VideoGamer.com’s Visionary Top 5: Nintendo in 2008

Welcome to VideoGamer.com’s Visionary Top 5 series. 2007 has been an amazing year for gamers – some say the best ever. Will 2008 be able to match it? VideoGamer.com gazed into the crystal ball to find out what gaming’s greatest minds have in store for us next year. Today we predict what Nintendo will be blessing us with in 2008… Merry Christmas!

Nintendo’s big first-party Christmas 2008 title will be… Donkey Kong

That’s right. We said Donkey Kong. And we’re not talking about some rubbish mini-game led title either. We’re talking about a fully fledged Donkey Kong title – a true sequel to the last proper Donkey Kong on N64. Of course it won’t be made by Rare, who are currently owned by Microsoft. So perhaps Nintendo could keep this one in house. But what’s clear is that Nintendo needs some gamers’ games for next year, like 2007’s Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. And we here at VideoGamer.com reckon it’ll be a Donkey Kong Xmas 2008.

Will Sports 2 will come out in September 2008

Although Wii Sports automatically comes bundled with Nintendo’s massively successful motion-sensing console, that doesn’t mean it’s a pile of rubbish. It actually secured top spot in our Top 10: Family Games buyer’s guide for Christmas and New Year. But we reckon Wii-owners might be getting a little tired of the same old bowling/tennis/boxing come Q4 next year, which is perfect timing for Nintendo to release a sequel. It’ll have upgraded graphics (not too upgraded mind!) as well as some new sports to Wrap your Wii Remote around, but essentially it will be the same old Wii Sports with icing on top.

Wii Fit will come out in the UK to coincide with the Olympic Games in Beijing

Wii Fit was nowhere to be seen in Nintendo’s recent Q1/Q2 2008 release schedule, so we can make an educated prediction that it won’t be out till at least the end of June, which ties in nicely with the Beijing 2008 Olympics, scheduled to kick off in August. Expect ex-Record Breakers presenters Kriss Akabusi and Cheryl Baker going up against celebrity comedy couple Dawn French and Lenny Henry in a Wii Fit face off in a TV advert campaign, too. Genius.

Nintendo will make some megaton announcements at E3 2008

Don’t expect much! But we reckon Nintendo will use E3, the industry annual showcase for new game announcements, to give us the first fledging titbits on their next Zelda game. So let’s say a teaser trailer – dark, with some music and some text, which ends with a picture of Link looking somehow different. Then Shigeru Miyamoto comes running out holding a Wii Remote, does a forward roll, then waves it around on stage making the chink noise when swords clash in Zelda. He will then run off in an attempt to escape the Nintendo fanboy zombie horde. Nintendo will then be declared winners of E3, despite offering up zero information about the game.

The Nintendo Wii will continue to dominate the console market in the UK

We here at VideoGamer.com can’t see an end to the Nintendo Wii’s all conquering march to world domination, not in the UK anyway. So we predict console shortages experienced in 2007 to continue well into 2008, and even through next year’s Christmas holiday too. We can’t see a drop in price either – at £179.99 it’s perfectly priced. But that doesn’t mean Nintendo won’t come out with a few surprises for its phenomenon. We predict Nintendo will release an official line of Wiis in different colours, including pink, a silvery blue, orange and black. That includes the Wii Remotes too. Remember, you heard it here first.