Yoshi’s Story - N64 - released 03/1998 - 1000 points

The evil Baby Bowser has cast a spell turning Yoshi’s Island into a picture book. Worse yet, the Super Happy Tree has been stolen, making the island dark and gloomy. Players must take control of six Yoshis, each a different colour, and travel through six pages (worlds) of platforming adventure to recover the tree and return the island to normal! Featuring huge character models and bright vibrant colours, the game’s various environments (such as woods, caves, mountains, and oceans) come alive in a uniquely gorgeous 2.5D look. Eat fruit, avoid enemies and obstacles, and throw eggs from the Yoshis’ never-ending supply in your quest to stop Baby Bowser’s plan from succeeding. If you’re good enough, you can aim for high scores by beaing picky about the fruit you eat. And who knows, you might even find the mysterious black and white Yoshis!

World Class Baseball - TG16 - released 12/1989 - 600 points

Acclaimed for its steady game play, World Class Baseball is the definitive baseball game on the TurboGrafx. Battle the computer in OPEN MODE or play a friend in VERSUS MODE. Customise your team in EDIT MODE or even watch a game between to computer opponents in WATCH MODE. WCB offers the complete baseball experience. Of course there’s also plenty of single-player action! The main feature is PENNANT MODE, where the player chooses a team from one of the world’s leagues and strives to win their team’s league. Beat league rivals and save your progress with passwords on your way to becoming league champions. After winning your league, get ready to face the other league’s champion in the heated series for the world championship!

Super Thunder Balde - Genesis - released 1989 - 800 points

In this follow-up to Thunder Blade, you’ll fly a new and improved attack helicopter in a series of attacks against guerilla armies that are bent on taking over the world. Although your aircraft is formidable, your enemies are vast and varied. You’ll have to take on submarines, tanks, fighter planes, and more. Your command of this state-of-the-art battle copter must be top notch, as you’ll have to dodge oncoming fire and use your various weapons to eliminate all enemy targets so you can reach the guerilla base and end their nefarious plans once and for all. Put on your flight suit and step into the thrilling action of Super Thunder Blade!

It’s nothing huge, but the Golden Hammer seems to be un upgrade to the regular black hammer used in the original Smash Bros. and Melee. While more powerful and faster than the regular hammer, it will be much harder to find. This hammer also allows you to float in midair for a short while. Sakurai-san also points out that while the normal hammer is known to “lose its head” on occasion, the Golden Hammer also malfunctions by turning into the “Golden Squeaky Hammer”, essentially becoming useless except for the entertaining squeak emitted when clobbering a foe , which does no damage, unfortunately…

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They were probably my least favourite characters in Melee, but I guess some people, somewhere, must like them. Fear not, Popo and Nana are making their return as playable characters in Smash Bros. Brawl.

Though, if I have to say something positive about it, from these images, the modelling looks amazing.

More images after the jump!

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Some solid stuff came out on the Virtual Console this morning:

-NES Play Action Football - 500 points (NES)

-Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - 800 points (GEN)

-Neutopia II - 600 points (TG16)

If you haven’t played Sonic 3 DEFINITELY pick it up. It’s my favorite in the series and you can’t miss it.

Pretty sweet news for Zelda fans. A little game called Zelda Crossbow Training will be coming packed in with the Wii Zapper on November 19th for the tasty price of $19.99. Check the press release!

REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 10, 2007 - Nintendo announced today that the Wii Zapper™ interface for the hit Wii™ home video game system will come packed with Link’s Crossbow Training™. The software is based on the hugely popular Legend of Zelda® series and provides a perfect demonstration of the way the Wii Zapper could be used in other games. The Wii Zapper casing houses both the motion-sensitive Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ controllers in a single unit for precision targeting. It goes on sale Nov. 19 at an MSRP of just $19.99.

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An interesting interview with Mr. Eggebrecht regarding the Wii and his thoughts on the console. It’s pretty cool to hear another developer giving his thoughts on what’s going on with the Wii.  His company, Factor 5, was behind the smash hits Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, and the two sequels.  While their last game, Lair on the PS3, was far from a critical success, they just might hit that genius spark with Wii.

Some key points in interview -

- Developers disregarding graphical capabilities on Wii.

- Hardware is “very, very easy to understand.”

- Would consider doing another Star Wars title for Nintendo.

- Upset with peoples’ negative attitude towards casual games.  “Essentially, we’re all casual.”

He says a few more things that are pretty interesting to hear, including Factor 5’s next project.  For more on the interview (which has been translated, so it might not make TOTAL sense), check it out, thanks to our friends at Gonintendo.com

Yoshi’s Island on the Super Nintendo isn’t just one of my favorite games of all time, it IS my favourite game of all time. So when a sequel was announced for DS, I was very excited, but cautiously optimistic. The original game balanced art, level design, music, and brilliant gameplay mechanics to create the greatest 2D platformer of all time. How could a game possibly be made to even match it, let alone better it? Especially from such an inexperienced developer as Artoon?

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Anyone subscribed to the official online newsletter from Nintendo.com should find a nice little e-mail like this. Just to show that the next great adventure on the Wii has finally (emphasis on the finally) come out, this is an affective ad. But you can’t help but feel that this, in a way…makes Nintendo look kinda…bad.  Doesn’t really hide the fact that there haven’t been that many quality games on the system thus far, does it? Anyways, check out our review of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in our Wii section!

There have been tons of placeholders on online retailers’ pages, as well as fan-made creations speculating what the box art might look like, but it looks like this might finally be it. This is the image found on Brawl’s Amazon page as well as on eStarland’s page. As far as things go, it looks pretty official. These are all confirmed characters in the game, and unlike all the fan-created works, the character poses and images aren’t just rehashings of official artwork. If this is a fake, then it’s the best fake I’ve ever seen.