We aren't sure if Nintendo of Japan operates like Nintendo of America, but if their website can actually be trusted to predict the VC and WiiWare releases for a given week, this week's crop of games is embarrassingly huge. Five Virtual Console games, only two of which are shooters (and one of which, Twinbee, is genuinely worth five hundred points, even if it is a not-so-great port of an arcade game), and three WiiWare games. Of course, one of the WiiWare games is the second Go game on the service, but it's Nintendo's version, and is thus pretty nice, with online play and instruction and such.

The less familiar VC games include Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi, a horror visual novel about a school; Eikan no Kimi ni, a baseball management simulation from A-Train developers Artdink; and Dragon Saber, the sequel to Dragon Spirit.

Virtual Console:

• Twinbee (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
• Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Master System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
• Eikan no Kimi Ni: Koukou Yakyuu Zenkoku Taikai (PC Engine, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
• Dragon Saber (PC Engine, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)

WiiWare:

• Tsuushin Taikyoku: Igo Dojo 2700-mon (1-2 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Silver Star Chess (1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
  
• Wild West Guns (1-2 players, 1,000 Wii Points)

Next week, Silver Star Japan's Saikyou Ginsei Shogi will be joined on Japan's WiiWare service by a sequel of sorts. Another of their board game simulations (Silver Star is planning a series of six), Saikyou Ginsei Igo will be released as a download by EA Japan. Like Ginsei Shogi, this new game will be a Wii version of a traditional board game: this time, Go. It features 1-2 player modes, customizable board sizes and difficulty levels, and a hint option to help new players.

If you'd like to see a virtual board game being played, a trailer is available at the game's website. We're hoping for Saikyou Ginsei Crocodile Dentist next.


[Via Inside-Games]

The Go! Video Download Service will launch in early 2008, and will be the first official PSP video download service in Europe. Users will not only be able to access Sky's content, which includes sports, entertainment, movies, music and animation -- they'll also have access to third-party channels and content. This is the first time Sky has offered video content through a non-Sky branded service.

Additional pay-per-view services will be provided for new release movies and high profile sporting events. Users will not only be able to download the content from a PC, but they'll be able to download directly to their PSP systems through wi-fi.

"Both truly mobile and with a best in class high-quality screen, PSP delivers a great on-the-move video experience. Working with such a well known content brand, we will be able to offer PSP owners access to the best in cross-genre Sky content, available through the first official video download service. This really will make PSP the standout all-in-one portable gaming, video and music device", commented David Reeves, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. [Update: Kotaku has confirmed that this service is unlikely to ever come to America. "There is nothing really nationwide in the U.S. that delivers video content over the air by subscription. So, until that happens we won't be seeing that in the U.S."]

Any time a Japanese game is colorful and quirky, the word Katamari comes out and our ears perk up. In fact, Siliconera mentioned both Katamari Damacy and Gitaroo Man in the first sentence of this article, ensuring that we would read it. Gitaroo Man is a certain blogger's favorite game, and Katamari is pretty close, despite neither of these actually being on Nintendo consoles.

Unfortunately, the palette and the wackiness are apparently the only similarities between this and Katamari. Siliconera cites excessively limited domino-dropping gameplay, movement that is also hampered by the domino mechanic, and checkpoints that drop Minon in seemingly random, nonsensical locations as game-breaking issues. It's really too bad the game isn't great, because dude, look at that boxart.

Don't get us wrong, we used to like Dragonball Z. When we were, like, twelve. But with the announcement of yet another DBZ game coming to the Wii, we can't help but think of all the other deserving anime franchises that could use the gaming treatment. The import Naruto titles on the 'Cube were spectacular, and we hear that the Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist titles aren't half bad.

You guys probably watch more anime than us, so which series, no matter how obscure, would you have make its way to the Wii? How about Read or Die, which could make very interesting use of the Wiimote for the various paper-based powers, or maybe Hikaru no Go, as a cool boardgame/RPG tandem title? Come forth, otaku, we summon thee!

A new Game Night contender is on the way to Japan. Hudson released some screenshots of Selected Wi-Fi Table Games, a collection of six classic games in the vein of Clubhouse Games. And by "in the vein of Clubhouse Games" we mean "pretty much the same as Clubhouse Games." The major difference seems to be nationwide ranking, which is admittedly pretty cool.

The included games are Go, Renju, Reversi, Hanafuda, Mah-jongg, and something called Oodomi that uses Western playing cards. The bottom screen shows the game board or table, while the top screen displays character avatars and score information. At the risk of editorializing too much, the online competition had better be mind-blowing to make up for the severe lack of selection.

Forum posters at Eurogamer unearthed a job posting seeking a C++ programmer for the development of Go for Xbox Live Arcade. According to Eurogamer, the job posting stated that, "this role will involve writing a Xbox 360 title for Xbox Live Arcade. The game will be an adaptation of the classic board game Go, and will support a 3D view and networked Xbox Live play."

The job posting looks to be missing from the page, so we're going to have to take Eurogamer's word that it once existed. Because of that, and since the project may never come to fruition, we're going to treat this as a rumor until we hear something through some more official channels. That said, we're extremely amused by the thought of Xbox Live younguns trash-talking their way through this traditional Chinese board game.

Microsoft had a Go variant, Reversi, packaged with Windows XP, but it does not seem to be included with Windows Vista.

[Via Eurogamer]

Supposedly, this N Gamer magazine had much more info than we previously reported on. A large supply of information from the magazine apart from what we've reported has apparently been confirmed to be true over at Go Nintendo. This information deals with the Wiimote, sensor bar, and Will Wright's Spore respectively.

The Wiimote is to take 2 AA batteries and turn them into 60 hours of gameplay. Should the player be using the sensor bar, however, then the time is cut in half to 30 hours. Either way, that's incredible. Also, the 6kb of internal memory confirmed to be included in the Wiimote is going to be used to "personalize your remote," which we assume is code for "store profile settings."

As for the sensor bar, the magazine states that the previous version that was seen at E3 has been made smaller. The magazine compares the size to that of a "couple of pencils glued together."

The magazine also confirms that Will Wright's foray into playing God through his game Spore is going to be possible on the Wii. Apparently, the Wii version will interact with the DS version by allowing the player to transmit data from one to the other seamlessly. This will allow players to "deform species on the fly."

They also speak some on the use of SD cards, reiterating that they will be used to house Virtual Console titles. The problem is that you may not play them on another Wii. They refer to this as "Digital Rights Management."

Though Satoru Iwata failed to use any name other than "Revolution" in his recent GDC keynote, it's now been officially confirmed that Nintendo's next-generation console will be given a new and presumably improved label sometime before its glorious release. In an interview with IGN, Nintendo's PR master, Beth Llewelyn, quite bluntly states that the name we've come to know and love (and plaster all across our website) will be adorned with cement shoes and sent to the bottom of a lake:

IGN: Is Revolution the final name of your new system?

Beth: No, it's not.

IGN: So it's definitely a codename?

Beth: It's a codename.

IGN: And it's going to change?

Beth: It is going to change.

Goodbye Revolution, hello...Nintendo Go? When queried about the recent and supposed leaks regarding the latter name, Beth claims that she has no idea what that is. "I have no idea what that is. I haven't been on the Internet yet today, but I have no idea what that is." Sounds like a marketing non-denial to me.

We'll be glad to lay this minor mystery to rest when E3 comes around and return to what's far more important - the games!