Everybody has been wondering how and when the Virtual Console games for the Nintendo Wii are going to be available. Well, today, we came across a list that has been floating around on the net which contains the supposed titles that will appear in the Virtual Console, and it's quite a list of classics, too.  See for yourself...

• Bonk's Adventure
• Castlevania
• Duck Hunt
• Excitebike
• F-Zero
• Kid Icarus
• Legend of Zelda, The
• Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Mario Kart 64
• Metroid
• Mortal Kombat
• New Adventure Island
• Ninja Gaiden
• OutRun
• Pac-Man
• Prince of Persia
• Punch-Out!!
• R-Type
• Rayman 2
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Star Fox
• Super Mario 64
• Super Mario Bros
• Super Mario Kart
• Super Mario World
• Tecmo Bowl

However, this list is unofficial and may be actually part of the good ol' Wii rumor mill, so for now, it may be best to just take all this with a grain of salt until official announcements are actually made. But wouldn't it be nice?

We just read some new Wii and DS info that might give you all the more reason to pre-order that console. EA has just confirmed that the much-talked about game, Spore, will be released in Spring 2007. Players can also link up play via the DS so you can deform species anywhere. Data from the DS may be transferred to the Wii. Does this mean we get to play Spore on a bigger screen? We'll see.

Regarding controllers the hardware; the Sensor bar is 50% smaller than what was previously thought. It will be "little bigger than a couple of pencils together." Wii-mote's got its own 6kb memory that will help in storing data like sensitivity, y and x axis settings, scores, and saves. It'll run on two AA batteries for 60 hours of gaming; cut it down by half if using the sensor bar. People can use SD cards for game saves and virtual console games. Unfortunately, law prohibits you from playing games on someone else's Wii.

So with all these new info, it certainly helps in imagining that you're playing with a Wii right now.

According to Tecmo's latest financial report, published this week, the company of Dead Or Alive fame will be supporting Nintendo's Virtual Console service for the Wii with their own software. The report specifically states that there will be "aggressive" backing by bringing some of their titles to the service. Which games could be part of this strategy hasn't been announced yet, but the company, whose roots date back to 1981, has a massive backlog of classic and loved franchises, including Ninja Gaiden, Bomb Jack, Rygar and Captain Tsubasa.

This news makes Tecmo another third party developer to announce support for Nintendo's ambitious new online service, after Hudson and Sega declared their cooperation with Nintendo a while ago. It looks like Virtual Console is really going to be a promising thing to watch out for when the Wii launches, something that shouldn't be underestimated. It's safe to assume that Nintendo got even more deals up their sleeves, so of course we'll post again once we hear more regarding the Virtual Console service.

Curse Non-Disclosure Agreements. James Temperton of Cubed 3 recently sat down with Broken Saints' Brooke Burgess and asked all the questions that couldn't be answered... yet.

Rumors of a third person action-adventure video game for this epic 12-hour, 24 Chapter, 57-part online saga, have broken out on game sites in 2006 and now if we read between the lines, we can almost confirm that it is coming to the Nintendo Wii and DS.

Here's an excerpt from the interview that strongly hints of confirmation of our assumptions.

JT: Yeah, so, combining two questions into one: you seem to be hinting, quite strongly, that the game will probably appear on the Nintendo Wii. But just how far along is the game development and would you like to confirm it is on the Wii or not?

BB: I can’t confirm much. The reason is I’m under a series of NDAs, which will tell you something! *Pause – to let that point settle in* And with that said I will say that I have always been a Nintendo fan...I think most of our hardcore fans know that of me as well. In fact, it was thought way back in the day that we were some sort of secret Nintendo project.

When the site first launched people were like "This is way too slick to have been done by three guys". And we kind of hinted our Nintendo leanings in places and people were like "Oh this must be a secret Nintendo game receptacle". I love Nintendo, I love the platforms, even the moments of weakness, the chinks in their armour so to speak, but I think the new platform is incredible. I think that development costs can be cut down. I think that the Virtual Console will provide for an incredible showcase of episodic content and I think that the connection between the Wii and the DS, as far as transferring trailers or additional content...hmm, interactive comic books are really interesting...I think that all the clues are kind of there for you.

JT: I’ll put two-and-two together...

Listen to the two part interview and listen to a passionate Brooke Burgess talk about the game's development, choosing publisher and future plans for Broken Saints, even comedic jabs at E3 (or the non-existence of it) by clicking on the download links below.

Download: [Brooke Burgess' Interview Part 1]
Download: [Brooke Burgess' Interview Part 2]

That's right, it looks like a day has been set for all the Wii details to flow forth like a river of beautiful flowers.

Yeah, I fail at being poetic.

Anyway, as the above invite shows, some press members have been invited to attend a private meeting with Nintendo on September 14th, 2006. The above invite is for Matt Casamassina of IGN. He's blurred out the details, but they likely weren't that important anyway. The event will take place one week before the Tokyo Game Show and it will likely take place in Redmond, Washington - the location of Nintendo of America.

What do we expect to be revealed there? Well, Satoru Iwata has previously said that launch details would be revealed in September so that's a good bet. Hopefully the price, date, and launch lineup as well as more information on the Nintendo WiFi Connection will be known! How about Virtual Console pricing and selection? There's loads that we don't know about this console and this just might be the even to reveal it all.

Camp Hyrule, an online virtual camp held by Nintendo every year, is under full swing. Every year, Nintendo invites people to take questions from the campers. Even Reggie Fils-Aime, who is now the president of Nintendo of America, has been a featured presenter! We had a transcript of the chat with the Nintendo Senior Online Producer earlier (check it out if you're thinking of going into web design), Senior Vice President of Operations for Digipen (check it out if you're thinking of going into game development). Now, we've got the transcript with one of the big guys at Nintendo: George Harrison, Vice President of Communications and Corporate Affairs at Nintendo of America.

This guy is one of the big three at Nintendo of America alongside Reggie Fils-Aime and Perrin Kaplan. As a PR guy, he knows how to get around questions with ease. He does so again in this chat, which is a bit disappointing, but you can still try and get something out of it. At least he didn't beat around the bush in telling us that Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii would not use the GCN controller. We're a li'l disappointed, but we guess that just underscores that nothing's perfect. He was much faster at answering questions than previous chatters so more questions were answered, check them out.

Click "Full Story" for the transcript. Please excuse any grammar errors and typos as it is a transcript of a live chat.

Gamers are living in interesting times. The latest generation of gaming platforms are either here or on their way, and much has been speculated about who will come out on top. We at QJ are not entirely sure who will eventually rule the consoles, but if there's one thing companies have to watch out for, it's failure.

That concern seems to be on the minds of the folks at Nintendo these days, especially with its current president, Satoru Iwata. The Wii is their big gamble in this next generation of consoles, and there are many things hinging on whether the Wii succeeds or fails.

Could the Wii fail? Perhaps, but it depends on how this new Nintendo plays the game.

Sean Colleli over at Gaming Nexus decided to take a keen eye to Nintendo, addressing potential problem spots that the gamemaker has to work on in preparation for the launch of the Wii. His insights are especially noteworthy because of how it analyzes Nintendo's history in reference to their current preoccupation.

His first assertion is the need to have bigger ideas, instead of bigger budgets. Reactions were mixed at E3 when Nintendo showcased Wii Sports with a somewhat low-tech presentation. It didn't wow gamers, but it got the attention of the non-gamers, who are the new target market for Nintendo. 

More Wii analysis await after the jump.

We already know that Bonk is somewhat staging a comeback through the Wii's Virtual Console (Bonk's Adventure for the TurboGrafx 16), but some new artworks and polls are fueling speculations that our beloved caveman is returning for a new series, for the next-gen console perhaps?

Just to give you a little background about Bonk, in case you don't have a clue who he is, Bonk is a video game character from NEC's TurboGrafx 16 console. Known in Japan as PC-Engine, Bonk was a mascot for NEC's console, though some Bonk games eventually saw releases on other consoles as well such as Bonk's Adventure for the PS2 and GameCube. A large-headed, bald caveman, his favored form of attack was the headbutt. The "PC" part of his Japanese name stands for "Pithecanthropus Computerurus", a fictitious species name for Bonk.

Video game developer and publisher Hudson, through their forums, released some Bonk artworks (pictured) that urges forum members to speculate on the question- "A sign of things to come?". Aside from that, Hudson was also conducting a poll asking what Hudson franchise would they want to see on the next-gen consoles. Bonk was placed second with 27% trailing first-placer Bomberman.

Now, we ask you the same question, are these signs of things to come? And where would you want to see our caveman headbutting like crazy, in the PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, or in all of them? So far, all of us are only armed with speculations and perhaps wishful thingkings, but hopefully, Hudson could shed a light on this in the days to come. We, here, will always keep you posted.

If we have a dollar for every time we mention something good about Wii, we'd probably be swimming in a big pool of money by now. But, with good reviews come great expectations, and now another expectation is added to the long list that Wii should live up to. Just what is that?

According to some opinions and analysis, it looks like the next-gen Ninty console would be the knight-in-shining-armor of sorts for the dwindling genre of adventure games that had been made famous by games such as Myst, Leisure Suit Larry, Grim Fandango, and Zork among many others.

Adventure games had been relegated to the sidelines lately due to ballooning development costs, demand for high action games, and sluggish sales. But according to Aaron Stanton, a Nintendo aficionado, "systems like the Wii's Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade, which allow smaller games to be released and downloaded over the Internet, might have what is needed to make adventure games both common, and once again profitable to make. "

He also mentioned that adventure games aren't really that expensive to develop. So why aren't they being developed? The reason is that they tend to lag behind other game genres. So just why does Mr. Stanton believe that Wii will be the panacea of the adventure game genre? The answer: the Wiimote.

He pointed out that the reason why adventure games have never been a box-office delight in the home console department, is because "TV resolutions often make it difficult to read written text, unlike the computer screen. The lack of a mouse makes it very difficult to control a genre original intended to be controlled through point and click...However, the Wii's unique control allows for more complex interactions on the console, acting as a pointer. Issues with reading text can be dealt with as well."

So what's your take in all these? Do you think that the Wii is capable of saving the "sinking" adventure games genre, or do you think it isn't the only solution? Do you think that adventure games are really in that much trouble? Would you be wanting to play an adventure game on the Wii? Things maybe a bit hazy now but from the looks of it, the Wii has got a lot of load in its back.

An anonymous reader has sent Kotaku this image, claiming it to be a promotional image for Nintendo's Virtual Console service. And it's totally hitting the right spot for me, reminding me of the great artwork that would occasionally grace the Nintendo Power mag in the early 90s, a time where Sony was not a rival yet and Microsoft hasn't even considered joining the console market.
 
I can already see people competing on how many characters they can find and identify on this picture. Nintendo has once again done the right thing - instead of going for this hip, minimalist iPod-esque advertising style, they've relied on showing their old-school roots, which is exactly what they'll be trying to sell on the Virtual Console service.

UPDATE: This image has since been confirmed as "run of the mill" fanart. While nice, nothing official, move along... ;)
(thanks for the tip Badam)