The acclaimed Virtua Tennis series debuts on Wii with numerous tennis stars, over 40 court environments, and online play.

Sega recently announced the development of Virtua Tennis 2009 for Wii. Not only will this be the first Virtua Tennis game for a Nintendo home console, but it also has the distinction of being the first tennis game on Wii with online play. Players will also be able to enjoy a single player mode that includes the series' signature Court games, which are a variety of sometimes silly - but fun - tennis mini-games.

The first two weeks of February saw a nice spread of games, ranging from House of the Dead: Overkill and Deadly Creatures to Retro Game Challenge and Drivers' Ed Portable.

Due to my excursion to New York City for the 2009 New York Comic Con, last week's Game Releases article got a bit held up. This week's article will cover every game that has come out in the past two weeks.

The first week of February saw the release of a handful games for the Wii, such as Tecmo's Rygar: The Battle of Argus and Ubisoft's Tenchu: Shadow Assassins. The DS similarly saw a few releases including three from Ubisoft.

Former rival mascots, Mario and Sonic, will reunite as they compete in a variety of winter sports on the Wii and DS in late 2009.

In late 2007, Yoshi and Miles "Tails" Prower faced off against one another for the first time in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, which has sold over 10 million units across the globe. Today, Nintendo and Sega announced Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for Wii and DS. Once again, players will be able to partake in a number of Olympic events as their favorite Sonic and Mario characters.

The game company is targeting global sales of 500,000 units for their upcoming Wii port, Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop.

Capcom ported Resident Evil 4 to the Wii early in the system's life and the company is still being rewarded with sales of the M-rated title. Already a known million-seller, Capcom's third-quarter financial report revealed that the game had managed to eke out another 100,000 units in sales since Capcom's... Read more...

After losing $641 million over the holiday shopping season, EA's CEO discussed plans to bring Dead Space to the Wii along with 50 percent of their games "in terms of title counts."

The holiday season is usually a jolly one for video game companies, but not this year, and not for EA. The gaming giant just reported a loss of $641 million during their fiscal third quarter. Following the release of this information, EA CEO John Riccitiello stated that in order to increase profits and decrease loss the company would restructure their business plan and bring more publishing support to the Wii.

How often do two Final Fantasy games for two different Nintendo platforms get released on the same day?

As could have been expected, the DS version of FF CC: Echoes of Time outsold its Wii sister title by almost five times as much. How many of those people buying the titles bought both together for link-up play is unknown, but Square Enix are no doubt hoping each title will persuade customers to buy the other.

IGN's touted LIT makes its appearance on WiiWare alongside a single Genesis game for the Virtual Console.

This week's Virtual Console and WiiWare updates are light on both fronts, with only one game for either service.

LIT, this week's WiiWare title, is developed by WayForward Technologies and comes from an idea stemming from Matt Casamassina and Mark Bozon of IGN. Players will take control of protagonist... Read more...

In addition to the confirmation of no split-screen multiplayer, the game's release date is set, and High Voltage's Animales de la Muerte is still in the works.

Much to many people's chagrin, there won't be any local multiplayer in Sega and High Voltage Software's The Conduit when it hits stores on June 9. Eric Nofsinger, Chief Creative Officer at High Voltage Software, resolved earlier conflicting reports in speaking to Nintendo World Report at NYCC 2009.... Read more...

The Nintendo big cheese answers questions about Wii Music's "failure," DSi pricing, the upcoming storage solution, and more.

President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata recently sat down with journalists to answer questions after the company's third quarter financial briefing and turned out to be surprisingly forthright on the company's successes and failures. His answers covered a wide range of topics and provided interesting info on upcoming developments for the company.

Our own Neal Ronaghan is on the floor of the New York Comic Convention 2009, and he's updating NWR's Twitter feed with his thoughts!

NWR's Neal Ronaghan had the opportunity to attend this year's New York Comic Convention in Manhattan. In an effort to bring you every shread of news possible, he's updating NWR's Twitter feed with tidbits based on his playtime with games like...

MADWORLD

Ghostbusters

The Conduit

House of the Dead: Overkill

The downloadable game will even feature online four-player co-op.

Who knew that the company behind the classic-but-cute Bomberman had a first-person shooter in the works? Hudson recently revealed Onslaught, a futuristic first-person shooter that promises not just "a horde of enemies to blast away," but also cooperative play for up to four people. Another surprise? It's for WiiWare.

Prope's unique game will be tapping its way around America and Europe this summer.

On the heels of its December release in Japan, Sega of America and Sega of Europe have revealed that they will be releasing Let's Tap in their respective markets this summer. Let's Tap features an innovative control scheme that has users place the Wii Remote on a box or flat surface. This way, the controller can detect the minute vibrations of players tapping on that same surface.

The Nintendo platforms will get an arcade-style racing game featuring strategic shortcuts, customizable vehicles, and a unique visual style in addition to classic Need for Speed staples.

EA Montreal recently announced the latest addition to the Need for Speed series, Nitro for the Wii and DS. The Nitro title will be unique to Nintendo consoles and is designed to mimic the feel of an arcade-style racing game. A separate Need For Speed title, Shift, will appear on the other consoles.

Their first game together will be an exclusive Wii sports title, expected out sometime in 2009.

Earlier this week, French publisher Ubisoft announced the acquisition of the Vancouver-based Action Pants Inc. While Ubisoft currently has studios in many other locations around the world, the acquisition will mark their first in-house development studio on the west coast of North America.

Ubisoft... Read more...

Nintendo's third quarter financial results suggest that Wii Sports Resort and Punch-Out!! will arrive in the first half of 2009. Also, Kirby Super Star Ultra and Wii Music join the list of Nintendo million sellers.

Nintendo's financial releases often contain data that can be of interest to game industry followers. Most recently, supplemental data for Nintendo's third quarter finances included a list of recent first-party million-selling titles as well as a rough forecast for future releases.

To begin with,... Read more...

In the face of economic uncertainty, Iwata shared data to show that Nintendo's products "are not seeing any decreased momentum."

Nintendo just enjoyed a record-breaking holiday sales season, but would post-gift-season fatigue set in and dampen their new year? According to Satoru Iwata, the answer is no.

In fact, Iwata believes that, in the US and Europe, sales for Nintendo's products are actually increasing despite concerns... Read more...

Nintendo and Hudson provide this week's WiiWare titles, while Sega rounds out the week with one for the Virtual Console.

The week's Virtual Console and WiiWare update provides players with an ESRB-leaked WiiWare title, another WiiWare title, and a Master System Virtual Console game from Sega.

Sonic Chaos for the Sega Master System is this week's sole Virtual Console release. Players will take the role of either... Read more...