Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360

Considering it’s due on the Mac in early 2008, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the on-again, off-again Xbox 360 port of Epic’s Unreal Tournament III isn’t “on hold” any longer, and may even be as far along as 90% complete - if we’re to believe a scanned image from a German gaming magazine. Our German is a bit rusty (read: nonexistent) but the folks from MaxConsole are saying the release is expected sometime around April of next year.

If accurate, that means the PS3 enjoys a four-or-so-month timed exclusivity, including the lucrative holiday season. Now, if only those pesky sales would pick up …

[Via X3F]

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Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

With years of planting and kicking bombs, exploding walls, and collecting power ups under his belt, it’s easy to think that Hudson’s iconic Bomberman’s particular shtick has been throughly explored. Not so, says Hudson big cheese John Greiner, who notes that the company has “lots more planned” for the Bomberman franchise in the coming year.

This is on top of the already announced Bomberman Land titles coming in January, as well as a newly kicked off New Year’s contest over XBLA’s Bomberman Live. While Hudson has not shed light on its plans for the portly pyromaniac, we assume that the company will not endeavor to reinvent the wheel, as such a move would be unheard of in Hudson’s history.

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Wii-a-phobia continues to run rampant amongst the hardcore gaming community. There is a new hate-rant about the Wii written almost every day, and not just by random members of the Internet, but often by paid journalists as well. Despite all of this bad press, the Wii continues to be the darling of the mainstream gaming world (and cockroaches). More than a year after launch, the thing still sells out of stores faster that you can say "It’s a fad." 

So either way you look at it, the Wii console strikes a cord (ban pun intended). While a recent study cites "over 82% percent" of gamers polled believe the Wii hardware is "surprisingly stable," the gender identity of the console’s controller is a different matter, as the first reports of the Wii Nunchuck’s cord and analog stick turning pink are starting to surface on the Internets. 

Did Nintendo rush these "confused" Nunchucks out with cheaper-that-usual components in order to meet the insane Christmas demand? Or is Nintendo actually run by Crab People, with these new "secret pink" nunchucks being just another attempt by the monsters to turn the world’s male population homosexual, and stop all human reproduction?

[Via GoNintendo] 

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The week started off really weird and made me realize something about the DOJO (which I’ll tell you at the end of the post). Wario’s different costumes were shown off. He has his classic yellow and purple overalls as well as a few other color variations of his cloths including one that reassembles Mario’s outfit. Tuesday was a double update focused all on Sonic. First, a new arrangement of Angel Island Zone was shown off. The second update was for Sonic’s Final Smash where he turns into Super Sonic. Sonic can fly around the map and tackle opponents for a short period of time.

Wednesday and Thursday’s update were focused on the Trophies in the game. To get trophies based on the Subspace Emissary enemies, you have to weaken the enemies and then you can throw the item called Trophy Stand at them, which will turn them into a trophy. So yes, Brawl has a Pokemon like mode to it now. There will also be a boss battle mode so if you miss your chance during the adventure mode the first time around, you’ll have an easier chance to get the trophies. Thursday showed off the other new way to collecting trophies called Coin Launcher. The slot machine from Melee has been replaced with this. You use the coins you’ve earned in the game to shoot at trophies and stickers that are flying around in the Coin Launcher. It basically looks like a cross between Galaga and Bust-A-Move.

Today’s update was another double update starting with Share mode. You need to make sure to turn this option on once you get the game so that you will be able to receive photos and stages from your friends. The second update of today was for the new item called Dragoon. It comes from the Kirby universe and is an item that is split up into three parts. Once you collect all three parts, your character will hop on it and then target an opponent for a one-hit KO. When you are collecting the item, it gets stored away but can get knocked out of you similar to the Smash Ball.

Now here’s the thing I realized by Wario’s update this week: The DOJO is not going to reveal every bit of info this game contains. I see many people complaining that there’s not enough time before the release of the game for the DOJO to show every detail, but that’s the point. They still want us to be surprised when the game comes out so we’re just going to have to sit back and enjoy whatever bits of info we do get.

With that said, the DOJO updates are taking a weeklong break so we have to wait until Janruray 7th for the updates to start up again. What did you think of this week’s update?  

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At a German hackers event called  24th Annual Chaos Communication Congress, some crafty/smart/nerdy types have just demonstrated what seems to be a Wii hack with full hardware access.

Through their voodoo, they were able to find encryption and decryption keys by doing full memory dumps at runtime over a custom serial interface. This allowed them to run their own code. They hope to use this "in" to provide native Wii homebrew access in the future.

Here is a (non-embeddable) YouTube video directly from the hacker event. If you’re anything like me, you won’t understand anything that anyone is saying in it. The audience applause in the end is pretty impressive, though.

Wait, why are we hacking Wii consoles?

[Via Wiinintendo]

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We all know that the Wii was (and still is) one of the hottest products of 2007, game or otherwise. It seems that Amazon.com did rather well with the Nintendo console, selling 17 Wii per second when they were in stock.

According to Gamasutra, sales of the Wii were among Amazon’s top selling items of 2007, and it helped to make the year its most profitable one ever. Titles like Super Mario Galaxy and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare also did their part, both being top sellers in its entire video games and hardware division.

Amazon says that on their strongest day, December 10th, customers clicked their way to the tune of 62.5 items per second for a total of 5.4 million items.

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In this week’s Sessler’s Soapbox, the host of G4’s X-Play is upset with Wii owners. No, Adam’s not necessarily mad at you, friends; if you’re reading Destructoid, the chance that you picked up a copy of Super Mario Galaxy over High School Musical: Sing It! is pretty high. You’re smart, which is why we keep you around (and you smell nice, which is a plus).

He’s a bit miffed at the "casual" Wii gamer we’ve been hearing so much about, though. It seems that they’re just not buying enough Wii games, particularly the "good" ones. He mentions Super Mario Galaxy, wondering out loud why more copies of the chubby Italian’s newest adventure haven’t flown off of store shelves. I’m kind of curious, too; it’s a great game, possibly one of the best this year, and certainly one of the best titles on the Wii. 

But Adam doesn’t mention any other titles that he thinks casual gamers should be buying. They’re certainly picking up any game that features a digital Zac Efron, and games packed with a peripheral consumers were going to buy anyhow.

I know what Wii games are worth taking a look at, casual gamer or not. But I’ll feign ignorance, because I want to hear it from you guys. Besides the high-profile titles we hear so much about, what games should Wii owners be picking up? Are there any you think people might have missed?

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I’m not out to rain on anyone’s parade, but all of that arm flailing in front of your Nintendo Wii may not be helping your physical fitness as much as you’d like to think it is.

A study called "Energy expenditure in adolescents playing new generation computer games" says that while movement of these games can burn calories, the amount they burn is not enough to matter.

This type of active gaming "equates to an increase in energy expenditure of 250 kJ (60 kcal) an hour during active gaming compared with sedentary gaming. In a typical week … active gaming rather than passive gaming would increase total energy expenditure by less than 2%," they wrote. "Although this figure is trivial, it might contribute to weight management." 

It should come as no surprise that gamers will see more health and fitness benefits from the real life versions of the games simulated in Wii Sports. According to this study, the Wii versions are "not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children."

In other words, those Wii weight loss success stories probably involve other positive health and fitness changes. In other words, you’re keeping those holiday pounds unless you head outside.

We’ll have to see how Wii Fit changes things in the future. 

[Via Ars Technica] 

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On this here Christmas Eve, there’s nothing more that I want than to kick back with some warm egg nog and kick some Kremling ass. Or play ice hockey. Or put on a tie and shoot cyborgs in the face. Nintendo understands. 

Today, the Donkey Kong Country trilogy is complete, as Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble (Super NES, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points) barrels its way onto the Wii Shop Channel today. Dixie and Kiddy Kong are joined by the killer late-80s voice sampling ("FIGHT!") of Blades of Steel (NES, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points). Of if you prefer, take control of special agents Leila or Albatross in Rolling Thunder 2 (Genesis, 1-2 players, 800 Wii), as the latter goes on a quest to rub out whoever thought it would be a good idea to name him "Albatross." 

All titles should be available by 9 a.m. Pacific time, and if they’re not, don’t come crying to us about it. Our egg nog has rum in it, and there’s always the chance we’ll get violent with you. Don’t ruin the holidays by causing a scene.

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