Famicom Dojo is back for its second episode! In this installment, we go over why the Famicom Disk System was such a tremendous boon for console gaming worldwide, even though the peripheral never made it to North American (or other) shores.

Blip.TV Version

YouTube Version
Direct Link: Famicom Dojo: The Battery Backup

Video Netcast Version
 Subscribe to iTunes POWETcast
Direct Link: Famicom Dojo – Episode 02 – Battery Backup

Show Notes
http://famicomdojo.tv/season1/battery-backup

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Yes ladies and gentlemen the Wii finally gets another firmware update today, bringing the system up to 3.0U. The primary accomplishments of this update? A fairly major overhaul to the Wii Shop Channel and a clock on the main screen. Hey it’s not exactly loading games off an SD card, but we’ll take what we can get. For anyone curious about the Wii’s new abilities, we’ve got the full list of known changes after the jump.

(Thanks to NeoGAF poster EphemeralDream)
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Smash Bros.com updates daily with news about the new game, but today they let loose some that the game will actually have a full single player game. Super Smash Bros Melee on Gamecube had a single player game that didn’t exactly have a story, it was some light side scrolling with lots of combat.

Lots of screens and some hints for what this mode includes can be found here. I’m getting kind of a Kingdom Hearts vibe off the whole thing: many characters who don’t belong together working and fighting together.

Check out the first official episode of Famicom Dojo, and ongoing internet television project between Powet.TV and 4colorrebellion.com!

YouTube Version

Blip.TV Version
Direct Link: Famicom Dojo: Famicom and Disk System

Video Netcast Version
 Subscribe to iTunes POWETcast
Direct Link: Famicom Dojo – Episode 01 – Famicom and Disk System

Show Notes
http://famicomdojo.tv/season1/famicom-and-disk-system

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Some more E3 goodness being thrown your way, it would appear that Nintendo has saved one of it’s biggest announcements for the media event. It’s been proclaimed that Super Smash Brother’s Brawl will have a release date of December 3rd of this year.

However, it seems that’s about all Nintendo has released about the game. The company is keeping a tight lip as to any other real details, so seeing much else come about from E3 may be wishful thinking. Regardless, the game’s hype looks to make the later release date well worth the wait.

Here’s a short clip of the announcement with some footage from the game.

You’ve got the Varia Suit Samus, Corrupted Samus, and Dark Samus. Enjoy all of them on August 20th.

Last night, Level Up reported via their Newsweek blog that NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime will be making an announcement about new WiiWare downloadable games: original titles similar to those of Xbox Live Arcade or the Playstation Network. Today it has become a reality!

According to the release, WiiWare™ is “a game-creation service that will allow developers large and small to create new downloadable video game content for sale by Nintendo through the Wii Shop Channel” that “paves the way for smaller, more creative games to make their way to the public at lower prices, without any inventory risk to developers.”

Projects will be announced a later date, with first WiiWare offerings will not be available until early 2008. There is no indication of who is involved, nor how the independent developers they hope to foster can gain access to this development kit.

Compare this to Microsoft’s XNA Studio, which allows developers to create games cross-compatible in both Windows XP/Vista and Xbox 360. The technology is readily available (and free!), although the development kit that allows you to test your code on your 360 has a subscription cost of $100 a year — a drop in the bucket for the development budget of any serious offering.

Check back with us as more news develops. In the mean time, leave a comment and let us know what kinds of games you’d make for the Wii!