Late Night Consoling

Nintendo still seems to really get a kick out of jumping out of nowhere and announcing crazy stuff at keynotes and random press conferences. Anyway, in that vein, the company has just wrapped up a press conference at which several upcoming DS games and peripherals were detailed. The Advanced Media Network has coverage of the event. A more complete writeup will go up in LNC tomorrow, but in short:

- A DS web browser from Opera is in the works
- A digital TV tuner for DS; since this operates on an upcoming mobile TV broadcast service in Japan, it is unknown whether a similar product will come out elsewhere
- Winning Eleven 9 for DS will use Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
- Children of Mana and Xenosaga I+II movies were shown
- New Super Mario Bros. will launch in Japan in May

Developer Monolith had a good year in 2005, with the release of two well-received horror-tinged first person titles: F.E.A.R. for PC and Condemned for Xbox 360. Condemned publisher Sega recently confirmed that game's upcoming translation to PCs. Now, a rumor in the latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly suggests that F.E.A.R. might be making a leap in the opposite direction, getting an Xbox 360 port some time within this year.

The rumor seems largely speculative, and publisher Vivendi isn't talking, but it seems like a good fit. F.E.A.R. was a hit with both critics and gamers, and Monolith has experience shipping games on both platforms. In more general terms, the Xbox and now the Xbox 360 seem to be the console of choice for traditionally PC-focused developers. So while it's certainly not official, don't be surprised if it happens.

Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (GCN), in true Zelda tradition, was delayed last year from its holiday season release period to some time in the second quarter of 2006. Yesterday, gaming blog Kotaku reported that Best Buy had switched its release date for the game to November 2006. This fit in nicely with recent comments by Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime suggesting that the game might hypothetically benefit from taking advantage of the Revolution's unique controller when played with that system's GameCube backwards compatibility.

I contacted representatives from EB Games and GameStop, both of whom stated that their release dates remain at the previously estimated June 1; they have not received any memos suggesting otherwise. I was unable to speak to an official representative of Best Buy, but information obtained from the company's retail employees and website was changed to reflect an April 1 release date. For Nintendo's part, the official answer was, "We've been monitoring all the rumors and unfortunately cannot confirm anything except it will be out this year."

Of course, with that rumor came the resurgence of rumors that the game has been switched to a Revolution title. While it's certainly possible that Nintendo is integrating Revolution functionality in the game and may try to position it in such a way that it helps drive Revolution sales, a number of Nintendo executives both from Japan and the United States have stated that the game will in fact ship on GameCube. When that happens is anybody's guess.

Last September, Kuju Entertainment creative director Tancred Dyke-Wells strongly hinted in an interview that the company's Nintendo-published title Battalion Wars (GCN) might very well receive a multiplayer-enabled sequel on Nintendo's upcoming Revolution. Today, Idle Thumbs reported news from "a reliable source" that Kuju is indeed working on a title for Revolution. I'd be rather surprised if it turns out to be anything but Battalion Wars, quite frankly.

Update: As one might expect, Nintendo has given a neutral response to this rumor: "At this time I have no confirmation of Kuju working on a Revolution sequel to Battalion Wars. This is not to say they are or they aren't, we just cannot confirm or announce either at this time."

Hideo Kojima's slightly lesser known game franchise, the Boktai series of games for Game Boy Advance, will be making the transition over to DS according to translated reports of Japanese publication Koro Koro Comic. The two GBA titles, which shipped in 2003 and 2004 to positive critical response, were notorious for their gameplay-affecting built-in solar sensors. Perhaps due to this rather inconvenient feature, the next entry in the Boktai line will eschew using natural light in favor of a graphical sun displayed on the top screen of the DS. Much like in Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS), the sun will operate based on the machine's internal clock. It will also be affected by random elements such as cloud formations and rain.

You may remember Datel announcing its 4GB hard drive for Sony's PSP. After the device's launch, it seems Datel wasted no time in getting caught up to the other new handheld. The company has just revealed a 4GB hard drive for Nintendo DS. It seems essentially the same as its PSP counterpart (except for form factor obviously), but also includes media player software since the DS doesn't have that capability built in. Like the PSP hard drive, it's a bit pricey. Import site Lik Sang has the device currently on preorder for $179.00, a price promised to have been confirmed by Datel.

Xbox 360 owners have some more Xbox Live Marketplace content available this week. The main entry is a demo for Ubisoft's Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, weighing in at 575MB. Since its release, many gamers have reported a variety of bugs that were not present in the Xbox 360 in-store kiosk demo of the game. These complaints were relayed to the Marketplace team by Xbox Live's Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb, though it is not yet known what action will be taken.

The other Live updates add extra content related to existing titles. Stainless Games' recently released revamp of the classic shooter Crystal Quest has a variety of visual and auditory modifications available for 100 points ($1.25) each. EA Chicago's upcoming Fight Night Round 3, PopCap's Bejeweled 2 Deluxe, and Microsoft's Hexic HD each now have several themes and pictures available for purchase at varying prices.

1UP puts the Xbox 360's parental control features through their paces.

This Composing With Electroplankton guide makes me want to bust out my copy of the game again.