This week features more tower building, some minigolf, and another Phantasy Star.

This week sees a familiar split of games: two WiiWare and one Virtual Console. On WiiWare, the previously announced Tiki Towers launches while Fun! Fun! Minigolf also sees release. On Virtual Console, the fourth Phantasy Star hits virtual shelves.

RealArcade's Tiki Towers appears to be the monkey... Read more...

The Speed Gamers are conducting a marathon to raise money for the autism support group ACT Today.

Over the last year, The Speed Gamers have raised money for a variety of charities by holding gaming marathons. In the past, they have played through all the core games in the Mario, Metroid, Zelda, and Earthbound series while raising over $10,000 for charities. Today, they have already begun a 72-hour Pokémon marathon in which they hope to raise a lot of money for ACT Today, a group dedicated to helping people with autism.

Gamestop customers having trouble finding the DS Lite this holiday season can reserve the portable and guarantee they will receive it sometime between December 28th and January 15th.

Last year, Gamestop introduced a reservation program that allowed customers on Friday, December 21st to pay upfront for a Wii console and then pick up the system when it arrived sometime in January. This year, with a shortage of DS systems, Gamestop has instituted a similar program that allows shoppers to put a reservation down on the Cobalt/Black, Crimson/Black, and Metallic Rose DS Lite systems.

Nintendo will replace Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City discs for players wishing to import their Wild World character data.

Finally, Nintendo has responded to the complaints of Australian Wii owners who could not transfer their Animal Crossing: Wild World data to Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City due to incorrect region coding. The solution Nintendo has cooked up is simple: they are offering replacement discs.

Proceeds will fund the purchase of toys for sick children.

The charity Child's Play, founded by the authors of the famed Penny Arcade webcomic, has been providing hospitalized children worldwide with videogames, books, and toys for over five years. Recently Child's Play released a CD available for purchase, the proceeds of which will go entirely to the foundation.

Nyko permitted to distribute redesigned nunchuk controller.

Nintendo's legal dispute with Nyko technologies over patent infringement was resolved earlier this week.

In April 2008 Nintendo filed a lawsuit stating Nyko's wireless nunchuk violated Nintendo's patented design and the name nunchuk itself was in violation of Nintendo's copyrighted intellectual property. Nintendo sought an order to prevent Nyko from selling the controller along with cash compensation.

Bob's Quest Developer refuses to leave room until Nintendo addresses his application for official developer status.

Robert Pelloni has spent the last five years of his life creating a DS Homebrew title, aptly named Bob's Quest.

The 2-D adventure game is set in modern times and contains about twenty hours of gameplay. Pelloni is actually not asking Nintendo to publish the title, he merely wants action on his... Read more...

The Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 ad showed gameplay using the Wii Remote, but featured visuals from the Xbox 360.

One of EA's commercials for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 has been reported to the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) by consumers stating that the commercial is misleading.

The commercial, which aired in the UK last August, shows a person using the Wii remote to control the game, inferring the... Read more...

Poor game reviews and loss of LucasArts contracts forces them to close their doors.

Free Radical, creators of well known titles such as Second Sight and TimeSplitters were forced to close their doors for good today.

Early this morning the staff of Free Radical discovered the building's locks had been changed with no explanation and were heavily guarded by security. A notice taped to the door informed them of a meeting that was to take place at a local hotel.

Do you have a digital camera? Do you celebrate the holiday season? Do you want a copy of Etrian Odyssey II for the DS? This contest is for you!

The holidays are literally right around the corner. We know that, like those of us on staff, Nintendo games play an important role in the festivities of most of NWR's faithful readers. We also know that the best way to truly get the most out of the holidays is to share with others. So we are putting out a call for photos!

Nintendo of America announces its first and third party lineup for the first quarter of next year, including enhanced GameCube games for Wii and some similarly familiar names on the DS.

Nintendo has outlined planned releases for its systems in the beginning of 2009, highlighting a smattering of remakes and sequels from the publisher.

Notable Nintendo titles for the DS are Pokémon Platinum and Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon—a remake of the very first Fire Emblem on the Famicom. Wii owners can look forward to enhanced rereleases of Mario Power Tennis and Pikmin under the "Play Control!" brand.

Members can register games and take surveys to earn coins and redeem exclusive prizes.

Earlier this week the much awaited Club Nintendo of America officially launched. For the first time, people were able to get a glimpse of the prizes available to them including a Game and Watch Collection game, hanafuda cards, and playing cards emblazoned with favorite Nintendo characters, just to... Read more...

As Harmonix's rhythm game sequel hits stores this week, the Boston-based company has also confirmed that it will have downloadable content and compatibility with all Wii instruments.

With nary a peep from Harmonix, MTV Games, or EA over the past few months about the Wii release of Rock Band 2, the silence has been broken as the Wii iteration of the game is scheduled to ship to stores on December 18. After criticism from Chris Kohler at Wired Game|Life, Harmonix responded, confirming... Read more...

GameCube remakes and highly anticipated third party titles headline comprehensive Wii and DS launch lists for the first quarter of next year.

Nintendo of Europe has disclosed the early 2009 release schedules for Wii and Nintendo DS, including third party-published games in addition to Nintendo's own titles.

The comprehensive Wii software line-up reveals the launch dates for the first two in a range of GameCube games to be re-purposed... Read more...

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata wants to 'to increase the number of people worldwide that understand the appeal of Dragon Quest.'

Hot on the heels of Square Enix's announcement of Dragon Quest X for Wii, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata made a statement to the press that revealed that Nintendo might be aiding Square Enix in promoting the hotly anticipated RPG. Iwata said he wants to "build a thriving Japanese game market together... Read more...

Explore Liberty City on the go in the first DS iteration of Grand Theft Auto.

Rockstar Games recently announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for DS will hit stores shelves on March 17th in North America and then appear a few days later at European retailers on March 20th.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a collaboration between Rockstar North, creators of... Read more...

Strong Bad's season finale is featured alongside one other WiiWare entry and a Master System Virtual Console title.

The week's Virtual Console and WiiWare brings us the finale of the five episode Strong Bad series along with a WiiWare party game and a Master System racing game.

The final episode of Strong Bad, 8-Bit is Enough, features, naturally, the titular Strong Bad and the beefy-armed dragon, Trogdor.... Read more...

New class action lawsuit claims Nintendo covered up evidence, will include documented customer service cases.

The Wii Remote wrist strap dilemma is one not unfamiliar to most Wii owners. In late 2006 a class action lawsuit was filed against Nintendo stating the wrist strap of their Wii remote was defective and thus responsible for the damage it caused. Nintendo denounced the lawsuit as "completely without... Read more...

New all-time US records for units sold in a non-December month.

This holiday season has proved fruitful for Nintendo as their products peak on the sales charts. According to the independent game sales tracking NPD group, Nintendo set new hardware sales records for the month of November, by moving the most units ever in a single non-December month. The Wii now holds the all-time record for selling more than two million units in the month, with the DS taking the second seat for selling 1.56 million units.

Nintendo is allowing users to choose the next DLC pack contents for the Japan-only title.

Nintendo opened a new page via the Band Brothers DX official website today, allowing Club Nintendo members to request songs to be included in the next downloadable content selection. Users can request up to three songs and although there are no limitations on the type of musical requests, Nintendo cannot promise they will be able to acquire the rights to every song.