Wii accessories have been sprouting like mushrooms lately - the most recent items to join the fray were Gametech's filter and port protection caps and three accessories from Dragon Electronics. Now, it's Japanese-based company Elecom's turn to join the bandwagon as they just introduced their silicon covers for the Wiimote - the HGW-001 series, HGW-002 series, HGW-003 series, and the HGW-004WH.

The HGW-001, priced at JPN￥ 1, 260 (about US$ 10.50), has a "band strap" so that the chances of the Wiimote slipping from your grasp would be diminished. It comes in three colors - transparent, black, and blue. On the other hand, the HGW-002, which sports the same price tag as the HGW-001 and comes in the same colors, is blessed with a grip design. The HGW-003 is basically the same, but it allows you to change your Wiimote's batteries without removing the silicon cover.

 

The more expensive HGW-004WH has a price tag of JPN￥ 1, 680 (roughly US$ 14) and would be best used if you're going to use the Wiimote as the game pad.

 

It was just like yesterday when we first mentioned Gamecock Media Group and the juicy games they will throw at our way. The group has surely came a long way - they now have an official website and they have released a teaser vid of one of their projects - Mushroom Men: The Spore War. Now, IGN reports that Mushroom Men will be officially conquering the Nintendo Wii and DS. According to Gamecock Console Chief Rick Stults:

From the minute we signed Mushroom Men we've worked to bring it to the Wii and DS. ... Both platforms are going to give Mushroom Men a life of their own as [developer] Red Fly Studio is building unique stories specific to each system.

The game aims to make use of the unique control schemes of each system - especially that of the Wii. The game has a wacky premise: the Mushroom Men war takes place at your backyard and the weapons will be made from everyday items that we don't usually pay too much attention at.

Annihilate household pests with other forms of plants using your Wiimote or DS stylus. Here are some screens and artworks of Mushroom Men for the Wii. We'll surely give more updates about the game's PSP, PS3, Xbox 360 status as more info comes our way.

   

  
 

Today, we have here some more screens of the Wii and PS2 bound game from Capcom - a little title called Devil Kings 2: Heroes Gaiden. Indeed, more and more info about the game comes our way - unlike before. Hopefully, in the near future, the trailers and screens would come in a language that most of us would understand.

Anyhow, Devil Kings 2 is set to have a number of additions - additional playable characters, gameplay, and new gameplay modes. I personally must agree with fellow blogger, Rio S., when she said that we'll be seeing more elemental special moves and sword swinging samurai action - judging from the screens we've been dishing out.

As of now, the game is still geared for a winter release in the Land of the Rising Sun. Hopefully, this game also reaches European and U.S. shores. But for now, here are Devil Kings 2: Heroes Gaiden's latest screens, courtesy of JeuxFrance.

    

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that the WiiKey modchip site had gone MIA, but a few days after that report, the WiiKey site had gone back up. Apparently, the site went down for two days due to some hard disk failure. Although they are back, they lost a chunk of info so most resellers had to send in their information to the Wiikey staff again.

Now putting that snafu behind them, the WiiKey Team has issued an apology for the update delay, here's what we found out on their site:

Quite a few people have contacted us and expressed disappointment over that the update has not been released yet. We would like to apologize for this. Please bear in mind that development work always take time, and we are will post the update as soon as it is delivered to us by the developers.

Hopefully, their past problems will not haunt them this time around. Keep checking us out for updates regarding WiiKey developments. To check out WiiKey's official site, just go to our source link below.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition sponsor, Sears, has Nintendo Wiis in stock. So could this mean that better stock days for the Wii has come? Well, we don't know and couldn't answer that - but if you're one of those who have yet to get their grubby hands on this console, then click on our read link and get one.

We have reported that the Wii has already past the seven million mark and if Nintendo keeps this up, then they're bound to sell even more in due time. Anyhow, the systems are sold for the standard price of US$ 249.99 and if you don't hurry they might just go out of stock any minute now.

 

A few days ago, we mentioned an NGCFrance report about Japanese manga Gintama making an appearance on the Nintendo Wii after basking in the Nintendo DS limelight. Now, going over another French website - JeuxFrance, we found four scans of Gintama the game from Shonen Jump. Of course, Shonen Jump having first dibs on the game's scans isn't surprising - the manga is currently published by Shueisha who also rolls out Shonen Jump.

Just in case you aren't familiar with this Hideaki Sorachi-created piece, well, read on for a quick recap. Gintama the manga's setting is in Edo, Japan and the place has been taken over by aliens known as Amanto. They have forbidden carrying swords in public and the story focuses on three characters - Sakata Gintoki, Shimura Shinpachi, and Kagura - "freelancers" who search for work to pay their monthly bills.

Although there are still no info about what Gintama's Wii outing is gonna be about, we still have these scans to ogle at. Keep checking us out for more updates about the game.

 

  

More Square Enix Party pics come our way - this time, courtesy of NGCFrance. These are pics of Dragon Quest Swords for the Wii during the said gathering, here check out the pics.

   
  

Nothing much has been divulged, but at least, this batch of pics is a breath of fresh air from all the box-art and screens we've been covering this past few weeks. The game, just so you know, is slated to roll out on July 12 for our Japanese friends. As for its North American release, well, the date is still shrouded in mystery.

It was back in October 2006 when 2K Sports first took the lid off their baseball game title, The BIGS (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PSP). Fast forward to today, the game now has a cover athlete and some of its features have also been divulged, now may be the best time to report an interview.

Over at Gamespot, they had a short chit-chat with Blue Castle Games' Jason Leigh. He talked about the game's development (which is going really well or so he says) and how they are creating an over-the-top arcade baseball game while still being true to a sport that is rich with tradition thanks to Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth among many others. To that, Jason said that:

Baseball is already an exciting game, so our focus was how to make the coolest stuff happen all the time. The BIGS is very much a solid representation of baseball, but taken to an entirely new level. The first thing that you'll notice with The BIGS is that it has a really cool arcade pace. There is minimal downtime, and everything feels faster and snappier. We put a lot of effort into our animation system to make sure that there is a lot of style and athleticism with the catches and throws. The players really do feel more heroic, even when pulling off routine plays. When they start to pull off the big moves--diving catches, double plays, wall catches, etc.--we really made sure to pay that off with bigger animations, audio, and presentation.

He also discussed the game's league challenge mode (which has now been renamed as "rookie challenge"). Basically, this mode will let you in on the usual "zero-to-hero journey" - you're in charge of harnessing a rookie player's talents, from spring training to being the World Series MVP. Spring training would include building your player's skills by using minigames as their training ground.

Once you've proven your mettle, you'll earn your playoff spot and all of a sudden your rookie would be carrying his team on and to the World Series. It's a long way to the top, so it's nice to note that there are some unlockable rewards - sunglasses, batter ditties, bat graphics, tattoos, and you can choose your rookie's nickname or moniker.

The BIGS on the Wii would use both the Wiimote and Nunchuk - and of course, you get to swing it like a bat and throw it like you would a baseball. Leigh also said that they are already in the final stages of refining the control scheme. Xbox Live Achievements like "get X strikeouts, get X home runs in a game...and pitch a perfect game" would also be put in place. Unfortunately, The BIGS won't be in the PS3 Home online service...well, "not this year" says Jason.

You can check out the full interview by clicking on our read link below.

Alten8 has recently confirmed their latest Nintendo DS title, dubbed as Wordsnake. Alten8 has inked a deal with Pixel Magick to bring this game not only to the DS, but also to the PC and the Nintendo Wii. Pixel Magick will be working closely with Alten8 to make sure that the game would retain its fun gameplay and also to ensure that this next Wordsnake outing would also have something new to offer.

In case the name of the game didn't give it away for you, Wordsnake's aim is to build words of 3-8 letters from the random selection on the tile rack, and reach a target score before the time runs out. New features are the ability to randomly shuffle letters and move them to a second tile rack to help with the word making.

As the player progresses to each new level, they will have less time to complete the level, the target score will increase, and extra walls will appear that restrict the playable area. So whoever said that word-games are boring may have to think twice (or not...).

No release dates for now, but here are some DS screens and packshot. If you're interested with this game, we advice you to keep checking out QJ for future updates.

   

Last February, independent auditing firm Goldstein Goulb Kressler expressed their concern about Majesco Entertainment's financial health. Now, it seems that Majesco in a not-so-pleasant situation.

Majesco, known as the publisher of games like Cooking Mama and Psychonauts among many others, revealed that they received a second notification from Nasdaq stating the company has not met the US$ 35 million market value of listed securities requirement for continued listing.

Gibberish as this sounds, what this means is that Majesco's common stock is subject to delisting from the Nasdaq Capital Market unless the company requests a hearing before a Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel. In other words, this spells trouble as the fate of the company is in the hands of the Nasdaq panel. It's a sad thing when you're not in control of the situation, is it not?

The company is dead set on requesting a hearing, but of course there are no guarantees that the Panel will give in to their request for continued listing.