Turns out Q Entertainment has plans to take the near-perfect gameplay of one of DS Fanboy's best DS games, Meteos, and bring it online. The only problem is that this new and improved formula of Meteos is currently set to grace the PC and not the DS.
This is when the person listening to all of this would ask why this is being posted to DS Fanboy, a one-stop-shop for all the DS news big or small and the only reliable place on the inter tubes for such factual information as well as objective, intellectual views on said information. We'd then call this person Timmy and ask that they kindly shut their mouth, unless they wanted us to shut it for them. Permanently.
No, we bring this up because we know you're as passionate about the puzzling action of Meteos as we are and would love to see the game be available for play over Wi-Fi. That's why we call on you, fanboys and fangirls, asking that you make this desire known to one and all by sending electronic mails to the game's support address of support-meteosonline [at] qentertainment [dot] com. Together we can make it happen.
File this one under "What the hell?" Some astute gamer has discovered a hidden feature inside the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection setup menu, and one that certainly leans itself toward DS-to-Wii connection theory. The video gives an extremely detailed explanation, so check it out....now. Go ahead.
Done? All right. The system asks for the player to press a "Simple Start Wi-Fi Button", something that clearly doesn't exist on any existing Nintendo hardware. So, is this how the Wii and the DS will sync up? Before you run off wildly screaming the news throughout your house, we offer these two bits of counter-evidence. First, regading the Wii, we've seen essentially every button and switch on the damn thing, even inside the "mysterious" front flap; no "Simple Start" or even remotely related button has been seen or reported. Second, accessing this mode by hitting the absolute upper-left pixel on the touch screen is ridiculous; in certain cases the stylus can't even reach the pixel, and a toothpick or other thin, prodding device must be used.
We've seen no reason why "DS Download Play" would fail to properly pick up and sync with a Nintendo Wii console, so we'll chalk this up as a feature that will fade, like the legendary city of Atlantis, into one of the unexplained mysteries of the past.
[Update 1: The internet, it seems, will brook no mysteries. Save Atlantis. Click here for an extremely detailed explanation of this feature, and as speculated, it has nothing to do with Wii connectivity.]
One of the highest-profile Wi-Fi titles of the year has finally released and the critics were quick to offer up their opinions. Generally, the game has seen a fair amount of praise, however critics have mentioned that the title's multiplayer is not exactly on par with the game's single-player experience.
The scores are as follows:
IGN - 80%: "It's at the very least a great start to the franchise. Bump up the difficulty, add some variety to the missions, bring back the forced-scrolling on-rails levels and the wingman-in-danger elements in a sequel and you'll have yourself the ultimate Star Fox adventure."
Gamespot - 75%: "Star Fox Command has great controls and introduces a strategic layer that's fairly interesting. However, the random feel of the story battles and the frantic multiplayer mode don't make the most of this game's solid foundation, which might cause nostalgic fans to long for the series' good old days."
1UP - 70%: " None of the strategy elements that comprised the core of the single-player game are in multiplayer -- how cool would it have been to battle for strategic positions and race to key items on the overhead map against friends? How loudly does this game scream for a custom map editor? Should Command see a sequel, competitive strategic multiplayer ought to be a big part of it."
We've heard from the critics, now how about the readers?
Heads up, statisticians; we've got another Nintendo milestone for ya. At some undisclosed time on Thursday morning, the two millionth unique user logged into the Nintendo Wi-Fi system. Since Nintendo loves to put big numbers in perspective, their press release points out that this number is more than the population of fifteen of the United States...which, of course, is sort of silly, seeing as how the tally is coming from players worldwide. Still, it's an impressive number, and perhaps this added confidence in online gaming will give Nintendo the shove it needs to back it unconditionally for the upcoming Wii.
Upcoming games utilizing the Nintendo Wi-Fi feature? Some big ones: Final Fantasy III, Star Fox: Command, Yoshi's Island 2, you name it. Nintendo WFC is here to stay.
[Update 1: Mario Hoops, unfortunately, does not feature Wi-Fi play. Our bad.]
The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connect homepage has been updated to reflect two of the newest titles to hit the DS bearing the Wi-Fi logo. Both Star Fox: Command and Tenchu: Dark Secret get the red carpet rolled out for them with tons of information and screens for you to gawk over. Tenchu's page even has some interesting Wi-Fi information, such as a listing of the top players including login details, as well as the top cities and a nifty graph showing player logins during the day versus at night.
We just can't stop covering this game! We love it and we aren't afraid to admit it. Our parents forbade that love, but we eloped and now they're forced to accept it.
With the recent partnership between Toys 'R Us and Nintendo, there has been plenty of reason to keep plugging away in our towns (well, maybe not for some).
In an effort to save you time and some of your life span as sunlight undoubtedly causes you pain, Nintendo of America employee Chloe felt she should document what exactly the 6 free gifts available are at your local Toys 'R Us. So maybe you've been holding back, thinking that dangerous star in the sky is not worth enduring for fabulous free gifts to place in a virtual home. Well, maybe this list of available gifts will change your mind:
When logging into Wi-Fi with his copy of Animal Crossing: Wild World, reader, and from what we're told one excellent basket weaver, Kev received a pleasant surprise from Nintendo HQ in the form of a letter and attached gift. The letter read:
"Dear K-Man,
Nothing says summer like camping and playing Animal Crossing under the stars! Now go outside!
From Nintendo"
The attached gift was a sleeping bag. Kev, being the excellent and most-organized tipster he could possibly be, also attached some pictures of said sleeping bag. He apologizes for the quality of his webcam and adds the question "is it just me or does that look like a Master Chief sleeping bag?" We're stumped because, frankly, we've never heard of this Master Chief.
Click the link to check out more pictures in greater sizes.
We felt a great disturbance in the Force here at the DS Fanboy offices, as if millions of preteen boys cried out in frustration and were suddenly silenced ... in Japan, at least. Digital Arts, Inc., a Japanese security firm piggy-backed their optional DS content-filtering service onto the release of the Opera DS browser in Japan. The service, called i-Filter (because i equals cool, right?), will block pornographic or other "undesirable" content for a monthly fee of 315 yen (less than three dollars American).
What is "undesirable" content, exactly? Good question. But Digital Arts promises that their employees personally check which sites to blacklist in order to avoid the blocking of non-offensive sites. Now that's a job to brag about at parties!
"I'm a stockbroker. I have a yacht. And what do you do?"
"Me? Oh, I get paid to surf the internet for offensive content."
That's a win every time. But it probably comes with long hours, considering ....
Nintendo recently sent out a convenient list of release dates for high-profile software in the EU region. The complete list follows (note that Twilight Princess has a vague Q4 release date, to intentionally remove any sort of Wii launch speculation), but of particular note is the fast-approaching DS Browser, which has yet to receive an official release date in North America. Set for October 6th, 2006, it looks like Europeans will be getting their browse on a bit earlier than us backwards folk. For a full review on the browser, see here.
DS Lineup
42 All-Time Classics (Nintendo) - September 29th, 2006
Nintendo DS Browser (Nintendo) - October 6th, 2006
English Training: Have fun improving your skills (Nintendo) - October 13th, 2006
Sudoku Master (Nintendo) (tentative name) - October 27th, 2006
Actionloop (Nintendo) - October 27th, 2006
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (Nintendo) - November 10th, 2006
Mario Slam Basketball (Nintendo) - November 10th, 2006
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (Nintendo) (tentative name) - November 24th, 2006
Yoshi's Island 2 (Nintendo) (tentative name) - December 1st, 2006
Harvest Moon DS (Rising Star Games/Nintendo) - Q4 2006
GBA Lineup
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (Nintendo) - November 10th, 2006
Gamecube Lineup
Harvest Moon: Magical Melody (Rising Star Games/Nintendo) - Q4 2006
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo) (tentative name) - Q4 2006
I doubt anyone was all that surprised when they read the NPD data for June. The DS kicks ass and its games kick ass. This is knowledge shared by many around the world. What you may not have heard, however, is that the DS is the top-selling console in America, having already sold 600,000 units (almost double of any other console on the market).
In the Wi-Fi department, Nintendo is reporting that they have reached a total of 1.7 million users worldwide, allowing people to visit a friend's animal town or frag bounty hunters on some distant space rock. It's been just 8 months since the service has launched and it's already beaten every other service's adoption rate to date.
With the news of 30 stages to traverse in the upcoming Starfox Command, the added news that the game will feature full support for the DS rumble pack, which a few of you might've been able to acquire on the cheap, is like a sweetest cherry on top of our sundae. Also, the game will see the return of mainstay characters in the franchise actually getting into their respective cockpits and taking to the skies alongside Fox across the various game areas. Multiplayer, both locally and through Wi-Fi, also looks to be a very good place to spend some time.
After his graduation from the Academy of One-upmanship, .ed began to look all over the web for an opportunity to utilize his new degree in the field. It wasn't very long until he came across the first DS Opera Hands On review. With the stage properly set, and the stars aligned accordingly, .ed went ahead and attempted to one-up Jon.
Containing a massive collection of pictures, as well as in-depth look at everything the browser offers, from clicking links to fonts, .ed's in-depth look at the browser on the DS has given us a very good scoop on what to expect from the final product. Money well spent on that degree there...
Iwata was kind enough to provide even more details on Wii-DS functionality, revealing that the DS will be able to do more things than just download demos from the console. Iwata stated that the DS would be able to act as a touchscreen controller for the console, which we assume would work when navigating the unit's menus outside of playing games, although one game is making it possible for the DS to control gameplay so far.
The recent announcement of Pokemon Battle Revolution promises that the player will be able to use the Wi-Fi capabilities of the DS to perform a number of actions. Being the first game to implement features with the DS, we're hopeful that many more developers will take advantage of this properly.
In an interview that was conducted with Japanese newspaper Nikkei Business Publications, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata focused mainly on the Wii, however he also confirmed that the Wii will be able to interact with the DS in the form of downloadable demos through the WiiConnect 24 service.
"Let's say your Wii is connected to the Internet in a mode that allows activation on a 24-hour basis. This would allow Nintendo to send monthly promotional demos for the DS, during the night, to the Wii consoles in each household. Users would wake up each morning, find the LED lamp on their Wii flashing, and know that Nintendo has sent them something. They would then be able to download the promotional demo from their Wii's to their Nintendo DS's."
One of the highest-profile Wi-Fi titles of the year has finally released and the critics were quick to offer up their opinions. Generally, the game has seen a fair amount of praise, however critics have mentioned that the title's multiplayer is not exactly on par with the game's single-player experience.
We just can't stop covering this game! We love it and we aren't afraid to admit it. Our parents forbade that love, but we eloped and now they're forced to accept it.
When logging into Wi-Fi with his copy of Animal Crossing: Wild World, reader, and from what we're told one excellent basket weaver, Kev received a pleasant surprise from Nintendo HQ in the form of a letter and attached gift. The letter read:
We felt a great disturbance in the Force here at the DS Fanboy offices, as if millions of preteen boys cried out in frustration and were suddenly silenced ... in Japan, at least. Digital Arts, Inc., a Japanese security firm piggy-backed their optional DS content-filtering service onto the release of the Opera DS browser in Japan. The service, called i-Filter (because i equals cool, right?), will block pornographic or other "undesirable" content for a monthly fee of 315 yen (less than three dollars American).
Nintendo recently sent out a convenient list of release dates for high-profile software in the EU region. The complete list follows (note that Twilight Princess has a vague Q4 release date, to intentionally remove any sort of Wii launch speculation), but of particular note is the fast-approaching DS Browser, which has yet to receive an official release date in North America. Set for October 6th, 2006, it looks like Europeans will be getting their browse on a bit earlier than us backwards folk. For a full review on the browser, see here.
I doubt anyone was all that surprised when they 
After his graduation from the Academy of One-upmanship, .ed began to look all over the web for an opportunity to utilize his new degree in the field. It wasn't very long until he came across the first DS Opera Hands On review. With the stage properly set, and the stars aligned accordingly, .ed went ahead and attempted to one-up Jon.
Iwata was kind enough to provide even more details on 
