Nintendo fans, rejoice. Metroid Prime 3 is going to be the best Metroid Prime game yet. It's been burdened with the enormous task of fulfilling Nintendo's promise of providing unsurpassed FPS controls through the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Surprisingly, Metroid Prime 3 has more than delivered in this near-final E3 build. Not only do the controls work exactly as we'd like them to, Retro Studios has surprised us by fleshing out the Metroid experience with its most ambitious story yet.

Long-time Metroid fans will appreciate the game's opening moments. We're taken inside Samus' trademark space ship. Have we ever been here before? Interfacing with the ship through the Wii Remote certainly felt exciting, allowing players to control Samus' ship -- something we can't remember ever doing in the series' history. Players will touch various panels within the ship, and pull a lever, providing a simple facsimile of piloting a real...

The most common criticism on the Nintendo Wii is that it's a fad that people will get tired of in a matter of time, and that Sony and Microsoft will battle it out for first place in the endgame.

This has been the belief of some using the basis of the estimated longevity of interest for the machine and an upcoming move by its rivals to launch big exclusive content in their respective platforms.

Not so, says analysts and industry insiders. A good number of them have voiced their faith that the massively-appealing game machine will not fade away because it holds a distinct market all its own.

"Nintendo realizes Sony and Microsoft will become a lot more aggressive. But for the moment at least, they are doing everything right," explains analyst Hiroshi Kamide of KBC Securities. "There's no sign of slowdown in their handheld business."

"What we are also seeing is the console business getting increasing scale. This should continue for another two years," ad...

Nintendo Revo reveals in advance that TurboGrafx's FPS pioneer from 1992 Silent Debugger is one of the Virtual Console titles whipping this monday, costing 600 Nintendo Wii points.

So far, Silent Debugger is the only known member of the bunch, but it's one to be excited about if you're into the retro stuff because of its history.

The game's plot is simple: You received news that the cargo station OHME was abandoned a year ago and there's some treasures to be found. Setting out for the place, you encounter mysterious enemies who all need a bit of killing.

If you've got the skills, you'll make it all the way down to level 6 and shut down the place's self-destruct mode before everything is blown to bits. Can you handle it? Will you get the booty? We'll see.

A straightforward adventure title for the Wii? That's how Capcom producer Hironobu Takeshita described their company's latest game for the Wii, Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbados' Treasure during a recent interview. Simple, but not easy - Takeshita explained that they kept the controls simple so that players could focus on the game's increasingly challenging puzzles, which were the focus of the game.

The video interview also reveals snippets of what sort of ideas wen into creating Zack and Wiki. As Takeshita explained, the game's director was inspired by his play experience of classic PC-based adventure titles (Monkey Island comes to mind...). Enjoy the show, and make sure to prepare for Zack and Wiki's upcoming Wii release in North America this October (according to Takeshita).

 
David Jaffe is a pretty cool guy. Not because he's crazy enough to create something like God of War or Twisted Metal, but because his blog entries put a smile on our faces. His latest  entry is all about the E3 experience, something far different than it was years ago.

Like some guys in the industry (even Hideo Kojima), Jaffe obviously isn't fond of how E3 is like today. "E3 was so lame this year," he posted on his blog. To be fair, he found it cool that getting hands on games is less messy this time, but he expressed his anger at the event quite clearly.

Another that he finds noteworthy during E3 was actually meeting with Nintendo's big man, Shigeru Miyamoto. His thoughts on it:

Maybe I should have gone: 'You have made some of the best games- hell, the best pieces of entertainment EVER but since MARIO 64, I have not loved anything you have done? I have respected all you have brought to the industry and world, especially in the last POST-Ma...

  
With the E3 event now winding down, we're letting the readers know about several bargains retailer GameStop has just announced, beginning last Friday (July 13). Highlights for the promo include a US 499 PlayStation 3 package, which will come with five free Blu-Ray movies.

For the more game-specific promos, Dewy's Adventure (Wii) pre-orders will include a free Dewy plushie, while Conan (PS3) will include a free figurine of the game's namesake Cimmerian. Another deal to take advantage of is the US 10 cut down for certain titles, such as Supreme Commander (PC), and Bionicles Heroes (Wii). The promo runs until July 19, with the PS3/Blu-Ray offer began on July 1, and will end on September 30. Just click on the read link, or the promo details we've got posted here for more info.

While the success of the Guitar Hero franchise has never been in doubt, the popular rhythm game is currently up for some heavy competition with the coming of Electronic Arts' Rock Band for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
In a recent interview with Next Generation, Activision Senior Vice President of Marketing Bill Kassoy had a few simple words to back up Guitar Hero III (PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360).
"Don't underestimate Red Octane's hardware," said Kassoy, referring to the fact that Harmonix, who developed the first two Guitar Hero titles for Activision and is now working on Rock Band for EA, only has experience in software. Kassoy also pointed out the price differential between the two titles. Rock Band is expected to cost gamers more since it has more additional controllers than Guitar Hero III.

During the interview, Kassoy also mentioned that Activision will be ramping up infrastructure for all its online-capable titles using the recently-acquired DemonWare. Casual gam...

A recently identified exploit in the Flash Player used by the Internet Channel of the Wii can be exploited to execute arbitrary code. This might just be the loophole that hackers have been waiting for to develop homebrew on the Wii.

The word on the street is that Nintendo has to pay to get an unaffected version of the Flash player from Adobe. Because of this, the security hole might not be patched as fast as the last one, giving hackers a little more time.

Some people have made it known that the rest of the homebrew community needs a way to run homebrew without having to rely on these slip-ups which could possibly be fixed in a new patch. While this is true, which company would actually support homebrews on their system since it has been known to be a gateway to piracy?

Thanks to zoople who sent in this tip!

Everyone's favorite purple dragon had a fun time at E3 this year, enjoying himself as he beat up baddies in his latest adventure The Legend of Spyro: Eternal Night for the DS, Wii, GBA, and PS2. The game's developers set up a couple of game cam videos a few days after announcing the game.

We were treated to two gameplay vids, showcasing the ship siege and cannon-blasting elements of the title. In his quest to defeat the Ape King's attempts at bringing an age of darkness, Spyro gets some nifty new moves which are demonstrated in the videos. We see him fly around a bit, use his dragon breath, and utilize various elemental attacks against enemies.

All in all, it looks to be another good addition to the franchise. Kudos to Krome for featuring fun fights and fire-n-ice spitting goodness in the videos. We just couldn't help but drool in anticipation for when this game hits the shelves. We hope it has the same effect for you. 

The E3 Media and Business Summit 2007 may have come and gone, but there's still a ton of important post-E3 tidbits that deserve every gamer's attention. Mostly because in addition to new videos and screenshots of the latest upcoming video games, there are things you probably haven't heard of yet.

For instance, you might have heard about the conflicting reports about the 60 GB PS3 getting phased out, but did you know that the advent of the PSP Slim may also herald the death of the old PSP model?

How about the strongly worded remarks Peter Dille made against the Xbox 360? You probably heard him say that HD-DVD is as good as dead. Did you know, however, that Peter Moore has a rebuttal to that? Even more importantly, it's a civil one!

You also probably know that the Nintendo Wii is selling oodles of units, but how about the possibility of the Wii outselling the grandmaster of gaming, the PS2? There's certainly some merit in that assertion, though it'...