If you’ve got a Wii chances are you’ve gone to your local game store and stood at the Wii game racks looking for seemingly eternal minutes for a game that catches your eye. You’ve got to skim through countless fitness titles and off-brand party games until you find that single teen+ rated game, only to realize you’ve already played it.

Well Nintendo seems to want to change things, they are now going to be packaging all their CERO C (Japan’s 15+ rating) rated games in black boxes. That’s right, black box and black art, this should make finding the few mature-ish games a lot simpler. Perhaps Nintendo is rethinking it’s strategy towards the hardcore market? Or perhaps this is just a visual aid to eliminate those pesky blackheads from Nintendo’s perfect porcelain white family gaming face.

[Siliconera]

Remember Muscle March? Namco’s little WiiWare title full of barely clothed bodybuilders? The one where you strike a pose trying to catch the bastard who stole your protein shake? The one with muscular bears and clowns and aliens as well? Well it hit US WiiWare today! Imagine that, a bizarre Japanese game actually seeing the light of day in the west. It’s a good day, and I dont think hulking muscle men had ever made me so happy!

[Offworld]

To kick off the North American release of The Darkside Chronicles for the Wii Capcom released what they dub as the first interactive game trailer. While being very similar in style to the Super Mario Youtube smash video, Capcom get us ready for some zombie killing. Have your mouse ready…

[GameTrailers]

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]