Godlike, the holidays, soccer, builder and a gun in this week’s Nintendo News roundup.

Press Release: POPULOUS™ DS FOR THE NINTENDO DS SHIPS TO RETAILERS
The game that puts the power of gods in your hand, Populous DS is already out in the market. This is a remake of a classic PC game that I used to play.

Apple iPod touch, Nintendo Wii and Sony PlaySation Portable expand game audience
The writer tells us that gaming consoles would still be on top of the kids’ Xmas wish list. Being a kid at heart, I’m wishing for a new DSi.

Review: Fifa ‘09
Available in a couple of consoles including the Wii and DS, Fifa 09 wants to corner the soccer market. It promises improved gameplay and a lot more. I’m getting this one.

Nintendo Creates a Place Where Everyone Feels at Home
Think of Simcity that’s made cuter with kids as its target market. That’s what Animal Crossing: City Folk is in a nutshell. It’s about building your communities and connecting it with your friends online.

SlideSlinger(TM) Wii(TM) Gun by MeWe(TM) Introduced for the season’s Hottest gaming console
For this holiday season, an independent gaming developer is introducing into the market the Wii Gun. Users can insert the Wii remote into the contraption and use it like a gun. Hmmm was there something like this before? I think so…

Vocabulary junkies have something to rejoice these days. In addition to the barrage of brain games available in the DS, Margot’s Word Brain hopes to capitalize on this growing market. It’s basically a new take on old word games.

Word Brain’s gameplay is much like other brain games such as Brain Age where the timed activities are meant to measure your mental ability rather than your hand-eye coordination. The games are similar to last spring’s Crosswords DS. There are six games to choose from, which are Word Search, Word Mine, Word Run, Word Link, Hyper TXT, and Word Safe.

Among the six, Hyper TXT seems to be the most original game from the pack. Judging from the game’s name, it is based on SMS texting. A word would show in the screen and you have to text them as fast as possible. Now this is a game for the text crazed generation.

The Wii version is a direct port of the DS one. There’s nothing unique with it except for the controls. It looks like the developer rushed into the bandwagon.

Margot’s Word Brain for the Wii and DS is nothing but a bunch of old games repackaged and renamed. If you got the original games already then it is not advisable to get this game. If you’re still thinking of getting the Wii version, it is best to get the DS version instead because playing it on the Wii is unnatural.

The last Bond game I enjoyed was Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64. The next Bond games made after were mediocre compared to the innovative Goldeneye and Quantum of Solace is no different. It’s another hurried game version of a current Bond movie.

Don’t get me wrong. Quantum of Solace is a lot better than other Bond games of late but it doesn’t bring something new in the fray. You know the game is rushed when it had to mash in the story tidbits from Casino Royale. But if you’re a Daniel Craig then you’ll enjoy this game because his face is featured in almost every frame of the game.

Activision actually did a decent job with Quantum of Solace but the action gets old too fast. It features cool weapons and foreign locales. It combines both first and third person views that give it a nice Bond feel.

At the start the game was full of action and it brings to places such as England, Italy, and Austria. The game Quantum of Solace sure felt like a Bond movie with scenes of Bond going through explosions, shooting down bad guys. But right after the crashing in Bolivia, the action goes downhill. It goes into a flashback of Casino Royale. Then when it returns to the present, you find yourself wanting to get some solace from the game.

Quantum of Solace is available for the Wii and the DS. The movie was spectacular but it doesn’t hold true for the game.

There are rumors that the classic arcade game Dragon’s Lair will be ported to the Wii. The game is first rumored o be going to the DS this year but it didn’t materialized. Conspiracy Entertainment holds the license for the DS version.

Going back to the Dragon’s Lair Wii, Digital Leisure said that it there is a possibility that it will be released or the Wii. Wiiware would not be an option because of the size limitation of the service and the game would require heavy video contents.

Digital Leisure has plans of releasing a lot of games over the Wiiware for the coming year. The company has also acquired several FMV-based titles and said that the company is venturing on the idea of bringing the contents into the gaming world.

Would you play Dragon’s Lair if it would be released on the Wii?

Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) is a Japanese game developer that is responsible for popular PS1, PS2 and DS games such as Phantom Brave, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, and La Pucelle: Tactics. The company recently posted on its web site that it has plans to make Wii and Wiiware games in the future.

The DS games it has released were well received and it could have influenced their decision to venture into the Wii. Let’s Hitchhike for the Wiiware is the leaked title and is said to be released next year. Yet, there are no details with regards to the game itself.

Since NIS is known to make RPG games, this is good news for the RPG gamers on the Wii. Hopefully this would be the first of many games for the Wii. Although Let’s Hitchhike would be released in Japan there is hope for it to be available in other regions as well. NIS has a good following in the North American market.

Mexicans, petz, price drops, DSi, and vampire killer in this week’s Nintendo News roundup.

Nintendo Tour Goes to Mexico
Nintendo would be bringing events such as cosplay contests, Nintendo Time Tunnel, tournaments, and lots of Wii and DS games to be sampled. This is the first time Nintendo is holding such tour in Mexico.

UBISOFT RELEASES PETZ
Petz gamez for the Wii and DS are made to make kidz be more aware of environment issuez. Thiz gamez would zurely be the cause of lack of zzzz.

Nintendo’s Iwata: Price Drops Not Bloody Likely
Don’t expect the Wii or the DS to take a price cut anytime soon. Iwata is quoted as saying that when a manufacturer drops the price of a product, the buyers would tend to wait for more cuts.

Nintendo DSi sells more than 170000 units in Japan since launch
How I wish to be in Japan right now and get a chance to buy a DSi. Even with all the bad reviews it has gotten, the DSi proves that what matters most is the gamers’ opinion.

Hands-on Castlevania Judgment
Castlevania is back! IGN reviews the latest game in the Simon Belfort series. Although the game is not done yet and there are some glitches to be resolved, hopefully the final product would be worthy of the Castlevania brand.

This might be a sequel but TouchMaster 2 for the DS is a notch higher than the original. This mini-game collection would surely be picked up by the casual gamers who enjoyed last year’s version. It may come from the same developer but the sequel has been greatly improved in a lot of ways.

TouchMaster 2 DS will feature 20 mini-games of different genres. You could opt to play alone or let in one of your friend into the friend with just one game cartridge. That’s double the fun!

The games are quite addicting and could give the player lots of casual gaming fun. Games in TouchMaster 2 include Triples, Spellwinder, and Scavenger. Game types are card games and other classic games. There are games in which you need to use the stylus to draw things.

TouchMaster 2 is definitely a must buy for those who like casual games. The visuals might not be that impressive and the soundtrack is monotonous but what are important are the games. Most of the games are addictive except for a few exceptions. Replay-wise, it is definitely worth it.

Activision has released Dancing With the Stars: We Dance! last week. It is the sequel to last year’s game based on the TV reality show. The new game features new stars, such as Indy 500 racer Helio Castroneves and two time champion Julianne Hough.

The Wii version is said to have improved controls for the Wii remote and nunchuks and it will also feature new flair moves as well. As for the DS version, players can change their costumes and switch partners as well.

Both the Wii and DS version are rated E10+ by the ESRB. This is a game for fans of the show and for everyone who likes to dance. That means that this game is not for me. But I’ll be grabbing a copy for my niece. It would make a nice Christmas gift this holiday season.

Nintendo enjoys record breaking profits this year despite the global recession we are facing. The Wii and the DS are the leaders of their respective categories. Financial records show that as of September of this year, Wii sold around 35 million units while the DS doubled the number with 84 million units sold.

The total number of DS sold has already surpassed the lifetime sales of GBA. The Wii has also overtaken the Nintendo 64 with regards with sales numbers. With that said, do you think Nintendo can continue this momentum even with the recession the world is facing right now?

The numbers isn’t the only evidence for Nintendo’s success. Demand for the Wii and DS is still high. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata shares his observation regarding this and stated:

“In the near term, we don’t expect the gaming business to be affected by economic trends. At the Nintendo store in New York, people are still lining up in the morning before it opens.”

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It is announced today that Deep Silver will be publishing Elite Forces: Unit 77 for the DS. The action and strategy game would be released early next year in the North American and European market.

Elite Forces: Unit 77’s objective is to find out who’s behind the disappearance of high profile personalities from the fields of industry, science and entertainment. Unit 77 is a highly specialized military team composed of 4 experts. They must combine their skills in order to solve puzzles that would lead to the culprits.

The team members are Bill “The Drill” Matic, technology specialist and resident hacker; Kendra Chase, black-ops agent and the team’s sniper; TK Richter, explosive expert and pilot; and Dag Hammer, artillery foot soldier and the group’s muscle.

The player must be able to determine which team member to use in a particular situation. The goal of the game is to infiltrate the terrorist’s lair and rescue the hostages. Aside from that, there is still no news with regards to the gameplay itself. Would it be like Lost Vikings where you control all members in real time or you’ll be controlling a single member at a time? I’ll keep you posted on this one.