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On December 8 the Wii will launch across Europe and will be joined by first-party titles Wii Sports (bundled with the console); Wii Play, a basic game collection including a Wii Remote; and of course The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Missing from the European launch is Excite Truck, a launch title in the US, but arriving here in February – hopefully not a sign of things to come with Nintendo fist-party releases for the Wii.
Launch day games from third-parties include Madden NFL 07 and Need for Speed Carbon from EA; Cars, Barnyard and Spongebob Squarepants: Creature from the Krusty Krab from THQ; Call of Duty 3, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam from Activision; Happy Feet and Rampage: Total Destruction from Midway; and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz from SEGA.
Ubisoft has the most to gain or lose from the Wii launch, with eight titles from day one: Blazing Angels, Far Cry Vengeance, GT Pro Series, Monster 4×4 World Circuit, Open Season, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Red Steel and Splinter Cell: Double Agent.
System 3 will have Gottlieb Pinball Classics and Super Fruit Fall out at launch, and will release Impossible Mission, Leaderboard Golf and Tennis Masters later in December. January will see the release of Wario Ware: Smooth Moves.
Nintendo has also revealed that 31 games will be available on the Virtual Console this year in Europe.
NES: Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr., Mario Bros., Solomon’s Key, The Legend of Zelda, Urban Champion, Wario’s Woods, Baseball, Pinball, Soccer, Tennis and Ice Hockey.
SNES: Donkey Kong Country (not available in North America), F-Zero and Sim City.
N64: Super Mario 64.
These titles are joined by games from the Mega Drive and TurboGrafx.
Mega Drive: Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Columns and Gunstar Heroes, plus Ecco the Dolphin, Space Harrier II, Toe Jam and Earl, Ristar and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine.
Turbografx: Bonk’s Adventure, Super Star Soldier, Victory Run, Bomberman ’93 and Dungeon Explorer.
Pricing is as expected, with NES titles costing 500 Wii Points, TurboGrafx 600 points, SNES & Mega Drive 800 points, and N64 titles 1000 points. To give you an idea on what that will cost you in real money, £14 will get you 2000 points.
About the Author
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- Platform(s): GameCube, Wii, Wii U
- Genre(s): Action, RPG
