According to a Nintendo marketing employee, Wii is set to have a successor as soon as next year! Some info on the system are as follows…

• Wii 2 will feature a blu-Ray disc drive in a bid to prevent piracy.
• Support for 1080p resolution for both blu-ray movies and games.
• Due to release in the third quarter of 2010, in a worldwide same day release.
• Trade-in scheme for existing Wii owners to receive a discount on the new hardware.
• An announcement would come a month before release date, riding on the back of viral marketing to build hype.

If Wii 2 had the same specs as a GameCube or a Wii (they’re both the damn same anyway) then blu-ray space would be wasted. It could be telling that there is nothing what-so-ever in these key Wii 2 details regarding the systems’ graphical capabilities. Could you imagine if the Wii 2 was exactly the same as the original Wii, but with a blu-ray drive, HD support and nothing else!? That sounds like some shit that could actually fly at Nintendo. Just look at the evolutionary steps from the DS, to DSi, to the the DSi LL. Nintendo aren’t ones to fully embrace current technology. They always prefer to creep 5 years behind everybody else.

And as for the trade-in scheme? I cannot see Nintendo going for that. They made no effort to offer such a scheme for DS lite owners who would like to upgrade to a DSi, so I can’t see them doing it for their consoles. Nintendo are all about printing their own money. Not helping others save it.

A new Nintendo system with a blu-ray drive would be really cool. Even though Nintendo probably wouldn’t allow it to play blu-ray movies without a 16-digit blu-ray movie code.

It’s all speculation, but it’s rather exciting. A new Nintendo console with full HD output and a blu-ray drive would certainly make sense given the current games-scape – which is why I’m inclined to not believe it could happen. Because it sounds like way too much sense for Nintendo to actually go along with. I hope I’m wrong.

[Max console]

Back in 2006 Miyamoto let lose a few comments about how the next Zelda game after Twilight Princess would be completely different from any previous Zelda game. Allegedly they were aiming for some sort of first person Zelda game, which we kinda saw with that crossbow training minigame.

Now though, Miyamoto is saying the next Zelda will use the MotionPlus Wiimote accessory to “make you feel much more like you’re actually fighting while holding a sword in your hand”. Now at first this makes me think this might mean the next Zelda game will not be as different as previous ones since in the same Q&A session Miyamoto implied similarities in the game mechanics. However, as much as it’s been tried, even with Red Steel 2 using the MotionPlus, there’s yet to be a game that can adequately capture the act of waving a sword around in-game.

Also, knowing Nintendo, the MotionPlus will be a requirement for this next Zelda game, so you better get your hands on one as soon as you’re able, lest you be left swatting flies. Get it? Swatting flies? A reference to waggling the wiimote in games? Mario Paint? Ok, that was bad, I’m sorry.

[GameLife / Via Joystiq]

Say, would you fancy a big bowl of GoldenEye? Ah, how about a remake/port of GoldenEye? No, not the dead Xbox one. How about, say, a Wii one.

Yes, that’s right, a GoldenEye remake/port for the Nintendo Wii, supposedly due in 2010. At least that’s what the Curriculum of a videogame animator by the name of Craig Peck has let us to believe. In his CV, which is now offline, he listed working as an animator for “GoldenEye 2010 (Wii)”. The CV was promptly taken down yesterday as soon as it started getting attention, however the damage was done.

There’s a big mystery here though, why do you need an animator if you’re just going to port a game? Could they be adding new features? Or is this maybe a remake rather than a simple port. In any case, the rumor mill for GoldenEye is back in full force and that’s what matters.

[CVG]

Oh the holiday game season is getting near, can you feel it? Trailers come out, ads start playing, secret projects get revealed. Its good, like this new No More Heroes 2 trailer conducted by none other than Suda 51 himself.  New gameplay details get revealed, mostly small details. The most charming of them all? The new job system, whereas in the first game you had to do boring chores in boring 3D now you get to do the same jobs but in glorious 8-bit 2D. You know 8-bit has the ability to turn the most mind numbing of jobs into life-changing experiences (refer to Paperboy for the NES for confirmation).

NMH2 is still a good 6 months away so keep those hands steady, don’t overcharge your beam katana just yet.

It may be 2 years late, but Activision plans to release (port) Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare for the Wii. While this may be considered a late comer as newly released COD: World at War included a Wii version. Wii owners should rejoice at steady development of FPShooters making their way into the Wii library.

However, I remain spectacle.  I love my Wii and when I have friends over they play with it too, but one of the best selling points to Modern Warfare was the online multiplayer capabilities. Anyone who has played the Wii online, knows the frustration of friend-codes and ultimately the Wii doesn’t have the same technical capabilities to replicate the intense atmosphere as other consoles. BUT without any real information such as screens, pricing, or control scheme it is still too early to completely write this off as something to wring out gamers wallets. I await with cautious optimism.

[EdgeOnline]

The pre-E3 bonanza continues with a brand new trailer for No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.  This new trailer has it all! The return of Sylvia Christel, looking more glamorous than ever. The arrival of a new nemesis by the name of Nathan Copeland, a hip-hop assassin brandishing a boom box weapon that morphs into robotic arms. A teenage fangirl wielding a dual beam katana chasing after Travis. Oh god just hearing the No More Heroes theme music sends shivers down my spine. Are you excited? I’m excited! Lets see what else we learn this week.

The Wii is getting some really great news still a week before E3. High Voltage Software, the studio behind The Conduit, announced two new titles for the Wii this week. The first title is Gladiator AD, a roman-era fighting game that, while visually impressive for the Wii, it’s still a pretty generic fighter as far as we know. The second title is called The Grinder and this one will really get you excited.

The Grinder, in few words and many generalizations, is Left 4 Dead for the Wii. A multiplayer first person shooter where you battle against hordes of zombies, vampires and werewolves with a sadistic AI that directs every move of the horde. The game is shooting for a grindhouse movie style very much in the vein of movies like From Dust Till Dawn which should mean over-the-top characters and gore everywhere. As with The Conduit, High Voltage Software has put the Wii’s hardware limits to the test and so far it looks pretty good.

There is however one big problem I have with this game, and with L4D for that matter. There seems to be no plans for split-screen multiplayer, only online. What happened to actually playing with your friends in the same room? Enjoying co-op fun without having to lug around your console and a screen to play on wherever you go used to be the norm. Now more and more it seems to be the exception. Dear Gaming Industry: some of us still want to play local co-op with games that don’t force you to operate toy music instruments.

EDIT: While finishing up this post I found out the game DOES feature split screen multiplayer. I swallow my words, they are delicious.

[IGN]

Wii owners rejoice, or let out a big sigh, whichever you prefer. Nintendo has announced today that its releasing 3 Metroid games for the Wii, for the price of one game. Sounds too good to be true? Nintendo releasing multiple new games from their beloved franchises? Well it is too good to be true, the game collection, titled Metroid Prime Trilogy, is simply that a re-release of the whole Prime series for the Wii. Of course you’ll get a few perks like Wiimote integration into the Gamecube titles and real widescreen format.

Its good news if you’re a really big fan of the Prime series or if you never played the first two on the Gamecube but for the rest of us, well these remakes sound like a story we’ve already heard, in more than one way. You know, considering how much remakes the Wii is getting you’d think Square-Enix would be a perfect match for the console.

[Metroid Prime Trilogy]

Poor suckers who only own Wii’s exclusively were made to feel a little left out and like pieces of rubbish when Capcom announced Marvel vs. Capcom 2 would be releasing for the Xbox Live marketplace and the PS network, but not the Virtual console (blame Nintendo and their file size restrictions). But now they can perk right up and rejoice, because Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is breaking out of Japan and is heading for the US and the UK! Can I get a “Yaaaaay!”

After a good 6 months of shedding tears over never getting the opportunity to play this game, Capcom have done what we thought was impossible and gotten the game green lit for a US and UK release. Still no word on if Australia will see the game. But given Capcom being full of awesome as of late – I’m sure gamers down under will be in on some cross over battle action.

Capcom have noted that the game may see additional features not included in the Japanese release of the game. Notably the possibility of extra characters and the all important online play.

If Capcom do not add online for the US release, then I will spit in the face of a Capcom employee. Not any of the ones who helped get the Western release though. Just a miscellaneous one who looks weedy enough that he won’t be able to beat me up. You cannot release a beat ‘em up in this day and age without online play. Unless of course, it’s released on Wii. I guess we best gets to praying again that Capcom include it. Sure, the Wii version would have those bastard Friend codes and be kept in check by Nintendo’s “No communication” policy. But it can’t be any worse than Street Fighter IV. Nobody talks on that game during matches, nobody wants to add you as a Friend or a contact, and the match making and lack of a proper lobby system is crap anyway. So Wii owners will hardly be missing out.

This is great news. Day 1 purchase for me. I may even buy some component cables so I can witness the awesome in ‘not true HD, only up-scaled to 720, but still better than composite signal’ glory.

Red Steel 2 will be the cover story of the June issue of Nintendo Power, it will reveal all the details on the next installment of the Red Steel series. The cover artwork and table of contents, available online, only reveal that the game will take full advantage of the Wii MotionPlus and that the style of the game has taken a rather unexpected turn towards the… old west?

If the only known artwork, seen above, is any indication of the direction of the game we might be looking forward to a western or western-steampunk-ish game. This can only mean one thing: goodbye to the awesome Jpop songs of the first game, one, if not the only, remarkable thing about Red Steel. Lets just hope the MotionPlus can deliver on the promise of awesome sword fighting that the original fell short of achieving.

Anyone up for some machete VS katana swordfights?

[Nintendo Power / Via Kotaku]