This long overdue sequel will be hitting the Wii later this year, and I for one could not be more excited.

 Discuss your love for flying in our forums!

 -Mike Skiles

A new song pack is available on the Marketplace for those still rocking it out on Guitar Hero II. The new song pack features the following songs:

Trivium - Detonation
Atreyu - Right Side of the Bed
Protest the Hero - Bury the Hatchet

Unfortunately not enough people have voted with their wallets on the previous song packs since this pack will also cost 500 MS points. With Activision making $4 million from the song packs so far, it’s no surprise that they are comfortable with this pricing structure.

A big thanks to linkismyhero for the news, tell everyone what you think about the songs in the forums!

scorehero

 -Mike Skiles

I know everyone was believing it was a shoe-in anyway, but you never know with Nintendo.  So aside from all speculation, online gameplay has been confirmed for Smash Bros. Brawl.  There will be two modes of connection, one with friends and another with anyone.

It looks as if the friend system not only displays friends, but custom made messages as well to display in your…”gamertag”.  It looks as if the default avatar is your Mii, but you can change it to any of the Smash characters or logos or another Mii if you wish.  After inviting a friend or friends to play, you can also use the directional pad to send small messages to each other during combat.  These include “Oops” and “Want more?”.  Not a bad way to convey simple ideas without having a headset available.   You can select custom modes for the game type you wish to play (which means plenty of you will be able to enjoy no items + final destination all you wish).

The anyone system does not reveal any of the player names, which is kind of weak in case you want to get in touch with someone that played really well.  I’ve been around plenty of competitive Smash players, and I’m sure this may be a disappointment.  Further, there is no  ranking or stat tracking system.  It’s just good old random online play.  Again, I imagine this will anger a lot of people, but I agree with it.  Online ranking helps inspire cheaters to, well, cheat more than if the system weren’t there.  It also helps create that whole “dropping out of the game” garbage, too.  Those sorts of poor sportsmanship should be less of an issue in what is surely to be Wii’s biggest online title.

Any further details or images can be found over at the Dojo.  You can also enjoy discussion of this latest feature in the Smash Bros. thread over in the forums.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

Hudson Soft is bringing out games for yet another totally ignored game system to Wii’s Virtual Console. You will now be able to start downloading games for the Turbo CD and Super CD games, each title costing 800 Wii Points. They expect five titles to be released for the remainder of the year and and over ten games in 2008.

I’d really like to say more about this, but if you cut out all the fluff to the original press release that’s really all you have.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

A new trailer has appeared, and your choice is to either fight, item, defend or run…or maybe just watch it.  It really isn’t much more than an FMV video, most likely the opening movie to the game.  Once upon a time, if you stared at the start screen without pressing a button, you’d get to see a sample of the game playing itself.  Nowadays, however, any gameplay is simply a bad thing it seems because now you get nothing but full motion video.

Now that such a history lesson in the way of start up screens is finished, enjoy your trailer.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

The bedtime story equivalent video game Yoshi’s Story has been released on the N64 today as part of this week’s release of Virtual Console titles. It is also joined by Super Thunder Blade for Sega Genesis, a game I’ve never even heard of, and World Class Baseball for TurboGrafx-16.

It just occured to me today that the Virtual Console may, one day, run out of titles to release for the TurboGrafx. How many games did they have in their library?

Yoshi’s Story™ (Nintendo 64, 1 player, rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): The evil Baby Bowser has cast a spell turning Yoshi’s Island™ into a picture book. Worse yet, the Super Happy Tree has been stolen, making the island dark and gloomy. Players must take control of six Yoshis, each a different color, and travel through six pages (worlds) of platforming adventure to recover the tree and return the island to normal.

Super Thunder Blade™ (Sega Genesis, 1 player, rated E for Everyone - Mild Violence, 800 Wii Points): In this follow-up to Thunder Blade, you’ll fly a new and improved attack helicopter in a series of attacks against guerilla armies that are bent on taking over the world. Although your aircraft is formidable, your enemies are vast and varied. You’ll have to take on submarines, tanks, fighter planes and more.

World Class Baseball (TurboGrafx16, 1-2 players, rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points): Acclaimed for its steady game play, World Class Baseball is the definitive baseball game on the TurboGrafx16. Battle the computer in OPEN MODE or play a friend in VERSUS MODE. Customize your team in EDIT MODE or even watch a game between two computer opponents in WATCH MODE. World Class Baseball offers the complete baseball gaming experience. Of course there’s also plenty of single-player action. The main feature is PENNANT MODE, where the player chooses a team from one of the world’s leagues and strives to win their team’s league.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

Sega revealed today that NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is going to feature a two-player mode as well as Wi-Fi capability.  No details on the multiplayer has been given, but I’m guessing that it’ll be a co-op mode that you can also play online.  Of course, without a microphone online co-op would be quite difficult to manage.

Also revealed were plans to “reawaken Artificial Life (A-Life)”, a mode that allows players to create their own sandbox environment to capture, raise and combine inhabitants of Nightopia.  In other words, it sounds like a nifty level editor.

All good news for those looking forward to the game, really.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

I know it’s almost time for TGS but man, you’d think someone out there not going would decide today is a good day for some news.

Anyway, at least we have this for the morning. A new demo of the latest Sega Rally game is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace for download in every region but Japan. It’s rated E for Everyone and the file is about 691 megs.

Go download and enjoy yourself, all you racing fans, and be sure to tell us about it over on the forums.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

I was never a big fan of the series but after watching this 15 minute video I am hooked! The best thing is that Ninja Gaiden is far along in development and will hopefully be out early next year. This game looks so hot, hopefully they show the public more sometime soon.

After that brief trailer in the beginning is over skip past the long speech for some hot gameplay action, unless you like hearing translated speeches.

Discuss

-Michael Demissie

Blue Dragon

Platform: Xbox 360 – Developer: Mistwalker - Publisher: Microsoft
Genre: Role Playing – 1 Player

Reviewed by EarthViper

Introduction:
It’s been a long and agonizing wait for the new generation of systems to kick into gear in regards to RPG’s. After starting off very slow with meager offerings like Enchanted Arms, it looked like Oblivion may finally have some quality company in my favorite genre. Two Worlds and Blue Dragon both land on the Xbox 360 within one week of each other; both games receiving a fare share of hype and/or acclaim. After discovering Two Worlds was complete and utter trash I hurried home from GameStop with my copy of Blue Dragon, anxiously awaiting my first chance to enjoy a solid JRPG this generation and hoping it would cover up the bad taste Two Worlds left in my mouth. Sadly, while Blue Dragon comes up smelling like roses compared to almost every other RPG this gen, it falls well short of the genres best.

Read the full review here.

-EarthViper