How does Nintendo manage to create innovative products such as the Wii Fit and Wii Balance Board? In the latest volume of Iwata Asks, Nintendo head honcho Satoru Iwata sat down with key members from Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD) division to discuss about the long process that eventually lead to the first fun weight balance gadget. Check out the full article for more details.

Behind Super Mario Galaxy's smashing success is Nintendo's Yoshiaki Koizumi, the director in charge of the Italian plumber's latest title. In an interview, he talks about development of the game and sneaking story elements past Miyamoto who wants his games simple.

Check out the interview's highlights at the full article!

With Nintendo EAD's upcoming video game, Super Mario Galaxy release coming ever so near, we've got some eye candy to tide us all over until November 12. We're got another batch of screenshots from the anticipated title for the Wii.

Check out the screenshots for a sneak peek at in-game menus, more planets and galaxies, plus some safety reminders from Nintendo. Of course, there are some shots of gameplay here and there.

If you enjoyed watching the Japanese TV spot of Nintendo EAD's Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii, then you'll definitely like watching the North American ad of the game. What can we expect to see in this TV spot? The two Japanese men of the Wii Would Like to Play commercials make an appearance again, and this time they're offering gamers in an auditorium to try out one of the most anticipated Mario games this year.

You can check out the video in the full article.


Buy: [ Super Mario Galaxy ]

Despite the fact that the Wii's Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has already been out for a good while, it still remains as one of the most popular games of the moment. This just goes to show that this title still bears the trademark charm and lifespan that previous Zelda games bear.

So, it can't be helped that months after its release, people are still discovering new things about the game; bits that range from small details in animation, to light references to other titles in the Zelda franchise.

Over at the IGN boards, one member has reposted a whole list of such details that one might want to try to catch the next time you fire up that Wii. For example, did you know that the songs that we hear from the Howling Stones are all taken from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time? Besides factoids like this though, the list also contains several helpful tips on how and where to get some extra items and rupees, as well as some events and NPC reactions which can be triggered by doing certain things in-game.

Other intersting bits:

• After defeating an enemy, press A without moving and Link will perform the cool-looking flourish move(spinning his sword before sheathing it) like he does in cutscenes. This may only work on harder enemies.
• Ooccoo is a little bird in the game. 00CC00 is the hexadecimal colour code for the green of Links tunic in the original Zelda. It's likely a coincidence, with Ooccoo being a play on Cocoo (the chickens).

To check out the list, simply click on the "Read" link below.

So, how's the weather up there? A chicken who's managed to cross the road safely just told us that everything's going to be sun, sun, sun with regards to the supposed Animal Crossing game coming to the Wii. For one thing, the game is finally confirmed. It's heading for the Wii, and it would most definitely be sometime this year.

Aside from the confirmation itself, we've also learned that online capability will be incorporated into the game. No surprise there, since Animal Crossing for the DS used the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. But more than this, it's also been heard that the Forecast Channel will be integrated within the game's real-time clock.

Whatever the weather is in your part of the world, it will be reflected into this simulation game. Stands to reason too. If you're living your life in the real world where it's sunny-cloudy-stormy, then might as well have the same weather in the virtual Animal Crossing world in real-time.

Animal Crossing was originally mentioned at the Game Developers Conference early this March as being ported to the then-Nintendo Revolution. Since then, the name's been changed to Wii, and not much has been heard about the probable importation of the title to Nintendo's next-gen.

But like everything else that seems to be doing some last-minute sprints before 2006 officially comes to a close, the rumor mill has been turning once again, resurrecting the buzz that the game will definitely cross over to the Wii, and soon. Posted on the electronic version of Kyoto Shinbun below the credits on the new Animal Crossing, the sentence "Let's meet in Wii" suddenly pops up.

Well, if that doesn't spark up the speculations that it'll be coming soon, then we don't know what will! Certainly, our interest has been piqued. And although we haven't heard anything official on the matter for now, we can't help but look forward to all the wondrous possibilities this game could provide with the Wii.

Don't worry, we'll keep you posted on this one.

In the whole history of gaming, we've come across a whole plethora of characters and video game icons. From loyal sidekicks to evil lords, item shop vendors to sky pirates, talking flowers to gun-wielding femme fatales; the range of all these characters great and small have an impact on our game, and essentially, even our lives.

Starting from his first work on Donkey Kong and down the road through Super Marios Bros. and The Legend of Zelda among others, Shigeru Miyamoto was just named as one of Asia's heroes in the recent "TIME" magazine 60 Years of Asian Heroes issue. He hasn't just created a whole cast of lovable and memorable characters, but in fact, infected the whole world with his gaming philosophy.

Miyamoto's body of work is remarkable because he has always remained focused on what actually matters in a game: the player's experience. Other designers may obsess about testing the limits of the hardware; Miyamoto specializes in testing the limits of imagination. His insistence upon simplicity and his appeal to our inner child recognize that play is an important part of being human.

While the industry is continuously expanding, Miyamoto tries to break barriers by changing the rules. Also called the Walt Disney of the video gaming arena, he's pushed the envelope of creativity being the Director and General Manager of Nintendo EAD. From the touchpad of the NDS and the Wiimote of the Wii, he's revolutionized our concept of gaming and took risks with unconventional interaction.

Now, he might be Asia's hero. But is he also yours as well? As much as the Zelda and Mario games are all revered by most Nintendo (and non-Nintendo) fans, Miyamoto could be considered everyone's hero, whether you're an Italian plumber in suspenders or a perpetually kidnapped princess.

It's common sense that "what goes up must come down," but you need specific formulas if you're going to send a space shuttle into space. In other words, you need solid data and clear numbers.

So we appreciated the data we found in a Gamasutra article about BrandIntel, a market research company out of Toronto, and BrandIntel's "Top 50 Video Games Report." The study took data from both "online and human analysis from January 1, 2006 to October 31, 2006 for over 1,200 titles" - including those that have only been announced. "The games were broken down in terms of audience interest and sentiment score, and then subsequently ranked."

The results. So which games got the most audience (customer) interest?

1. Gears of War
   The game is from Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios is unstoppable. (We had to use Tim Buckley's Ctrl+Alt+Del comic take on it from ctrlaltdel-online.com.)
   
2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
   Any "hardcore gamer" should be willing to show respect for this venerable franchise steeped in gaming tradition from Nintendo EAD. *bow your head and ask for Miyamoto's blessing* LOL
   
3. Madden NFL 07 (with versions for the Xbox 360, for the PS3, and for the Wii)
   If you've been reading QJ comments, you'll see people's interest vary depending on the platform. Some versions for some consoles are ridiculed for bugs and because EA Sports has lost its touch, but some versions are praised for innovations.
   
4. Halo 3
5. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (with versions for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii)
   
6. Fight Night Round 3
7. Call of Duty 3 (with versions for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3)
   
8. Assassin's Creed (with versions for the Xbox 360 and PS3)
   
9. Resistance: Fall of Man
   
10. Tony Hawk's Project 8

The research took "online consumer communities such as message boards, discussion forums, blogs and other internet social communities," as well as "over 670,000 raw search results, of which 48,000 consumer mentions on next-gen video games were used in compiling the data."

The trends. According to the study, there are some trends: moving away from World War II shooters and moving towards futuristic shooters, action adventure got discussed because of "open-ended game play and highly-interactive environments" but sports games got discussed (dissed) for "inaccurate and unrealistic" gameplay.

That makes sense to us: it's easy to diss a sport game because you play the sport in real life or watch it on TV. You don't usually have to deal with aliens or monsters unless you went to snooty high school, so a futuristic shooter will tend to make us notice (in a positive way) the atmosphere and effects and gameplay.

A belated "Happy Birthday" to Shigeru Miyamoto! The bad news is we're a day late (insert snide remark here about how QJ is "always" late), the good news is that the rest of the world greeted Miyamoto yesterday and promptly moved on, QJ is still celebrating his birthday - in our own way and never mind if we get flamed for being late!

That's the kind of optimism, lateral thinking, guts, and panache that has made this man great.

Miyamoto is the creator of Donkey Kong, where one of the characters named "Jump Man" eventually became Mario and Nintendo's mascot. Miyamoto also designed Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda (notice that Link is left-handed - Miyamoto is ambidextrous), Star Fox, and Pikmin. In other words, he's one of Nintendo's most important game creators, and when he speaks, people must listen.

He is also Director and General Manger of Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (Nintendo EAD). That's the corporate branch of Nintendo of Japan - you'll find that many games credit "Nintendo EAD" as the developer while "Nintendo" will be credited as the publisher. You know Nintendo's habit of delaying or even canceling games? Miyamoto is partly to blame - and he's the one to praise - because "a delayed game is eventually good; a bad game is bad forever" (kinda reminds you of Perrin Kaplan's explanation for why Metroid Prime was delayed: "it's cooking to perfection").

Shigeru Miyamoto turned 54 yesterday (so doing the math, he was born November 16, 1952). His honors include being the first inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) Hall of Fame and having a star in the Walk of Game at the Metreon in San Fransisco.

For a (somewhat) full list of his creative accomplishments, you can always check out his IMDb entry.