TNB Latest News

Developer Level 5 has announced the Professor Layton videogame trilogy will be made into a series of anime films.

The first movie to be based on the games will be Professor Layton: The First Movie, and is scheduled for a Japanese release date of January 2010.

For more information about the Professor Layton videogames visit the official website.

The Nintendo Experience will be arriving exclusively at EB Games, Swanston Street, Melbourne on Thursday 11th December at midday. You can be the first to experience this dedicated Nintendo Gaming Area, the first of its kind in Australia.

You’ll be able to play your favourite Nintendo games and the latest releases for Wii and Nintendo DS. The Nintendo Experience has something for everyone, you don’t need to know the rules, just pick up and play! And whenever you’re there be on the lookout for classic Nintendo characters, you never know who will make an appearance.

On the day, make sure you arrive early as the first 100 people to enter the area will receive a Nintendo DS or Wii software title; and for the lucky few there will also be Wii and Nintendo DS consoles up for grabs.

Stay tuned for more information, as Nintendo will be giving away tickets to the VIP Launch Night!

Wii System Update 3.4 has gifted Wii owners with a revolutionary new feature, keyboard support for the Mii Channel.

The update has also bought with it a new license agreement, upgraded parental controls, deletion of custom channels and a much faster transfer to SD card rate (when used copying/storing VC games or DLC content).

The new licence agreement reads

“We may without notifying you, download updates, patches, upgrades and similar software to your Wii Console and may disable unauthorized or illegal software placed on your Wii Console to ensure that your Wii Console is operating properly and efficiently, comply with applicable laws, assist law enforcement, protect us and our customers, or prevent the use and distribution of software obtained through improper channels.“

This update won’t delete the Homebrew Channel if already installed. However, if this update is installed you can’t install the Homebrew Channel. So now Nintendo can download updates and disable unauthorised software without notifying you. Homebrewers are advised to steer clear of any future updates.

SEGA announced on Friday the Collector’s Edition for The House of the Dead: Overkill for release in PAL and North American territories. The premium edition of Overkill comes in an exclusive slipcase and includes an exclusive graphic novel, “Prelude to an Overkill”. It will only be available from selected retailers  as a pre-order bonus. Exact retailers will be revealed at a later date.

“Prelude to an Overkill” tells the stories of Agent Washington and Varla Gunns, on the night before the violent events of the game. It will be illustrated by Steve Copter of punk band “Black Mekon”. The comic is exclusively available in The House of the Dead: Overkill Collector’s edition.

Pictures of the comic and Collector’s Edition inside!

With loads of downloadable content for Guitar Hero: World Tour on the Wii, including whole albums by Oasis, Metallica and The Killers, it is strange to see that the Jimi Hendrix track pack isn’t being released on Wii. The pack, featuring “If 6 was 9″, “Little Wing”, and a live version of “Fire”, was recently released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

When asked about this, Activision said:

Due to technical or licensing restrictions, the DLC offerings will not be the same for every console platform. For example, certain artists prefer to keep the integrity of the track pack rather than releasing singles and the Wii’s infrastructure only allows us the ability to release single songs as DLC.

The main question here is why can’t Wii have track packs? While we wait for an answer, Wii gamers will just have to miss out on jamming with these classic Hendrix songs.

Held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, eGames is Australia’s biggest dedicated computer and video game expo. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and Ubisoft were all present, however yet to be released game content was a bit slim. Nonetheless, gather ‘round children and I shall regale ye with stories of my time at yon expo. Or, you know, just tell you a bit about it…

Photos & more inside.

That’s right! Thanks to the web-swingers over at Activision Blizzard, we have a total of 4 copies of Spiderman: Web of Shadows to give away to four lucky winners!

Click here to find out all the details on how to win.

We have had a real “ranger” week of releases, ranging from a new Pokemon Ranger game to Wii Music. There’s a game for everyone!

Releases inside.

A recent interview with Greg Arthurton, Director of Marketing at Nintendo Australia has revealed an official Nintendo magazine is in the making for Australia and New Zealand.

Whilst fans have been without an official magazine for many years now since the demise of NMS, it seems Nintendo Australia has established a partnership with Future Publishing Australia to produce an official magazine.

Arthurton made the following comments about the upcoming official Nintendo magazine;

“We are really excited about the new agreement. By establishing a partnership with Future Publishing Australia, we are able to extend the Nintendo brand into a new environment with a locally produced magazine on the news stands.”

“We will also benefit from the well established relationship which already exists between the companies in other territories, and we will integrate that into the way we work together here too. We definitely see the magazine as being an important part of our evolving communications strategy in this region, not least to ensure our customers can get the best out of their consoles with a complementary offering.”

The first issue of Official Nintendo Magazine – Australia and New Zealand goes onsale in December 2008. The title will be published monthly with a cover price of $8.95. The magazine will be distributed nationally in both Australia and New Zealand, with the first issue packaged as a Special Edition.

An amendment to the prior news item here, we Australian’s didn’t actually receive Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins, instead we played catch-up with Europe, receiving Street Fighter II: Championship Edition.

Super Street Fighter II: Chapmionship Edition hails from the SEGA Mega Drive and as such costs 800 Wii points. The Mega Drive’s edition of this highly editioned game came with its own modes and had a six button controller made for it, of which eventually became the Mega Drive’s standard controller.