Big N Radio - Ep. 8 is Up!

You'll find a ton of news in this episode of Big N Radio, including breaking stories about the future of E3, DS game release date info, upcoming Japanese releases, bit Generation game talk, the DS headset, info about Animal Crossing at Toys R Us, and a few more surprises. We also pack in talk about the famous "N64 kid" selling his N64 on ebay, and a strange countdown we found. Best of all, we discuss the Wii and a couple of more official announcements, as well as a few rumors. We speculate as to what Nintendo will announce at the upcoming LGC event on August 23rd. To finish things up, we call in guest, Dan's Mom, to review Big Brain Academy; the latest entry into the rapidly expanding touch generation series. Make sure you tune in to Big N Radio - Ep.8 with A-Zar, ill_masta, Scopidisca, and Dan's Mom!

*Update - 8/4*
Unfortunately, we are experiencing many difficult problems when it comes to editing and submitting our finished episodes. Whenever we believe that we have found a solution, a new problem arises, more difficult to handle than the last. We currently have not yet submitted episodes 7 or 8, due to editing problems as well as RSS feed troubles that we are encountering. It is very frustrating for us to not be able to submit what we have worked so very hard on, until sometimes, weeks after they are completed. Ill_Masta and mysef are giving our best effort to solve these problems, and for the last couple of nights we have been working very late to ensure our listeners' satisfaction. We believe that we have almost solved our most challenging problems, and that we will be moving forward from now on. We are very sorry for not being able to give you our latest episodes on time, but we are working very hard and we appreciate all of your support. Hopefully episodes 7 and 8 will be available in a matter of days.

The Fate of E3?

Many people are discussing the possibility that E3 will be cancelled from now on or that it will radically shrink. It is almost definate right now that E3 will be much smaller and that it will be held at a place smaller than the Los Angeles Convention Center. Developers have to shell out he big bucks when E3 rolls around every May, and they are tired of spending millions on developing E3 demos and booths. They figure that they will be overshadowed by the Big 3(Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony) and that not many people will be interested in what they have to show.

Not too much of what is being said is confirmed, and now sites are reporting that E3 will definately see a drop in size, but it will still one of the biggest events of the year, and instead of taking place in May, it will be held in July.

*Update*

The ESA has now confirmed that E3 will be a more intimate event and will focus on press events and small meetings. ESA president Doug Lowenstein has now confirmed that the event has been moved to July, renamed, and severely reduced in size. Lowenstein expects around 5,000 people to be in attendance next year. That is a major reduction from this years 60,000 attendees.

More information will be posted as it is confirmed. For now, check out these links:

The latest from IGN.

Gamespot

Gamespot Update

Nintendo at LGC

Nintendo will make an appearance at the Leipzig Game Conference(LGC) on August 23rd. They have reserved an hour to make a presentation entitled, "Wii keep our promise." Nintendo has stated that they will anounce the release date and price of the Wii by September or in September. Since LGC is just before September, it seems likely that Nintendo will make some sort of announcement in regards to the price/launch date of the console. Since the presentation was given the name, "Wii keep our promise," many people believe that the Big N will finally release the last couple of secrets about the Wii and the one big secret that they have been keeping for so long.

The official Nintendo magazine of France recently confirmed that Nintendo will be announcing 5 new games at LGC for the Wii. It is not yet known if the games are first party or third party.

Possible topics:
-Wii online
-New Games
-New functions of the Wiimote/Console
-Price
-Launch Date
-Small details

DS Headset

On September 14, a headset will be available in Japan for what is close to the U.S. price of $9. This will most likely be used in the upcoming Pokemon Diamond and Pearl games which are coming out on September 28th in Japan.

12 New Games for Japan that Are not Really Games

A new update over at IGN shows that Japan is getting 12 new simple games that are similar to Brain Age in that they are not really games. Most likely almost none of them will ever come to America. Click the link below to see what they are all about and read they're excesively long names!

12 New Japan Only "Games"

"Raw Potential"

See how Sony fans feel.

Wii-mote details

IGN posted an article that names some new specifics about the wii-mote. They aquired their information from official Nintendo documentation. The article explains that the Wii controller will run on 2 AA batteries and the batteries will last from 30 - 60 hours, depending on which controllers you are using. The 4 LED lights at the bott0m of the controller will serve a second purpose. In addition to saying if you are player 1, 2, 3, or 4, when you first turn the system on the lights will turn on depending on how much batttery power is left. 4 lights will turn on if there is between 75-100% power, 3 lights when there is between 50-75% power, 2 lights when there is between 25-50% power, and 1 light when there is less than 25% power. The button underneath the front flap pf the Wii was said to be used when you want to connect a controller to the system. This can be done by first, pressing the button on the system, and then pressing either the 1 and 2 buttons on the Wii-mote, or a button located in the battery pack. New details about the sensor bar were posted in the article, stating that the bar must be placed either above or below the TV and that there are 2 sensors: one on each side of the bar. The sensor bar is approximately 20 cm. in length.

Check out the full article here.

Smashing things is good - especially Nintendo things!

Witness the high quality of Nintendo products:

Can the Cube go the Distance?

DS lite Strength Test

Animal Crossing Anime Movie

Japan will be getting an Animal Crossing movie done in anime style sometime in December. It will tell a tale of a youth moving into a new town all by his lonesome, and as the movie plays out, he will grow just as Tom Nook's store does. Can't wait to download this one!

DS headset

Japanese retailers have revealed that a DS headset is on the way and will be compatible in wifi games that use voice chat. It is expected to be heavily utilized in the upcoming Pokemon Diamond and Pearl games. It will retail in Japan for the equivalent of a measly $10!

More DS lites for Japan

As if they didn't already have enough DS lite colors, several more versions of the system were announced for Japan. The new versions include a special Pokemon DS lite which is the White DS lite with several Pichu faces on the cover, a special edition Final Fantasy III DS lite, which is also white with final fantasy characters on the cover, and a black DS lite, which was formerly exclusive to Europe. For those of you that were wondering, the United States only has one version of the DS lite: Polar White.

EA Exclusives

EA announced recently that they will release 6 games for the Wii and all 6 of the titles will be tailer made for the concole and it's unique controller. EA also stated that it has several other games in development for the Wii, but it can not announce them at this time.

The 6 games include Madden, Harry Potter, SSX, The Godfather, Need for Speed, and Tiger Woods. They will all utilize the Wii-mote and include features exclusive to the Wii.

“Once we started to experiment with Madden on Wii, there was an explosion of innovation. Everyone in the studio is energized by the creative opportunity afforded by both the hardware and controller. By reaching into our catalogue, we are able to bring a fresh and distinctive experience to some of EA’s most popular franchises. Creatively, the game play possibilities are staggering and endless,” said John Schappert, Senior Vice President and General Manager, EA.

Big N Radio - Ep.7

In this episode you'll see why 7 is our lucky number: It took us 7 shows to figure out the formula for the perfect podcast, and in this segment we finally nailed it! We were finally able to hit the 1 hour mark, and it is time very well spent as we talk about the DS lite's crazy sales figures, some games that are on the way, new flavors of DS lite in Japan, Wii-mote news, speculation/rumors, and a general overview of things to come. Newcomer Scopidasca joins us midway, and is a little nervous, but she warms up towards the end. Join her, ill_masta, and A-Zar as Big N Radio - Ep. 7 blasts in your ears!

KZero's troubles...

I just got back from a relaxing vacation in the wilderness and when I finally sat down to my computer and went to download Episode 6 of Big N Radio(which was supposed to be up last week on iTunes) I was devestated to discover that it wasn't there. KZero wasn't able to submit episode 6 for some reason for the last week. Because we can only submit the podcast to iTunes on his computer(I don't understand all that technical jargin) it causes a problem whenever we do it somewhere else. Unfortunately, I can't contact him and neither can anyone else right now, but as soon as we do, Episode 6 will be up and running.

*EDIT*
I just spoke to KZero and he is submitting the podcast right now.

Technical Difficulties are Over!

Finally, after about 2 weeks of suffering, Episode 5 of Big N Radio is up on iTunes and Episode 6 should be up later today, or tomorrow. Sorry for the wait, but you will find out that it was well worth it when you hear our latest installments, so make sure you check them out!

Happy 4th!

Hello all. There's not much going on right now, so I thought I'd wish everyone a Happy 4th of July. The fireworks have been going off since last Thursday here, and it's really helping to get everyone into the patriotic mood. There's nothing better than playing Phoenix Wright and fighting for justice while listening to Firecrackers at the same time... Take That!