Official Nintendo financial reports have been released, and they give us a glimpse into the massive profit that the Big N was able to pull down during the most recent holiday season. For the nine months ended December 31, 2006, Nintendo posted net revenue of 132 billion Yen, or 1.08 Billion USD. The strength of the Wii and Virtual Console played a big part in this success. The Wii sold 3,190,000 units worldwide, and approximately 1.5 million Virtual console games have been downloaded as of Jan 24, 2007. (which makes about 1 VC game for every two console owners) The report does not say which VC games are the most popular, but we have our own suspicions.
So, what does all of this have to do with handheld gaming? Well, the success of the Virtual Console has shown that downloadable retro gaming is here to stay. So far, we have been treated to a variety of successful and not-so-great compilations of retro games on the PSP, but how long before Nintendo extends its Virtual Console service to the handheld market? We predict this will be a major feature of the next-gen DS and PSP.
What retro games do you absolutely HAVE to have with you at all times? For us the anwser is simple: Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG.
Sim City DS has snuck in under the radar to quickly take its place among the most anticipated games of 2007.
What? A fully featured translation of Sim City 3000 for the PC. This version adds support for stylus input, as well as a series of minigames and modes, including a limited multiplayer system that allows players to “chat and trade landmarks”.
When?Sim City DS is set for February 2007 in Japan. No word of a release date in North America yet, but it is almost guaranteed.
Who? The game is being produced by Electronic Arts Japan, which although surprising raises the possibility that it will come to all other territories sooner than later.
Where? Apart from the PC version of Sim City 3000, this game has not been seen anywhere else. No plans have been announced to bring it to any other platform (although the Wii seems like a good candidate). Quite frankly, this suits us just fine since the DS sems like the most natural place to play this touch-heavy game for now.
Time to dust off that old copy of Liberty City Stories that might be hiding under the bed. With the recent announcement of a 3.03 downgrader the price of GTA:LCS has skyrocketed, since this game is required in order to perform the firmware downgrade. Specifically, you will need an early, un-patched version of the game (you can tell if yours is the correct version because it will only ask you to update to 2.0 in order to load). One partcicularly greedy entrepreneur thinks he can score $400 for his un-patched copy. So readers, what do you think an un-patched LCS is worth? Anybody want to buy mine?
The folks over at noobz.eu have announced a new method of downgrading PSP firmware from version 3.03 to version 1.5. This method apparently works on all motherboard types and obviously opens up the PSP for use with open-source homebrew software. Our favorite open source game projects include PSP Doom, Beats of Rage (open source Final Fight clone) and PSP Revolution (DDR clone that lets you play your own music).
We currently have a PSP running the original 1.5 firmware, but we will soon be upgrading to Dark Alex’s V3.03OE. Watch this space for our newb’s guide to upgrading.
Notes from the developers:
This downgrader is for v3.03 firmware only. But if you have v2.81 - v3.02, no problem - you can just upgrade to v3.03 to use the downgrader.
You need a copy of the unpatched GTA:Liberty City Stories UMD. See here for some info on how to check if your version is patched. The most reliable way: the unpatched disks have the v2.0 firmware update on them.
This downgrader is intended to enable homebrew. Homebrew is NOT the same as piracy. Don’t be a thieving loser - buy the games you play.
The downgrader will work on all current PSP hardware (TA-079 - TA-086). Patching of TA-082+ is automatic in the downgrader.
You downgrade at your own risk. There is always a chance of bricking, although we have done everything we can think of to make this process safe.
An awesome new trailer for Monster Hunter Portable Second is making the rounds on YouTube. This new iteration of the Monster Hunter franchise promises to deliver more of what we already loved about the original: battling with absurdly huge wyverns across a variety of environments. The trailer introduces some of the new monsters - abominable snow monkeys, a giant pink hippopotamus and the much reviled “giant enemy crab” - as well as a whole new world to hunt them down in. We also get a look at some of the new character classes - particularly the awesome bowmaster and lance gunner. We can’t wait to face off against some of these new beasts when the game finally makes its way to our shores. Rumor has it that the North American release will feature online infrastructure play, something that would make this game a must have for Monster Hunter fans.
If you were a fan of Driver on the original playstation, then you probably also feel betrayed by a series that has, by all accounts, gotten worse over time. Last year’s desultory Driver: Parallel Lines pushed most gamers over the edge and into utter despair with its un-fun gameplay and graphical glitches. Since that time, the franchise has left the hands of Atari and passed over to the eager developers at Ubisoft, who hope to impress the last few remaining fans of the series with the upcoming release of Driver ‘76 for the PSP. From what we can tell by looking at the screenshots above, the team has yoinked the most successful bits from Parallel Lines, beefed up the GTA-style free roam gameplay, and set the whole deal back in the year 1976. Actually, on paper this game is starting to sound pretty good, and by the appearance of things it will put in a strong graphical performance when it hits the PSP this March.
A number of exciting portable game developments are being funded by the Canadian Government. The recently announced winners of the Great Canadian Video Game Competition will each receive $50,000 in round-one financing to develop and market their original game ideas. We are excited to see that at least four of the 10 finalists will be developing software for portable/wireless gaming. These include an action-platformer for the Nintendo DS, a couple of paranoid conspiracy games over wireless and a brain trainer clone (wait, I thought these were all supposed to be original ideas, guys). Expect to hear a lot more from these indie developers in the near future:
Modified Air Combat Heroes comes to the PSP on the coattails of the successful Ace Combat X flight sim, but really shares nothing in common with the latter besides its fascination with late twentieth-century fighter jets. Produced by Vivendi and developed by Kuju Games, M.A.C.H. has already hit the shelves in Japan and will be released in North America on February 20. We managed to grab an import copy and put it to the test, with a little bit of Japanese language help. Besides the menus, the bulk of the game is in English, including the voices, making it an import-friendly game if you really must, although we do not recommend it. Continue reading to find out why we think M.A.C.H. belongs on the scrapheap, and why your air combat dollars are better spent elsewhere.
Many PSP owners have already benefitted from the dedicated community of coders that have opened up the system for user-created software and modifications. What a lot of people don’t know is that the DS is just as capable of running homebrew software, and in fact enjoys certain advantages over its cousin the PSP. In fact, with the right hardware adapter, the DS can be transformed into a very capable music and media playback machine.
This three-part guide will introduce you to the steps necessary in order to run homebrew software on your Nintendo DS. In this first part, we will explore some of the various options on the market available to homebrewers, as well as their relative strengths and weaknesses. Later on in part 2 we discuss how to get popular homebrew software such as DS Organize up and running, and in part 3 we describe how video playback works using the popular open-source media player Moonshell.
For this first installment we will be comparing three competing homebrew solutions for the DS: The R4, the M3 Simply, and the DS Xtreme. Each of these options works with the majority of homebrew applications, but each have their particular quirks that are worth some attention.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is the second Castlevania game to grace the DS, following closely on the heels of the critically lauded Dawn of Sorrow. Portrait maintains some of the same characteristics that made Dawn so enjoyable, namely the lush 2d graphics, metroid-vania style world map, and light RPG character building. However, Portrait takes the series in a new direction on the DS by ditching some of the more frustrating aspects of the first outing, notably the reliance on touch input to vanquish bosses. Continue reading to find out what we thought about these changes, and why we think PoR is a worthwhile purchase for any fan of sidescrollers on the DS.
Official Nintendo financial reports have been released, and they give us a glimpse into the massive profit that the Big N was able to pull down during the most recent holiday season. For the nine months ended December 31, 2006, Nintendo posted net revenue of 132 billion Yen, or 1.08 Billion USD. The strength of the Wii and Virtual Console played a big part in this success. The Wii sold 3,190,000 units worldwide, and approximately 1.5 million Virtual console games have been downloaded as of Jan 24, 2007. (which makes about 1 VC game for every two console owners) The report does not say which VC games are the most popular, but we have our own suspicions.
Time to dust off that old copy of Liberty City Stories that might be hiding under the bed. With the recent announcement of a 
The folks over at 
A number of exciting portable game developments are being funded by the Canadian Government. The recently announced winners of the Great Canadian Video Game Competition will each receive $50,000 in round-one financing to develop and market their original game ideas. We are excited to see that at least four of the 10 finalists will be developing software for portable/wireless gaming. These include an action-platformer for the Nintendo DS, a couple of paranoid conspiracy games over wireless and a brain trainer clone (wait, I thought these were all supposed to be original ideas, guys). Expect to hear a lot more from these indie developers in the near future:
Many PSP owners have already benefitted from the dedicated community of coders that have opened up the system for user-created software and modifications. What a lot of people don’t know is that the DS is just as capable of running homebrew software, and in fact enjoys certain advantages over its cousin the PSP. In fact, with the right hardware adapter, the DS can be transformed into a very capable music and media playback machine.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is the second Castlevania game to grace the DS, following closely on the heels of the critically lauded Dawn of Sorrow. Portrait maintains some of the same characteristics that made Dawn so enjoyable, namely the lush 2d graphics, metroid-vania style world map, and light RPG character building. However, Portrait takes the series in a new direction on the DS by ditching some of the more frustrating aspects of the first outing, notably the reliance on touch input to vanquish bosses. Continue reading to find out what we thought about these changes, and why we think PoR is a worthwhile purchase for any fan of sidescrollers on the DS.