Animal Crossing - City Folk on Nintendo Wii Fact Sheet

Format: Wii
Launch Date: Holiday 2008
ESRB: RP (Rating Pending)
Game Type: Community Simulation
Accessories: WiiSpeak microphone (sold separately)
Players: 1-4 alternating, 2-4 simultaneous via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
Developer: Nintendo
KEY INFORMATION

If life were an endless vacation, what would you do? Go fishing, collect shells or watch fireworks with friends? Build a snowman, exchange presents with family or decorate your house for the holidays? Take a trip to the city, go on a shopping spree or visit friends from all over the globe? In Animal Crossing: City Folk, life moves at a relaxed pace, but the world brims with endless possibilities.

• There’s always something new to do. In the living, breathing world of Animal Crossing: City Folk, days and seasons pass in real time, so there’s always something to discover. Catch fireflies in the summer, go trick-or-treating on Halloween or hunt for eggs on Bunny Day. If you’re in the mood for something a little faster paced, take a bus to a new urban city area that’s unique to Animal Crossing: City Folk. There you can catch a show at the theater or check out the sales at Gracie’s boutique. But if you don’t show your face back home for too long, your neighbors will miss you.

• Up to four people from your household can live and work together to build the perfect town. Design clothes and patterns, write letters and post messages on the bulletin board for each other, or invite up to three friends to visit your town using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. With the new WiiSpeak microphone, it’s like you’re all in the same room. The microphone sits atop the sensor bar and picks up the conversation of everyone in the room to encourage a more inclusive experience.


• Get to know your neighbors. The heart of Animal Crossing: City Folk is building relationships with the animals in your town as well as with other players. Befriend your animal neighbors by exchanging letters, gifts and favors. Animals can also move from town to town, bringing their memories and stories from their old towns with them. And since animals are notoriously loose-lipped, they spill all the juicy details.




• Express your personal style. Customize your town, your house and yourself by collecting bugs, fish, fossils, art, furniture, clothes and accessories. You can also go to the salon in the city to change your hairstyle and get a Mii™ makeover. Plus, if you design clothes in the tailor’s shop, animals will wear them and maybe even bring them to other towns.

Mirror's Edge innovative first-person action-adventure - Fact Sheet

Once this city used to pulse with energy; dirty and dangerous, but alive and wonderful.
Now it is something else.
The changes came slowly at first. Most did not realize or did not care, and accepted them.
They chose a comfortable life.
Some didn’t…
They became our clients.

In a city where information is heavily monitored, agile couriers called Runners transport sensitive data away from prying eyes. In this seemingly utopian paradise, a crime has been committed, your sister has been framed and now you are being hunted.
You are a Runner called Faith - and this innovative first-person action-adventure is your story.



Mirror’s Edge delivers you straight into the shoes of this unique heroine as she traverses the vertigo-inducing cityscape, engaging in intense combat and fast paced chases. With a never before seen sense of movement and perspective, you will be drawn into Faith’s world. A world that is visceral, immediate, and very dangerous.
Live or die? Soar or plummet? One thing is certain, in this city you will learn how to run.

From the makers of the groundbreaking Battlefield franchise, Mirror’s Edge is an action-adventure experience unlike any other

• Move yourself: String together an amazing arsenal of wall-runs, leaps, vaults and more, in fluid, acrobatic movements that turns every level of the urban environment to your advantage and salvation.
• Immerse yourself: In first person every breath, every collision, every impact is acutely felt. Heights create real vertigo, movements flow naturally, collisions and bullet impacts create genuine fear and adrenaline.
• Challenge yourself: Fight or flight. Your speed and agility allow you not only to evade, capture and perform daring escapes, but also to disable and disarm unwary opponents, in a mix of chase, puzzles, strategy and intense combat.
• Free Yourself: Runner vision allows you to see the city as they do. See the flow. Rooftops become pathways and conduits, opportunities and escape routes. The flow is what keeps you running – what keeps you alive.

SimAnimals, an All-New Franchise from the Sims Label Launches in January 2009!

Announced at E3, SimAnimals Establishes a Whole New Category of Wild Animal Games, Made Exclusively for the Wii and Nintendo DS

E3 Media & Business Summit 2008

First details for the all-new SimAnimals. This all-new franchise and original intellectual property from The Sims Label establishes a whole new category of wild animal games. Made exclusively for the Wii and the Nintendo DS, SimAnimals will be available worldwide in January 2009.

Now, for the first time players can engage with the wild world of animals in their natural surroundings in an immersive and tactile way. In this game you are challenged to engage, touch, move and try to control a wide range of animals as you journey deeper and deeper into the forest. You control an on-screen animated hand that allows you to reach out and touch, pick up and move everything in the game from foxes and bears to trees and flowers. Cohabitate with these animals in their natural surroundings, and based on how you treat them, the animals will come to know and love – or dislike you! Have fun developing relationships with wild animals and their families, and experience the humor and drama of surviving in the wilderness.

“SimAnimals opens up a new world of creativity with wild animal adventure, fun and mischief,” said Rod Humble, Head of Studio for The Sims Label. “For the first time in an animal game, you can reach out and touch, engage and play with a huge cast of wild animals in their natural surroundings. SimAnimals offers an immersive and tactile experience using the Wii remote and the Nintendo DS stylus that allows you to easily and intuitively become part of the wood’s expressive, quirky and sometimes surprising narrative. Classic story-telling about wild animals comes to life in SimAnimals.”

Wild animals abound! You will meet a host of friendly wild animals including deer, squirrels, rabbits, hedgehogs and owls. And also some mischievous characters like foxes, raccoons, badgers, crows and bears who love to stir up trouble. Get in the middle of the action as they all come together in your very own forest setting for a wild time!



Solve challenges and achieve goals throughout the game, because the animals need you to help them thrive. Discover secrets, unlock forest areas and uncover one-of-a-kind objects and wild animals, some with special abilities, by successfully completing tasks. It’s survival of the fittest, as you find out who the troublemakers are and who the good guys are to make sure everyone gets along – or not!

In SimAnimals on the Wii, take up to three of your friends with you on a forest adventure in cooperative play mode! The forest, filled with exciting wildlife, is big enough for you and your pals.

And, SimAnimals is tailored for the Nintendo DS. Use the stylus to orchestrate your wild animals and their environments!

Product Specifications
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: Wii (one to four players) and Nintendo DS (one player)
Ship Date: Worldwide, January 2009
Category: Simulation

Prey the Stars for Nintendo DS is a game of Gastronomic Proportions

KOEI, recognized worldwide as the premier brand of strategy and action games, today announced that Prey the Stars is coming to North America in October 2008 exclusively for Nintendo DS.

Prey the Stars serves up an incredible world where nearly anything from food items to entire buildings can be devoured. Players must bite, lick, and suck their way to victory as one of the game’s four insatiable and customizable creatures: GABU, BARI, CHUCHU, and PERO. The more these characters eat, the bigger and more voracious their stomachs will become. It’s an engaging and addictive game for anyone with a taste for fun!

About Prey the Stars

The main objective of Prey the Stars is to eat everything in sight and to attack your opponents. Each of the games colorfully-themed stages are cleared by devouring as much as possible before time runs out. The player with the highest score at the end of the stage is the winner. Each player scores points by eating and by sucking in “spirits” which are hidden in some objects. The bigger the item, the higher the score!

Prey the Stars offers a delicious smorgasbord of multiplayer options. Gamers can feast with up to 4 friends using local Wireless DS Single-Card Download Play or Multi-Card Play. Players can also take their gastronomic conquest worldwide with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Exclusive character designs for Prey the Stars were created by break-out Japanese pop artist TOUMA. The highly-respected designer is renowned for his whimsical and edgy creations including, Knuckle Bear and Boo, that have taken the urban vinyl toy industry by storm.

EIDOS European Release date for Tomb Raider - Underworld

Eidos Interactive, creator of some of the world’s leading videogame properties, today announces the November 21st, 2008 ship date for the highly anticipated, upcoming entry to the illustrious Tomb Raider franchise, Tomb Raider: Underworld, throughout Europe.

Tomb Raider: Underworld will release simultaneously on Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Wii, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, and PC Games for Windows platforms. With development led by Crystal Dynamics, developers of the recent Tomb Raider blockbusters, Tomb Raider: Legend and Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Tomb Raider: Underworld takes players on an epic adventure, where they will face greater challenges and choices than ever before.

Tomb Raider: Underworld marks the first game in this flagship series that is designed specifically for next generation consoles. Lara Croft uncovers proof of the existence of the mythical hammer of the Norse God Thor, a weapon rumored to have the power to smash mountains into valleys and destroy the Gods themselves.

Setting an epic journey around the globe in motion, Lara visits ancient ruins , collecting clues that lead her to a forgotten power that could lay waste to all civilization. Exploiting the power and capabilities of next generation consoles, Lara must hunt for clues across larger than life environments, seen with exquisite, detailed clarity. Solving multifaceted puzzles, facing foes both animal and supernatural, players have the aid of enhanced weapons and abilities, as they explore the secrets of the past.

Also coming to the Wii and Nintendo DS consoles, Tomb Raider: Underworld for these systems features exclusive features not included on other platforms. The Wii version includes an archaeological toolkit exclusive to this console that allows players to excavate hidden areas and secrets with the aid of a compressed air gun, acetylene torch, chisel and pliers.

“We’re thrilled to bring back Lara Croft and Tomb Raider at Christmas time on all formats,” said Patrick Melchior, Head of European Distribution. “Lara Croft has never looked, acted or played so realistically before. Tomb Raider: Underworld will delight fans and gamers alike as well as being a great gift for the Christmas season!”

Little King leaps into action on Nintendo Wii

Rising Star Games today releases new gameplay footage of the highly anticipated Nintendo Wii exclusive Little King’s Story. Coinciding with the title being showcased at E3 by Rising Star Games’ parent company and developer Marvelous Entertainment, and XSEED Games (the product’s North American publisher), the new trailer highlights more of the quirky imagery and gameplay which has garnered much interest since its announcement earlier in the year.

Little King’s Story has an art style which is very ‘story-book’ in look and has a magical fairy tale quality which will intrigue and delight gamers. The storyline, visual imagery and lyrical music of the game work in concert to transport players to an interactive, enchanting fairytale world. By combining gameplay elements from life-simulation, real-time strategy and adventure genres, the many aspects of creating a vast kingdom come to life. As the King, players will manage and involve their townspeople in the goals of creating this new territory.

He will enlist them to dig for treasure, build new buildings and otherwise better their community. Of course leadership is a two-way street, so as the King, players must try to conquer rival nations to create a single, unified kingdom whilst also granting the requests of townspeople as he sees fit. The game transforms the Wii Remote into a royal scepter and offers players the chance to be the best king in the world!

Little King’s Story is scheduled for release in Q1 2009 throughout Europe and the rest of the PAL territory.

Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne – Gracia

With the release of Gracia, Lineage II’s developers have completely changed the rules on how to build the game to ensure Lineage II is improved across the board and even more fun to play. The Vitality System will help players to build competitively high-level characters quicker than ever before, meaning they can now enjoy the great end-level content without the grind.

One of our greatest assets is our fantastic group of players, who are a very dedicated, hardcore bunch that spend a lot of time and effort building up their characters and battling each other in big player vs. player (PvP) fights like castle sieges. However, the process of building and leveling characters can be a very long and frankly tedious process in Lineage II, which may serve as a barrier for letting a much larger group of potential customers to fully enjoy our game. While in the past the developers in Korea have continually built the game with this hardcore mentality firmly set, with the release of Gracia, they’ve completely changed the rules and made Lineage II even better and a lot more fun.

The big change is that leveling a Lineage II character is now extremely easier—and we say “extremely” in a fairly conservative manner. A normal new character that goes through the beginning quests can gain a few levels in just a few minutes, and players should find leveling now quite easily, all the way up to level 60 and beyond. Players that could spend several months of hardcore grinding to get up to a competitively high level will now be able to accomplish the same feat perhaps a month, if not less. They’ll also be able to get to their occupation changes a lot faster, so developing a selection of specialized characters is a much more realistic option. Building characters is now a lot fun and easy to do, rather than a long-term activity many players would rather do without. This drastic change in leveling is due to several factors.

For one thing, experience rewards for killing creatures and accomplishing quests has been increased across the board. This means that you’ll gain a lot more for generally doing the same things you always do. Running out of quests trying to gain experience, or continual creature farming, is not nearly as big of a factor any more. Also, new repetitive quests have been added in each race village to help out players even further.

We’re also introducing a cool new Vitality system. For one thing, you accumulate Vitality for not being logged in. You can also get Vitality points by staying in a peace zone, or by hunting raid or boss monsters (you’ll get a percentage of your earned raid points in Vitality points). New characters and existing characters before the update goes live also start out with the maximum number of Vitality points.

So what do you do with Vitality points? You consume Vitality when you kill ordinary creatures and gain experience, though Vitality won’t get spent if you’re taking on a quest creature, if you don’t get experience for killing a creature, or if you’re taking on a boss. When Vitality is spent, your experience and SP bonus is greatly increased, depending on how much Vitality you currently have. If you’re maxed out in Vitality points (Vitality Level 4), your bonus will be 300% of the normal experience and SP gain. If you have a few thousand Vitality points (Vitality Level 1), the bonus is 150%. Because Vitality is so easy to earn, players will be in the bonus consistently and the overall experience gain can be huge.

To help characters level even more, the buffs available to low-level beginning players can now be used all the way to level 62, and we’ve even added a few more buffs for players to use. These buffs like Haste and Vampiric Rage help out tremendously in dealing with Lineage II’s various creatures and quests, and makes solo play a lot easier.

With Gracia, Lineage II is now a lot easier to play, and the level barrier is not nearly as tough as it used to be. Players will be able to get to the high levels relatively quickly, and can enjoy some of the best parts of the game like PvP and castle sieges without having to spend a huge amount of time getting there.

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Original God Sim returns on the Nintendo DS

Rising Star Games is pleased to announce plans to release Populous DS in Europe ahead of its unveiling at this year’s E3. This product is part of a stellar line-up being showcased by Rising Star Games’ parent company, Marvelous Entertainment, and XSEED Games (the product’s North American publisher) at the Los Angeles Convention Centre.

Based on the original PC classic, Populous DS brings a re-imagination of the classic game which pioneered the God simulation genre. Featuring touch-screen controls that utilise the dual-screens, players manipulate five elementally-imbued gods, each with their own unique miracles within an extensive single-player campaign. In the multiplayer wireless mode, up to four players can unleash earthquakes, tidal waves and raging volcanoes onto rival players’ lands.

Populous DS is scheduled for release in Q1 2009 throughout Europe and the rest of the PAL territory.

Logitech's new cordless Wii keyboard

Logitech cuts the cord on its new keyboard for the Wii. The Cordless Keyboard for Wii (as it's called) is officially licensed by Nintendo, so you can be sure it'll be compatible with your Wii games as well as the Wii Internet Channel.

The keyboard comes with dedicated Wii-centric keys, including Zoom In/Out, Forward/Back, Quit and Ok, and features a full-sized keyboard. And weighing in at only 1.5 lbs, it should be light and compact enough to fit comfortably on your lap. The keyboard goes on sale soon for $50.

Source: Cnet

UK games sales hit new record

First half of 2008 shows unprecedented software revenue growth thanks to Wii, Xbox 360 & PS3, plus DS.

Video games are enjoying a golden era in popularity according to figures released today by ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers’ Association) and Chart-Track – the company that tracks games sales in the UK. Software sales for the first six months of 2008 are up on almost all games formats to a staggering revenue of £738 million (31.3m units sold) – an increase of over 42 per cent on 2007’s half-year figures. The first six months of 2008 show unprecedented software revenue growth thanks to just Wii, Xbox 360 & PS3, plus DS account for £690 million of the total. In stark contrast, PC games software suffered a hefty decline, with revenue of £48 million (3.9m units sold) – down 29 percent on last year’s £68 million.

Paul Jackson, Director General of ELSPA, said: "Games are now one of the most popular pastimes of the British – hence these remarkable figures. Our gamers are more mature than those of most countries – the average age of a player here is now 33 – and as our core gamers have grown up, so too have the revenues they bring in. Games are also proving themselves to be robustly recession-proof. Other retailers in the High Street have been struggling this year, but those selling games are not having such a tough time.

“Britain leads the way across Europe – and one in three games sold across the EU is also developed here. The challenge now is to ensure our success is not taken for granted at home or undervalued in any way – and to ensure we have the home-grown talent to ensure we will still be leading the way five years down the road.”

Revenue from console hardware over the first half of 2008 has seen overall growth in console revenue thanks to Wii & DS Lite. Revenue from console hardware was £513 million – up 27 percent on last year’s figure of £405 million. In terms of units shifted, 3.1 million – up 41 per cent on 2007’s 2.2 million.

Revenue from total games, hardware and accessories sold was a breathtaking £1,452 million (45.4 million units) – up 42 percent on last year’s no less impressive £1,022 million (34 million units).