Welcome to DS Update, the site you can trust for the latest Nintendo DS and Wii News.
It seems that Brownie Brown has confirmed the development of several projects for the Nintendo gamecube, Game Boy, and Nintendo DS. One of those titles is the upcoming Magical Vacation 2 for the DS.Robots the game made by Vivendi Universal, is now slated to be released on February 22, 2005. The games is also excepted to be priced at $29.99. More as news breaks. Nintendo had great success with the Pokemon series during the years, and some big names in the Pokemon World talks about next year Pokemon games. Junichi Mazuda commented to Japan`s Dengeki Online saying "It will become a new type of game that offers a number of new forms of play." The DS stood strong for another week in Japan and again, came out on top. The PSP is slowly dropping further and further down the list. Also Super Mario 64 DS climbed up a spot. This is the charts for December 19-26.
Since the hosting is up, I can now post the video I made of the DS interfering with the antennae. Click here to view it. (Hopefully it will work this time).
Mother 3 (aka Earthbound 2) is now confirmed for the GBA. This comes with much disappointment since many people thought that the abandoned Earthbound 64 could have been ressurected on the the DS.It would seem that Connectivity is still alive and kicking within the Nintendo domain. As stated on the Japanese website Nintendo-Inside, the upcoming DS version of Harvest Moon will feature connectivity with the GBA version of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. But unlike the traditional connectivity, this connectivity works when both carts are placed within the Nintendo DS.The first facts on the Robots game for DS have come in, and although the movie is not even out yet it looks like this game will be the usual movie-game.Amazon Canada released today which video games sold the best in Canada from their site.It seems that Team X-Link is making great progress with their KAI tunneling program for the Nintendo DS. The follwoing links take you to their videos of there successful efforts.It would be seem that the DS cart, one month after being released in North America has been ripped. Nothing is known on Nintendo's response to this situation, but more to come as things break...It would seem that there is no end to the love third-parties are giving Nintendo and their latest creation, the DS. A Japanese developer, Tasuke, are willing to make to titles for the Nintendo DS (one being an action sports title, and the other a simulation). At this point, there is nothing else known about the dealings between the two. Tasuke's previous titles have been for cell phones.It would seem that Bandi has finally released the intro movie to their upcmoing title known as Meteos.Well it would seem that Nintendo has released another box-art or a upcoming Nintendo DS title known as Yoshi's Touch and Go.Majesco, they only released a teaser picture about teir upcoming title known as Nanostray. Apparently, they have released some new scans depicting the evolution of this title as we get closer to the release date.The site for Metroid Prime: Hunters has now launched, and it contains information about the first hunt demo. The site also has some very extensive gameplay footage and strategy that is worth taking a look at. There should be more information being loaded to the site in the weeks to come.The sales charts are in from Japan for the week of Dec 13 - Dec 19, and as the DS continues to lead the pack the PSP seems to be slipping. Nintendo now opened a teaser site for the DS. The site is stylish and clean, but forget about clicking anything all you have to do is touch the words. The site offers no new information, but I think it is better than the American counter part.After the Nintendo DS became successful in Japan, but the Nintendo DS has been scarce in Japan, and now Nintendo announced that they have shipped one million DS units in Japan on December 16. Nintendo expects that one million DS unit to sell through to the Japanese customers by Christmas Eve day. Worldwide shipment will reach to 2.8 million by the end of the year. There have been several rumors running around about Square-Enix and Nintendo's second party Brownie Brown teaming up on several projects. It seems that Brownie Brown is working on a Magical Vacation 2 (a sequel to the game on GBA that bombed pretty bad after the first week of sales) for the Nintendo DS, and a Gamecube project for a 2005 release at the sime time as a handheld release.Reports says that Nintendo`s prized Nintendo DS game, Wario Ware Touch! has three main bugs. the bugs are: It would appear that the DS now has a wireless booster which acts as a repeater hub and can send your DS signal alot further. Mwave.com began to sell the Pelican accessory and although no comments have been made on the device, we may here more on this soon. The wirelesss booster is suppose to send your DS or PSP signal significantly further.Here in Canada it was announced that the iPod and the Nintendo DS are the two best selling items this Christmas seasons according to sale figures per capita. iPods and DS's are no where to be seen as parents rush out to buy their kids presents. This is good news as now Nintendo is sending more DS's to Canada.New reports confirm that the DS has now sold of 1 million units in North America alone. Nintendo plans to ship 1.4 million units to North America before the end of the year, and expect most of them to be sold. The DS has been deemed the must buy item this year.Nintendo DS's are scarse here in Canada, and trying to find one can be next to impossible. Nintendo is now helping to ease the load off the high consumer demand by shipping another 12 000 DS's to Canada. Well this shall definately help things up here, as the DS sold out in most stores in approximately 20 minutes. Hopefully more Canadians (like myself) will be able to get a DS for Christmas. Key Factory announced that they will release two charging accessories for the Nintendo DS in February 2005. Their first charging accessory is called the ChargeBoy DS, a battery pack which uses three AAA alkaline batteries to provide 4 hours of play time on the Nintendo DS, a very interesting device to play your Nintendo DS outside. In recent reports circling the internet, it would sem that EA has purchased 20% of stock in French gaming giant Ubisoft. It is reported that it cost EA between $85 to $100 million for those shares. At this point there is only specualtion running rampent on the internet forums about this dealing, but i like to shead a little light on the situation...Looks like the Nintendo DS is a Manga magnet lately as Bandai announced that they are developing Beet the Vandal Buster for the Nintendo DS. Bandai is also making the this game similar to the Game Boy Advance, which will be released in 2005 for the Nintendo DS. Reports are now coming in that the DS outsold the PSP on its launch week in Japan. The DS sold 198 892 units, while the PSP only sold 160 019 units. It appears that the DS is still going very strong while the PSP is pulling up the rear. Will Nintendo still stay strong? Only time will tell, but its beginning to look like Nintendo may knock out another competitor out of the handheld market. More reports soon.Along with Rayman DS being pushed back until March now Zoo Keeper has also been pushed back to a January 17th, 2005 release date. Hopefully we won't see anymore delays.It appears that now Mario Kart DS has been pushed back to a May, 2005 realease date. This may be to include better wireless or touch screen capabilities, which were almost missing in E3 version of the game. Also the new Super Mario Brothers game may be getting a Febuary 25, 2005 release date. Only good things to look forward to.It appears that Feel the Magic XX/XY will be debuting in Europe under its tenative title, Project Rub.It seems that there is yet another developer in the mixt bringing its very own racer to the Nintendo DS. It was announced in the latest Famitsu Magazine that a company by the name of Spike are infact developing their own racer for the handheld.A new screen shot for Jump Super Stars.IGN got a chance to check out the upcoming GBA MP3/Movie player. Check out their impressions HERE.Recent rumours have been flying around about modifying your DS to be able to play GB games. The procedure involved many different procedures that would destroy your DS. So now know that attempting to modify your DS to play GB games will wreck your DS. Do not attempt this.There is now a new commercial out for the DS in Japan. Check it out HERE.The time is upon us once again. Both media and general registration is now available online for E3 2005, which is viewed as the "launch pad for greatness and innovation."Nitro has now announced that their tunnelling program will be compatible with 402 wireless cards. Good news so far for the group which has been having a few set backs as of late.The logo for the upcoming Pokemon Dash game has been released. Check it out HERE.It seems that there is yet another developer in the mixt bringing its very own racer to the Nintendo DS. It was announced in the latest Famitsu Magazine that a company by the name of Spike are infact developing their own racer for the handheld.It would appear that Nintendo of Japan is now making a Gameboy Advanced cartridge that would be able to play MP3 music and MPEG-4 movies. The card would work using a flash card that you would insert in to the Gameboy Advanced cartridge. This type of cartridge has been available by third parties, but for the total of the entire equipment has been incredibly expensive. This cartridge has not been specified whether it will work with the DS or not or even if it will come to North America. The cartridge seems to have a built in headphone jack and is expected to be released in Febuary. Hopefully Nintendo will be able to make this cartridge and affordable and useable for all. We'll know more soon.
The Nintendo DS won the award for the best new technology this year at the Spike video game awards. Although Spike's video game awards are certainly the most slanted and biased video game award show around, an award is still an award.It would appear with the recent launch of the Sony PSP many problems have been reported about the new system. As was with the DS, the PSP seems to have fallen victim to the dreaded dead pixel syndrome, where a certain pixel on the screen is stuck on one color such as white or orange. Except the PSP seems to be susceptible to multiple dead pixels (reports of sometimes over three dead pixels in one unit). The problems don't stop there though. It would appear that the some of the PSPs have faulty UMD and cannot read the discs properly. Along with units that seem to have broken or buttons that stick in one place. Also some reports of fragile analog stick add to the matter. With the low number of Sony PSPs being produced expect these problems to be dealt with by Sony later than sooner. Also Sony does not have a good track record with quality products. Many of these problems are expected to carry into the next year. Hopefully Sony will be able to clear up all these problems before the US launch.The Nintendo DS has undoubtedly been successful in Japan and North America as it sold over one million DS units in two weeks, and now, Nintendo just announced that they will be shipping 8.5 million DS units during the fiscal year (April 2005-March 2006). Nintendo is also shipping 5 million DS units by the end of March 2005.We got some new screenshoots from the the DS puzzle game, Meteos. It seems that the pictures are the introduction to the game, and the shots looks beautiful. Click HERE.Now the DS has sold over 700 000 units in Japan. Nintendo has also announced that it predicts to sell 1.4 million units in Japan by the end of the year.N64 Europe have posted some new "Yoshi's Touch and Go" screens. Take a look.
Nintendo of America has just released the box art for Wario Ware: Touched! The craziest game for the Nintendo DS. Wareio Ware: Touched is already available in Japan and will be arriving in the states in febuary. See a close up of the box art here.IGN has just obtained lots of new info and media on the upcoming Nintendo DS title "Retro Atari Classics", a game that brings back the old classics with a new "touch." Click here to read the full article. Click here to see some screens and artwork for the game.Today Xlink mentioned that they have now successfully managed to tunnel the DS through certain USB Wifi sticks. This will allow much greater access and will allow people who do not have a wireless computer to just buy this device rather than a card. The gain is a definate advantage to the team. Xlink continues to reiterate to the public not to buy any equipment yet. Hopefully more updates will come soon.Gamespot just posted a Q and A article revealing some interesting info about the PSP...The PSP's battery life has been quite a big issue all through out the PSP's "hype" stage, (the months before the launch) and now the PSP is finally out and in the hands of the people of Japan. How does the PSP's battery stack up? IGN have published a full log of their PSP's usage mainly to show us how the battery faired. Read the full article here.DS Handheld have just posted a new screen of the Super Smash Bros. like game "Jump Super Stars."
It looks like Pictochat won`t be the only application that will be coming on the Nintendo DS. Sankei Shimbun reports that Nintendo will be making a new application for the Nintendo DS that will be used as a virtual dictionary, as well as a translator, compatible with English, Japanese, and Chinese. Satoru Iwata also reported that the program will target students, that will utilize the program as an help with their studies. Only time will tell.The PSP is now officially available in Japan and recent reports suggest that over 85% of the intial stock of 200 000 was sold launch date. There were long lines for the new portable and Sony plans to sell 3 million PSP's by the end of March. Could Sony really pose a threat to Nintendo in the handheld market? It is looking the the competition is now underway.
Today Chad took some time out of his busy day to talk to us here at DS Update. In the interview, Chad talks about the tunneling situation, and DemaSked. Even though we experienced some technical difficulties during the interview, it came out revealing a lot. Check out the interview HERE.
The Nintendo DS, in Japan, is having a great success and the charts shows that it is true. The software charts shows that the Nintendo DS software is dominating this week with almost every slot filled with DS software. Konami has released a new video of the upcoming Japanese DS title "Prince of Tennis 2005: Crystal Drive". The video is in ASF format and you can watch it here.
DS Central has posted the first "Jump Super Stars" screen, while the screen's source is so far unknown, we will try to confirm or deny its authenticity as soon as possible. View the screen here.N64 Europe have written a very interesting evaluation of all the rumors we have come across so far regarding the whole "DS Online" scene. I highly suggest reading it.Game Industry reports that Nintendo is increasing their shipments of the Nintendo DS in North America and Japan by forty percent to keep up with heavy demand. This means that North America and Japan will be recieving an additional 400,000 Nintendo DS units before the end of the year, bringing the total shipments to 2.8 million by the end of the year. Along with several comments on the PSP, "Iwata also revealed that Nintendo is boosting its peak production plans for the Nintendo DS, and hopes to be able to turn out 1.5 million units a month on a regular basis, rising to 2 million a month in busy periods."Ubisoft's dating sim Sprung, previously reffered to as "Crush", has now shipped to retailers all over the US.Here at DS Update we have been working very hard to get you all the available information on both tunneling services. We interviewed people from Nitro and Xlink on their services and past comments to get the best information for both services.Ubisoft annouces that that one of its great games that will coming on the Nintendo DS, Rayman DS, has been officially delayed to 2005. One of Ubisoft`s representative says, "Ubisoft wants to ensure the game is the best game it can possibly be. [The North American version] will be the same as the European version," as they do not want their prized titled fall short on the Nintendo DS like EA`s Madden 2005 and their own Asphalt: Urban GT. With the combined sales of North America and Japan the DS has now sold over one million units. Nintendo still stands by its 5 million DS sales by March 31st, 2005 perdiction.Midway has now announced that they will be developing games for the DS.I am sure many of you have been itching to get some more info on Nanostray, the much anticipated 3D-Shoot'em up being developed by Shin'en multimedia and published by Majesco games. The game is on schedule to be released in the first quarter of 2005 and Majesco Games has finally published a small mini site for it which you can view here. The site while not revealing too much about the game has given us some small descriptions of the key features in the game along with a new screenshot. 
I got an email from John Winter who would like to inform everyone that he is running a Command and Conquer petition with 810 signatures already. To sign the petition, click here.
Thanks to the forum member "Pimp" for the news. Play Asia is currently selling the Japanese version of Zoo Keeper for $28.90 with an amazing worldwide shipping price of $2.60. This is $20 less then the Japanese list price and $10 less then the upcoming US list price.
THQ announced this morning that their PictoChat alternative has been shipped out to retailers. The game will sell for $20 USD, the cheapest Nintendo DS launch title other then PictoChat and the Metroid Prime: Hunters demo which come free with every Nintendo DS unit.
It seems that there is more to the three different Nintendo DS tunnelling/ multiplayer projects then before thought... We are getting some interesting accusations from Xlink targeted at Warppipe, and the new service that will supposedly give us some decent open source tunneling within days called Nitro Online... Developing.... Be sure to stick to DS Update for both sides of the story... We have several interviews coming up with both services...
Yoshi Touch & Go has now been renamed Catch! Touch! Yoshi! and is set for a January 27th release date in Japan. No news on the North American release date.It now appears that 513,000 DS' have been sold in Japan in just four days. So far the DS seems to be showing a lot of strength world wide. Conspiracy Entertainment announced today they will be supporting the DS, and in North America too. The company is still looking for licenses and developers, they plan to release a game in the Johnny Rocketfingers series. No word yet on a release date though.No, not the Queen/David Bowie song, but it appears that Xlink is now under pressure from Nitro. A member of the Xlink team, Dfunked, has gone on the extreme offensive to accuse Nitro of not being a real program and to say that there will be no competition from them. Not only did they go on the offensive to offend Nitro, but also Chad Paulson and the Demasked team. The Xlink team seems like it needs to know that there will be other options than their service. Offending people, and calling people twelve-year olds is not the way to gain friendship. Nitro on the other hand has reacted very positively towards competition and DemaSked. I'm not sure what Xlink is trying to do with this, but one thing for sure, they aren't making any new friends. Is Xlink feeling the pressure of another group stealing their spotlight, because the way Dfunked talks it sounds like the antics of the classroom clown, always wanting attention, good or bad. Hopefully Xlink will eventually realize that eventually there will be competion for them whether that be Nitro or another group. I'll leave you with a quote from dfunked that was cleaned up.Today in a chat session with Dan, one of the creative minds behind Nitro, there was an official announcement of a release date.For those of you that want to see the Nintendo DS/ TV interference in action, just click this link. This video is for testing purposes as well as your viewing pleasure.
Our friends at DS Central, has four new screenshots and new Puyo Pop Fever boxart. Hope you enjoy them! Dark Straw has informed us that IGN has just posted some new videos showing gameplay from "One Line Puzzle".It seems that a lot of companies and small development groups are in the works trying to take the Ds online. People like Warp Pipe, X-Link, Square-Enix, etc. are via for the title of being the first and the most innovative at this task. Well it looks like their is a new development team on the field known as . Nitro Online is trying to do what X-Link and Warp Pipe have been workin on for awhile now, and that is taking the DS online. They are determined to tunnel the DS in a way that appeals to the gamers without any probles or frustrations.......During the past two days since the Nintendo DS was released in Japan, and it looks like the DS launch titles are selling well over at Japan. Super Mario 64 DS and Wario Ware Touch! are selling well and the same with Feel the Magic. A new video of Jam with Band has arose and it shows you what you and your friends can do if you got some rythm. Each person in the video plays a different instrument on their DS to create this song and its really worth watching.The boxart for the DS game, Robots, was released today. The GBA version was released a long time ago, but they obviosly had to make some major changes to the boxart before putting out a DS boxart.Tanatalus Interactive announced that it will be launching a DS game in 2005. The game was not specified, but the company has yet to make a game of significance with its previous titles such as The Polar Express, and Jimmy Neutron for the GBA. Stick here for more.It appears now team XLink has successfully tunneled Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt. Do not get excited just yet, there is not enough support yet, and a successful application has not been fully made yet. It may still be another month or two before we see this technology come through. The team has reiterated to not buy any wifi equipment yet.According to multiple sources it appears that Nintendo is planning a major DS announcement in March. This announcement is suppose to help against the launch of the PSP, it could be anything from a price drop, to simply new colours. More on this story as it develops.From Japan the first day sale charts have now risen and it would appear the DS sold 230 000 units in Japan on the first day out of a total supply of 500 000. This is pretty good for first day and expect very few (if any) DS's to be left by Christmas time anywhere.Nintendo announced today that they will be participating in the Gen Con So-Cal convention in Anaheim. Nintendo will show off some of their newest games including games from the Gamecube, Gameboy Advance, and DS. The show will give anttendees a chance to win some cool prizes and try-out some of Nintendo's new and upcoming games. If anyone attends this show pleas contact us with your experiance and which games you were available to play.Within less than two weeks, the great minds over at Team XLink have some positive progress in tunneling PictoChat. Though they show promise, they re-assure us that there is a lot of work that needs to be down in order to get it successfully done.Tomonobu Itagaki, head of Team Ninja, in a recent interview suggested that a Ninja Gaiden DS game may be in development and with his high love of the handheld it is definately possible that we may be seeing this game soon. Hopefully an official announcement will be made soon, but for the time being we'll just have to wait.The Japan launch went off yesterday without any problems, and some bonuses to go with it. Nintendo previous beleived that it would be seding 300 000 units to Japan for launch when yesterday they actually sent 500 000. Sales figures are not up just yet, but check back soon.Today was the official launch of the DS in Japan, and forget what IGN says the lines were huge, and many people came out to get the system, despite the weather. The launch came with a flood of games including the new Wario Ware game which was a major seller with the system. The best way for you to know what I'm talking about is by taking a look at these pictures.
Two new games were announced for the DS today by the company Monolith. Baten Kaitos and Xenosaga will both be appearing on the DS. Niether have been announced if the games will be ports or new versions, but I'm guessing on a new versions. Xenosaga was an RPG that was previously only available to Sony systems, but it seems this time around the DS will be getting it. The Gamecube seemed to be lacking in the section of RPG's and the problem has only recently made better by Paper Mario, Tales of Symphonia, Mega Man X Command Mission, Baten Kaitos and more. It appears that the DS will not have this problem anytime soon and I plan to buy atleast one of these games on launch (which hasn't been announced), but for now I'll have to settle down with Baten Kaitos for the Cube.I e-mailed Nintendo for more information on the DS on TV situation and got a response within the hour (I was very impressed), and they denie people being able to play the DS on the TV.IGN: "Only a week on the market, and Nintendo's dual-screen handheld is a huge success...at least according to the company and its sales numbers. Since its debut on November 21, the Nintendo DS is reporting sell-through numbers of more than 500,000 units, more than 90 percent of the current stock of systems in stores. So if you're having a hard time finding a unit to buy, that's a pretty darn good reason why it's so."
