Nintendo dominates the US gaming market for the month of June. Its Wii and DS consoles grabbed the top two spots in the gaming charts. The Nintendo DS sold 783,000 units while the Wii sold 666,700 units.

At the E3 last week, Nintendo announced two new titles for the Wii to help them stay on them. They are betting on Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music to keep the gamers interested, although I have my doubts on the sports title that requires a new peripheral in order to play it. Check my MotionPlus article for more on that one.

Here’s the US gaming charts:

1.       Nintendo DS — 783,000

2.       Wii — 666,700

3.       PlayStation 3 — 405,500

4.       PSP — 337,4000

5.       Xbox 360 — 219,800

            6.    PlayStation 2 — 188,800

Source: NPD

Not a lot of real time strategy games are designed specifically for your 12 year olds. Conventional strategy games involve lots of complicated details and a comprehensive micro management in order to succeed that it would be hard to be digested by young ones. Crave Entertainment thinks otherwise. They are coming out with Defendin’ De Penguin, a strategy game for your kids. It will be released with a Wii and DS version.

The objective of the game is to fend off the attacks of hungry predators that are out to get the town’s food supplies. Sounds simply right? Players must use precision timing and cunningness to survive. Players must choose from 8 tower types to defend their town. Then you have various ammunitions such as ice cubes, snowballs, icicles, and frost to throw at your opponents.

You play as the penguin Little Blue. You can upgrade a tower, fish for money, and get special items on the map. Towers can be upgraded to increase attack range, and strength. Attacking creatures include wooly mammoths, seals, snow men, snapping turtles and a lot more.

Defendin’ the Penguin will be out this month.

Two of the nonconventional titles that showed up during E3 are Mushroom Men titles for the Nintendo Wii and the DS. The games are developed by Red Fly Studios and published by Gamecock Media Group.

The DS version, Mushroom Men – Rise of the Fungi, will be the prequel of the Wii version. It tells the early history of the Mushroom Men universe. It will be a side-scroller. In this version you get to choose from three different characters. You will learn and develop the character’s skills and the story will be until the start of the Spore Wars.

The Wii version, Mushroom Men – Spore Wars, will begin where the Rise of the Fungi’s story ended. You’ll be in the middle of a war between different mushroom factions. You will control Pax, an unexpected hero. He must put the Spore Wars to an end while trying to solve his own personal problems. This time around, the game will be in full 3D.

Game is set to be release in October.  Learn more about the games at the Mushroom Men web site.

What is Homebrew? According to Wikipedia:

Homebrew is a term frequently applied to video games that are produced by consumers on proprietary game platforms; in other words, game platforms that are not typically user-programmable, or use proprietary hardware for storage.

Don’t you wish there is a way to use homebrew application on your Nintendo Wii? According to Wiibrew, there is a way. Plus there are tons of applications made specifically for the Wii.

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The first time thechoozen of Bit-Tech forums saw the trailer of Wall-E, the newest Pixar movie, he knew right away that he had to do a mod based on it. So he transformed an old Nintendo GameCube console into Wall-E.

The case mod is made up of parts from an old toy and Plexiglas. They made a cover for the front ports to hide the ports. If you’re going to use the GameCube, just pull down the cover and insert the joystick in.

The GameCube is covered with acrylic and airbrushed to look like Wall-E. The arms, which are made of Plexiglas, are movable to assume different positions. The eyes are made of acrylic layers.

This GameCube case mod was made February of this year, way earlier than all the hype Wall-E is getting these days. He does look like number 5.

Source: Bit-Tech forums

More photos after jump.

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You know you’re playing too much Super Mario when you start making cupcakes like these:

Naomi did a good job with these treats that if might be considered a sin to eat them. They must taste as good as they look. You can view her other creation at her Flickr page.

After eating these cupcakes, be sure to have some Mario Energy Drink to power up.

I’ve stumble upon these images at MMOABC.com.These put classic game sprite in real life settings. Enjoy!

If anyone knows the original artist of these images, let me know.

More images after the jump.
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A vampire killer, a Mummy, a ninja, a brawler being number one and a planned DVD player that won’t push through. All this in this week’s Nintendo News wrap up.

Castlevania Judgement officially announced for Nintendo Wii

Konami is set to release a new Castlevania game. This is good news for all Castlevania fans. It will be a beat-em-up game that features characters from its previous version. I can’t wait for this one.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor for Nintendo DS Coming This Month

Sierra Entertainment will be releasing a game based on the third Mummy movie. It will be in stores on the 22^nd of July. Another game based on movie that will be forgotten once the hype is over.

Tomy and D3Publisher to Provide Naruto Fans with Hands On Ninja Action at Anime Expo 2008

The Naruto game publishers will give fans a first look on the new Naruto games for the Nintendo Wii and the DS. Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 will be the first Naruto game for the Wii. I’m not a Naruto-freak but I’m waiting for this game.

Smash Bros. Wins Brawl In UK Charts

Smash Bros Brawl debuted at number one in UK bolstering Nintendo’s dominance of that market. It became the third fastest selling title in UK behind Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii. Go Mario!

No Plans For a DVD-Playing Wii

Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata, has revealed during a stockholders meeting that Nintendo has no plans about a DVD enabled Wii. Boo! But on the good side, there is a mention of the DS TV receiver, OneSeg Tuner. It is said that it will go out in the market this month. Watch out for it.

Activision is making a new Dancing with the Stars game for Nintendo Wii and DS consoles. This is the follow up to last year’s successful game. The new game will be titled Dancing with the Stars: Get Your Game On.

Get Your Game On will feature new stars such as Joey Fatone, Mel B, Apolo Anton Ohno, and Jennie Garth. There are also new professional dancers to choose from like Derek Hough and his sister, two-time champion Julianne Hough.

The new Wii version will still use the Wii remote and will feature a new flair move. Dave Oxford from Activision Publishing has this to say about the game:

“Dancing with the Stars is an ongoing cultural phenomenon that appeals to people of all ages. It is mainstream entertainment at its best. We feel the game is the perfect opportunity to evolve the idea of ‘active family fun’.”

I’m sure my aunt who is a huge fan of the show will be dying to get her hands on this new game. I just hope that they do something about the single player mode. The previous game’s single player mode has no competition except against computer controlled dancers.

Majesco is set to release a new Cooking Mama game for the Nintendo Wii at the last quarter of this year. Unlike previous the version of the game, Cooking Mama World Kitchen will be in 3D. With this graphic upgrade also comes new game play mechanics.

According to the developer, new mini-games are added to add a new dimension to the game. An example is when you make a mistake while flipping burgers, a mini-game will be triggered. You’ll gain control of Mama as you try to catch the burger with your apron. That would definitely make the game more attractive and less a routine.

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