Hot on the heels of the retro-esque Mega Man 9, Capcom prepares to unleash another old-school, 8-bit game featuring the Blue Bomber himself, Mega Man 10. Nintendo Power unveils the new (old) WiiWare game in their January issue. Scans from the issue showed up online yesterday just about everywhere, thanks to Nintendo Power itself.

I’m not really looking forward to this one. Mega Man 9 was difficult in that might-as-well-shoot-my-own-foot-this-is-insane-what-is-wrong-with-Japan kind of way. I don’t know about you fine folks, but that kind of gameplay irritates me. I didn’t like it when I was a kid, and I hate it now.

But perhaps some of you can’t wait to take on…Sheep Man. No, I didn’t make that up. There’s totally a Sheep Man in Mega Man 10. Maybe you’ll need to beat Scottish Farmer Man first to gain his Sheep Sheering Gun. You know what? I’d play that game in a heartbeat. But I don’t own a Wii, so, yeah (no word on PSN or XBL releases yet).

It appears EA hasn’t learned anything from it’s past mistakes.  Why they think that giving people an advantage in a game for pre-ordering it is just beyond me.  How about some cool NVGs like Modern Warfare 2 or a gift certificate for all the money we have spent on ridiculous EA DLC that we don’t need.  It’s just stupid, EA. Get a clue.

The Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Limited Edition delivers six special customizations early to give players a day one advantage in multiplayer matches. Four vehicle warfare unlocks will immediately enhance the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 best-in-class online vehicle warfare experience, delivering extra firepower, radar, and armor for the vehicles. Additionally, the tracer dart attaches to any enemy vehicle and allows RPG-toting teammates to track, lock on, and destroy their adversary. Seasoned veterans of Battlefield 1943™ will be able to immediately re-acquaint themselves with two classic and highly powerful weapons, the M1A1 submachine gun and the M1911 pistol.

The rumors about a DSi with larger screens are true. Nintendo will release the DSi LL, featuring 4.2 inch screens—that’s about 93% larger than the DS Lite’s screens—on November 21 in Japan. To put that date in perspective, consider the release date for the original DSi: November 1, 2008. Yes, Nintendo is releasing a slightly upgraded DSi just one year after the DSi hit store shelves.

Nintendo says they created the DSi LL for those who complained that the DSi was not conducive to Internet browsing or playing music, due to small fonts. Keep in mind that the screens may be larger but they will display the same resolution as the original DSi. Most people shouldn’t notice a difference in picture quality, but tech nerds might notice a wee bit of blurriness on edges.

I don’t need larger screens so I’ll skip the DSi LL, but I imagine some of you might be interested in picking one up. Heck, some people will buy just about anything Nintendo sells. I bet some folks would buy a business suit textured with screens from every Super Mario Bros. game if it was sold at a reasonable price. Come to think of it, I might just buy that.

UPDATE 5:30 PM EST: Looks like the DSi XL, (the North American name of the DSi LL) will be Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. in early 2010. No set date just yet, but we’ll let you know what it is when it’s announced.

No doubt you’ve read several rumors concerning an upcoming Wii price drop. Everybody and their cousin reported the rumors, evening posting scans from store computer inventory screens depicting a $50 price cut.

File this under Rumor Comes True: the Wii price drop is indeed happening, and sooner than you think. On September 27, the Wii will officially drop to $199.99 in North America. You won’t get a new package out of the deal—no inclusion of Wii Sports Resort or a MotionPlus peripheral. The $199.99 Wii is the same ol’ Wii; just cheaper.

Will the price drop matter? Are any of you fine folks planning to buy one now that the price is a bit lower? Better question: do any of you readers who already own a Wii actually play the little guy, or does he sit on your entertainment center collecting dust? I sold mine to my brother-in-law a while back, but even a price drop isn’t enough incentive to get me to buy another. What say you?

Despite being available on the Japanese Wii Shop Channel since the beginning of the year, Nintendo of America finally decided to let us have the new and improved Nintendo Channel today. You know, that little thing you downloaded about a year ago, watched some horribly compressed streaming game trailers and never used again? Yeah, that thing.

All kidding aside, after a quick look by myself, I’ve found that the new version includes:

• A new “High-Quality setting for videos, for those with a fast enough Internet connection.
• A completely re-designed front page featuring still images of each video.
• The ability to now recommend DS games. This is done by connecting your DS using DS Download play with the game you want to recommend in the game card slot.
• Improved rankings for recommended games, depending on the how positively the game is recommended  it is assigned a different medal. Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. As of right now I see that Metroid Prime Trilogy has a platinum, Super Smash Bros. Brawl has a gold, and (travesty!) Super Mario Galaxy has a silver.
• A new records page giving you detailed info on your past recommendations  and total play time. (IE: I’ve spent 94 hours on Super Smash Bros. Brawl, while I’ve spent 5 minutes on Bit.Trip.Core.
• A favorites list where you can declare any DS or Wii game as one of your “favorites.”

Head on over to the Wii Shop Channel now to download the update for free.

Forget about other band-specific music games, folks—this is the only one that matters. Throw your Aerosmith and Metallica games out the window, and don’t bother with Van Halen. None of them can touch the golden excellence achieved by Harmonix’s loving tribute to one of—if not the—greatest pop-rock groups of all time: The Beatles. Yes folks, The Beatles: Rock Band is really that good.

Harmonix really outdid themselves with this one. Sure, the core game is essentially the same as Rock Band 2. Players pick up plastic guitars, bang on fake drums, or sing their lungs out on a mic (which is, for all intents and purposes, quite real), following lyrics and note charts for big points. Harmonix didn’t exactly change anything or shake things up, and that’s probably for the best. After all, Rock Band and its sequel are very simple to pick and up play, and a game bearing the name and likenesses of The Beatles deserves to be enjoyed by anyone and everyone. Complicated technology would get in the way of that enjoyment, so thank goodness Harmonix stuck to the basics. (more…)

The NPD has released North American sales data for the big three consoles in August. How do the console sales stack up?

• Nintendo DS – 552,900
• Wii – 277,400
• Xbox 360 – 215,400
• PlayStation 3 – 210,000
• PSP – 140,300
• PlayStation 2 – 105,900

How about software sales?

01. Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360) – 928,000
02. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – 754,000
03. Madden NFL 10 (PS3) – 665,000
04. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360) – 303,000
05. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) – 290,000
06. Madden NFL 10 (PS2) – 160,000
07. Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP) – 130,000
08. Wii Fit (Wii) – 128,000
09. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) – 120,000
10. Fossil Fighters (DS) – 92,000

Couple things here. First, while Batman: Arkham Asylum sold a total of 593,000 copies in North America in August, it was revealed in the LA Times that the total number of units sold worldwide in the month since release has totaled to over 2 million. I’d say Eidos has a genuine hit on their hands.

Because of the recent price drop, the PS3 saw a boost in sales of nearly 90,000 over last month. Here are last month’s console sales for comparison.

• Nintendo DS – 538,900
• Wii – 252,200
• Xbox 360 – 202,900
• PSP – 122,800
• PlayStation 3 – 121,800
• PlayStation 2 – 108,000

Okami, the lovely (if somewhat overlong) action adventure game from Capcom, didn’t sell as well as some had hoped. It was released on the PS2, then got an excellent port to the Wii, but it still never seemed to really light up the charts. There are a group of devoted fans, though, and it seems they now have something new to look forward to.

Okamiden is the Japanese name of the sequel recently announced for the Nintendo DS. Not too much is known about the game, but the signature brushstroke action is back, this time using the DS’s touch screen. Also, you seem to be playing as a younger wolf this time, instead of the mature Ameterasu from the original. Check out the gameplay trailer below:

Do you like to sit on your butt watching movies and/or TV shows all day? Do you own a Wii? Well, good sir or ma’am, prepare to be wowed and amazed by today’s news.

PlayOn, MediaMall’s online video streaming service currently available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners, is coming soon in open beta form to the Nintendo Wii. Interested parties can sign up for a 14-day free trial, after which they’ll need to pay a $40 license to continue using the service.

Xbox 360 owners might not see much of a need for PlayOn—especially if they don’t have much use for Hulu or Youtube—but PS3 owners could make good use of the service. But at least the PS3 has other media-streaming options; to my knowledge, the Wii has none without a little (*cough* illegal *cough*) homebrew action. PlayOn will likely be a welcome treat for folks who only own a Wii and want to get their Netflix or Hulu viewin’ on.

Today we see the beginning of a month-long Star Wars party on the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console, courtesy of Super Star Wars. The Super Nintendo classic releases for 800 space bucks. We can expect to see Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in the following weeks.

But that’s not all, folks. A Star Wars character creation contest will hit the Check Mii Out Channel soon, as will Star Wars-themed questions on the Everybody Votes Channel. LucasArts promises other classics from their library will hit the Virtual Console in the future following the three Star Wars games.

I still own a working Super Nintendo and plenty of games—including all three Super Star Wars titles—so the Virtual Console release of these games doesn’t much appeal to me. I’m sure, however, that many of you folks are excited. Well, I hope so anyway; otherwise I just wasted my time writing this article. So if seeing Super Star Wars on the VC has you shaking in your Luke Skywalker Underoos, leave a comment!