Wii: One Year On -- Posted by James on Tuesday, October 23 2007
At last, an update, this time in the form of an editorial. I'd love to have your opinion on this, so please - if you've read the editorial, head over to the forums and have your say.

I can imagine it being something of a contentious issue, or perhaps everyone will be in agreement - either way, have your say and help kick Wii UK up the arse, so to speak.

Arse-kicking aside, the following link will take you to the editorial:

Editorial - Wii: One Year On

Stay tuned for more news and updates.

No media updates -- Posted by James on Monday, October 22 2007
It's going to be very difficult for us to bring you any media updates ( videos, Wii UK TV, etc ) for a while as the Wii UK computer is now completely, as they say, buggered.

For a number of reasons I cannot sort it out for a while, so at present we'll only be able to update the news on the main site.

The forum is still active - please check it out.

There really are so many things getting in the way of Wii UK getting back to normal it's unbelievable, but I certainly haven't given up.

It's just bloody annoying.

Thank you.

E for All -- Posted by Nick on Thursday, October 18 2007
The LA Convention Centre plays host to the very first E for All Expo.

It has been created following the dissolution of E3 but differs in one very large respect. Where as you had to work in the gaming industry to get yourself a ticket to E3, E for All is open to the public.

Nintendo have taken the opportunity to steal a march on their competitors by being the only console manufacturer exhibiting. After E3 was scaled down due to soaring overheads it's no surprise that some companies are a little reluctant to throw their money into an unproven replacement.

Not much to tell you on the news front so far, Sid Meier's Civilisation Revolution has been showcased and will be available for pretty much everything but PC’s. Nintendo have playable versions of Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Brothers Brawl. They will be hosting a tournament through out the event on the latter.

Prime Preview -- Posted by Nick on Monday, October 15 2007
The Metroid Prime 3 preview channel has finally made it's way to Europe. With the full release no more than a couple of weeks away Nintendo are putting their foot down on the hype pedal.

Following on from Friday's release of Super Metroid on the VC, Wii owners with access to the internet can now go onto the Wii Shop Channel and download the preview for free.

Thanks to Samster for the heads up on this one.

Wii Keyboard shortcuts -- Posted by James on Sunday, October 14 2007
Those of you who've connected your Wii to the internet will have noticed that Friday heralded a firmware update for Wii - rather marvellous, you can now connect a USB keyboard to the console.

A much-needed update, granting functionality that frankly should have been present in the console straight away, but nonetheless it's jolly nice.

Courtesy of our chums Nintencast, here are some handy keyboard shortcuts for those of you finding that it still isn't quite fast enough, you speedy bunch of mothers:

Alt + Enter: Select "OK" in the Wii keyboard screen.

Alt + Backspace: Select "Quit" in the Wii virtual keyboard screen.

Up Arrow: Scroll page up.

Down Arrow: Scroll page down.

Left Arrow: Scroll page left.

Right Arrow: Scroll page right.

+ Sign: Zoom in (also num pad).

- Sign: Zoom out (also num pad.

Backspace: Previous page.

Ctrl + Left arrow: Previous page.

Ctrl + Right arrow: Next page.

Some are bleedingly obvious if you've used a computer before, but hopefully they'll come in handy anyway.

As a side-note, I'm currently unable to upload any of the new images and videos that have been released as part of Nintendo's Retailer Conference ( we've reported on it - check the main page ). Computer and internet troubles are sadly still rife, so you'll have to bear with me whilst I get it all sorted.

Thank you, and stay tuned.

Smash Bros. delayed -- Posted by Owen on Thursday, October 11 2007
No Smash Bros. this year seems to be the message worldwide these days, and not surprisingly. After a confirmed launch delay in Japan, the official word is that the game has also been delayed in the US.

What this means for Europe isn't hard to figure. After years and years of Europe being ignored by multi-billion dolllar gaming corporations when it comes to well timed game releases, you'd expect the trend to do nothing but continue. Does anyone fancy a flutter on a Q3 2008 UK launch?

Brawl has been delayed in the US until February 10th 2008, and in Japan to January 24th.

Wii UK will be bringing you updates as they come in, so in the meantime, why not visit the forums to discuss this and other stories.

Nintendo conference news -- Posted by James on Thursday, October 11 2007
As you've already read in our previous stories, Nintendo's Autumn retailer conference has unveiled some interesting nuggets of information, not least that Sonic will be making an appearance in Smash Bros Brawl. Sonic in an above-average game at long last?

Other gaming nuggets disclosed are listed in a highly unordered fashion below:

Capcom will be bringing Monster Hunter 3 to Wii - hopefully with improved graphics over the previous 2 PSP games. It is Capcom, after all.

Square Enix's new Wii Software RPG is set to launch along Wii Software next year, for the princely sum of 1500 WiiPoints. This one will be very interesting - we'll be keeping an eye on it.

Mario Kart Wii will feature bikes - possibly one of the biggest changes to hit the series for a long time. Not much more to say on that other than that poor bike handling could potentially bugger up a game that looks like it could be fun. We'll have to wait and see.

Stay tuned to the site for more news - we're slowly getting back to normal.

Bonza.

The Speedster speeds to Brawl -- Posted by Owen on Wednesday, October 10 2007
The Smash Bros. Dojo website today unveiled Sonic as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Sonic's appearance marks the second non-Nintendo mascot to appear in the game, the first of which having been Snake.

Industry rumblings have been pointing to The Speedster's presence ever since Snake was unveiled, and to put it bluntly, it was almost entirely expected. Better luck next time when it comes to unveiling something new and exciting Nintendo, like the next piece of plastic you’ll be bringing out to add absolutely no functionality to the Wii remote whatsoever. Fun.

Excitement over, we can all go back to eagerly anticipating the next outing in the Smash Bros. series, which should be hitting UK shores some time in early 2010.

Brown to 'review' gaming -- Posted by James on Tuesday, October 9 2007
Gordon Brown, known to many as 'that bloke wot runs the country,' is to unveil a 'new review' into videogames on Tuesday.

However, the histrionic posturing adopted by many in politics ( and the media ) when it comes to videogames might not be so much of an issue this time - at a press conference, Mr Brown had the following to say:

"I am not interested in censorship at all, but I think we do need rules governing some aspects of the internet and videos where children are involved and the whole purpose of this review would be to draw on the advice of all sources so that we can look at this in a sensible way."

Slightly less interesting that the usual argument for crucifying people like Rockstar, but thoroughly rational.

Whether this is just a smokescreen for something else, we'll have to wait and see. More interestingly, will the result of this review have any bearing whatsoever on the recent decision by the BBFC to refuse classification to Manhunt 2 on the Wii again?

Stay tuned for more news, and for God's sake, think of the children.

Click here to discuss this story on our forums.

New Wii on the way? -- Posted by James on Tuesday, October 9 2007
Rumours abound that Nintendo are soon to announce a new version of Wii, thanks to an eagle-eyed worker noticing a new SKU ( product code ) for the system - a possible indication that a new version may be on the cards.

Of course, it could be that the particular retailer has made some kind of cock-up - certainly the major electrical retailer I used to work for had all manner of bizarre nonsense on their computer system.

There's no confirmation, or any other information, but Nintendo's track record when it comes to irritating early adopters of their systems with 'Lite' versions could mean there's a smidgen of truth in there.

Stay tuned for more news.

Manhunt 2 loses appeal -- Posted by James on Monday, October 8 2007
GamesIndustry reports that the BBFC have again refused to classify Manhunt 2 after an appeal by the publisher.

After initially being refused classification, Manhunt 2 publishers Rockstar edited the game, resulting in the US classification board granting the game an 'M' certificate.

However, this side of the pond things aren't quite so rosy: "We recognise that the distributor has made changes to the game, but we do not consider that these go far enough to address our concerns about the original version," stated David Cooke from the BBFC.

We spoke to the BBFC when this story originally broke several months ago, and the story now is the same as it was then - it's down to Rockstar to clean up the game enough if they still want to push for classification.

They don't seem to have got the hint that it's the casual, almost arbitary violence that the BBFC don't like - not violence full stop.

Quite when this saga will end is unsure, but one thing is certain - Rockstar aren't going to win, and arguably neither are those people that wanted the full Manhunt 2 experience.

Stay tuned for more news.

Neo Geo comes to the VC -- Posted by James on Sunday, October 7 2007
A slew of games arrived on Wii's Virtual Console on Friday - 5 titles is something of an avalanche when some updates have been one, occasionally rubbish title.

It was something of a special Friday, though, as it heralded the arrival of the Neo Geo onto the Virtual Console - with any luck some more Neo Geo games will be heading our way soon.

I'm using the past tense to describe Friday as we're two days late - arguably Wii UK is quite considerably later on pretty much everything: we sort of 'stopped' this Summer.

I apologise, and I'm not going to bang on about it - instead of rabbiting on about sorting it out, I'm just going to get on with it. You just bloody well wait and see.

Anyway, the games:

Fatal Fury ( Neo Geo ) - 900 points - Whacking the bollocks out of people for a seemingly arbitary price. 900?

Streets of Rage 3 ( Mega Drive ) - 800 points - Taming puppies in a forest. Nope, it's whacking the crap out of people again. Fun, though.

Golden Axe III ( Mega Drive ) - 800 points - Lots of mythical nonsense shrouding the simple premise of violence. It's very dated, but quite good fun.

Super Thunder Blade ( Mega Drive ) - 800 points - One of the finest titles for a game I've seen, it requires you to be violent with a helicopter. Lots of violence this week.

Landstalker Treasures of King Nole ( Mega Drive ) - 800 points - Sadly I'm not too sure about this one, mainly as it sounds a bit rubbish. Any game where you play as somebody called 'Nigel' sets off alarm bells for me.

The forums are still ticking over, so please, please - come and talk on there. You can talk about this story by clicking this link. Bonza!

Stay tuned for more news.

We'll get there.

Thank you.