Walmart’s Pretty Nifty DSi Deal

If you’re in the market for a Nintendo DSi, then Walmart.com has a pretty nifty deal going on.

For about $197 (final price depends on the options you choose. Base price subject to availability), you can get a Nintendo DSi in your choice of color (including the newly-released Pink and White varieties), three games, and an accessory of your choice. And as you can see, among the games listed are MegaMan Star Force 2: Zerker x Saurian and Zerker x Ninja, hence our mention of the deal in this space.

There are some other nifty games, too, if you decide you don’t want both versions of Star Force 2. Of particular note are Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, Dragon Ball: Origins (mistakenly denoted as a “Z” game), Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, Final Fantasy III, Prince of Persia, and Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party. Unfortunately, select accessories add to the price, so choose carefully!

You can customize your order and see what the total will be here.

News Credit: Protodude’s Rockman Corner

Mega Man 9 is Highly Recommended by Nintendo Channel, But Most DS Games Not Included

Recently, Nintendo has updated the Wii’s “Nintendo Channel” with a new layout and new features. One such feature is the ability to make recommendations for DS titles.

However, there are two small problems here, where a site such as ours is concerned. The first is that so far, we have not been able to find a way for the Nintendo Channel to display what DS titles are recommended. This would seem to negate the purpose of the feature entirely, but given it is a newer option, perhaps they are waiting for more people to take advantage of it before displaying any results. We’ll give the benefit of the doubt on this one.

But more bizarre is that certain games are not “registered” with the Nintendo Channel, making them impossible to recommend. Curiously, we’ve learned that in terms of Capcom titles, many from the Mega Man franchise are unavailable.

To test this, we tried to recommend the following Capcom Nintendo DS titles: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, Mega Man ZX Advent, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Mega Man ZX, MegaMan Battle Network 5: Double Team DS, and MegaMan Star Force: Dragon. Of these, we could only register the Ace Attorney titles and MegaMan Star Force: Dragon.

An MMN reader who goes by the handle of “Enzan Chaud,” who tipped us off to this, noted that Viewtiful Joe was another title which could not be registered, while other older titles, such as Lunar Knights from Konami and Elite Beat Agents from Nintendo could still be registered.

We have reached out to Capcom to see if they could offer any insight or comment into this, but have not received any response on the matter. Despite this, it seems likely that much like releases on the Virtual Console, this matter may lie more in Nintendo’s hands than Capcom. I’m doubtful of our chances in getting anything solid out of Redmond, but we’ll give it a shot anyway.

In more upbeat news, however, Mega Man 9 is a title which can be recommended, and recommended it has been: the return of the original Blue Bomber stands proudly among the Wii’s “Highly Recommended Titles” with a Gold status. In the “All Recommendations” category, it has obtained fifth place, with the only other WiiWare title beating it out being World of Goo. Perhaps if we all unite to show our love of Mega Man 9, we can get it to rank even higher.

But even so, “Chaud” notes that “it’s more recommended than most other classics or popular games like Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time” (sic). In fact, the only other games beating it out are Wii Sports Resort in first, Rock Band 2 in second, and Guitar Hero World Tour in third.

Mega Man 9 seems to appeal to males and females of all ages, with 89 percent feeling it appeals more strongly to Gamers and 92 percent viewing it as a hardcore title (sorry, Heat). In addition, 90 percent feel that the game is more fun to play alone than with friends

On WiiWare, the game was recorded as having been played 61,392 times over the course of 56,604 total recorded hours, as of this writing. The average per person is 9.47 times over the course of eight hours and 44 minutes.

This seems to be great news for Mega Man 9, but the answer to why other similar (or close enough) titles on the Nintendo DS are not registered to be recommended remains a mystery.

Edit: Double checked a few things, and made the necessary updated corrections from when the story was submitted.

Capcom considers more DS titles

As reported by Siliconera, Capcom’s Q&A conference call for the third quarter of the fiscal year reveals the company is considering more DS titles besides the Ace Attorney game currently in the works. I was a little surprised to realize that, despite the great success of the DS, Capcom only released a few DS titles in 2008.

Others may be pleased to know that Capcom is looking into releasing the Wii title Monster Hunter 3, provided North American and European markets show enough interest.

As Mega Man already has a fairly good showing on the DS, and we’re pretty certain Capcom has a new Mega Man game in the works, it goes without saying we’ll likely see a new Mega Man title on the DS this year. Nevertheless, information has been pretty sparse besides the occasional rumor, so all we can continue to do is wait.

News Credit: GoNintendo

Capcom announces Mega Man Star Force 3

Though we already got the preview from Nintendo Power, Capcom today has issued a press release announcing Mega Man Star Force 3 Black Ace and Red Joker. Capcom also gives the less specific release time of Summer ‘09 – we will continue using August until we know anything otherwise. Check out the press release below.

THE BATTLE FOR THE DIGITAL WORLD CONTINUES IN MEGA MAN STAR FORCE™ 3 FOR NINTENDO DS™

Black Ace and Red Joker Double the Possibilities

Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today announced that Mega Man Star Force™ 3 (MMSF3) for Nintendo DS™ will be coming to North America in early summer 2009. MMSF3 will come in two different versions, Black Ace and Red Joker, allowing two friends to share unique items and powers utilizing the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, enhancing their individual characters.

As in the previous games, MMSF3 is a unique blend of action and role-playing game (RPG), combining the high intensity combat that is the hallmark of Mega Man® games with Star Force’s strategic battle system. By defeating enemies and boss characters, players earn “battle cards” that enhance and evolve Mega Man’s abilities and attacks.

New to MMSF3 are “Noise Changes,” random enhancements that change Mega Man’s form and unlock new abilities. The two versions of the game, Black Ace and Red Joker, each have over 100 unique Noise Types that can be combined with Mega Man to unlock elemental powers based on earth, air, water and fire. The new Noise feature will add an exciting randomness to battles, encouraging players to explore, collect and battle across the digital world of MMSF3.

In MMSF3, players will travel between the physical world and the digital world via electromagnetic waves that form “wave roads.” Geo Stelar, the protagonist of the game, can see these wave roads through usage of his unique “visualiser” tool. Once in the digital world, Geo can merge with the electronic life-form known as Omega-Xis to become Mega Man. The wave roads are being overrun by mysterious “noise” that change the player’s environment and powers in different ways. This noise is being generated by an approaching gigantic meteor that threatens both the physical and digital worlds of MMSF3, forcing Geo Stellar and his crew to fight the oncoming threat to save two worlds. Fortunately, Mega Man discovers that he can control the Noise, using the new “Noise Change” system to transform into many different forms, including the ultimate “Black Ace” or “Red Joker” forms.