It wouldn't be Monday without new games to download across Nintendo platforms. This week's highlight is definitely Hudson's first-person soaker, Water Warfare. It's a neat concept, but we really think Hudson could've spent some time tightening up the graphics on level three.

This week in Europe, Hudson Soft has one release on all three Wii download services. That's a pretty impressive feat, even if the individual games don't seem that exciting. We suppose 50 sudoku puzzles for 200 points is nice, and SimEarth is a good game.

The Hudson releases are joined by Taito's Puzzle Bobble/Bust a Move update and by Altered Beast. Now, we love Altered Beast more than most people (by which we mean we love it some), but 900 points for the arcade version? What's that about?

WiiWare:

• Puzzle Bobble Plus! (1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
• Water Warfare (1-2 players offline, 2-8 online, 800 Wii Points)

Virtual Console:

• Altered Beast (Arcade, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points)
• SimEarth (Turbografx-16 CD-ROM, 1 player,800 Wii Points)
  

DSiWare:

• Sudoku 50 for Beginners (1 player, 200 DSi Points)

A Different Game released a new video for Ghostwire, showing example gameplay of the "augmented reality" DSiWare title. In this game, reality is "augmented" in a way that makes you look more like a person who freaks out randomly on the street, as you are constantly surrounded by ghosts even in the daytime. Constantly. The use of the DSi's secondary camera to provide a rear view of more ghosts seems especially cruel.

We wonder if people who play this a lot start to feel like there are already ghosts all over the place, and we just don't see them without our DSi systems.

[YouTube video via NintendoRaw]

The Japanese version of Flipnote Studio, called Ugoku Memo-Chou, integrates with a special version of Japan's Hatena blog site, allowing users to upload, share, and view videos made using the DSiWare animation app. Soon after the launch of the Japanese site, Hatena put up a partially translated version of the Ugomemo Hatena site as a preview of the eventual North American version.

The site has been somewhat of a work-in-progress since then, with some extra pages translated, including the explanation of the premium Ugomemo Hatena Plus service, and some content remaining in Japanese. It's a sign that we'll be able to share our insane sprite sheet flip books and cute Mario animations immediately after the service launches, whenever that happens.

[Via GoNintendo]

Nintendo is planning a full-on assault of DS advertising this summer, evidence by this week's Nintendo Channel updates. In following around one family, the TV spots will show they they keep them from taking a detour into Boredsville during their vacation through use of the DS and DSi. Of course, as with just about any Nintendo DS advertising campaign, all we see them playing is some Brain Age and Mario Kart. But, hey, it's worth watching alone for the hilarious put-downs of one Garret Morris, trust us.

For the rest of this week's updates, head past the break.

It seems as though every day there's more mainstream saturation for Nintendo products. Why just the other day, we spotted Drew Carey offering a decently tasty Nintendo DSi bundle during the "Showcase Showdown" portion of his (well, not really his) gameshow, The Price is Right -- should the contestants guess the right price, of course.

Though titles like Lord of the Rings: Conquest and, unsurprisingly, The Price is Right game were among those offered, DS staples like New Super Mario Bros. and Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword also made their way into the fray. We know, we know, the question on all your minds is of course: Did the contestant win? You'll have to see yourself over at the CBS website, folks!

[Via GoNintendo]

With all of the excitement of E3 dying down, it's time we got back into the groove of things, and Nintendo knows that best. This week, the DSi gets some Mario vs Donkey Kong love, and WiiWare gets a pair of new titles. The Virtual Console isn't left out in the cold, either, as strategy fans will likely be interested in what Ghengis Khan is up to. So, head past the break and check out what's available for download from Nintendo this week.

Our bingo card was off by just a couple of days. Nintendo didn't bother to introduce a new color for the Wii system during its E3 press conference ... or anywhere else in North America, for that matter. Japan got its own mini-megaton tonight in the form of a new black Wii system, which will release in Japan on August 1. In addition, accessories including the Wiimote, Classic Controller, and Classic Controller Pro, will also be released in black to coordinate with the new system and extract money from people who already have Wiis.

In addition, Nintendo announced that a red DSi system will launch in the region on July 11. No announcements have been made for any other region.
[Via Kotaku]

One of the more cool apps for the Nintendo DSi in Japan has been Moving Memo Pad, and now Nintendo has confirmed it for a North American release. The title will be changing its name, however, to Flipnote Studios. The app will come to North America largely unchanged, allowing folks to create and upload their own custom animations and share them with others.

If you're interested in seeing some of the stuff it can do, check out this post.

Okay, so DS hasn't really bested Paul Hogan's popularity -- as the man is an Australian legend -- but it is the fastest-selling piece of gaming hardware ever down under. Edge reports the DS, DS Lite and DSi have pulled together to sell two million units in a span of 221 weeks, the fastest any platform has managed to reach that coveted two-million milestone. Nintendo of Australia boasts that the DS has been the number one console in Australia for three years. That's just ... wow.

Now here's a real economic indicator: during the fiscal quarter ending May 2 of this year, used game sales at GameStop increased by 31.9 percent, while new game sales decreased by 2.8 percent. Game sales in the US aren't declining, new game sales are -- to the tune of 548.5 million dollars in Q1 2009 alone, just over a quarter of GameStop's entire earnings during the period.

Sure, the Nintendo DSi release and a handful of blockbuster titles from Capcom earlier this year helped to keep new games and hardware from dropping off too much -- new hardware numbers actually increased from last year. But that isn't to say that the 114 new stores opened by the company recently due to "the downward pressure of rents" is a good idea. While GameStop predicts even better sales over the next half of the year, it'd be wise to carefully plan around the "brittle global economy."

Square Enix has revealed the Dragon Quest Wars whose title was trademarked last month. Anyone expecting some kind of MMO tactics game will be disappointed, because while the new game does feature online play, it's nothing quite so grandiose. In fact, it's a 500-point DSiWare download.

Dragon Quest Wars is an online-capable board game for up to four players. Each player creates a team of four classic Dragon Quest monsters and participates in "simple battles" against up to three other AI or player teams. The small game has some decent strategy game cred: it's being developed by Intelligent Systems, the Nintendo second party responsible for both the Fire Emblem and Advance Wars series. Dragon Quest Wars will be out in Japan this June.

[Via 1UP]

Nintendo's strategy for the DSi has evolved from "one DS per household" to "one DS per person." This slide from Satoru Iwata's fiscal year 2008 financial results briefing demonstrates just how frighteningly close Nintendo has come to that goal in Japan.

According to the chart, 26.1million DS systems have been purchased in Japan, or 20.5% of the population of the country. That means that if each DS belonged to one person, one fifth of Japan would own a DS. Of course, each DS doesn't belong to one person -- people who bought DS Phats re-bought Lites and then DSis; and no doubt many people bought second systems for a new color scheme or a limited-edition, or to replace a broken system. Regardless, the DS has undeniably made its mark on Japanese society.

The US and Europe, on the other hand, have almost reached ten percent market penetration each. Just ten percent? That's merely outstanding -- what a disappointment for Nintendo.

[Via Kotaku]

EEDAR's Jesse Divnich released a Retail Sales Preview for April, containing predictions for hardware and software sales results for last month. It starts on a down note, unfortunately, with a projected decline in software sales of 17%. "We believe the weak retail environment is to blame for the year-over-year decrease in [average selling prices]."

Music and rhythm games got somewhat of a boost in April, according to Divnich, but only because of heavy discounts. "The biggest sales occurred at Wal-Mart.com with certain Guitar Hero World Tour SKUs being discounted by as much as $90 and Best Buy with a sale that gave away Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for free with the purchase of Guitar Hero: Metallica."

The two success stories this month are both DS-related. Hardware sales went up over last year, but only because of a new DS launch -- The DS is predicted to be up 129% year-over-year thanks to the DSi. "Without the DSi, hardware sales would have likely been down by over 27%."

In software, Rhythm Heaven's "sales performance has been nothing short of amazing," according to Divnich, with sales of around 154,000 copies. The reason? "Nintendo's ability to leverage an effective marketing campaign using a celebrity (Beyonce)." Hopefully some of the people who bought it because they saw Beyonce playing it will then play it themselves. They might like it!

Would you like to have a downloadable collection of vintage console games on the DSi? We would too! Oh well. When the DSi was announced, Intellivision president and IP holder Keith Robinson decided to move a stalled DS version of the Intellivision Lives compilation to DSiWare.

However, Nintendo rejected the project. Apparently, according to an email Robinson received from Nintendo, WiiWare and DSiWare games cannot "run under emulation."

Because of this rule, we're missing out on the most authentic presentation of Intellivision games yet. Look at that -- even the Intellivision keypad is emulated on the touch screen, with overlays and everything. Nintendo didn't respond to IGN's inquiry about the rule, so as of yet we don't have an explanation for the refusal. It's likely that Nintendo refuses emulated projects to avoid Virtual Console-style games on WiiWare. But there's no Virtual Console on DSi, so either that rule needs to be changed or there will be a VC soon. Scratch that -- the rule needs to be changed.