If you checked out this post this past summer, then you’ve already seen the trailer for the upcoming Legend of Zelda game for the Nintendo DS. Entitled ‘Spirit Tracks’, its development and release were very hush-hush. But fortunately, Nintendo has thrown away the veil and given out some more details on the hotly-anticipated adventure!
In my humble opinion, the most interesting new piece of information is definitely the player’s ability to control the eponymous Princess Zelda, who is transformed into a Spirit and can use her new powers to control some of the villains Link faces. It’s a very cool addition to the plot and should add a new twist to the franchise.
You can watch an updated trailer here to see what ’s being brought to the newly revised land of Hyrule.
And if you’re really itching for the new game, we might be able to tide you over with a pretty decent selection of figures and toys from The Legend of Zelda section of CmdStore.com.
The original Wii Sports was a free game that came with the Wii. It was was easy and concise and gave new players a chance to really get into the controls before they started up with Link or Samus in one of their bigger, badder games. But the surprise was how much fun it was. It might have been simple, but it was well-crafted and new enough that it merited a sequel.
When I first heard about Wii Sports Resort, I honestly didn’t see the point: giving a free, low-budget game a sequel with a real release? And doing so in a sea of licensed games or huge franchises carted out by Sony and Microsoft? Apparently, I was wrong to doubt. As you can read in this article from Cubed, sales of the game have been stellar.
Despite lower sales for Wii hardware, the follow-up to Wii Sports (which itself has now slipped past 50 million) has now sold 6.97 million copies worldwide, giving a fairly solid install base for MotionPlus-enabled owners.
Fellow software in the Wii range has also performed exceptionally well, with Wii Fit selling 22.5 million with the balance board, the expansion, Wii Fit Plus creeping past the 2 million mark and Mario Kart still hogging the charts at 18.4 million. The mini-game compilation bundled with Wii Remote, Wii Play knocked up 24.4 million.
Nintendo has also performed continually well with DS software, the classic 2D revival, New! Super Mario Bros selling 19.94 million copies, Mario Kart DS 16.1 million and Professor Layton and [the Diabolical] Box is at 1.26 million. The much desired Pokémon Gold and Silver remakes, Heart and Soul, together shipped 2.27 million, with Platinum topping 6.39 million.
And if you’re looking to get your hands on Wii Sports Resort or some of the other games mentioned above, check out Amazon.com!
One of the biggest and best video game franchises belongs to Nintendo’s adventurous Italian plumber, Super Mario. Though the hyper-realism and violence of modern games is as far as you can get from Mario, he continues to be at the center of dozens of hugely popular games. Which makes it surprising that there has been remarkably little real Mario merchandise until recent years. But now that it’s arrived, CmdStore’s got a ton of it right here. Plush toys, Mario Kart vehicles, Gashapon mini toys, keychains, the whole nine yards. Definitely something Mario fans will want to check out.
And something else for fans is the upcoming Super Mario Wii. Check out the trailer and this blurb about its difficulty level from Co-Optimus.com
After complaints that the previous 2D Mario Bros. title on the Wii was embarrassingly easy, series creator Shigeru Miyamoto kicked New Super Mario Bros. Wii up a notch or 3. Instead of the cake walk we had in 2D before, expect a solid challenge with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, even in co-op – maybe the Demo Play feature will come in handy after all.
When asked about the game, Shigeru Miyamoto simply said it’s “pretty difficult” and we now know that New Super Mario Bros. Wii celebrates the hardcore fans that grew up with Mario. You and your co-op buddies will need to use all of the “Super Skills” in your arsenal, as well as avoid jumping on each others heads too often, to win this one.
I think I’ve got the Halloween spirit. So here, right on the heels of the previous zombie post, here’s a look at some of the awesome zombie toys and figures you’ll find over at CmdStore.com.
First off is the Sideshow series ‘The Dead’. Four 12-inch figures strong, the prophet, the tactical containment official (whose zombification spells terrible things for the civilian population), the babysitter and the Christmas-themed mall Santa. Each one features the quality you’d expect from the Sideshow gang and fans of the walking dead will definitely enjoy these.
For those who prefer the usual cast of characters and only dabble in the world of the undead, take a look at the Marvel Zombies line, based on the comic series and brought to you by Marvel Select. Spider-Man looks especially worse for wear here and his compatriots don’t fare much better. Each one come with a sculpted base featuring a piece of the dismembered Silver Surfer.
Back to more traditional zombies, here’s the trio from Attack of the Living Dead. Some of the goriest figures around, they’re sure to please any fan of the more visceral zombie flicks out there. These guys are the stuff of nightmares.
Finally, the world of video games has seen a massive increase in the number of zombie-based stories, but few have done it better than or for as long as Resident Evil. Both the protagonists and antagonists are engaging, the tales they tell complex and the world wide and immersive. No matter what your console, chances are there’s a Resident Evil for you.
For a while, it seemed like Nintendo was about to drop out of the race. Sony’s Playstation was bringing a new maturity and exciting action to gamers everywhere, drawing in older players with epic games that boasted cinematic storylines, brilliant voice acting and memorable characters more layered and complex than Nintendo’s crew of Mario and company. It even seemed possible that Nintendo would abandon the console market and focus on selling games bearing their classic license.
And then it happened.
The Wii was announced to mockery from Microsoft and Sony and hesitation from an audience who needed take only a single glance at the Wiimote and nunchuck to know they were dealing with something different. But when it hit shelves, they came in droves. The Wii outsold the competition by a wide margin and even helped sales of Nintendo’s portable DS system. And now, over a year later, they’re still going strong.
Strong enough, in fact, to have garnered the title of The World’s Best Company. Check out this article from Gamespot.
Nintendo started its fiscal 2010 year off on a sour note, reporting in July that profits plummeted 60 percent on revenues down 40 percent during its April-June quarter. Still, it’s hard to argue with earnings of $2.66 billion and income of $442 million during a three-month stretch, not to mention the publisher’s skyward trajectory since 2004, when it launched the 100-million-unit-plus selling Nintendo DS.
In recognition of Nintendo’s performance, BusinessWeek has placed the publisher at the top of its World’s Best Companies 2009 list. BusinessWeek’s rankings are compiled by management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, who sifted through the 2,500 largest publicly traded companies with a minimum of $10 billion in sales during 2008, 25 percent of which came from outside the home market. Companies were then ranked according to sales growth and value creation over the past five years.
A.T. Kearney valued Nintendo’s 2008 annual sales at $16.8 billon, up 35.7 percent since 2004, when the publisher’s GameCube struggled against Sony’s best-selling PlayStation 2. As for value creation, which BusinessWeek defined as “the rise of market capitalization after subtracting any increase in capital,” Nintendo has seen growth of 38.1 percent over the past five years.
“With visionary leadership and a three-tiered product development process that brings together top management, development staff, and marketing and administrative teams, the Japanese game maker been able to create new hardware without sticking to conventional notions in the video game industry,” BusinessWeek wrote of the company.
Nintendo outpaced a number of other notable companies to secure the top spot in BusinessWeek’s rankings. Google and Apple placed a respective second and third behind Nintendo, with South Korean construction products & services and shipbuilder Doosan Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries placing a respective fourth and fifth.
We have all the Nintendo toys available on our website….cmdstore.com
Want to get your hands on a Wii or DS? Buy it on Amazon.com without leaving your home!
Good news for old-school gamers comes from El33t Online!
Gameloft is currently working on a remake of the early nineties classic action platformer, Earthworm Jim, which saw a release on home consoles such as the Mega Drive/Genesis and Super NES in 1994. This much you knew.
A single comparison screenshot has now been released, however, to show the differences in graphical detail between the game’s original release in 1994, and the new remake here in 2009.
Due for release through digital download later this year, the Earthworm Jim remake is based on the Genesis/Mega drive version of the game, but is undergoing a complete overhaul – the new Earthworm Jim will feature smoother animation, better graphics, code rewrites for added features, a selection of difficulty levels and leaderboards, as well as an additional level entitled ‘Big Bruty,’ which was only playable in the special edition Sega CD and PC versions of the original game.
Each version of the game on the supported game platforms, which includes the iPhone, Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360, will be custom tailored to its specific capabilities and graphical abilities. The screenshot on show is from the iPhone version of the game. A version of the new Earthworm Jim is also being considered for PSP.
On a final note, it’s been confirmed that Dave Perry, the original creator of Earthworm Jim and founder of its original development studio, Shiny Entertainment, is not involved with the project, although the original music created by videogame music veteran Tommy Tallarico will be included.
Earthworm Jim is expected to release later this year via digital download, while the Xbox LIVE Arcade version will enjoy a one month period of exclusivity.
Exciting news for Sonic fans as Sega yesterday revealed that the beloved blue hedgehog will be returning to a 2D environment in a new release next year.
The game, which has the development codename ‘Project Needlemouse’, will satisfy the clamouring of the thousands (okay, maybe hundreds) of fans disappointed by Sonic’s 3D outings such as Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast and the more recent Sonic Unleashed, released last year.
The news was confirmed by Sega associate brand manager Ken Balough, speaking to Gamespot, who said:
“Old-school Sonic fans have long asked to see Sonic return to a more 2D style of gameplay. Many liked the daytime stages in Unleashed but wanted to see a game that plays purely similar to the early games of the Genesis. Project Needlemouse is that critical first step that brings Sonic back to his 2D roots.”
The full interview can be read here. There’s also a Needlemouse website floating around featuring some decidedly Sonic-looking landscapes, though the disclaimer running along the bottom suggests this is the work of a designer looking to flaunt his wares rather than an oblique marketing strategy on Sega’s behalf.
Sonic’s first outing was in the 1991 MegaDrive release Sonic the Hedgehog, which wowed gamers with its speed and frenetic gameplay. The fact that I’ve played Sonic 2 in only the last couple of months suggests that there’s definitely a market for more of the same.
Xbox Arcade and WiiWare have revived interest in the retro gaming market in recent years, and made developers realise that there’s still money to be made in playing up to gamers’ nostaligia. But this announcement is partly a reflection of Sega’s failure to make Sonic ‘work’ in 3D. Sonic fans have never had a Mario 64 or Mario Galaxy – a great 3D game worthy of such an iconic character – and Needlemouse makes it look even less likely that ever that they will.
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And in toy news, we’ve just gotten the latest batch of Sonic the Hedgehog toys from Jazwares. Sega may have dropped out of the console race, but they haven’t stopped working on games or on building their most beloved franchise, which has meant that merchandising for Sonic games has managed to hit a high despite an age of nearly twenty years.
You can check ‘em out over at our website in the Sonic section!
In our last Video game figure post, we mentioned the pre-order available for the Dead Space Isaac Clarke figure from Player’s Select.
Well, good news! The figure and its bloody (literally) variant have now arrived, so you can snag ‘em now. They’re available individually, or in a 2-pack. Check ‘em out!
And there’s even more to smile about if you’re a fan of Dead Space: the new Wii prequel, Dead Space: Extraction! Not only is it getting great reviews, but it has now officially shipped! Check out the review from The New York Daily News and then get ready to play!
Atlus’ next Trauma Center game brings a whole new cast of characters to life and they’ve given fans a look at what to expect from next year’s TRAUMA TEAM and so far, I can’t wait.
Truth be told, I was never up to snuff when it came to taking control of the surgeries, but my sister quickly became adept at it and was burning through the games saving lives and taking names. So let’s just say that I can’t wait on her behalf and I’m sure I’ll be cheering her on from the sidelines.
Fans of the wildly creative epic Okami will be thrilled to hear that a new game in the world of Okami is coming to the Nintendo DS! Called Okamiden, it’s just been officially announced after months of speculation and there are not only images like the one above, but check out this video!
The gameplay looks just beautiful, especially for a DS platformer, and the stylus will lend itself perfectly to a game like this, allowing players to draw and craft their world. But the real story here is Chibiterasu. HE’S SO CUTE. Look at him! He looks so serious! Yet so adorable! Augh, I love him already.
Posted by actionfigurecanada 
Posted by actionfigurecanada 
Posted by actionfigurecanada 
