It feels like it’s been forever since it came out (alright, 2 days) but I finally snagged a copy of BWii! So many great games coming out I think my mind will explode. If only I could take a couple weeks off of work and just play them all… Between this and Guitar Hero III which is still fresh on my shelf, The Simpsons Game tomorrow, I think I’ll have my hands full. I’ve gotta get my fill of all of them before we all become Super Mario Galaxy hermits…

Smashbros.com revealed a new stage today… an Ice Climbers level people MIGHT actually play! It’s called The Summit. You’re on top of a giant glacier that eventually breaks off and slides down the mountain into the ocean.

Level looks like fun! More screenshots at the official Smash Bros. site.

 

So, really lame day for news. As in, absolutely NOTHING happened. Well, a few things, but we only like to update with things you actually want to read. I’m struggling through Zack and Wiki in an attempt to have a review up by Friday… man, those oracle dolls are lifesavers when you’re trying to beat a game for a review. It’s a real solid game, going to get a pretty good score from yours truly. Starting with Zack and Wiki we’re going to be pumping out reviews like crazy, at least one a week, probably more. There’s going to be a HUGE flood of games in November, so we’ll all be playing our butts off to get through them and spread our opinion.  It’s practically a dream month for a Mario fan like myself.

So keep your eyes peeled… things will start to pick up around here pretty quick. Oh yeah! The crew is going to be headed to Video Games Live on November 9th, and we’ll have a pretty sweet write up with PICTURES and everything! Fun times ahead in the world of Nintendo fans!

Another in-store advertisement, showing Super Mario Galaxy as a November 14th release…

At least this one says it’s available November 14th, rather than releasing on the 14th, suggesting that the release date could be prior, but the game will definitely be available on that date.

The official Smash Bros. site updated this morning with some AWESOME news. You’re able to build your own stages in Brawl! You can pick any background and any song to play. You can save stages to an SD card so you aren’t limited by the Wii’s lack of hard drive, and you can also send them to anyone on your friends list. To top it all off, you can send in any stages to Nintendo, and a new stage will be featured for download every day! The same thing will also be happening with the in game screenshots you take.

It continues to astound me just how much content is going to be included in this… we’ll be playing this game forever! Head on over to Smashbros.com to check out more screens and info.

It seems as though American chain Target is also showing signs of a November 14th release, as a GoNintendo reader has pointed out. Target’s pre-order card for Galaxy gives a release date of November 14th as well.

Just to clarify things a bit, as most of you know an official release date is never a guarantee that a store will have received it on that date. As I understand it, the “release date” is the date that the product is shipped to retailers and “released” to the retailers for sale. Essentially, “when you get it, put it on the shelf”. In Nintendo’s case, these release dates are usually Tuesdays. From what I hear, American retailers often get these shipments that afternoon, or evening, and Canadian retailers usually receive these shipments Wednesday morning. To my knowledge, there has never been an official difference between the American and Canadian release dates, it’s all grouped under “North America”. The date that games are put on shelves is just a matter of when the shipment arrives.

The only exceptions to the Tuesday rule usually apply to major releases like a new console or a big game, in which case the product is usually “street dated”, ie. shipped out before the company-given release date, and the stores cannot sell it until that date. In those cases, the stores will have them on the shelves on the release date.

Many Canadian stores (Future Shop comes to mind) advertise the date that the store will have it in stock (in flyers and in-store posters) as the day after the North American release date, effectively guaranteeing that they’ll have stock on that day, and eliminate the likeliness of disappointing customers who see online that the game releases on the Tuesday, only to find out that the store hasn’t gotten it yet, and probably won’t until the next day.

Whether or not Galaxy will be street dated is unknown to me. I’m assuming it will be, since the North American release date isn’t a Tuesday, but a Monday, and as I said earlier, games that have a release date other than a Tuesday are likely street dated. Back to the issue at hand with the Galaxy release, there would be no reason for any store to advertise the 14th, unless the release date had actually been changed, or there was a mistake somewhere along the line. If anything (and this is back to the “advertising for the day after the release date to guarantee stock”), the release date will show as the 13th on advertisements and not the 14th. There is the possibility that the person that put “the 14th” on advertisements assumed that Galaxy would be released on the Tuesday, and so with the advertising a day ahead, wrote down the 14th, which could explain part of it…

With the news that Target has made a similar “mistake”, throws another wrench into the mix, since there is no reason for Target, a completely American chain, to advertise for the next day, let alone the next next day, especially since Galaxy will likely be street dated and shipped to retailers before the 12th. The 14th is probably their “whatever happens, we’ll definitely have it in stock by this day” date, giving them a safety net from customer backlash.

What’s going on is still a mystery. Why the official book would say the 14th is weird, since nobody sees that book but employees. There’s probably an easy explanation for it, but when it comes to something as big and as hyped as Galaxy, anything that may prevent or delay the planned release on the 12th has the potential to throw us Nintendo fans into a tizzy of worry.

…and those are my current thoughts on the matter.

Sorry I couldn’t have posted this sooner, I seem to have been plagued with internet troubles recently, and today the network in the house just quit. But there’s some good news! I managed to find a copy of Guitar Hero III! Ok, it really wasn’t hard, because for once all the stores had them, and they were all demo-ing them as well.

Kevin and I played for about an hour, and so far it’s pretty awesome. The guitar feels great and much less toy-like than previous models, and although just starting the game I’ve barely scratched the surface as to playable songs, the selection so far is superb!

You can see some more images of the packaging and the unwrapping after the break!

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I’m always leery of trying to find a game on the release day, and especially on a mid-week date. I hate making a special trip out to find one specific thing, and have no luck getting it. Reports are coming in, though, from across the internet of people finding it no problem, and the websites of major Canadian retailers are saying it will be available on the 28th, so I’m feeling pretty confident about this…

I’ll report back to you later this afternoon on whether or not I managed to find it, and possibly post pictures of the sweet looking guitar…

I know you can’t tell, but I’m smiling right now.

…And here I was beginning to think that Nintendo didn’t even have a marketing department… It’s not recent news, but I was only made aware of it yesterday when I read an article in the paper about the moderate success that Are You Smarter Than A Canadian 5th Grader? is seeing. It would seem that just like The Wizard (see that movie, now!), the show is practically a commercial for Nintendo’s latest products, which are in this case the Wii and Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. It even goes so far as to call the big $25,000 question the “Big Brain Academy Question”.

I’m not a big fan of product placement and corporate branding (if you hadn’t already guessed my leanings from the forum discussions…), and even though it’s Nintendo I’ve got to say that it still really annoys me. I might just watch it next week though, briefly, just to see how bad it is and possibly get in a laugh, since by reading the press release it seems pretty awful.

Also I want to see if my years of… er… “hard work” in school have made me smarter than a 10 year-old.

I sure hope so.

Check out the full press release after the break (from August 14th? Yikes, this is old news…). I do recommend you read it, or just watch the show, next Thursday at 9 on Global, because it makes the show sound hilariously full of corporate Nintendo-y goodness.

And yes, in answer to your question, I’m bored it’s a slow day for news.

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1UP: How do you feel about the millions of people who have been touched by your music? Most people remember the Super Mario Bros. theme to this day.

KK: Of course, at the time we were working on those games, I could not have imagined that they would be played by so many people — I had no idea whatsoever. That was 20 years ago, though, so looking back on it today, I’m so very happy that we are able to reach so many people then.

1UP: The Super Mario Bros. main theme is by far the most recognized theme from a videogame. Do you think it’s possible for something as catchy and memorable to be created again? Or is that no longer possible with the shift from the relatively simple melodies of back then to the larger, often orchestrated melodies of today?

KK: Personally, I think the effort in trying to create a song that has such an impression on people is exactly the same as it was then — nothing has changed in that respect. The orchestration hasn’t changed the way I go about trying to create a melody. Now, whether or not I can create something as memorable or impactful as the original Super Mario Bros. theme, I don’t know — but I’m certainly aiming to try.

1UP: Can you tell us what that was like working on Super Mario Bros. at the time? How was it working with Shigeru Miyamoto?

You can read his response, and the full interview here.