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.

Straight out of Super Mario World, Flickr user standard issue has uploaded these photos of a Piranha Plant.

According to Wikipedia’s List of Mario Series Enemies:

A Piranha Plant, known as Packun Flower (???? ????, Pakkun Furaw?) in Japan, is a Venus fly trap-like enemy, almost always portrayed as a leafy, green stalk topped with a white-spotted red globe, almost bisected by a white lip mouth with razor-sharp teeth. Piranha Plants typically hide within pipes, periodically emerging and ensnaring unwary passersby. Others live entirely outside pipes, being either rooted in the ground or even walking about on rootlike legs.

No explanation was given by the uploader as to where or how he got hold of a Piranha Plant. Maybe he got it from Koopa Shop of Horror.

3 more photos after the jump.

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Since the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES came out, I am a Nintendo gamer. The NES revolutionized the gaming industry. It allowed third party developers to come out with games even though Nintendo did have strict restrictions.

Great games such as Contra, Super Mario Bros, Zelda and Metal Gear just to name a few, were released for this gaming console and it kept me entertained during my childhood years. Then Nintendo came out with their SNES console that had better graphics and audio.

Then GameBoy was released and it started my addiction to Tetris and Doctor Mario. The GameBoy is the first of many things when it comes to portable gaming consoles. It was the first handheld console that had high quality games in cartridges. Although it is in black and green, the games were entertaining. It is also the first portable console that allows multiplayer battles with its multilink port.

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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.

These are the top ten games for the DS as of press time:

1. Guitar Hero: On Tour
2. Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training Nintendo
3. New Wall*E
4. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
5. Cooking Guide: Can’t Decide What to Eat?
6. Cooking Mama 2
7. LEGO Indiana Jones: Original Adventures
8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness
9. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time
10. New Super Mario Bros Nintendo

The list includes action, dungeon crawlers and puzzle games. What the list lacks is a fighting title. Not because there is a lack of new released fighting game, there are some titles but are not buzz worthy.

The last great fighting game for the DS was Bleach: The Blade of Fate, which was released last year. After that, no other fighting game was released for the DS that’s worth playing.

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The Wii is enjoying much success in the market today. Last month it has outsold the PS3 and the Xbox 360. The Wii did this with its innovative control system and high quality games. I have one wish for Wii though. I hope that Nintendo increases the Wii’s internal storage.

Its 512MB internal storage is the smallest among gaming consoles. Even the latest iPhone has a larger memory with its 8GB of storage capacity. I don’t know why Nintendo don’t want to increase the Wii’s storage.

Games such as Guitar Hero need more storage space for its DLC. Then there’s the WiiWare service. With its current internal storage, you can only save at least 5 games in it. Although you can use an external SD card for storage, you can’t play from it.

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Nintendo is the latest conquest of a small Texan company. Anascape Ltd. Has successfully filed a patent infringement against Sony and Microsoft. Sony licensed the patent in2004 while Microsoft settled in May of this year.

Nintendo challenged the ruling but the court sided with Anascape. This ruling makes it illegal for Nintendo to sell its Wii Classic Controller, GameCube WaveBird, and the regular GameCube controller. This ban is still on hold while Nintendo appeals the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Nintendo spokesman Charlie Scibetta has this to say about the case:

“Nintendo was already planning to appeal this case to the Federal Circuit court. The recent ruling by the trial court does not impact that decision.”

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Top Japanese manga publishers grouped together to bring their works into the Nintendo Wii console. The four publishers, Kadokawa, Kodansha, Shueisha and Shogakukan, call their venture Librica. They will be offering the digital versions of their mangas via the Wii Ware.

Manga is a lucrative business. This Japanese import is popular worldwide. Bringing it to the Wii will definitely affect its sales. This can help the Wii stay on top of the PS3 and Xbox 360. This can also help the publishers reach out to their global audience.

There is also talk on bringing the content to the DS portable console. Recent sales chart shows that the DS is the number one gaming console in the market today. Bringing the manga to it will definitely cement its hold on the throne.

There is no talk about the exact date of the launch and how much it will cost. I’ll keep you posted on this one.