Director Masashiro Sakurai revealed to a french gaming site that 1-2 non-Nintendo characters will be included in the new Wii version of Super Smash Brothers.
In addition, Bowser Jr, Wind Waker Link, and Ridley from the Metroid series are now confirmed fighters. He also confirmed Samus Aran and Zero Suit Samus are different characters.
In subtraction, The Ice Climbers, Mr. Game & Watch, and Young Link won’t make the cut Brawl. Young Link is obviously replaced by the “Celda” Link.
Sakurai also mentions he wants a roster of about 40 characters, so with 14 confirmed characters from the announce trailer and today’s news, theres still a LOT room for new and returning characters. If I were a betting man, I’d be placing chips on Pac-Man and Sonic…

link: 1Up: SSB Brawl Roster Changes

UPDATE: Many, many sites are picking up on this story now, but apparently its completely fabricated by a member of the GAF. That said, these are still 3 really likely candidates…

Ambitious modders brought the original Half-Life conversion Counter-Strike to life, and it became the most played online multiplayer game of all time.
Now with tools for Half-Life 2’s Source Engine in hand, a new generation of modders is trying to recreate Mario Kart, Nintendo’s highly successful racer.

The Media Gallery has some highly polished models. And the Videos show off a little of Source’s physics engine applied to a kart.
Its a long way to go, and will hopefully end up better than GoldenEye: Source.

Peter Moore hit the nail on the head. Over 30 Thousand Joystiq readers voted on what consoles they’ll likley end up buying and the vast majority plan on getting a Wii and 360. Wii on its own scored very strongly as well.
This is hardly a scientific poll, but I’d say the PS3 has a real upward battle against the competition.
Link: Poll results: (Reevaluated) next-gen combo platters

Lost in the E3 shuffle since most people were actually playing the game was the 1 minute montage of in-game footage showcasing new aspects of Metroid Prime 3.
Game Informer was patient enough to record this footage and bring it to us now.
Included in the video are lots of new characters (some looking like rival hunters), the gunship air strike, and a new zip-line Samus (pictured).
Theres also 3 other gameplay movies if you missed the demo the first time around.
via 4CR

IGN has posted 6 pages of Super Mario Galaxy screen captures. Many of them seem to be from the boss fight previously seen that surfaced around the time of E3.

   

On May 25, Nintendo announced Wii would not exceed $250.
Today, they made it official: Wii will be $250 exactly.

Sorry I’m late this week, but I was caught up in the holiday. I haven’t included many products strictly for Nintendo systems, so here goes one. This game isn’t a game in the traditional sense. It’s one of those products that takes advantage of the DS’s capabilities to provide something for casual gamers to get into.

Just like your muscles, your brain has to be trained each day. Nintendo co-opted a famous Japanese neurologist to design several puzzles aimed at training your brain. These tasks range from reading out loud to simple math calculations, each designed to get certain areas of your brain working. Also included are 100 puzzles in Sudoku, a simple numerical game that’s recently swept the world, appearing in many newspapers alongside the crossword puzzle. This is quickly becoming my new obsession.

I had heard a rumor of this capability, but was having such a hard time finding out the exact procedure that I was starting to think it was a myth. With the American launch of the DS Lite creeping up, I tracked the method down. It’s easy, but slightly hidden, just like everything else to do with WiFi settings on a DS.

Step 1: With your old DS, boot up any WiFi-enabled game and go into “Nintendo WiFi Connection Setup.”

Step 2: From the orange “Options” box on the right, select “Transfer Nintendo WFC Configuration.”

Step 3: Take your empty new DS, and select “DS Download Play” from the main system menu.

That’s it. Your new DS will now work with all your old lists and IDs for all of your games. Your old DS will be given a brand-new WiFi ID the next time it’s taken online.