While I set about a looking at the list of newly announced/release schedule for Nintendo’s pair of jugernaut consoles consisting of the first half of the year, a few titles stand out while the rest seem quite underwhelming. I appreciate Nintendo for making a leaps of faith with a certain title, however I feel as if this shows just how much internal dev at Nintendo is on autopilot and/or saving their big releases for the fall.

On The Wii Side of things:

-3 Boxing Games, Really? We Understand it is fun to play Wii Spots boxing after having had a few, but between Don King’s Boxing, Ready 2 Rumble Revolution and Punch Out!! all which are being released within 2 months from one another, is there a saturation point? With EA’s Facebreaker already released, can these three games bring enough new to the table to go above and beyond Wii Sports Boxing? I think Nintendo maybe able to survive off of Nostalgia sales but the others may be doomed to the bargin bin shortly after release.

The Trio of Boxing Games Coming this Spring: Don Kings Boxing, Punch Out!!, Ready 2 Rumble Revolution

-EA better step it up for the second half of 09, because I am not sure where those Nintendo caliber titles are yet…

-With Nintendo putting focus on their New Play Series, which is taking Gamecube games and is making them with Wii-Motion controls, it makes me a tad scarred that their ace in the hole for the Holiday release schedule may be games for the core…that we played 5 years ago. While we have already heard that in addition to Pikmin, Mario Tennis and DK Jungle Beat (with the first two coming out March 9th, with Dk following in May), that the first two Metroid Prime games are being remade as well, it doesn’t insane to think that A New Zelda or Mario may not be ready, and Nintendo’s answer to simply re-release them.

-What is an Excitebot?

-I applaud Sega for picking up Madworld and The Conduit, both which seem to have the quality that the Wii is needing at this point. Also, I’m glad Let’s Tap is coming to America as well, that game looks AWESOME!

Now onto DS:

-Atlus continues to supply titles I am interested in with TrackMania DS, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga, and SMT:Devil Survivor.

-Where is Professor Layton 2? I can’t imagine this game has a ton of localization beyond simple text translation and recording English voices. While the first title may not have sold to Level 5’s expectations it would seem almost a loss of possible cash flow to ignore the localization of the next two entries (both of which have already been released in Japan).

-Desktop Tower Defense on DS? Sign me up!

-I may have missed this from a previous announcement but Starfy? About time Nintendo! For those not in the know the Starfy series has been going in Japan since 2002 with four games on the GBA, and one previously on the DS. Although it may be similar in both look and gameplay to Kirby (cute platformer is the genre I would put it in I suppose) I am happy that Nintendo is bringing it stateside.

-Sure the DSi is coming out, but give me more then Rhythm Heaven. I am really hoping that more download games are ready for the American release, or at the very least are announced during E3.

So there are a few titles I am excited about, but I hope that Nintendo really has plans for the second half of 2009. I suppose they really don’t need any witht he continued popularity of the Wii, but it would make alot of gamers much happier about throwing down $250 on a pretty, but ultimately useless piece of living room tech.

-Eric Wall

Tags: DS, DSi, Nintendo, Punch Out!!, Starfy, Wii

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