Some new images and video of Mario Kart for the Wii have been released. Check them out on Jeux France. The video shows some very impressive half pipe stunts and we can see motorcycles as new driveable vehicles!

Now excuse me while I take a cold shower.

Sonic The Hedgehog has been the most wanted character not just for Super Smash Bros Brawl, but even going back to Super Smash Bros Melee. The second Sega became a 3rd party publisher for Nintendo, people knew it was possible. And soon Sega is publishing Sonic and Mario at the Olympics, which is fine for a fair competition. But the one wanted is to see Sonic fight Nintendo classic characters hand to hand, thus bringing to life the console wars from generations ago.

And now its confirmed

On the not-so-bright side, the Japanese date for the game has been revealed as January 24, with the US release now stating “TBD” instead the previously announced December 3rd. A delay would be uncomfortably, but not unexpected. Nintendo has a consistent track record of piling on delays to get the game RIGHT. At least we’ll have The Olympics this year.

Thanks Robbie!

With new Halos, Metroids, and Zeldas now released, our eyes can now safely turn toward the next big sequel this fall: Mario.
This new video from the Japanese version showcases a welcome return (with music!) from a past Mario game.

All this courtesy the new Japanese Super Mario Galaxy site. If you’re shy about clicking because you don’t know the language, you can get more from Gametrailers.

When I heard Nintendo was sending out free Wii Jackets, I anxiously hit up their site to see what I could add to my winter ensemble. Unfortunately, these jackets won’t keep the cold out on those long Wisconsin winter nights, but rather another measure to keep that white baton from launching out of my sweaty gaming hands.

Click here to request a new slip cover for your Wii remote. The picture on the right makes the whole thing look kinda abnormally shaped and goofy, but I’ll save further criticism until I actually get one in my hands. Speaking of hands, Nintendo has some of the most exquisite hand models I’ve ever seen. They bring back the elegance and class of Ray McKigney.

• Fencing – Individual epée
• Archery
• Shooting – Skeet
• Gymnastics – Trampoline
• Gymnastics – Vault
• Field – High Jump
• Field – Pole Vault
• Field – Long Jump
• Field – Triple Jump
• Field – Javelin Throw
• Field – Hammer Throw
• Rowing – Single Sculls
• Table Tennis – Singles
• Aquatics – 100m Freestyle
• Aquatics – 4x100m Freestyle
• Track – 110m and 400m Hurdles
• Track – 4x100m Relay
• Track -100m and 400m

via Joystiq.

And according to our friends over at 4CR the roster has also been revealed:

New York Times reports from an interview with Daniel A. DeMatteo, the COO of GameStop, that they’ll be re-organizing their stores this fall to accomodate the massive influx of DS players, Wii Warriors, and Guitar Heroes.

In particular, he describes a whole rack just for music and rhythm games and more shelf space dedicated to family friendly games like Mario Kart, Nintendogs, LEGO Star Wars, and more. Frankly, I’d expect this from a larger retailer. I’m surprised a Target or Walmart hasn’t already done it. As a described “core” gamer by those who are catering to these “Casuals” I have to wonder how this will cut into shelf space for more refined titles like Bioshock and Assassin’s Creed, and even well known games like Mario Galaxy. I mean, there are now tons of old people playing Wii Sports and training their brains, but doesn’t GameStop owe it to themselves to turn these casuals into core gamers too? Putting up a shelf with nothing but music and rhythm games will mean for sure coverage with Rock Band and Guitar Hero, but will they also pull out older and lesser known titles like Elite Beat Agents?

Can the casuals and cores live together? Leave a comment.

Image from nataliedee.com

This is the final segment in GameTrailers Metroid Retrospective, constructing the events of the 10 games in the Metroid series into a timeline and also mentioning the few cameos hero Samus Aran and her enemies have made in other games and media. You can see the entire series here. Its a nice refresher course to prepare for Metroid Prime 3, which has just been released and will be stocked on shelves in stores everywhere this week.

This is the new trailer on the Metroid Prime 3 Wii channel. This is especially interesting to fans of the original Metroid and Super Metroid (which should pretty much everybody).