Media Create Hardware Sales: 2007 March 19th - 25th March

DSL - 130,549
Wii - 75,571
PSP - 41,546
PS3 - 20,459
PS2 - 16,961
Xbox360 - 3,492
GBM - 765
GBASP - 607
GC - 270
DS - 135
GBA - 22

Media Create Software Sales: 2007 March 19th - 25th March

01. (PS2, Koei) Musou Orochi - 406,247 / NEW
02. (NDS, Nintendo) Yoshi's Island DS - 100,812 / 535,770
03. (NDS, Bandai-Namco) Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Goku Legend - 65,203 / NEW
04. (NDS, Bandai-Namco) Word Puzzle Mojipittan DS - 64,005 / 135,706
05. (PSP, Capcom) Monster Hunter Portable 2nd - 51,952 / 1,052,550
06. (WII, Nintendo) Wii Sports - 46,362 / 1,250,596
07. (NDS, Banpresto) Crayon Shin-chan DS: Arashi wo Sakebunutte Crayon Daisakusen! - 38,413 / NEW
08. (NDS, Level 5) Prof. Layton and the Mysterious Village - 37,912 / 335,300
09. (WII, Nintendo) Wii Play - 37,289 / 1,070,334
10. (NDS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Bros. - 25,184 / 4,257,646

11. (NDS, Square-Enix) Dragon Quest Monsters Joker
12. (NDS, Nintendo) More Brain Age
13. (NDS, Nintendo) Animal Crossing Wild World
14. (NDS, Nintendo) Mario Kart DS
15. (NDS, Banpresto) Super Robot Wars W
16. (PS2, Sony) Rogue Galaxy: Director's Cut
17. (NDS, Nintendo) Common Knowledge Training
18. (NDS, Square-Enix) Front Mission 1st
19. (360, From Software) Armored Core 4
20. (NDS, Nintendo) English Training
21. (NDS, Nintendo) Brain Age
22. (PS3, Bandai-Namco) Gundam Musou
23. (NDS, Pokemon) Pokémon Diamond
24. (NDS, Marvelous Interactive) Magister Negi Magi
25. (WII, Nintendo) Wario Ware Smooth Moves
26. (NDS, Bandai-Namco) Iron Left Brain: Mistake Museum 2
27. (NDS, Pokemon) Pokémon Pearl
28. (NDS, Marvelous Interactive) Harvest Moon: The Island I Grew Up On
29. (NDS, Sega) Doraemon's New Magic World Adventure DS
30. (NDS, Sega) Love+Berry
31. (NDS, Konami) Survival Kids: Lost in Blue 2
32. (PS2, Hackberry) Pachinko Hana-oh: Misora Hibari
33. (NDS, Nintendo) Picross DS
34. (PS2, EA) The Godfather
35. (PS2, Spike) Kenka Bancho 2: Full Throttle
36. (NDS, Spike) IQ Supply
37. (NDS, Sega) Puyo-Puyo!
38. (NDS, IE Institute) Kanji Brain Test 2M
39. (NDS, Rocket Co.) Kanji Test
40. (PS2, Taito) Rozen Maiden: Gebetgarden
41. (NDS, Nintendo) Wario: Master of Disguise
42. (NDS, Nintendo) 1000 Recipes
43. (WII, Nintendo) Fire Emblem: Goddess of the Dawn
44. (NDS, Nintendo) Kirby Squeek Squad
45. (NDS, Hudson) Bomberman Story DS
46. (NDS, Konami) Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side 1st Love
47. (NDS, Square-Enix) Seiken Densetsu: Heroes of Mana
48. (NDS, Nintendo) Hotel Dusk: Room 215
49. (PSP, Sega) Puyo-Puyo!
50. (NDS, Konami) Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: World Championship 2007

Media Create Hardware Sales: 2007 March 12th - 18th March

NDS - 121,630
Wii - 67,070
PSP - 43,769
PS3 - 21,635
PS2 - 13,321
360 - 2,910
GBA - 1,293
NGC - 367

New Mass Effect screens

Tons of Artwork can be found over at VideogamerX

First NiGHTS Wii screens

These screens look great. The graphics aren't plain, but instead show a lot of detail. The game is also online and will also feature offline multiplayer. An official announcement is said to be made at the beginning of April.

From Portuguese magazine, Maxi Comforted

IGN Reviews: Guitar Hero II (X360)

'The PS2 mega hit comes to Xbox 360 with more reasons to rock than ever before.'

Guitar Hero II on Xbox 360 is the best iteration of the hit music rhythm game yet, but it's also an important addition to the Xbox 360 library. On a console dominated by shooters and action titles, it is one of the few titles that everyone can and will enjoy. RedOctane and Harmonix put their best foot forward with this release The result is a port that adds enough content to make it worth a second look from the hardcore fans, especially with the downloadable songs, and a game that is put together so well that all newcomers should give it a try. It's a bit pricey at $90 and doesn't have the wireless guitar we all hoped for, but worth it.
Score: 9.4

Full Review

IGN goes hands-on with: Mortal Kombat Armageddon

That being true, Armageddon is fundamentally changed on Wii because of the remote-enhanced control scheme and it is, at the very least, worth exploring. Now that we've had some time with it, we're our skepticism about the product has melted away. A new gesture-based system replaces D-Pad/analog stick and button presses altogether. Maneuvers are now done by holding the B-trigger, quickly making a gesture, and then releasing. Simple. And you know what? It actually works. Midway has kept the gestures easy so that anybody can pick them up - accessibility was a primary goal for the developer, which ultimately wants even novice players to pull off fatalities. So, to throw a fireball, you might merely hold B-trigger, and make a motion from the right to the left and back again. Or, a swiping motion up and then down again. Or an underhanded half-circle. Or an over-handed half-circle. And it's really not much more complicated than that.

We found the system to be surprisingly quick and responsive. Had it been slow or lagging in any way, it wouldn't have sufficed, since you need speed for a fighter like Armageddon. We watched Ed Boon pull off maneuver after maneuver with unrehearsed ease and most of the time we could, too, although we couldn't always duplicate the experience in our limited play time - every so often a gesture would go ignored, which we chock up to the fact that our timing wasn't quite right.

From a technical standpoint, Armageddon looks very much like the other builds, but it does support both 480p and 16:9 widescreen mode on Wii and it never, ever drops from a smooth 60 frames per second. The title also boasts impressive lighting and particle effects, which cover the screen in explosions and blood at any given moment. Fighters animate quickly and fluidly and textures are overall clean. There is a strong sense of polish about the fighter, even during four-player Motor Kombat, which never hiccups.

We've included an official Mortal Kombat Armageddon Wii tutorial trailer in our videos section below. We've also grabbed six additional 480p / 16:9 movies to complement the official one. On top of that, check our images section for a half dozen new screenshots.

Full preview

EGM Review Scores - May Edition

Wii
Super Paper Mario: 8, 9, 9 [Game of the Month]
Cooking Mama: Cook Off: 7, 8, 7.5
Medal of Honor: Vanguard: 4, 4, 6

Playstation 3
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: 9.5, 8.5, 9

Xbox 360
Earth Defense Force 2017: 8, 7, 7.5
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2: 8.5, 8, 7.5

Nintendo DS
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales: 6, 6.5, 6.5
Wario: Master of Disguise: 4, 5, 5
Custom Robo Arena: 7.5, 8, 8
Lost in Blue: 5, 5.5, 4.5

Some of you might be wondering why Oblivion didn't get Game of the Month:
Well, the PS3's Oblivion is essentially the same game as the one that came out last year on 360. It's still great, but we don't want the same already-honored game to nab another GOTM award when new games like Super Paper Mario deserve the love.

From Neogaf

Smackdown VS. Raw 2008 headed to...

... PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, PS3 and surprisingly, DS and Wii. That's correct. All current-gen consoles and handhelds will receive Smackdown VS Raw 2008, including last-gen's PS2.

We are extremely pleased with the success of the SmackDown vs. Raw franchise and its continued growth to a widespread audience, particularly in our European markets. With the addition of fresh, innovative game play on the Wii, the tremendous capabilities of the PlayStation 3 system and unique handheld experiences for Nintendo DS and wireless devices, gamers can now truly live the life of a WWE Superstar and choose from numerous ways to play.

Interview
Screens

Boom Boom Rocket screens

Being developed by Bizarre Creations and published by EA, Boom Boom Rocket is set for a Spring release and will be available as a Xbox Live Arcade game.

Link

Devil King 2 Heroes screens

I'm assuming that these screens are from the PS2 version, but I could be wrong.

More at The Magic Box

Devil May Cry 4 no longer a PS3 exclusive

Capcom recently announced that their franchise, Devil May Cry 4, is no longer a PS3 exclusive. They've announced that it will also be headed to the 360. This is what Capcom had to say:

Capcom is committed to making its titles available to as wide an audience as possible, and has been building its technology base to meet that goal," said Mark Beaumont, executive vice president, officer and head of Capcom consumer software publishing in the Americas and Europe. "This announcement means that PS3, Xbox 360 and PC owners worldwide will be able to experience the latest installment of one of Capcom's pillar franchises.

Well, another strike for PS3 owners, another homerun for 360 owners.

Source

IGN Reviews: Medal Of Honor Vanguard

'The best looking (but not best playing) wartime first-person shooter on Wii.'

Medal of Honor Vanguard was clearly designed for PlayStation 2 and upgraded for Wii. Games developed in this manner have a tendency to show barely-tweaked visuals and tacked on controls, but Vanguard looks notably sharper and plays significantly better on Nintendo's system. I've scored it lower than our sister site, though, because Wii is simply capable of so much more. Vanguard arrives on PS2 at the end of its life cycle, but it comes to Wii at the beginning and it barely scratches the surface of what's really possible.
Even with that being true, Vanguard is fun and pretty wartime first-person shooter on Nintendo's Wii and If you played Call of Duty 3 and want something more atmospheric, this is your game. Its overall presentation is much better and the resulting experience much more engaging. Plus, it's got a decent four-player compatible multiplayer mode, which CoD lacked completely.
But Vanguard's controls, while adequate, are looser than Activision's shooter, which is a disappointment. The developer has almost made up for the less desirable responsiveness with a host of control intricacies, from an analog lean in sights mode to a quick 180 turn and a sprint option and they're all welcomed additions. And yet, none of them mask that basic control shortcoming entirely.
If you can live with it, and I suspect many can, you will undoubtedly find Vanguard to be an entertaining and intense first-person shooter. For me, this is just the beginning of better games to come. I don't want to choose between tight controls or good graphics. I expect them both.
Score: 7.0

Full Review

New Medal of Honor: Airborne screens

From IGN

Media Create Hardware Sales: 2007 March 12th - 18th March

DSL - 121,471
Wii - 67,070
PSP - 43,769
PS3 - 21,635
PS2 - 13,321
Xbox360 - 2,910
GBM - 727
GBASP - 557
GC - 367
DS - 159
GBA - 9

Media Create Software Sales: 2007 March 12th - 18th March

01. (NDS, Nintendo) Yoshi's Island DS - 131,843 / 434,958
02. (NDS, Bandai-Namco) Word Puzzle Mojipittan DS - 71,701 / NEW
03. (PSP, Capcom) Monster Hunter Portable 2nd - 64,368 / 1,000,599
04. (WII, Nintendo) Wii Sports - 38,560 / 1,204,234
05. (PS2, Koei) Kin-iro no Corda 2 - 34,585 / NEW
06. (NDS, Level 5) Prof. Layton and the Mysterious Village - 31,371 / 297,388
07. (WII, Nintendo) Wii Play - 30,416 / 1,033,044
08. (NDS, Konami) Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side 1st Love - 29,033 / NEW
09. (NDS, Banpresto) Super Robot Wars W - 25,139 / 200,759
10. (NDS, Square-Enix) Dragon Quest Monsters Joker - 22,462 / 1,250,726

11. (NDS, Nintendo) More Brain Age
12. (NDS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Bros.
13. (NDS, EA) SimCity DS
14. (PS3, Bandai-Namco) Gundam Musou
15. (NDS, Nintendo) Animal Crossing Wild World
16. (NDS, Konami) Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: World Championship 2007
17. (PS2, Spike) Kenka Bancho 2: Full Throttle
18. (NDS, Nintendo) Mario Kart DS
19. (NDS, Nintendo) Common Knowledge Training
20. (NDS, Nintendo) English Training
21. (NDS, Nintendo) Brain Age
22. (WII, Sega) Sonic and the Secret Rings
23. (NDS, Konami) Survival Kids: Lost in Blue 2
24. (NDS, Bandai-Namco) Iron Left Brain: Mistake Museum 2
25. (NDS, Nintendo) Picross DS
26. (NDS, Pokemon) Pokémon Diamond
27. (NDS, EA) Theme Park DS
28. (NDS, Marvelous Interactive) Harvest Moon: The Island I Grew Up On
29. (WII, Nintendo) Wario Ware Smooth Moves
30. (NDS, Sega) Doraemon's New Magic World Adventure DS
31. (NDS, Square-Enix) Seiken Densetsu: Heroes of Mana
32. (NDS, Nintendo) Hotel Dusk: Room 215
33. (NDS, Pokemon) Pokémon Pearl
34. (NDS, Nintendo) 1000 Recipes
35. (WII, Nintendo) Fire Emblem: Goddess of the Dawn
36. (NDS, Spike) IQ Supply
37. (NDS, Rocket Co.) Kanji Test
38. (NDS, Sega) Puyo-Puyo!
39. (NDS, IE Institute) Kanji Brain Test 2M
40. (PS2, Capcom) History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi: Fight the 8 Fists of Ragnarok!
41. (WII, Koei) G1 Jockey Wii
42. (NDS, Konami) Konami Arcade Collection
43. (NDS, Nintendo) Wario: Master of Disguise
44. (NDS, Nintendo) Cooking Navi
45. (NDS, Nintendo) Tetris DS
46. (NDS, Sega) Love+Berry
47. (NDS, Spike) Spinning Princess: Sparkling Figure * Ice Angel
48. (WII, Nintendo) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
49. (NDS, Bandai-Namco) Heisei Board of Education DS
50. (NDS, Nintendo) Kirby Squeek Squad

EA announces new rhythm, "Boogie" for Wii

Electronic Arts announced today that Boogie – an all new intellectual property in development at EA Montreal will be released exclusively for the Wii worldwide in 2007. Boogie is a unique music/rhythm-based game that takes advantage of the innovative Wii controls to get gamers off their couch, playing and dancing to a new beat.

“We’re creating something new and different for gamers of all ages to enjoy; the complete party package where gamers can dance as well as sing,” said Alain Tascan, Vice President and General Manager, EA Montreal. “Nintendo’s Wii is an amazing console that really gives us a platform to be creative and to re-think traditional game development.”

Boogie will have gamers dancing, singing and starring in their own music videos. Players can also choose and customize different characters in the game to best show off their dancing style and karaoke skills. With innovative gameplay that perfectly matches the unique Wii controls, Boogie is the ultimate videogame party package.

Boogie is the latest addition to EA Montreal’s roster of high profile games including SSX Blur and ARMY OF TWO. SSX Blur is the newest version of the critically acclaimed snowboarding franchise that shipped exclusively for the Wii in February. EA Montreal is also working on ARMY OF TWO, the highly anticipated shooter and original intellectual property that will redefine strategic two-man cooperative play. The game was ranked at the top of the list in Electronic Gaming Monthly’s Top 50 Coolest New Games cover story in their August issue. ARMY OF TWO will be released for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system.

Source

Mercury Meltdown Revolution screens

Looks pretty decent.

More over at 1UP

Amazing new Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates screens

The DS sure has come a long way.

From Gamefront

Chronos Twin screens

Game looks like a Megman/Metroid hybrid. Wonder how it'll turn out.

From GoNintendo

IGN Reviews: Virtua Tennis 3

'SEGA's original arcade tennis game returns with a well-rounded, if uninspired, effort.'

SEGA's Virtua Tennis 3 is an example of a tennis game inching forward, instead of making significant or even moderate leaps forward. Most gamers who bought an Xbox 360 are hoping to play brand new experiences and full-bodied improvements over their predecessors. I know I am. SEGA only goes half way. Virtua Tennis 3 does make some decent steps forward in the World Tour mode. The added variety -- the attempt at making athletes more realistic and at humanizing them in conversations, for instance, was a nice attempt -- is welcome. The Court mode mini-games are fun for gamers to fiddle around with. And the Xbox Live component does what all good Xbox 360 should do, which is to provide a solid, entertaining, and working online version of the game for both singles and doubles players.

In short, VT3 is impressive in some ways, and all too familiar in others. While SEGA's game provides the best tennis experience on the Xbox 360, there is still a lot of room for SEGA to improve.

Score: 8.0

Full Review

IGN Previews: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Wii)

During combat, which is the backbone of the game since it's very action-oriented, gamers are auto-locked onto enemies and can toggle between them. Blocks are performed with the Z button and attacks are assigned to gestures on the Wii remote. A horizontal swing will inflict a light attack and a vertical swing will deal out a heavy attack. It's very simple stuff, but it seems to function just fine. Combos can be linked together with a forward stabbing motion of the Wii remote. The characters always carry their swords, but they can use other weapons too, which are assigned to the D-Pad. Knives, grenades, and a gun comprise a few of the items available throughout the adventure.

Combat is complemented by what Disney calls an ole system -- the means for players to side-step oncoming attacks and instead throw enemies with a shake of the nunchuk. This move is particularly useful for battles set atop high locations, as foes can be tossed over edges with the greatest of ease.

The title is one or two-player compatible and gamers can jump in or out at any time, from what we can tell.

Disney only showcased a few key areas from the Wii version of the game -- all from the second movie. It wasn't allowed to unveil any bits from the upcoming film, although these areas will, of course, be featured in the final product. There will be 10 or 11 different stages to play through, of which we saw two: the tropical cannibal-infested island and the shipyard. The Wii game runs in progressive-scan and 16:9 widescreen modes, and it never drops from 60 frames per second

Impressive TMNT Gameboy Advance video

'This portable version might end up being the best Turtles game yet. Find out why.'

The game clearly lifts some of the best elements of games like River City Ransom, Double Dragon, and Final Fight for its gameplay. The only downside is that the game's only made for a single player. No link cable support on this one, so the idea of having all four players together in an all out brawl will have to remain in the arcade version.

IGN Reviews: The Godfather: The Don's Edition

'The Corleones may be bigger and more well-rounded than ever, but they're also showing plenty of wrinkles with age.'

The Godfather: The Don's Edition is a strong and rather noticeable improvement over the original release, though much of it does feel outdated on the PlayStation 3. EA has done a great job of expanding nearly every facet of the game, and even though only a few of these additions change the game in major ways, the overall package is a good deal better. Still, with last-gen visuals, a frustrating city layout and other issues that plagued the original release, it's still far from perfect. But if you haven't played any of the previous releases, it's certainly worth a look.
Score: 7.5

Full Review

IGN Reviews: The Godfather: Blackhand Edition

'Wii pays its respects to the Corleone family.'

The Godfather: Blackhand Edition isn’t a perfect game – not by a long shot. The title suffers from the same technical limitations as any other GTA clone out there (pop-in and sketchy AI certainly rings a bell), and the preconceived notion of "Yet another GTA game" may take away from the product's more impressive points for some gamers, and that’s a shame. When it all boils down, though, The Godfather is a great first step on Wii, as it uses more than 25 gestures, IR aiming, and has a ton of features above the original game in the form of new items, missions, gameplay modes (favors and blackmailing specifically), and RPG elements. More important than any list of numbers and features though, is the fact that The Godfather is just fun to play. It’s fun to beat the tar out of store owners with the Wii remote. It’s fun to throw guys through windows and off ledges with actual shoving motions. Hell it’s even kind of fun to honk a car’s horn by pushing forward on the nunchuk. The game has its flaws, it isn’t perfect, but it has more options, features, and depth that the previous versions, and it’s simply a fun game to play.

Score: 8.0

Well, I wasn't expecting this...
Full Review

New Opoona screens

From GoNintendo