Wii - Timeline
Tuesday20th May 2014
Exclusive Lost Wii Game, Sadness, To Be Revived as Wii U Exclusive
HullBreach Studios and Cthulhi Games are collaborating on development
Update 2: Following a rapid progression of events, HullBreach Studios and Cthulhi Games have retracted their claims to the Sadness brand — the details are available in this updated article. Update: In follow-up comments to our colleagues at Euro
Monday19th May 2014
Reminder Nintendo's Wi-Fi Service on Wii and DS Closes on 20th May
Get in those last online rounds
An era ends on 20th May. Not a glittering golden era that will live on through the ages, but nevertheless a period of time that brought plenty of good times for Nintendo gamers. Nintendo is shutting down its Wi-Fi connection service on Wii and DS, primarily as a result of the closure of the GameSpy infrastructure that...
Saturday17th May 2014
News Wii U Reportedly Uses Less Energy to Run Than Wii and Rivals
Natural Resources Defense Council highlights low energy use
A report by the the Natural Resources Defense Council suggests that the Wii U annually consumes less energy than the Wii, as shown in the graph below: The graph, which is designed to show how much energy your console drains across the year, illustrates that the Wii U is more effective in...
Thursday15th May 2014
News Philips Claims Wii And Wii U Infringe Two Of Its Patents, Seeks Ban In The United States
Dutch electronics giant seeking compensation package, too
Dutch electronics manufacturer Philips is claiming that the Nintendo Wii and Wii U systems infringe on two of its patents — one of which dates back to 1996. According to Dutch site NU, Philips has submitted documents in the United States which call for a ban on selling both systems in that...
Wednesday14th May 2014
News Here's a Handy Guide to Pokémon Services That'll Stop With Nintendo's Wi-Fi Shutdown
Sad times
As switched on DS and Wii owners likely already know, a number of Wi-Fi services will be shut down on 20th May, with high profile examples being the loss of online play in Mario Kart entries on both systems and other examples such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For Pokémon fans, meanwhile, the impact on those last-gen games could be...
Monday12th May 2014
News EA Releases Lengthy List of Online Services to be Shut Down on DS and Wii
Oh no, not Bejeweled 2!
Closing down online game services is all the rage at the moment, with Nintendo switching off elements of its Wi-Fi services on the Wii and DS on 20th May. It appears that EA is now joining in the fun, with online services for over 50 games closing at the end of June. The range of games is old enough to incorporate a period...
Wednesday7th May 2014
News Here's an Updated Summary of Nintendo's Software Bestsellers
Pokémon and Mario lead the way
When Nintendo releases its updated financial reports, it also publishes fresh figures for hardware and software — we've covered the former in our main summary of the year-end results. The software highlights tell their own tale, however, and perhaps help to explain why Nintendo opts for particular franchises and...
Tuesday29th Apr 2014
News Expansion of Nintendo Selects Range Confirmed for Europe
More classics at a budget price
It's common, especially for hugely popular Wii and DS first-party games, for prices to fail to drop even as the years pass by. The enduring popularity of Nintendo's last-gen systems sees to that, but Nintendo of Europe has now confirmed four Wii titles that will join the 'Nintendo Selects' range, with retailers to set...
Video Behold The Difference Between Skylanders Trap Team On Wii And Wii U
Compare and contrast
With Skylanders Trap Team being developed by lead developer Toys for Bob on the Wii and Beenox on the Wii U, choosing the best platform to play it on just got a little harder. Stepping into the breach with more Skylanders Trap Team videos are Family Gamer TV. Here, they compare the visual fidelity of different generations of...
Saturday26th Apr 2014
News LostWinds Now Available For Wii to Wii U Transfer
FoundWinds
The Wii to Wii U system transfer may not be the most flexible or easy process, but we should be pleased that it is available, allowing those anxious for access to their WiiWare, Virtual Console and Wii save data to carry on with their shiny new system. The excellent LostWinds was an anomaly, however, as it was a game that could not be...
Thursday24th Apr 2014
News Animal Crossing and Metroidvania GDC Talks Now Available For Your Viewing Pleasure
New Leaf and Castlevania devs discuss the intricacies of game development
Many of the presentations at last month's Game Developers Conference are now available to view for free on the GDC Vault website, including Animal Crossing: New Leaf producer Katsuya Eguchi and co-director Aya Kyogoku's "How to Turn a New Leaf at the Animal Crossing" and...
News Skylanders Trap Team Is Coming To Wii, Wii U And 3DS This Year
Series creator Toys for Bob is handling the Wii and Wii U versions
Skylanders has had a strong relationship with Nintendo platforms from the word go. In many ways its success was in part from capitalising from the high Wii install base in its target demographic. With both Giants and Swap Force selling well on Wii, Wii U and 3DS, all eyes were on...
Tuesday15th Apr 2014
Play Mario Kart Wii With Nintendo Life on Twitch - Live!
There will be blue shells
Nintendo Life does Twitch! Hopefully without it crashing, breaking down and basically not working. We're going all modern and trendy — next up an annoying catchphrase to open every stream! Well, maybe not on the catchphrase. We are, however, planning to run regular live streams of various Nintendo games that'll include...
News Nintendo Announces a Charming New Princess Peach Wii Remote Plus
Proud to be pink
Many of us parted with good money last year when Nintendo released Mario and Luigi Wii Remote Plus controllers, with a simple colour scheme enough to get us a tad excited. The big N is aiming to tap into that instinct again with a new Princess Peach-themed Remote, with Nintendo of America confirming that it'll arrive in the region's...
Monday14th Apr 2014
Play We'll Be Doing The Twitch Thing With Mario Kart Wii Online Multiplayer
Surely nothing can go wrong...
Twitch is all the rage, it seems, with the live streaming service used to watch gamers tackle a variety of titles and even team up in their thousands to play Pokémon. It's a social phenomenon in gaming. Aside from some retro titles being chaotically played by thousands of gamers at once, however, not much love is...
Sunday13th Apr 2014
News Details Emerge of a Cancelled Nintendo-Exclusive Star Wars Game
It was about Darth Maul though, so never mind
Star Wars remains as one of the most powerful brands in the entertainment industry, progressing from reasonably humble origins in 1977 to a never-ending multi-billion dollar juggernaut. Its power is such that Disney bought Lucasfilm for $2.5 billion, with no doubt that it was actually interested in...
Wednesday9th Apr 2014
News Android Game Inspired by Muramasa Takes Some Heat
Developer to change any troublesome parts before release
It's true that video games often take inspiration from other games, leaving developers to occasionally answer tough questions over similar assets or design. Take for example the Flappy Bird fiasco that happened a few months back. The developer was attacked for having green pipes that bear a...
Feature How A Team Of Dedicated Fans Is Fixing Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The inside story on Project M
Super Smash Bros. Melee was a love letter from Nintendo to the company’s legion of fans — a fighting game packed to the brim with songs, stages, characters and art from the storied history of the Japanese game company. It’s an accomplishment quite unlike and unmatched by any other. Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the...
News Wii Classic Controllers No Longer Being Manufactured By Nintendo
Both Pro & original models have stopped production
Eagle-eyed Twitter user @kitroplious has spotted an interesting tidbit about Nintendo's Wii Classic Controller and Classic Controller Pro. The following message was discovered on Club Nintendo while the user attempted to order a Wii game using his reward credit: Perhaps this is an indication that...
Video Marvel Characters Making Their Way to Disney Infinity
Interestingly referred to as "version 2.0"
After Disney's acquisition of Marvel in 2009, it seemed fitting that speculation would crop up regarding the usage of the comic book giant's characters in the NFC-driven Disney Infinity. After all, that game's universe-merging crossover potential would only be better served by the appearances of...
Tuesday8th Apr 2014
Weirdness These Chinese Game Controllers Look Wii-ly Familiar
The designers at Xiao Bawang clearly ran out of ideas
China has recently lifted its ban on games consoles, and as a result we're seeing a few new challengers arrive on the market in the hope of leveraging the country's massive number of potential players. One such outfit is Xiao Bawang, the company which tried — and failed — to conquer China...
Monday7th Apr 2014
Video What Could Xenoblade Chronicles Look Like In HD?
Sharp as a blade
Did you enjoy our Super Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD videos? We certainly hope so, because we've got another one for you today, and it's a real jaw-dropper. For this Xenoblade Chronicles video, we've done things a little differently. There's no
Friday4th Apr 2014
News GameSpy Shutting Down All Online Servers on 31st May, Following Wii and DS Wi-Fi Disconnection
End of an era
In late February we had the disappointing news that online multiplayer, online-based communication apps and even some DLC will become unavailable on Wii and DS, due to Nintendo switching off the Wi-Fi connection. This happens on 20th May — though the Wii Shop and DSi Shop will remain open for business — and prompted some to...
Wednesday2nd Apr 2014
Video What Could The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword Look Like In HD?
Flying High Definition
We've already shown you what Super Mario Galaxy could look like in glorious HD, and now it's the turn of fellow Wii classic The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the game voted for by you — our dear readers — as the next candidate for the comparison treatment. As before, we cannot stress enough that this is a hypothetica
Thursday27th Mar 2014
News Dragon Quest X Reaches One Million Sales In Japan
A slow increase in popularity of the Square Enix MMORPG
The subscription-based Japanese exclusive Dragon Quest X – released on the Wii in 2012 and the Wii U just last year – has today reached a significant milestone. According to Producer Yosuke Saito via Twitter, the Square Enix MMORPG has now sold a total of one million copies. Last April,...
Tuesday18th Mar 2014
News Guitar/DJ/Band Hero DLC Catalogues Getting Unplugged at the End of March
One last encore of a sale until then
There was once a time when the rhythm game genre brought about by Guitar Hero felt like it would last forever, clacky plastic instruments with rainbow buttons becoming a living room or game room mainstay. Unfortunately, it just wasn't meant to be, with many of those instruments lying silent in closets and on...
Monday17th Mar 2014
News Koji Igarashi, Best Known for the Castlevania Series, Departs from Konami
"I've decided to break out on my own"
It's possible that gamers relatively fresh to Nintendo hardware won't know much of Koji Igarashi's work, but Castlevania fans that enjoyed the terrific series entries on the Game Boy Advance and DS — in particular — may mourn the formal passing of an era today, even if it's been on the cards for a...
News Yoshi's New Island Makes UK Chart Début in 12th Place
Avoids getting egg on its face
Last week brought us the launch of Yoshi's New Island, which was met with a decidedly mixed critical reaction. Despite that its success rests not in reviews but in the final results — its performance at retail and, of course, on the eShop. We have a chance to gauge part of its early performance courtesy of the weekly...
Friday14th Mar 2014
News Club Nintendo in North America to Remove Post-Play Survey Coins for Wii and DS Games
Sad face
Times keep on changing, and Nintendo is reminding gamers still rocking the Wii and DS that they should really consider an upgrade. There's the sledgehammer approach of disconnecting the Wi-Fi online multiplayer service on the systems, which is as loud a prompt as possible, but there are more subtle ways the message is being made. For those...
Tuesday11th Mar 2014
Four Nintendo titles in the top 10
We often report the weekly UK and Japanese chart results here on Nintendo Life, as well as the monthly NPD results for the U.S., but there are a significant number of other valuable territories in which Nintendo is competing. It can also paint a worrying picture for European sales as titles struggle in the UK,...
