release details for Europe, informing Eurogamer that the game would reach the region in May.

Source: Possible North American date [Via Destructoid]
Source: Confirmed European date

IGN's Matt Casamassina reports that "multiple sources close to Nintendo" have specified a release date and price point for the eagerly-awaited (by us, anyway) North American release of the Nintendo DSi. According to whomever, the system will be released on April 4, for a crushing $179.99. It's still a deal compared to the Japanese DSi, which retails in Japan for 18,900 yen ($212) and can be imported for $250, but it's also $20 less than an Xbox 360 and $10 more than a PSP.

This timing basically falls in line with previous comments from Nintendo about the DSi's North American release. Reggie Fils-Aime said last fall that the system would launch "certainly after April", but context indicated that he meant within fiscal 2009, which starts in April.


[Via Joystiq]

We imagine going against Nintendo is a bit like going against the mob. Don't talk out against Friend Codes and you won't find your house burned down. You know, that kind of thing. And, if the latest IGN Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast is to be believed, a "major" upcoming game will be doing away with Nintendo's antiquated system.

So, which game is it? Well, speculation first moved to The Conduit, but Joystiq confirmed with inside sources that it would indeed utilize Friend Codes. Which upcoming online-compatible major game could it be? Well, we're not sure, so toss us your guesses.

[Via Joystiq]

Siliconera's Spencer noticed a trademark in the European trademark database, filed on January 8, for something called "Nintendo Active Health". He correctly eliminated Nintendo's DS walking game Personal Trainer: Walking, which is called Walk With Me: Do you know your walking routine? in Europe.

Unfortunately, that leaves us with the problem of what Nintendo Active Health is. It could be an upcoming fitness-based game, perhaps a sequel to Wii Fit; or maybe something with more of an emphasis on other health-related topics besides exercise, like eating habits. Or it could just be an abandoned name for Wii Fit (like "Health Pack") that Nintendo didn't want anyone else using. Less likely, it could be some kind of hardware warranty program, for the health of your console!


[Via Joystiq]

How does a satellite image of Indianapolis link to imminent Nintendo news? That's the question posed by Nintendo Power's latest "Next Month" teaser. Seemingly yanked straight from Google Maps, this is one of the vaguest hints we've seen from the magazine for some time, and one that has predictably set message boards and comment threads alight.

The most popular guess we've seen concerns some kind of Google content appearing on the Wii, which doesn't sound implausible, but is that really worth building hype in this way? Other speculation ranges from a localized Disaster: Day of Crisis to a Pilotwings game to (with absolutely crushing inevitablity) Earthbound. Your speculation, show us it!

Amazon has updated their listing for Rhythm Heaven with some new boxart, along with a terrible new release date and terrible new price: November 30 and $40, respectively. We are hoping against hope that these are both just placeholders, because while we will wait that long and pay that much, we really, really don't want to. The game is out in Japan! It was shown off at E3 2008! It's done!

All we know for sure is that Rhythm Heaven is not coming out in the first quarter of this year. Nintendo's press site still has it scheduled for "1st half 2009." However, the fact that Gamestop has no listing at all for it does suggest that it's fairly far off.


[Via GoNintendo]

Okay, this is all pretty tenuous, but super interesting: apparently, a Sega of Europe employee kept a blog last year in which he revealed some stuff about NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams that he shouldn't have, well before the game's release. The posts have since been removed, but the Wayback Machine allows us to have a look back!

According to the blog post, Journey of Dreams was originally developed as an Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 title, and was hastily shunted to the Wii when the platform's success became obvious -- despite protests from director Takashi Iizuka. The 360 version was at least far enough along to be playable! The quick change in plans meant that NiGHTS' development time was effectively shortened. If you didn't like the game, you have something on which to blame the problems!

Also interesting, if this blog post is really as vintage as it looks (we don't discount some kind of Internet trickery): the blogger dropped a pretty big hint about a future Sega game, saying that Sonic Team should be freed from Sonic games, "... before they release another Sonic game with a transforming Evil 'Night' Sonic who looks like a werewolf and can stretch his arms out Dhalsim-style. It will happen, mark my words."


[Via tssznews, via NeoGAF]

Super Mario Bros. has been the best-selling game of all time for years now, but that throne may have been usurped by another Nintendo title: Wii Sports. According to VGChartz, Wii Sports has surpassed that coveted 40.24 million mark.

We're keeping this a rumor because, uh, it's VGChartz. They're never too good about sourcing their stuff and, to tell the truth, we've only ever heard one person claim their data was correct (it was in our interview with 2D Boy here). It's not that we don't believe Wii Sports could top the original NES game, we're just skeptical of VGChartz.

[Via Joystiq]