Nintendo adds new and classic games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii™ owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

WiiWare

Block Breaker Deluxe™ (Gameloft, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone-Mild Suggestive Themes, 800 Wii Points): Prepare for the frenzy of the coolest block-breaker game ever. Block Breaker Deluxe is a reinvention of the classic arcade brick-breaker game with a trendy graphical style, fun atmosphere and an exclusive multiplayer mode. Lively characters and amazing graphics provide distinctive settings of the jet-set nightlife, including a cool bar, dance club, casino and more. Special bricks, multiple bonuses, secret weapons, paddle size options and ball-speed variations make this fascinating game even more challenging. The Block Breaker Deluxe rage has arrived.

Cocoto Fishing Master (Neko Entertainment, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 700 Wii Points): Welcome to the adventures of Cocoto, Fishing Master. Get ready for a completely new experience on Wii. Play the role of Cocoto and travel the world to find five millennial fish. Only they can stop the magic cauldron from overflowing with lava and prevent the world from being destroyed. Thanks to Cocoto Fishing Master for Wii, fishing has never been such fun. Use the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ controllers like a real fishing rod to catch more than 30 different fish. Discover five enchanted lakes in five different worlds from Cocoto’s universe. Confront gigantic bosses to collect each fragment of the statuette that will allow you to wake the great god Geo from his slumber. Meet Cocoto’s friends, sell your fish to Baggy and buy new fishing equipment from Neuro’s shop.

Virtual Console

SAMURAI SHODOWN (NEOGEO, 1-2 players, Rated T for Teen-Animated Blood, Crude Humor, Violence, 900 Wii Points): This first entry in the extremely popular and revolutionary fighting-game series was released in 1993. Choose from 12 swordsmen with highly individualistic characteristics and fight furiously, ultimately confronting the evil Amakusa Shiro Tokisada. Each character wields his or her own specific weapon, but you must be careful not to lose it during the heat of battle. Some of the fighters also bring an animal companion into the fray, offering a unique aspect to the quick-paced action. Another significant feature of the game is the anger gauge, which indicates the level of anger felt by each of the combatants as they suffer repeated injuries. If the anger reaches its maximum level, the attacking ability of the character increases, leading to even more intense confrontations. Through it all, the refined camera system smoothly zooms in and out of the playing field, presenting the frenzy of the battle while showcasing the lively background (watch as the referee scores hits). Awaken the samurai spirit within and get ready for a new kind of fight.

Nintendo Press Room

From June 20-22 and June 27-29, Pokémon players are invited to bring their Nintendo DS systems and Pokémon® Diamond or Pokémon® Pearl games to the nearest GameStop store where they can receive Deoxys™, a legendary character with transformative powers and an impressive set of battle-ready moves.

With an imaginative roster of characters and richly interactive game play, the blockbuster Pokémon game series has attracted millions of fans worldwide. According to the independent NPD Group, Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl have sold more than 4.2 million combined in the United States alone, while Nintendo DS continues to be ranked as the nation’s top-selling hand-held game system. For more information about Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl, please visit www.Pokemon-Games.com.

Nintendo Press Room

“The Wii Wheel and Wii Balance Board accessories make game play fun for new gamers while presenting new challenges for those who have been playing a long time,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “The diversity of the seven Nintendo games represented in NPD’s top 10 for May demonstrates how Nintendo has something for everyone.”

Other highlights from NPD’s May U.S. sales report include:

    * Wii™ (675,089 sold) and Nintendo DS™ (452,608 sold) again emerged as the two top-selling video game systems.

    * Wii represented 63 percent of all current-generation consoles sold in May, while Nintendo DS had a 71 percent share of the portable market.

    * Lifetime sales of Wii now stand at nearly 10.2 million.

    * Lifetime sales of Nintendo DS are now at more than 20 million.

    * Wii Play™ sold more than 295,000 in May, bringing its lifetime sales to more than 5.8 million.

    * Of the top 30 best-selling games of May, 19 are made for Nintendo systems, including third-party hits like Guitar Hero™ III: Legends of Rock from Activision, We Ski™ from Namco Bandai, Game Party™ from Midway and Boom Blox™ from Electronic Arts.

    * Pokémon® Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokémon® Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness combined to sell more than 208,000 in May, with lifetime sales of more than 613,000.

Nintendo Press Room

Already announced for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2, NHL 2K9 will retain the full feature set of those versions, while adding motion-sensitive controls. 2K Sports has said that players will be able to use the Wii Remote as a virtual hockey stick to mimic a variety of actions, including face-offs and slap shots.

To mark the occasion of the NHL arriving on Nintendo’s latest system, Mario will make an appearance on the red carpet at tonight’s awards for the 2008 NHL season. The mustachioed plumber is no stranger to hockey fans, as his “Super Mario” moniker has long been the nickname of Pittsburgh Penguins legend Mario Lemieux.

All four versions of the game are being developed by Visual Concepts, and will see release in the fall.

Gamespot

Available on June 22, 2008, at North American retailers nationwide, the bundle provides a cool combo package for grads about to head off to college as well as summertime, road-tripping rockers of all ages.

“This one-of-a-kind bundle makes Nintendo DS even more appealing to our ever-growing audience of players,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Like Nintendo DS itself, the Guitar Hero franchise has attracted millions of new players to the world of video games.”

“We are thrilled to be the first third-party publisher to partner with Nintendo on this unique offering,” said Dusty Welch, Head of Publishing for RedOctane. “With the Guitar Hero-branded Nintendo DS and our Guitar Hero: On Tour game and peripheral, this amazing bundle delivers gamers a complete Guitar Hero experience they can enjoy anytime, anywhere.”

Using the revolutionary Guitar Hero Guitar Grip peripheral and a custom-designed Guitar Hero pick-stylus, Guitar Hero: On Tour leverages the unique abilities of Nintendo DS to bring a new dimension to hand-held gaming. Featuring a wide variety of music, including tracks from blink-182, No Doubt, Jet, Nirvana, Bloc Party and many others, players can rock out in career mode, join together in co-op or go head-to-head in a “Guitar Duel” using Battle Items unique to the DS platform.

Nintendo Press Room

The only thing better than a Chocobo is a cosplaying Chocobo.

At the outset of the game we join Cid and Chocobo as they race across the desert toward a tall, ominous tower. Cid is searching for an artifact called Timeless Power, which he hopes to use to power his airship, and Chocobo is apparently along for the ride as his bodyguard. The interior of the tower serves as a brief learning dungeon that introduces the concepts of movement, basic combat, and use of special abilities. Whether you hold the Wii Remote either face-up or sideways, the D pad allows you to maneuver through the grid-based levels. You play as Chocobo, and with every attack you make small chirping noises that emanate from the TV and the Wii Remote speaker. This was the most irksome part of the game’s pervasive and otherwise inoffensive dedication to presenting a cute, family-friendly package.

This dedication manifests itself in the gameplay as simplicity and accessibility. Your combat options in a given turn are limited to a basic attack, item use, or one of the special attacks you gain as you level up. Combat is turn-based but progresses at a brisk clip, so battling the regularly respawning enemies doesn’t feel like much of a chore. The dungeons will often change shape when you enter them again, which means there’s no mapping them out to avoid the many traps that are strewn about. This shifting will sometimes mean you enter a level right near the exit (a boon for those unconcerned with loading up on items or grinding experience points), and for the most part every level feels the same as the last, with a few different hallway patterns. Health boosts are available as items or as glowing circles on the dungeon floor, and enemies don’t provide much of a challenge until a ways into the game.

The classic Final Fantasy job system is present here as well, and by changing your job at the beginning of a dungeon you tailor your attributes to your style of play. Players who dive into combat headfirst might prefer the robust Knight, while the White Mage and its healing power might appeal to a less gung-ho player. As you search for the citizens’ memories, you’ll also find job memories that unlock new jobs and abilities.

The simplified combat goes a long way toward giving Chocobo’s Dungeon a very accessible, very novice feel. Later dungeons provide stiffer challenges by limiting you (and all your foes) to one health point, or by restricting your field of view so you can’t see enemies until they are right on top of you. Still, the game could easily be marketed as My First Dungeon Crawler and serve as a light, yet well-featured introduction to the genre.

The town that plays host to your adventuring is called Lostime, an apt name for a place where the citizens regularly have their memories erased by the tolling of the Bell of Oblivion. The mayor espouses the benefits of forgetting past worries and heartaches, but your conversations with the townsfolk quickly reveal that not everyone is buying it. Enter Raffaello, a strange green-haired baby who falls from the sky in an egg, wears a winged diaper, and has the uncanny ability to create dungeons in people’s minds. At the end of these dungeons lie the memories that the ringing bell has hidden, and by unlocking these memories one by one Chocobo begins to find out more about the history of Memoria, the region that encompasses Lostime. Early memories we unlocked hinted at a catastrophic event in the town’s history, and later memories will no doubt reveal more. There’s also the matter of your rival treasure hunters and fellow recurring Final Fantasy characters, Irma and Volg, who were transported to Memoria along with Cid and Chocobo.

The clocktower that houses the Bell of Oblivion towers over Lostime.

Beyond the dungeon exploration sections there are a few other ways to occupy your time in Lostime. There are item shops and places to upgrade your weapons, as well as animals and people to chat with. The local Mog House, run by a friendly Moogle, has a number of minigames on offer to your enjoyment. These games (darts, shooting gallery, an unlockable mystery game, and Pop-Up Duel, a card battle game) are a light diversion, and you can earn new cards for Pop-Up Duel by getting high scores in the other two games. Pop-Up Duels can also be played against friends or random opponents over the Nintendo WFC. These games are really the only part of Chocobo’s Dungeon where Wii Remote pointing and motion controls are required, so there’s some novelty to them as a contrast to your dungeon excursions.

The world of Memoria is bright, colorful, and a great place for some light adventuring and exploratory fun. Though we only played through the early levels, there were hints of complexity and challenge that could provide more of a substantive challenge later on in the game. Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon is scheduled for a July 8 release, so look for our full review right around then.

- Neopets Puzzle Adventure (PC, Wii)
- Spyborgs (Wii)

This year’s E3 will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on July 15-17. You can look forward to more game coverage from IGN as the event nears.

-IGN

Nintendo adds new and classic games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii™ owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

WiiWare™

My Pokémon™ Ranch (Nintendo, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone—Comic Mischief, 1,000 Wii Points): The Pokémon phenomenon debuts on WiiWare with My Pokémon Ranch, a game that lets you watch as Pokémon and Miis interact with each other for the first time. Enjoy the relaxing ranch life by viewing your ranch and its Pokémon, taking pictures and sending those pictures to your friends via the Wii Message Board. The more Pokémon and Miis you bring to your ranch, the more fun it becomes. My Pokémon Ranch can be linked with the Nintendo DS™ Pokémon® Diamond and Pokémon® Pearl Game Cards to deposit the Pokémon you’ve caught in these games in your ranch. You can deposit a maximum of 1,000 Pokémon from up to eight different game cards. Make your ranch livelier by playing with your friends and family.

Virtual Console™

DIG DUG™ (NES®, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points): Become Dig Dug, the champion of love and justice, as you drill up, down, left and right, defeating any enemies in your path. Avoid the persistent Pooka and the deep-dwelling but whimsical Fygar as you defeat all the enemies in order to clear each stage. Defeat enemies by hitting them with the harpoon and pumping air into them, or by dropping rocks on them from above. Receive bonus points by getting the vegetables that appear in the middle of the stage. Receive high points for defeating deep-dwelling enemies or by defeating Fygars from the side with the harpoon. Pass through inflated enemies or defeat enemies in an adjacent passage for an even higher score. Lure multiple enemies and defeat them with a single rock from above in this thrilling action game.

BIO MIRACLE BOKUTTE UPA (NES®, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone—Comic Mischief, 600 Wii Points): BIO MIRACLE BOKUTTE UPA is an action game released in 1988, but it was never available outside of Japan. Players take on the role of baby Upa, a prince of the Akuyo kingdom. Prince Upa must take on an adventure spanning seven different worlds in order to rescue the kingdom from the dangerous demon Zai. Upa must defeat the enemies he meets along the way by inflating them. Upa can then use these floating enemies to his advantage by bouncing off of or riding on top of them. The prince must also avoid deadly thorns and pits while keeping an eye out for helpful items such as milk (to restore health) and bells (for temporary invincibility) if he hopes to succeed. If you’re looking for a cute and solid platformer with a hero unlike those in most other games, then look no further than BIO MIRACLE BOKUTTE UPA.

Grab your friends and hit the slopes with Shaun White Snowboarding for the Wii.

Though the game is coming to the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, the Wii version will be a wholly original game, one that looks to take a different spin on the snowboarding scene from the more realistic versions on the Xbox 360 and PS3. That said, despite the arcade nature of the gameplay, the presence of the balance board will make it perhaps feel like the most realistic Shaun White game of the three. We didn’t get to try the game for ourselves, but it seems that the basic motions you use when carving on a real board will be the same as on the balance board, so leaning backward or forward will steer your onscreen rider. You’ll be able to pull off tricks, such as jumps, by bouncing slightly on the board and perform grabs using the Wii Remote. And while it seems that the balance board will be the best way to control your boarder in Shaun White, folks who don’t have the board will obviously be able to play the game with the regular controllers.

Boarding with your buddies is a big theme in the Wii version of Shaun White–the game will allow up to four players in multiplayer (though only one can use the balance board at a time), which will include both cooperative and competitive events. In addition, the single-player game will involve you and your virtual buddies hitting the road and attacking the slopes in locales that range from Japan to Park City, Utah. The friends you choose to hit the mountain with on any given run will be important; your camera man, who follows you down the slopes and thus provides the player with a view of the action, will offer you different special abilities, while the character you choose to play as will determine your skill level.

An original storyline and a unique control scheme aren’t all that will be new in the Wii version of Shaun White: The game’s got a look that’s all its own. While the 360 and PS3 versions are going for a more photo-realistic look, the characters in the Wii version have an appealing cartoon look. The Wii characters have expressive faces with blocky arms and legs that nicely set them apart from the other console versions. You can expect to see The Flying Tomato (aka Shaun White) in the game as well, whether acting as your mentor or introducing you to new friends and locations in the game.

While the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will undoubtedly have plenty to offer, we’ve got a hunch that the hardcore snowboarders out there (who also happen to own a Wii balance board) might best be served with the Wii version, if only because it will give them a chance to get some boarding in, even if they’re nowhere near the slopes. The game is due for release later this year, and we’ll be bringing you more on its progress in the coming months.