The people have spoken and they can’t get enough of the Wii top 10 – for a forth straight month the Wii titles have held strong and the Top 10 seems locked in.

WII

• New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• Wii Sports Resort
• Mario Kart Wii
• Wii Fit Plus
• Endless Ocean: Blue World
• Punch-Out!!
• New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis
• Excitebots: Trick Racing
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl
• Animal Crossing: City Folk

From the DS side after months we finaly have a newcomer to the group – Making it’s DS debut in the Number 5 spot Picross 3D, a puzzle challenge sequel with enough oomph to push “Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky” right off the list!

NINTENDO DS

• Pokémon HeartGold Version
• Pokémon SoulSilver Version
• Glory of Heracles
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
• Picross 3D
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
• Style Savvy
• Fossil Fighters
• WarioWare: D.I.Y.

Nope I didn’t stutter when writing this – Nintendo fans know what they want and it’s the same as last month… Not one new title in the most wanted list this month, it’s the same – the EXACT same as April’s list.

However I did pickup a Pokémon DS title (SoulSilver) – stay tuned for my review.

WII:

• New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• Wii Sports Resort
• Mario Kart Wii
• Wii Fit Plus
• Endless Ocean: Blue World
• Punch-Out!!
• New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis
• Excitebots: Trick Racing
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl
• Animal Crossing: City Folk

NINTENDO DS:

• Pokémon HeartGold Version
• Pokémon SoulSilver Version
• Glory of Heracles
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
• Style Savvy
• Fossil Fighters
• WarioWare: D.I.Y

No this is not a duplicate post from last month but the updated Nintendo’s Most wanted list… Not really much to comment on here other than the ONLY change to the lists below is the #10 spot on the DS list with the addition of “WarioWare: D.I.Y.” otherwise Nintendo gamers still want the SAME STUFF as last month. Pokémon is still holding strong with 3 of the top 10 DS titles (I’ll have to go pick one of these up to see what all the fuss is about).

NINTENDO WII

• New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• Wii Sports Resort
• Mario Kart Wii
• Wii Fit Plus
• Endless Ocean: Blue World
• Punch-Out!!
• New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis
• Excitebots: Trick Racing
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl
• Animal Crossing: City Folk

NINTENDO DS

• Pokémon HeartGold Version
• Pokémon SoulSilver Version
• Glory of Heracles
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
• Style Savvy
• Fossil Fighters
• WarioWare: D.I.Y.

WII

• New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• Wii Sports Resort
• Mario Kart Wii
• Wii Fit Plus
• Endless Ocean: Blue World
• Punch-Out!!
• New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis
• Excitebots: Trick Racing
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl
• Animal Crossing: City Folk

NINTENDO DS

• Pokémon HeartGold Version
• Pokémon SoulSilver Version
• Glory of Heracles
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
• Style Savvy
• Fossil Fighters
• Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day

Nintendo invites you and your friends to the launch events of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions. Taking place in Toronto and Montreal tomorrow.

While your ant the launch event participate by:

• Playing the games
• Trying the new Pokéwalker accessory
• Spend some time at the Pokémon character colouring zone
• Drop by the Pokémon photo booth

Participant will have the chance to win a Nintendo DSi system, copies of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions along with other Nintendo and Pokémon giveaways

Locations:

TORONTO, ON: Sunday March 14, 12pm – 5pm
Wizard World, Better Living Centre,
Exhibition Place 195 Princes’ Blvd

MONTREAL, QC: Sunday March 14, 12pm – 4pm
Pepsi Forum, Centre Ice Atrium
2313, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest

Guest Review: Alan Carr

I started playing Academy of Champions for the Wii as a skeptic. I am a diehard sports video game enthusiast and this looked from the packaging as a kids game that just couldn’t live up to the more series soccer (football) titles like Pro Evolution Soccer and FIFA.

And to be honest, Academy of Champions isn’t a title for the sports purest. But if you like a good story line and fun sports play then Academy of Champions is a title you should consider.

The Story is definitely designed for tweens the story placed you in a Academy somewhat inspired by Hogwarts is the Harry Potter series. It is run by soccer great Pelé in which you must learn new skills with mini-games, deal with high school issues like tests and rumors while taking your game to the pitch for matches against the unscrupulous cross-town rivals Scythemore.

The gameplay is quite a pleasant surprise. You will find a lot of challenges and minigames but none requiring too much effort to beat. The visuals are fun, colorful and cartoonish. Gameplay within this arcade-style soccer game is simple yet very satisfying. Ubisoft has included several rewarded features like great animations, music and surprises for scoring a goal. They have also included a solid roster of wacky guest characters from other Ubisoft franchises. A bit lacking in the multiplayer department this game is best experienced in solo mode.

I only have a few minor issues with this game.

The first is the player control. It felt like a throwback to games that only allowed players to move in 8 directions which makes for some awkward transitions. I expect more for any game designed in the last decade.

The Second is, given the basic camera view, opposing players tend to sneak up from behind you with no warning. This however, is overcome with time as you learn the pace of the game.

Third, like a lot of games these days, the Wii Balance Board seems like an afterthought – you only get to use it for one mini-game and it’s not worth the trouble. It was clearly added to the game as a marketing ploy and to get the Wii Balance Board logo on the package.

Lastly, given the number of scenes in the game, it accesses the Wii Disc often and which has you waiting for new scenes to load. Not a deal-breaker but a little annoying at times as we all would rather play than wait for the game to load.

Overall I recommend this game for anyone who likes arcade games or a sports fan willing to fall back to some old-school gameplay. Academy of Champions: Soccer is a pure delight with its whimsical atmosphere, storyline and challenging minigames. Enchanting and fanciful, it comes together nicely to keep the player’s interest for quite a few hours.

Feed Your Console gives Academy of Champions: an 8 out of 10.

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Vancouver

Important notes from the release:

• Sales for games on the Wii and DS were lower than expected in 2009 and are expected to be down for the full year by around €160 million (or $239 million CAD), representing a drop of around 50% in world wide sales numbers.
• Riding on the success of Assassin’s Creed 2, Ubisoft will be focusing on future development of high-quality AAA games. This is also partly due to the lower-than-expected sales of games like James Cameron’s Avatar™: The game, several non-casual Wii titles and a general underperformance of back catalog titles.
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction™ and R.U.S.E™, which were previously scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2009-10, and will now be released in 2010-11. Splinter Cell Conviction™ is now expected to hit the stores in April 2010.

Additionally in the release Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer, stated “Despite a number of highly successful titles, such as Assassin’s Creed 2 – which is expected to reach 9 million sell-in units by the end of March 2010 – and Just Dance – our great Wii success during the holiday season – Ubisoft has not met its financial targets. The considerable contraction in the DS market during the year particularly affected Ubisoft, leading to a €160 million, or almost 50%, year-on-year drop in the Company’s casual segment sales. At the same time, like in 2008, the year 2009 saw the release of many more very high-quality games than in the past. Against this backdrop and with a view to further reduce our exposure to the DS, we intend to continue to refocus our development resources on our major franchises and on the Xbox360 and PS3, the two consoles that are expected to see sales growth in games for gamers in 2010. Ubisoft has already demonstrated its capacity for success in the high-end games market thanks to Assassin’s Creed 2, with sales 40% higher than for the first title. The 2010-11 line-up – which is stronger in franchises for Xbox360 and PS3 – reflects our refocusing efforts and should enable us to both win market share and enhance our profitability.”

Now for the juicy part – the 2010-11 line-up:

• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction
• A new game in the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series
• Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands
• Driver
• Raving Rabbids 4
• A new episode of Assassin’s Creed (with an online multiplayer mode!)

2010-11 will be focused on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and less on the DS and Wii…  Expect more games and new franchises to be announced throughout the year.