Pearl Harbor Trilogy – 1941: Red Sun Rising is the first title in a trilogy of air-combat action games for the Wii. In the first episode, which is available on WiiWare™ for 700 Wii Points, players are dropped into the cockpit of famous World War II aircraft and thrown into some of the most contested air battles of the Pacific Theatre such as Pearl Harbor, Wake Island and Guadalcanal.

The game has been rated T for Teen (Violence) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), PEGI 12 (Europe), USK 12 (Germany) and AGCB PG Mild Violence (Australia and New Zealand).

Haunted House re-visited

Thirty years on from its original incarnation, Atari have updated the classic Haunted House game for a new generation. The iconic groundbreaking game returns with more chills, cool new unlockables and plenty of spooky new enemies and is promised to be available for Halloween 2010.

Haunted House pays homage to the classic favorite as players fight for their lives in Graves Mansion as the grandchildren of the original character that disappeared without a trace in the evil mansion over 30 years ago.

Chased by pesky poltergeists, haunted by scary skeletons and exhausted from battles with creepy creatures, players are in a goosebump-inducing fight to explore the dark and creepy depths of Graves Mansion in search of the four lost pieces of the magical urn.  The player’s goal is to reassemble the urn and defend their family’s legacy with the aid of mystical tomes, powerful light sources and multiple keys.

The pick up-and-play arcade-style adventure allows players to jump right in and begin battling for their family’s legacy and explore the dark and mysterious levels.

An eerie, 3D rich environment of towers, basements and catacombs draws players into the haunted world and cursed story. Find hidden treasures, solve puzzles, fight bosses, and navigate through the spooky mansion and multiple levels on the way to a showdown with Zachary Graves.

Haunted House will take control of Wii®, Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Windows PC Download this Autumn, with suspense filled challenges, new chilling environments and more frightful enemies than ever before.

For further information visit the Atari Haunted House website.

nexuiz

Independent developer and publisher, Illfonic, debuted the first-person arena shooter at GDC 2010 last week. The fast, fun addictive gameplay impressed editors and fellow video game designers. Nexuiz was redesigned and ported over on PS3 in two and a half months with a six person team using the Quake engine.

Nexuiz is an Arena First Person shooter coming soon to consoles. It is fast paced with extremely competitive game play. IllFonic brings Alientrap Softwares Nexuiz to next-gen gaming consoles around the world while staying true to the game play refined over the years through open source development.

IllFonic introduces a new Victorian influenced art style that is simultaneously futuristic and sophisticated. Nexuiz uses the latest version of the Dark Places engine ported for the next generation of gaming consoles.

The game will feature a mutator system that allows players to change the rules of the match; as players rank, new mutators become available for them to use. Leader boards are designed for social networking, letting players feel more engaged with the community.

Nexuiz features a heavyweight soundtrack from artists including Flying Lotus, Dam Funk and Trisector. On launch Nexuiz will feature multiplayer modes including Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. New games modes, models, and maps will be available as downloadable content post release.

For more information and updates visit the Nezuiz website.

Wii Sports

According to reports, there is to be no price cut for the Wii hardware in the UK, instead, rumour has it that the manufacturer will be offering a new retail package for the continued retail price of £199.

The package is to include the new Wii MotionPlus peripheral, a nunchuck, the original Wii Sports plus its sequel the Wii Sports Resort.

An announcement is due shortly that the US and Japan will be getting the Wii hardware at a reduced price, while the UK have recently upped their retail prices due to escalating exchange rate.

The package, which has still not been confirmed, is expected to go on release at the beginning of October, but for all those of you only interested in the Wii Sports software, Toys R Us have this offer.

hercales chariot racing screenshot

Neko Entertainment an independent premier video developer and publisher have announced the upcoming release of Hercales Chariot Racing on WiiWare, promising a race that will drive players new and old to distraction.

Featuring ten circuits in five mythological fantasy settings, players take control of one of eight gods or legendary creatures from Heracles to Poseidon as they race to become Champion Charioteer. Heracles Chariot Racing will be released on July 24th in Europe on WiiWare.

In Heracles Chariot Racing our hero Heracles has to undertake a challenge that none before him have survived – a chariot racing tournament.  To win a series of sacred trophies and be crowned Champion Charioteer our hero has to race across mythological kingdoms against some of the most feared monsters in existence. The objectives are simple, survive the battles and race against some of the most fearsome and inventive foes in Greek mythology. Select a character and let fate, skill and ability decide the outcome!

Heracles Chariot Racing is an exciting journey into a mystical and colourful word of danger spiced with excitement, awesome weapons laced with humour. Featuring Championship, Single Player, Time Trial, Battle and intense 2 to 4 split screen multiplayer modes, players are the master of their own destinies, but with the divine actions of Gods they will require both skill and an element of luck to be crowned champions. Featuring 3 racing cups across 10 courses based on mythological fantasy settings including Nemean Lion, Realm of Hades, The Augean Stables, Stymphalian Lake and Mount Olympus, players select a character and race it out using fantasy weaponry including Zeus lightning rods, tridents, fireballs and more against their opponents.

With its blisterning fast racing action, mytholigical tracks and enemies, split screen multiplayer modes, Heracles Chariot Racing is destined to become a WiiWare classic for players, both young and old.

This means that now small developers without the full amount of resources can now see there imaginations run free thanks to Wii Ware.

Although this is used like a the Virtual Consoles games it is quite different and offers many of the things available when you play big name games on the Wii console.

Another handy feature is that if you are worried about the amount of memory left on your Wii console don’t worry because each game has a maximum of 40 MB so get loads.

Tuesday the 20th May will be the release day for Wii Ware and most of the games.
The games released in may include:

Defend Your Castle
Dr Mario & Bacteria Extermination
Everyone’s Pokemon Ranch
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicals: My Life as a King
Lost Winds
Plattchen: Twist ‘n’ Paint
Pop!
Saku Saku Animal Panic
Star Soldier R

If you do not have the Wii shop Channel you will unfortunately not be able to download these unless you connect your Nintendo Wii to the internet.

This allows classic games that were not released in Europe available from the Wii shop Channel. So now we can enjoy more American and Japanese classic games for the virtual console on wii.

They will begin with:

Columns III: Revenge of Columns on the Sega Mega Drive

Gradius II Gofer No Yabou on the Sega Mega Drive

Final Soldier on the Turbo grafx

And then we also look forward to such releases as:

Turbografx

Break in

Cho Aniki

Digital Champ: Battle Boxing

Star ParodierSega Mega Drive

Gley Lancer

Puyo Puyo 2

So go out and buy a Wii Points Card and start playing.