Just the other day I was relating to friends that I thought MP:H failed in the single player department. Phil Bond seemed to think the multiplayer made it worthwhile. So much for that.
4cr reports a hack allowing “Infinite Energy, Infinite Missiles, Infinite Sub-Weapon, and Hold B To Levitate” has been specifically designed for Nintendo WiFi.
Heres the first big obstacle for Nintendo’s fledgling online service. When cheaters started to populate Halo 2, Bungie and Xbox Live unleashed the “Banhammer” program that autodetected hacked files and removed players from matchmaking or Xbox Live altogeher. Does Nintendo have the ability to implement something similar?

In an interview with Nintendo Power Magazine this month, Retro Studios speaks of the Wii-bound latest installment in the Powet favorite Metroid franchise.
So whats the scoop?   X-ray Visor and Hyper-Mode are back, and you’ll traverse multiple planets like in the recent DS release, Metroid Prime: Hunters.  Backtracking an exploration will remain in tact, something woefully missing from Hunters.  Also makin appearances will be more Phazon, more competing bounty hunters, and more Metroids.
They also say multiplayer will be back, but not in the same way it was included in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.  Wii’s WiFi capabilities are a given.

The best part is they confirm Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will be a launch title for the Nintendo Wii, due out by the end of the year.
Click here for highlights, though they are transcribed from the magazine by someone without the use of a spellchecker.

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.

Me reviewing a Nintendo product.  A sign of the end times perhaps?  Nah, I just wanted to one-up Phil, Zac, Sean and aDam.

Anyway, as long as there are video vames, there will be Tetris.  Alexey Pazhitnov‘s puzzle masterpiece set the standard for all puzzle games that still hasn’t been matched to this day.  Many different versions exist as Java/Flash web games, game cartridges, homebrew applications, etc.  So what makes Nintendo’s latest entry so different? The integration of classic Nintendo franchises, the sheer variety of game types, and the addition of Mariokart-like items to the classic versus mode.

Standard – the regular Tetris we know and love, make lines while Mario idly navigates levels.

Mission - Decorated with the Legend of Zelda, play standard Tetris while meeting different goals to progress.

Catch - Themed around Metroid, pieces are caught with a large mass manipulated by the player. The mass shrinks when (minimum) 4×4 masses are created within it.

Touch - The main character from Balloon Fight is trapped in a cage atop a tower of tetriminoes. Use the touch screen to slide blocks around, eliminate the tower, and set the Balloon fighter free.

Puzzle - With a nod to Yoshi’s Cookie, clear screens with predetermined sets of pieces. The challenge is in figuring out the order and orientation.

Push – This mode is available in multiplayer. On one end of the field is Donkey Kong, on the other is Mario. Each opponent drops pieces toward the center, and as lines are cleared, the center moves toward the opponent. When the stack reaches the enemy goal line, you win.

All the game types plus Wi-Fi support make this one of the best versions of Tetris yet, and a must-buy for puzzle fans with a DS.

The first clear screenshots of the much anticipated new portable Pokemon have hit the web courtesy GameWatch.
While it doesn’t look like a significant grahpical upgrade from the GBA versions (which themselves weren’t a very big jump from the original Game Boy), 3D elements and some mode 7-type effects will be present in the gameplay.
This will be the first Pokemon title to go online, but details of that feature are still under wraps. Bulbanews reports that any pokemon you caught on your GBA games can be transferred to the new DS title after you meet certains goals,
The official site has also been updated with screens, art, and more info.
I’d tell you more, but this whole page is in Japanese… a translation should be around sooner or later.

Nintendo has started to put DS download stations in stores everywhere. Basically you just walk into a store that has one, turn on your DS and use the built in download option to download demos of games just like you would from your friend’s DS.

To find out if there’s one near you check out this store locator which lets you find all locations within 50 miles. Here in Canada it would seem that EB has cornered the market though in the US they seem to be primarily at Best Buys.

I dropped by my local EB and tried it out. Apparently the station had been there for 3 weeks which I found pretty annoying considering I’ve been to EBs a bunch of times since then without noticing. My DS saw the station as “volume 1” insinuating there would naturally be more demos to come as new games neared release. I spoke with a friendly EB employee who explained that it was just a DS sitting there with a cartridge that provided this functionality. He said their Nintendo rep would eventually come by to switch the cartridge when new demos are available. A pretty simple but engenious gimmick.

Nintendo’s customer service FAQ boasts that these stations will work within 65 feet of the source. The guy at EB said they kept it behind the cash and it worked at about a 15 foot raduis from there. Some pretty conflicting opinions there. I didn’t try to log on from the parking lot but I’d be more inclined to believe the 15 feet story as it’s just a DS sitting there. When I’d go to Best Buy to set up the display DS with the chat and hide behind the aisles sending pictures of penises to it with my DS while looking for people’s reaction I noticed that the range was in the wearabouts of 15 feet. Maybe a bit more but not 65 to be sure.

These games will stay on your DS as long as you can keep it powered. This means no turning it off and no switching to another game you’ve got in there without losing your download. Luckily it will still retain the game in sleep mode so, as long as you don’t leave it unplugged for days at a time, you should have no real problem keeping a game for long periods with a little common sense.

So go and steal games as sales people look at you hoping you’ll actually buy something for a change.