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Nintendo’s recent interest in coming to India is certainly an odd creature. Their competitors Microsoft and Sony already have themselves grounded much before anyone even uttered to think what it would be like if the big N decided to join the fray. And even then, when you consider the console market in India isn’t all that big to begin with, plus the reports of global Wii shortages this coming holiday season, and least we forget the rampant piracy scene that our country is known for – Nintendo’s decision to come to India, to reiterate, seems awfully strange. Almost strange enough to have us think, “Why even bother?”
Despite whatever concoctions may arise (whether it’s yours or mine), there’s one thing Nintendo’s official distributor Samurai-India is sure of: Nintendo is happy to be in India. Granted, we may have missed out on a few generations of monumental games hither and thither (barring the Virtual Boy, natch), but what’s important is now. Besides, hello? Virtual Console? Samurai’s head-honcho Mahesh Toshniwal also reflects upon this by bringing up the pricing choice made for the Wii and DS:
In view of [the] very high taxes in India -34% import duty/ 2% CST/ 12.5 % VAT - the price is justified. In fact, it is very difficult to maintain this price as it was calculated and fixed at a dollar-rupee exchange of RS 42.00. Today the exchange stands at 45.5.
Be sure to check out Sam’s full interview with Mahesh on the availability of first-party software and accessories.
For all those who have been lamenting about the non-availability of Nintendo Wii in India, well, here is some good news. After a couple of false starts and rumors, we can confirm that the Wii is about to be officially launched in India! Making the news even more sweeter is the fact that even the DS will be launched in tandem with the Wii!!
Samurai-India, in partnership with HCL, will be officially launching the Wii and DS on 30th September 2008. In fact, they have already unofficially started supplying the consoles to all the major electronic chains and it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing them on the store shelves. The Nintendo Wii will be priced at INR 19,990 while the Nintendo DS will be available for INR 7,990.
Samurai-India’s website is still under construction but the presence of Nintendo in the URL is more then enough to tell us that we are on the right trail. Keep watching this space as more and more information trickles in.
Editors Note: Our friends over at GamingIndians have some more interesting insight on the impending release of the two consoles. Do have a look.
Update: Samurai-India’s website is now live.
Activision showed off a rather brief (and boy do we mean brief) trailer of their next Marvel superhero extravaganza, officially being named Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion. It was already mentioned that the game would be centering around the Civil War story arc (and possibly Secret War as well), and the new “Fusion” namesake is most likely hinting a much larger focus on team-up attacks/abilities and cooperative play. Witness how I’ve yet to make a Wonder Twins reference!
Comic book mainstays like Iron Man, Hulk, Spiderman, Captain America, Daredevil, The Thing, and Wolverine are present and accounted for. Strangely, the trailer has yet to reveal any of the known plot details, so much as if the Civil War motif isn’t even implemented yet. Guess we’ll have to wait just a bit more. One has to wonder if Activision ever decides to add Nintendo characters in again, they’ll actually let Ninty know before they do.
Embedded half-minute trailer after the jump, jump, jump.
We, at The Angry Pixel, like to believe that we are pretty weird, but in a good way, though many might not agree with the “good” part. So we are always on the lookout for stuff that compliments our image. A normal search on the good ol’ Google always throws up some really crazy and weird stuff all the time. But sometimes, we stumble across something that makes even us go, “WTF!”!
While looking around on Google for some weird gaming peripherals, the search results regurgitated this piece of gaming goodness that has us scratching our heads (for a change!) that such masterpieces do truly exist in the gaming world. So presenting before you, our very first Weird Game Of The Week, Namco’s Chizu Saeki’s Dream Skin Care for the Nintendo DS.
The guys behind the game probably do not have a high opinion about the age-old adage that beauty is only skin deep. So they have come out with a game that will afford the gamers a chance to get all the goodness a beauty parlor has to offer, right on their couch, with their DS. Feed in your Basal Body Temperature (huh?!), weight, your living conditions, your skin type and even your menstrual cycle and it will chart out a beauty regime for you. Give it the details about the time period as in maybe a friend’s marriage date and it will spit out the skin care tips and cooking recipes that will ensure that you are the envy of all on the D-day. The game also includes 34 hour long videos that you can go through at your own pace to get an even more in-depth look.
While we are all game for innovative titles, this one is probably something of an overkill. We wonder how many copies this game has managed to sell considering there is really not much of it on the World Wide Web, and that’s saying something. If you are not on The Net, you do not exist for all practical purposes. We, at TAP, have crossed our fingers least we get to see a, God forbid, How To Conceive A Baby soon. Thank you Nintendo, but if we want to know, we will find it out the good ol’ way.
P.S. If you have been wondering who the guy in the picture is, it’s our Associate Editor, Reggie. I told you! We ARE weird!!
Ever since Team Ninja’s Tomonobu Itagaki decided to resurrect the Ninja Gaiden franchise, Ryu Hayabusa has risen to fame as the greatest action hero in gaming. Making the transition from the calm seas of 2-D to the vicious 3-D waters was never going to be easy, but Itagaki’s sunglass powered foresight made it happen. It is still a mystery why Itagaki-san bet his chips on Ninja Gaiden instead of making some sort of X-Men game…he is the Japanese cyclops after all (never wondered what was behind those glasses?)
Two remakes later (Black and Sigma), we will finally witness a new chapter in Ryu’s saga until Ninja Gaiden 2 hits the Xbox 360 sometime next year. And who would have thought that the graphically intense, action-heavy, extremely mature Ninja Gaiden will see its next chapter unfold on the Nintendo DS? Doubts fogged my mind as a Ninja Gaiden on the DS seemed almost next to impossible (unless it was another cheap 2-D rendition, that’s what all the other devs do, don’t they…the lazy bastards). But here I am, with an early build of Ninja Gaiden DS tucked neatly in my DSLite. So lets take this Ninja Dog out for a stroll and find out if it only barks or bites as well?
I’ve heard a handful of Wii users gripe about how Harmonix’s next musical opus Rock Band won’t be featured on their platform (so far, it’s just coming to PS2, PS3 and X360), especially when Neversoft’s newly-released Guitar Hero III says otherwise. Although at this point, it’s still a debate whether a game of Rock Band’s promise can have so many supported peripherals and still prove to be a commercial hit. Then I saw this video of Nintendo’s upcoming Wii Music posted by 4cr. Wii Music tries to achieve a somewhat similar goal in mind, but with having the standard WiiMote as your multipurpose instrument of choice, making it accessible to those who don’t even own the game yet. Now, you might not be able to strum to popular hits like Foo Fighters’ Learn to Fly, but Carmen’s The Overture doesn’t sound too shabby either.
Of course, if only the Wii would be made readily available in India. Which reminds me, if you’re living in China and happen to be reading this, kindly note how my fists are burning red. And that they’re telling me to defeat you!
Ah, the life of a medical student. Nothing beats spending ten years of your life doing nothing but studying and cramming, performing dissections on human cadavers, being berated and put down by your instructors/colleagues/nurses/patients and having no time in your life for yourself. Trauma Center: Under the Knife is an experiment by Nintendo and famed RPG maker Atlus to simulate the emotional drama and tribulations a doctor goes through, without the potentially life marring character changes accompanying the profession in real life. The result is a slickly produced, innovative piece of entertainment that takes full advantage of the DS’s touch-screen abilities while providing enough challenge, story and enjoyment without the real fear of killing your patient or inhaling too many inebriating disinfectants.