A couple of Mario Kart DS news have popped out today, here we go.

First, Daisy has been confirmed as one of the eight hidden playable characters of the game, this was confirmed thanks to an image from a brochure where you can see her at the positions list on a race. Check out the image here.

Text chat has also been confirmed for the game. You will be able to write messages to your friends altought it is unkown how the chat system will work we do know that you will only be able to talk to people you give your MAC code to. This is specially done to protect younger MKDS players from being approached via chat by strangers.

Gamecube

• United States
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures
  • Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare
  • The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer
• Europe
  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
  • Lego Star Wars
  • The Sims 2

Nintendo DS

• United States
  • ATV Quad Frenzy
  • Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare
  • Texas Hold ‘Em Poker
  • The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer
• Europe
  • Crash Tag Team Racing
  • Spyro Shadow Legacy
  • The Sims 2
• Japan
  • Viewtiful Joe Scratch!
  • Daredemo Asobi Taizen
  • Super Black Bass: Dynamic Shot

Game Boy Advance / Game Boy Micro

• United States
  • Board Game Classics
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures
  • Gauntlet / Rampart
  • Sky Dancers
  • Animaniacs: Lights, Camera, Action!
  • The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer
  • Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan
  • CandyLand / Chutes & Ladders / Memory
  • Ford Racing 3
  • Life / Yahtzee / Payday
  • Mousetrap / Operation / Simon
• Europe
  • Connect Four / Fustration / Trouble
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
  • Gunstar Future Heroes
  • Hello Kitty: Happy Party Pals
  • Risk / Battleship / Cluedo
  • Sorry! / Aggravation / Scrabble Junior
  • The Sims 2
• Japan
  • Akumajo Dracula: Circle of the Moon (Konami the Best)
  • Bokura no Taiyou (Konami the Best)
  • Castlevania: Akatsuki no Menuett (Konami the Best)
  • Castlevania: Byakuya no Concerto (Konami the Best)
  • Contra: Hard Spirits (Konami the Best)
  • Gradius Generation (Konami the Best)
  • Ikkoku Hattori: Kore 1 Hon de 8 Shurui! (Konami the Best)
  • Konami Arcade Game Collection (Konami the Best)
  • Miracle! Banzou
  • Zoku Bokura no Taiyou: Taiyou Shounen Django (Konami the Best)

If you plan to get Animal Crossing: Wild World check out this scan featuring some in game images from the game. Is that a dancing skeleton? looks like it.

The game is expected to launch on December 5th on the US and a few weeks before that on Japan, it´ll have online capabilities and some other goodies.

Link: Jeux-France

Blizzard ´s festival: Blizzcon has begun today. This 2 day special event has been really expected since a lot of announcements are expected from Blizzard.

“BlizzCon is a celebration of the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises and the communities that surround them. This two-day event will contain Q&A panels featuring the developers of World of Warcraft and StarCraft: Ghost, social events for fans and developers to meet one another, and hands-on gameplay featuring your favorite Blizzard games.”

So what can we expect to see at Blizzcon this weekend? a lot of blizzard worlds related contests, tournaments, etc. But what we are really expecting is the announcement of Blizzard´s new projects. The only game on development right now (or at least the only one they have revealed) is Starcraft Ghost and if everything goes according to the plan, the game will be launching by the end of the year and i don´t think they are going to stay without developing other games.

Hopefully we´ll be seeing some extra SC Ghost details and some extra stuff. By this time of the day Blizzard already made official the World of Warcraft expansion, let´s see if they have some other announcement to make (please, Starcraft 2…please!).

We´ll keep you posted but if you want to follow the event live check out the official site.

In the latest issue of the japanese gaming magazine Famitsu some Resident Evil DS details were revelead, not a lot of info but still important.

RE DS will have two game modes: Classic and Rebirth. Classic will feature the original game style, no new features, no second screen use. Just the good old original Resident Evil.

Rebirth will be the mode featuring some cool extras. Some RE4 like features are going to be added, the stylus will have some kind of functionality to solve some puzzles and a few extra controls like the ability to turn 180 degrees quickly by pressing Down + B.

Multiplayer features werw revealed as well, first we have a 4 player mode, here you will play against your friends to see who can kill more zombies in a certain amount of time. A co-op mode is going to be added too.

This game looks great, i just wonder if they are going to be able to get some sense of fear in this version, playing on the DS is a whole different experience and this game might suffer beacuse of this.

Bad news for our friends at Europe, according to BGW, you guys won´t be able to get your hands on the Mario Kart DS and Red DS bundle pack, instead you are getting a regular silver console and no extra stuff.

Just remember that the DS is region-free so you can still import a bundle pack and play all your games without problem. I don´t know why Nintendo does this kind of stuff, i mean, a lot of people were waiting for Mario Kart to buy their DS and putting it all into a bundle pack is a great move.

Zi Corporation Zi Corporation, a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, today announced that it has signed a licensing agreement with Nintendo, under the agreement, Nintendo DS developers can employ Zi’s Decuma handwriting recognition technology while creating software for the Nintendo DS handheld video game system.

Decuma Alphabetic handwriting recognition software provides fast and natural handwriting input, enabling users to focus on the content rather than the writing. Users can closely mimic writing with pen and paper, with letters and words being written and interpreted in a natural flow, allowing for easy editing and correction.

This technology could have a lot of applications for the DS, text chatting would become easier, and a lot of nintendo games could make use of this for some extra interaction. How about writing the solution of a puzzle or your character´s name in a rpg instead of typing it.

We´ll have to wait and see how this technology is applied to the ds but i think we could see some applications similar to the ones used on Palms and smartphones wich would be really cool.

Do you remember elektroplankton? this game was announced for the first time on the last e3 at Nintendo´s main conference. Not a lot of people payed attention to the game since we were all expecting the Revolution announcement. The point of the game is to make music with your DS, using both screens you can start to make your tunes and watch some cool funky animations while doing so.

Nintendo announced today that Elektroplankton will be hitting stores on January 9th, well kinda…other details were also revealed and this game will be available only at NY Nintendo world store and some online retailers.

I think this is the first time Nintendo has limited the sale of a game to online retailers, looks like they don´t have a lot of faith put into elektroplankton wich is weird since they even hired that dj to make the e3 presentation, or maybe they just want you to buy it directly from the official store.

So, if your musician inside has been dying to get his hands on this game and you don´t happen to live in New York, you will be able to get it at Nintendo.com and other major sites i´m guessing this means amazon, ebgames, etc.

seanbaby.com has a list of the worst 20 NES games ever made. I only played a few of those and i totally agree with them being in that list…Super Pitfall was such a bad game.

Here´s the list:

20: Athena
19: Bible Adventures
18: Super Pitfall
17: Hudson Hawk
16: Renegade
15: Chubby Cherub
14: Mighty Bomb Jack
13: M.U.S.C.L.E.
12: Where’s Waldo
11: Total Recall
10: Fist of the North Star
09: The Legend of Kage
08: Muppet Adventure
07: Bad Street Brawler
06: Barbie
05: Gilligan’s Island
04: Tag Team Pro Wrestling
03: X-Men
02: Heroes of the Lance
01: Deadly Towers

Via | Digg

In case you don´t know who Hideo Kojima is (have you been living under a rock the last few years?), then let me explain you that he is one of the most recongnized producers of the gaming industry, he´s the man behind Metal Gear Solid and other great games. He recently announced he´s working on some projects for the revolution wich is great news for us Nintendo fans.

A few weeks ago, Kojima launched his own personal blog where he´s been writing regularly about the gaming industry and just as in any other blog, about a lot of random stuff. The fact the blog was only available in japanese was a shame, but now this has changed and his blog has an english version.

The posts are still out of date, the last entry is currently from September 29th. Let´s hope they catch up with the dates.

Check out the site and find that for some reason Kojima likes to start his posts talking about the weather.

Link | Hideoblog