Remember when IGN's Matt Casamassina said he was going to reveal a DS Halo game? No, the other time. The time when he said we were all going to be owned. Well, it didn't happen-- we'd probably remember if it did, and if we didn't, our search feature would. We don't feel owned.

According to a post on the IGN forums by Mr. Casamassina, the ownage has merely been delayed until after E3. He's already drained pretty much any goodwill Halo fans may have had toward him, so he can afford to take his time. After being jerked around so long, we doubt we can be owned by Halo DS news.

The clues are beginning to come together: there's a countdown on the official site of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and some rumblings of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption news coming around May 20th. In this month once reserved for the mighty E3, it's been quite some time since Nintendo has held a major press conference. Finally, good 'ol Matt has made it perfectly clear in a recent IGN Mailbag: he's on his way to Seattle next week for some mysterious reason, and it's not for Starbucks.

About freakin' time, Nintendo. For a company still claiming that the big three will release in 2007, they've been awfully tight-lipped about the impending trio. We look forward to bringing you some surely awesome news coming next week ... uh, you know, assuming that this actually happens.

Put on your sleuthing caps, ladies and gents, we have a bonafide mystery on our hands. Surely you remember, with chagrin and unfulfilled longing, the news of the canceled Halo DS project, reported by IGN editor-in-chief Matt Casamassina. He even went so far as to say that he played the title, and love him or hate him, Matt tends to speak verily.

Enter: last night's San Francisco Halo 3 beta event. The Bungie team, responsible for the development of all things Halo, were interviewed by numerous gaming outlets and media sources, including one Rumor Reporter. When asked about the ill-fated Halo DS, Bungie's Brian Gerrard, Director of Franchise and Community Affairs, commented, "Wow, I have never heard or seen such a project, nor do we have plans for any DS Halo title."

We doubt either of these two respected news sources were lying or mistaken, which leaves the question: who made the mysterious Halo DS, the one Matt C. played? There's only one obvious answer, of course.

Shiggy made it.

[Thanks, Bruce!]

In this week's IGN Wii-k In Review podcast, Mr. Casamassina unleashed a rumor that promptly sent eighty-nine fans into spontaneous combustion (including poor David, his skin is coal black): Soul Calbur might be coming to the Wii. He refuses to speak the title by name, fearing some sort of silly massive lawsuit, but he comments that a very popular third-party fighting franchise seen on the Gamecube is coming to the Wii. Unless you count the import Naruto 3, Soul Calibur from Namco is pretty much the end-all-be-all of third-party fighting games on the 'Cube.

However, he also comments that the franchise will no longer be seen as a fighting game, but as an adventure game. The mythos behind Soul Calibur certainly has the potential to drive a fully-fledged adventure, but will the play mechanics remain similar? And are we just getting this as a runner-up prize because the 360 and PS3 might receive the long-awaited Soul Calibur 4? Only Miss Cleo time will tell.

Friend codes, shmf ... shmiend ... point is, whatever. A minor inconvenience, we say! Hah! Bearer of good fortunes, Matt C. has this to say in his holy scripture mailbag feature, revealing "[Online is] coming, guys - Pokemon Battle Revolution kicks it off in the near future, but in the next six months you're going to start seeing a wave of third party games that take Wii online, too. Developers have had the online SDK for months now and the next wave of titles will incorporate it."

Goodness me, we're excited. The longer the developers have had the development kits, the better chances of getting some decent multiplayer going on. Even if these titles suck, the more online experience Nintendo has before Brawl (and possibly Prime?), the better. Friend codes be damned, I'll enter a million digits if it means kicking the crap out of all of you with Icarus. Oh yeah. Wii Game Night is so going down.

Rumor has it that Crave Entertainment is going to publish a version of Dave Mirra BMX Challenge on the Wii. The rumored release date is Q3 2007 and the game is said to retail for $39.99 USD. The source of the rumor comes from Codename Revolution, who say a distribution contact of theirs confirms the news. Still, even if it is true, is anyone even interested?

The weird thing about BMX titles is that none have really enjoyed the success of the Tony Hawk series. That isn't for wanting, though, as the Matt Hoffman and Dave Mirra games tried to enjoy the skateboarding game's success in the BMX world. So, are you one of those BMX fans? Looking forward to some BMX action on the Wii?

Matt Cassamassina over at IGN has updated his blog with a supremely interesting entry: apparently, a version of Halo was quite deep in development for the Nintendo DS. Though several publishing mishaps resulted in the eventual cancellation of the project, one must wonder what could have been.

Indeed, Matt C. even got to play an early build of the project, impressed with the accurate recreation of perhaps the world's most popular console shooter. He compares the gameplay to that of Metroid Prime: Hunters, but, you know, Halo-fied. Certainly, when you walk past the pearly gates and into Gamestop's heaven branch, this game will be at the forefront. You know, right next to Chrono Break and NiGHTs 2.

Matt must have slept with Perrin or something, because IGN got their grubby mitts on a Wii debugging unit and a few games, to boot. On the latest IGN Weekly, Matt spends around ten minutes going through the Wii interface (mainly, the options menu) in detail. The menu seems to confirm the existence of one Wii code per system, as opposed to per game, which should make matchmaking at least slightly more convenient. He goes through Sound, Screen, Parental Controls, Sensitivity Options, and pretty much everything you'll see come November 19th. It's worth a watch, so check it out.

Satoru Iwata (dressed as a vampire): DS Lite perform amazing feat in global market! More hundred thousand units in time of week! Much party enjoyment, everyone, so scary is coming!

George Harrison (dressed as Link): Ugh, these tights are starting to chafe. Perrin, wanna trade costumes?

Perrin Kaplan (dressed as a slutty cat): Um ... no. But you should ask around, really. Has anyone seen Matt? He looks so damn good in that costume ....

Matt Cassamassina (dressed as Mega Man, special guest to the event): Perrin. Storage closet. Now.

Perrin: Rawr.

Iwata: They are doing the fun, yes?

George: Uh, yeah. Where's Miyamoto-san, by the way?

Iwata: There. (points)

George: The dinette set?

Shigeru Miyamoto (dressed as a dinette set): Ah! You see, this is the inspiration for my next masterpiece. Get ready for the next generation of fun!

George: Sunnuva bitch. Miyamoto, stop doing shrooms, and...ah! Finally, someone normal. But why aren't you dressed up, Reggie?

Reggie Fils-Aime: What do you mean?

George: It's Halloween. You need a costume. You're just dressed normally.

Reggie: This is my costume.

George: ...

Reggie: Bitch.

George: ...

Reggie: Now get me a sandwich.

George: Friggin' ... fine ....

- DS Lite: 116,941 12,454 (11.92%)
- PS2: 22,380 2,347 (9.50%)
- PSP: 20,271 1,332 (6.17%)
- GBA SP: 2,421122 (5.31%)
- Game Boy Micro: 1,660 54 (3.15%)
- Xbox 360: 1,287 456 (26.16%)
- Gamecube: 638 15 (2.30%)
- DS Phat: 130 143 (52.38%)
- GBA: 37 25 (67.57%)
- Xbox: 6 3 (100.00%)

[Source: Media Create]

Forget the momentary lapse into 1337speak, but we're just easily exciteable. Good 'ol Matt Cassamassina has a wonderful four-minute session with the Wii, lovely fondling its every curve and crevice. It's quite detailed, and shows off everything you're ever wanted to see. You know. Under the flaps, places where eyes cannot regularly roam. Enjoy.

[Thanks, Nmaster!]

Matt Cassa-however-you-spell-it over at IGN has posted a rather interesting blog post about the assumed nature of DVD playback for the Nintendo Wii. At E3 2005, it was announced that there would be a "dongle adapter" for optional included DVD playback, and there were rumors over the next year that it would simply be built-in. However, while Nintendo loves to reiterate time and time again the capabilities of its critical darling, any and all mention of DVD playback has been completely removed.

DVD playback is a feature we've come to expect not only in next-generation machines, but last generation as well. Since Wii discs are DVDs anyway, would this feature be so difficult to add on? Check out Matt's blog for a slightly more in-depth analysis, and let's hope that Nintendo doesn't take their "games only" stance a bit too far.

At this point, it kills us to report on these speculatory meanderings other news outlets conduct, claiming they know when the console is going to release. However tired as we may be, we must bring forth to you fine reader everything about this console we all love so. For love (we really do love you and often imagine sitting up with you, just talking, until the sun rises), we labor on!

You know, Matt over at IGN isn't such a horrible source though. Usually he isn't so far off from the truth as to be on a separate measuring instrument altogether, so we consider that with his proposal for a November 2nd or 12th release date. We also consider it when reading his proposed $229 US price tag with selection of white or black console. Matt also goes on to say that Nintendo has ramped up production on their console to reach 5 million units of hardware by the end of the year. Now that figure, well...it's staggering. We're not too sure we can totally believe that one.

Take the information as you will and do make sure you let us know where you want to go on that date.

[Thanks Ryoma!]

According to resident Wii guy Matt over at IGN, all the online speculation of an October launch for the Wii may be a bit too much of a coincidence. Other rumors point to a very early November launch of around the sixth, which is still a couple of weeks before the PS3. While Iwata has said that no official word on the price and launch date of the console will come until September, we can't help but feel that a late October/early November release on the console is likely.

Michel Ancel, whom's past contributions to the gaming world give him near-godlike status, recently sat down with the resident Wii guy Matt over at IGN and discussed the upcoming Rayman: Raving Rabbids. The focus of the title, which is more humor-based rather than an epic tale of lost civilizations or some such other conflict, is about "Love and power!"

Michel even goes on to discuss, rather in-depth, what the control scheme on the launch title will be. With the nunchuk attachment dictating movement, rolling, and jumping, the Wiimote will be utilized to fight, ride animals (such as that spider), and...dance.

No, that isn't a joke.

We figured as much, what with Iwata stating the launch of the Revolution would be before the U.S. celebrates Turkey Day this year and it pretty much being the console's flagship game. IGN's resident Revolution guy Matt alludes to the game during his comments on Too Human through his blog, a game releasing on Satan's Microsoft's Xbox 360 system. Yet, when a reader comments and poses the question as to whether or not that is a confirmation from him that the game will be fully playable at E3, he caves and gives up that he thinks the game will in fact be there and available for our grubby hands. This is just another item to add to your list of why this year's E3 could possibly be the best ever.