Revolution Portal: Because it won’t be televised.

April Fool’s Day started a bit early today with the faux announcement of the Wii Want More service from…well…not Nintendo, anyhow.  The announcement of paid DLC for Super Smash Bros. Brawl was a dead giveaway, considering the makers have been quite adamant that there will be no Brawl DLC.

Here’s the not-so-real news, which is written quite well for only a pseudo press release, courtesy of press-nintendo.110mb.com:

NINTENDO ANNOUNCES WII WANT MORE SERVICE

Old Games Made New Again with Additional Downloable Content

REDMOND, Wash., March 29, 2008 - No one wants to play the same game forever. However, sometimes it is impractical, both for Nintendo and for our customers, to release a new sequel to all our games every year. In order to solve this problem, Nintendo will begin offering the Wii Want More™ service this May. By logging into the Wii Shop Channel players will be able to purchase new content for games they already own for a fraction of the price it would cost to buy a new game.

We are pleased to announce that one of 27 games to make use of the Wii Want More service at its launch will be none other than our very own best selling Super Smash Bros.® Brawl! Starting May 13, 2008, players will be able to add four undisclosed new characters and two new stages to the already large roster included in the stand-alone game for only 10.00 USD. Our customers will be even more pleased to discover that this particular package will be offered completely free of charge for the first month after the launch of Wii Want More. A better deal has never been offered by any company in the Video Game industry.

In addition to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Nintendo will offer content for The Legend of Zelda®: Twilight Princess, Fire Emblem™: Radiant Dawn, Metroid® Prime 3: Corruption, and Mario Kart® Wii, as well as several titles available through the Wii Ware™ service. Wii Want More will also allow our numerous third party developers to offer downloadable content for both previously released and upcoming games. This spring, be ready to ask for more!

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

About Nintendo: The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™, Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.5 billion video games and more than 430 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at http://www.nintendo.com/.

If there’s another game that the DS needs, a rhythm game probably isn’t the first one that comes to our minds – especially one specifically designed for seven to eleven-year old boys and girls.

But we don’t run the show at EA, so their Casual Entertainment Label today announced that Zubo is coming to DS. 

Here’s how it works: kids will enter the fictional world of Zubalon to give some much-needed assistance to the Zubos, who are both colorful and wacky.  They’re trying to defeat an evil force which is bent on world domination, as evil forces frequently do. Players make friends with the Zubos they meet along the way, take care of ‘em and feed ‘em, help the little guys to gain skills and strength, and assist them in their battles with the enemy, the dastardly Zombos.

“Zubo represents the culmination of a dedicated incubation project, which specifically sought to develop a new videogame property for boys and girls under 12,” said Harvey Elliott, Head of the EA Bright Light studio in Guildford, UK. “The team here has designed a rich, immersive and, above all, enjoyable experience — one that will live in the schoolyard, at home or on the move.”

The title will hit the shelves this fall. 

It looks like Square Enix has secretly been working on a DS title behind our backs.

The latest issue of Famitsu has revealed that Sigma Harmonics, an original adventure title, is on the way for the handheld.

According to the lovely translators over at NeoGAF, Hiroki Chiba is directing and Yusaku Nakaaki is doing the character designs.  They both worked together on Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, which turned out quite nicely.

The adventure RPG will utilize the DS by holding it sideways like a book.  It will have a Persona 4-style story, and there appears to be a murder/mystery story.  The game will be divided into chapters, and in every chapter a new murder/accident/mystery happens.

The title is 60% complete and should be released this summer.

There really wasn’t any question about what title was going to top the Rogers Video game rental list this week, was there?

For the week ending March 23, Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Nintendo Wii dominated the rental chart.  The game has a whopping 15 scores of a perfect 100 on Metacritic, with an overall rating of 95.

“The character models and animation are absolutely superb, the backgrounds seamless works of art and the gameplay easily the most diverse and enduring of any “fighting” game to date. I wouldn’t even classify it as a fighter. This is an action masterpiece,” raved Play Magazine in one of the perfect scores.

The only other Wii title in the Top 10 was Mario and Sonic at the Olympics at number 8. 

The full top 10, courtesy of the Canadian Press, was as follows:

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo Wii)

2. Army of Two (Xbox 360)

3. Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Xbox 360)

4. Army of Two (PlayStation 3)

5. Condemned 2: Bloodshot (Xbox 360)

6. Frontlines: Fuel of War (Xbox 360)

7. Turok (Xbox 360)

8. Mario and Sonic at the Olympics (Nintendo Wii)

9. Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (PlayStation 3)

10. Bully (Xbox 360)

It’s Monday, so you know what’s going down on the Wii Shop Channel.

Nintendo added two more games to the mix, one from the original NES and the other from Sega Genesis.   Haven’t played either of ‘em yet, so we’ll provide no snarky comments about quality this time around.

And the Wii Virtual Console additions go a little something like this:

KING’S KNIGHT™ (NES®, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Fantasy Violence, 500 Wii Points): In the kingdom of Izander, the fair Princess Claire has been kidnapped by a foul and insidious dragon, and it is the mission of four brave fighters to save her. Through five thrilling, fast-action stages, our gallant heroes-a knight, a wizard, a monster and a thief-will take on an army of incredible enemies. You must help them reach their goal, as you are now part of the team that will fight to free the princess from her imprisonment. Keep your wits about you, plan your strategy and set off on an exciting adventure.

POWERBALL™  (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points): Eight different teams representing various nations are vying to become the POWERBALL champions, and you control one of the eight in your quest for the championship. A hybrid of games like rugby and football, POWERBALL is played on a 100-yard field. Try to score by either carrying the ball into your opponent’s end zone or kicking it into your opponent’s net for points. This one- or two-player game offers both exhibition and league play. Jump into a game of POWERBALL and try a brand new sport.