Lighthouse Interactive signed with Nintendo Europe to develop and publish games for the Wii and DS. The company was recently bought by the Canada-based company SilverBirch. Not much has been said about its future projects except to expect something exciting from them.

Steve Wall, cofounder and Vice President of Lighthouse Interactive, has this to say about the deal:

“This is a significant milestone in the continued growth of the company. It gives us the opportunity to further expand our product catalogue and take Lighthouse Interactive to the next level. We look forward to working with Nintendo.”

Lighthouse Interactive is responsible for PC games such as The Lost Crown, Avencast, Barrow Hill, Overclocked, SunAge, Ship Sim and Sword of the Stars. It would be nice to see if any of these adventure games would be ported to the Wii and the DS. The DS needs a breakthrough adventure game that’s different from its usual casual games at present.

Visit Lighthouse Interactive web site for more info about the company.

Overlord is out to conquer multiple platforms on 2009 including the Nintendo Wii and DS. Codemasters announced that it will be releasing Overlord: Dark Legend for the Wii and Overlord Minions for the DS. Plus it will also put out Overlord II for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Lennart Sas, director and Overlord lead at the Triumph Studios, has this to say about the pending titles:

“It’s also great to see the series reaching new formats. The creativity being packed into the design for Overlord Dark Legend on Wii and Overlord Minions on Nintendo DS make great use of the platforms’ unique features and are perfect extensions to the Overlord series.”

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A kiddie show, football, and a couple of overlords in this week’s Nintendo News Wrap Up.

Introducing The Magic Roundabout

The world of Magic Roundabout will be brought to the DS and Wii for those in the PAL territories. Seriously, anyone knows what the Magic Roundabout is about?

Madden NFL 09 Sold At 7-Eleven Stores at Midnight, August 12th

EA partners with 7-Eleven to promote Madden 09. The store will offer collectible Slurpee and Big Gulp cups, Madden Meals featuring Frito Lay potato chips, and a free online Madden Fantasy Roster Builder based on Madden NFL 09 player ratings. 7-Eleven stores across the nation will have Madden NFL 09 branded signage.

Miyamoto ‘Banned’ From Talking About Hobbies

Nintendo’s lead game designer is banned from talking about his hobbies because he might unconsciously talk about ideas for upcoming Nintendo games. I guess this censorship is necessary.

Overlord 2 Announced; Overlord Also Heading To Wii & Nintendo DS

The Overlord franchise is coming to the Wii and DS consoles. Both games will be developed by Climax Studios.

Q&A: an interview with Sega’s Simon Jeffery on monkeying around with iPhone games and the Wii

Sega’s president talks about the company, his thought on the iPhone and Facebook, and their relationship with Nintendo. He also talked about future games based on Marvel comics like Thor and Captain America. Nice!

Nintendo announced that it is set to release to the US market a Limited Edition Pokémon Pack on August 17. The retail pack contains:

•  a Limited Edition Onyx Nintendo DS Lite with silkscreen of Dialgo & Palkia from Pokémon Diamond & Pearl;
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness special animated episode DVD;
•  Pokémon Dialgo & Palkia Carrying Case; and
• Collectible mini-poster featuring Grovyle from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness.

Amazon is already accepting pre-orders for the Limited Pokémon Pack with a retail price of $129.99. Fans of the series would surely be racing to grab one. Yeah, they want to catch ‘em all!

BioWare is set to port to the Nintendo DS their games such as Mass Effect, Jade Empire, and Dragon Age. The developers have big plans for the Mass Effect franchise. Not only are they considering a DS version of the game but they are working on the sequel as well.

My only concern with Mass Effect for the DS is to how its game play would translate into the portable console. I think that a direct port of the Xbox and PC version is impossible. Maybe a couple tweaks of its combat system would be made.

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The Nintendo Wii has successfully conquered the gaming console market. Its sales number is still on the rise after two years of release. Gamers are already speculating on what Nintendo have in its drawing board. Will there be a Wii 2 in the near future?

Talks about Wii 2 began when Nintendo President Satoru Iwata revealed that his company is working on the next generation hardware. There was no mention of specs or features that they’re working on. Would it be a graphics upgrade or do they some innovative ideas in the works that would change how we play our games?
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An explorer, Fit still fit, a CEO, a President and detectives in this week’s Nintendo News wrap up.

2K Play and Nickelodeon Announce Dora the Explorer Debut for Wii™

Everyone’s favorite explorer will be making her Wii debut this fall. Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Snow Princess and Go, Diego Go!: Great Dinosaur Rescue will be launch simultaneously for the Wii while the DS will have The Wonder Pets!: Save the Animals!

Wii Fit Defeats SoulCalibur in UK Charts

For the third consecutive week, Wii Fit is number one in the UK gaming charts. Number two is Mario Kart Wii. New entry to the UK chart is SoulCalibur IV which is currently at number 3.

Exclusive: Q and A with THQ’s Brian Farrell

THQ CEO talks about his company’s lackluster performance, new games underdevelopment and the Warhammer MMO.

Wall Street Journal Interviews Iwata

The Nintendo President talks about new peripherals and other future titles for the Wii. He also tackled the Nintendo DS.

Nintendo Wii looking Hardy for 2009

The Hardy Boys are coming to the Wii. The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft is the first Hardy Boys game for the Wii. JoWood also hinted that they will be branching out to the DS as well.

Sometimes I want to play multiplayer games with my DS but I can’t find friends to play with. Good thing I found OneClickWiFi. It is an online community where you can find match ups on Wi-Fi supported multiplayer DS and Wii games.

Once you get to the site, you can register for free. Once registered, the site can match you up with other online gamers for your chosen game. You can also open a room so that you can discuss the game with other gamers. This site connects Nintendo gamers from all over the world.

I like this service. The community is still young and when I visited the site, there were 15 users online and you might have a hard time finding someone to play with you right now. Hopefully the community grows soon.

Visit OneClickWiFi today.

In game that is. This is because Rockstar Games will be releasing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. This GTA version will be exclusively for the Nintendo DS. The Chinatown is still part of Liberty City.

Chinatown Wars will be using the DS touch screen to navigate in the game. Players will have to uncover the truth regarding the crimes and corruption within the Chinatown district. It is suspected that the Triad Syndicate has something to do with it.

I can’t wait to get my hands on this one. Imagine GTA on a portable console. Gamers will surely be caught playing the game nonstop.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be coming this December. For more details regarding the game, visit Rockstar Games site.

Animals, pirates, domination, profit, ups and downs… All these and more on this week’s Nintendo News wrap up.

Sim Animals – Nintendo Wii – First Look review

There are no humans in this game, only animals. You can play as a raccoon, rabbit, bear or owl. I don’t know where the Sims franchise is heading after this one.

Nintendo goes after DS piracy in Japan

Nintendo filed a lawsuit on some retailers that’s selling R4 Revolution in Japan. Hey, DS is number one selling gaming console and it is partially because it’s easy to get DS games for “free”. Then again, we should stop supporting piracy and buy the game if you really enjoy it.

Nintendo Dominates UK Weekly Sales Charts

There’s no denying Nintendo’s domination of the gaming charts. Nintendo titles got the ten places in UK’s top ten chart. 5 out of the ten are published by Nintendo themselves. Number one game: Wii Fit.

Nintendo Sales, Profit Surge on Wii, DS

Even though the Wii and DS consoles saw a drop in their sales in Japan, Nintendo still enjoyed a strong growth in its sales and profits. Net profit is up to 34% when compared to last year. Key titles include Mario Kart Wii and the Wii Fit.

Nintendo Hardware Sales: DS Sales Down, Wii Sales Up (With Bonus Lifetime Sales Data)

Now this is interesting. The Wii is on the rise while DS is going down. But overall DS still outsold the Wii by a huge margin. I guess the DS market is starting to saturate a bit.