The Games News

The newest chapter of the Final Fantasy saga secures another first place in overall sales in Japan in traditional low-sales period.

Square Enix can boast about possibly the largest fanbase in the world, based mostly around the highly successfull (and addictive) Final Fantasy series, and to a lesser extent around the Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts series. And surely such a large crowd will buy your game if there is any “Final Fantasy” snippet in the title.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2 on the DS follows the successes of Final Fantasy Tactics PSP and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy PSP in May, and September respectively, debuting on the first place in the japanese sales charts at 142,000 units units. This is a commercial success, if you take into consideration the following games in the charts: #2 Ar Tonelico 2 for the PS2 and World Soccer Winning Eleven DS.

According to the reports, the long waited Super Mario Bros DS has sold 480,000 units on its debut, making it the fastest selling DS title ever. It shouldn’t come as a surprise as it can be considered as a marriage between the best names in their respective categories, Nintendo DS in the console category and Super Mario Bros in the gaming category.
Super Mario Bros boasts amazing graphics, which accompanies its 2D game play, which when coupled with the dual screen of the Nintendo DS, makes it simply irresistible. This time around, Mario has 3 others with him for company, Yoshi, Luigi and Wario. There are more levels to complete the game. For example one can play the game without actually having to complete all levels, which means replaying would just be fun. One of the new features of the Super Mario Bros DS are the minigames, in which you basically use the touch-screen feature of the DS. The DS also allows 2 players to wirelessly link with each other and play in the multi-player mode.
The notorius game, Super Mario Bros lives on in today’s world - where games are synonymous with extreme graphics - to actually prove that classics are very much alive.

With the console war coming to an explosion in the next few months, the war that everyone seems to be forgetting is the handheld battle between Sony and Nintendo. However, with the PSP and Nintendo DS competing with each other to become the handheld champion, a sleeper system has been released that will slow both systems sales dramatically. The Linux-based GP2X Game System combats with the DS and the PSP by bringing homebrew applications and more to their system, a feat that the DS and the PSP both are trying to stop.

With a dual core processor and its high pixel resolution, the GP2X Game System replays multiple kinds of video and audio formats and supports various codecs to compliment them. You can also enjoy emulation from systems of the past, including the NES, SNES, Genesis, and more. Electronic picture albums, electronic novels, and USB 2.0 support are just a few of the added benefits as well. At a mere $170, the GP2X Game System reasons to become a great addition to the handheld war and may surprise more than believed.

Nintendo revealed the hardware specifications for their Nintendo Wii by adding a page in their Wii’s website. Even though some details are not properly given, it’s very informative. It has details about the size, controls, appearance, virtual console and many other features. Nintendo Wii in size is approximately equal to three DVD cases. This gives a great advantage for user as it can be added easily to the current entertainment setup. Wiimote brings leisure as one can place it anywhere according to his lifestyle. Its design makes it a natural addition and can be placed horizontally or vertically.

The Nintendo Wii contains 512MB of internal flash memory, two USB 2.0 ports and built in Wi-Fi capability. Also there is a slot for the SD memory card, enabling players to expand the internal memory. Single self-loading media bay plays single or double 12 centimeter optical discs for Wii. Also it has ability to play Nintendo GameCube discs. The CPU, code named “Broadway” is jointly developed and manufactured by IBM. It is made with a 90 nm SOI CMOS process. The Graphics Processing Unit is being developed with ATI. (more…)

Recently, Nintendo’s DS Lite gaming system was declared as gadget of the week by the Time magazine. The most impressive fact is its style and design, which appeals beyond the known gaming crowds. Most users reported that some women especially wives have become addicted to this new gadget.

The new DS-Lite is slimmer and light weighted than the previous Nintendo DS model. It is approx 42% smaller in size and 21% lighter in weight. The adjustments have been made to the controls as well. Power button is relocated at the right side of the system and is being replaced with the spring loaded switch. All you have to do is to hold this switch in position for a while to shutdown the power. An importance feature of the system is more durable, scratch-resistant touch screen. The dimension of this newly improved screen is same as the previous DS system. Display properties have also been improved in this latest version. There are four levels of brightness now. This is a great feature for the improvement of battery’s efficiency. DS-Lite comes in four colors: Ice Blue, Enamel Navy, Polar White or Crystal White and Black.

One of the problems generally users had with almost all the Nintendo consoles especially Nintendo DS. It is that when they play for quite some time, they get thumbs-ache. So the users had to give their thumbs some rest. But so far, nothing of such kind is being reported by any user of the Nintendo DS Lite.

In US, DS-Lite was released on 11th June, 2006, for $129.99. Nintendo claims to have sold 136,500 units between Saturday and Sunday. By the pace they are going, it is believed that they will sell 0.5 million units within 10 days.