…but just barely. Shigeru Miyamoto comes in at #92 in Time Magazine’s list of the most influence people of 2006. Who can blame them for including the Father of Modern Video games? As one of the main creative forces behind the phenomenally popular Wii, Miyamoto has secured a spot on the list by making video games less threatening and more accessible to everyone, (especially to the senior set, they can’t seem to get enough of the system at assisted living communities).

Although ranked #9 by the public, the fact that a game maker was even included on the list during the newly revived, post Virginia Tech, video game “witch-hunt” really says something about the power of the medium.

Read the feature here

I know what you’re thinking: “Hey, the Wii has been out 5 months, where all the Gundam games?!?”

Well step down off your mobile horse and take a look at this.

I can’t read a lick of Japanese so someone will have to tell me if the Kanji for “minigames” appears on this page. Otherwise, looks like motion controlled shooting in the Universal Century as the RX-78-2. Now I gotta get me one of these. Char’s Wiimote!

SpikeTV’s GameHead took their entire episode this week to honor Shigeru Miyamoto. In addition to Geoff Keighly interviewing the man himself, they also took comments from the editors of Kotaku and GoNintendo, the cast of Mega64, and the GameJew. Charles Martinett, the voice of Mario, provides narration between segments.

Its an interesting retrospective, but the secretive Nintendo hero doesn’t give much of a look forward other than the tease that a once cancelled game may still see release.
Watch now: Quicktime / WMV

It looks like the boys over at Midway decided to finally give all the rabid Mortal Kombat fans their just rewards for their patience in waiting for the Wii release of MK: Armageddeon, and gave up the rendered images of the last remaining character to be added: Khameleon. Click the image for the full wallpaper rendering.

Thanks to the Midway forums for the catch, and the Mortal Kombat Online newsroom for the linkage. The rending itself looks neat, though admittedly like the bastard child between Sindel and Chameleon. I’m sure the blatent similarities between Chameleon and Khameleon will no doubt be reflected in her story and ending, which seems a bit cheap. However, I guess when you whine enough for a character to be inserted, you get what you ask for.

Hideo Kojima, mastermind of Metal Gear Solid, has played Super Smash Bros Brawl. Not only has he played it, he said:

The game already feels very complete, it’s already a lot of fun and that you guys (Sakurai’s studio) could put it out now, and it would sell millions of copies.

This is very, very good news. For Hideo Kojima, since he got to play it and we didn’t. The rest of us will have to put up with the fact that what will surely be the biggest Wii title yet is coming along great. I guess a 2007 release date isn’t out of the question?

This news comes from the Kojima Productions podcast, which I never would’ve suspected is in English!

A news roundup for Guitar Hero Fans

First, on Red Octane’s knowledge database yesterday they accidentally revealed Guitar Hero III is coming to PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii this winter. Kotaku has the info before it was pulled from the site.

Good: 9 Tracks from Guitar Hero have been made available on Xbox Live Market Place for Guitar Hero II!
Bad: They’re in three packs of three, costing 500 points each.
Ugly: At this rate, to make the entire songlist of Guitar Hero available, it would cost over 7800 points, $98 US Dollars.
We’re off to a bad start if this is the way it goes, because 47 old songs shouldn’t cost more than a full game of 78 with a guitar. Hopefully future packs won’t be quite as steep, or they’ll balance it with some sponsored content or even brand new songs. Pile this on to the numerous defective guitars, and Guitar Hero on next-gen is off to a rocky start.

Hugo Weaving may have landed the role of Megatron in the 2007 Transformers movie, but the video game adaptation will feature Frank Welker. This will be the first time Frank Welker has voiced Megatron in over 20 years, last seen in Transformers The Movie in 1986. According to GameSpot, Welker will be joined by Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime. GameSpot also has an interview with Frank Welker, and one with Peter Cullen.

GameSpot also released 3 new screenshots from the game, shown here. All three feature Bumblebee fighting Decepticons.

Update! The rub with posting stuff like this in the morning is that by the evening all the press-releases are out and I gotta update the post. So, check out the new game site, http://www.transformersgame.com/. Make sure you’ve got your flash up to date and you’ll get more screen shots from the game , the developers’ blog, and, even a poll to name some of the new Transformers that appear in the game. Coolest of all is a new interview with Peter Cullen and Frank Welker. Just click through to the videos section for that. Bonus: watching Welker talk and hearing Fred from Scooby Doo.

A scan from Japanese Mag Famitsu reveals the rumour of a Resident Evil 4 port is true. RE4 will hit Wii in June with all of the PS2 re-release bonus missions and new waggle controls. The pricetag is going to be a very affordable $29.99.

Sadly, thats the good news. The Umbrella Chronicles game we’d heard would feature a “best of” all the Resident Evil games is actually a rail shooter. The Wii control will act like a light gun, not unlike the (terrible) RE: Dead Aim on Playstation. The story focuses on the downfall of the Umbrella Corporation and… oh come on, a rail shooter? This is the big news? I can’t believe they actually found a way to make another release of RE:4 sound interesting.

If you’re one of the 5 or 6 people who didn’t play Resident Evil 4 or were just PO’d that you got the shaft by not buying the enhanced PS2 version, looks like June is your time.