Nintendo is making legions of fanboys excited today via its Media Summit event. First came the announcement that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be arriving in May. Now comes the announcement that another of Nintendo's classic franchises will be making an appearance before Summer is over. Metroid: Other M, the collaboration between Nintendo and Team Ninja, is now set to roll onto retail shelves on June 27th in North America.

The game is thought to be a sort of prequel, diving into the early years of intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran. The "other metroid" reference ar the end of the original might be of significance to establishing when this game takes place in the franchise's timeline. That's only a theory of course. Either way, we will find out in only a few short months.

Oh, Nintendo. You so crazy. When I heard that Super Mario Galaxy 2 was in the works, I figured this would be a nice holiday release for the big N to capitalize on. Seems Nintendo doesn't want to wait that long. They announced today, at their Media Summit event, that Mario will be back in action (and in 3D) on May 23rd in North America.

Hopefully Nintendo has a game to position this holiday season as the next "must-have" like New Super Mario Bros. Wii was for them last year. Is this an indicator that the next Legend of Zelda game will be released in 2010? Something must be on the horizon (hopefully not Wii Music 2) if they are sending out Mario so early in the year.

Well here is a story I never thought I would see. The NY Times is reporting that Netflix and Nintendo have reached a deal to bring instant streaming to the Wii sometime in the Spring. Like the PS3, a disc will be required for playback of Netflix's instant stream library. Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, said, "from Day 1, we always had other capabilities within the console." The deal with Netflix, he said, "is a continuation of an effort to bring more and more entertainment to consumers who interact with the Wii."

The Wii has sold over 26 million units in North America since it launched in November 2006. Seems like a no-brainer for Netflix to go after this audience to get some more subscriptions to its service. But I must point out the elephant in the room - the Wii does not support HD. Thus, the instant streaming will only support SD programming. Will the Wii audience even care that they won't be able to stream content in HD? Or is Nintendo giving a signal that the Wii HD is closer than we thought? Time will tell.

Seems EA is really getting into the habit of releasing arcade-style sports titles. First came titles like 3 on 3 NHL Arcade and Madden NFL Arcade on the downloadable front. Now comes an announcement that they are working on a reboot of the classic basketball franchise, NBA JAM, for the Nintendo Wii.

"NBA JAM is one of the most recognizable franchises in video game history," said Peter Moore, President, EA SPORTS. "Diehard fans of the original game have been asking for a remake for more than a decade. We're very excited to give them their wish this year with the return of this iconic franchise."

EA has promised to combine the classic gameplay with all-new features and a fresh take on the series. EA SPORTS NBA JAM will be "bringing true-to-life body types, updated physics and visible player emotion to the over-the-top experience."

No word yet if this will make it's way onto XBL or PSN in the future. For now it is being treated as a Wii exclusive with a very vague 2010 release date.

According to a post on GoNintendo, Nintendo Power has a blurb on the cover that Mega Man 10 will be coming to the WiiWare service. While the old internet adage of "pics or it isn't true" comes to mind, in this case thankfully, there is a visual confirmation.

After the jump, you can see the images (open them in a new tab to embiggen), as of now, the game is only announced for WiiWare, but the same was true when Mega Man 9 was first announced, so you never know. In the meantime, take a look and marvel at the wonder of... Sheep Man?

It was revealed today on the Capcom-Unity blog that everyone's favorite Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright will be hitting the WiiWare service in January.

It appears that rather than a new game series, this will be a series of ports from the Nintendo DS over to WiiWare, exchanging stylus-based play with Wii remote play. This won't come as a shock to fans of the series, as the DS games are actually ports from the Gameboy Advance that never made it overseas.

Most appealing about the series of remakes is the price. Each game will be set at 1000 Wii Points ($10.00 USD). First up will be the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, followed in March by Phoenix Wright: Justice for All and topped off in May with Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations. The spinoffs, Apollo Justice and Miles Edgeworth are not a part of the Wii series... for now.

You can read the press release after the jump if you're so inclined, and to entice you further, we've got a ton of screens to boot. So enjoy, and let us know what you think of this development.

A little bit of good news came with today's console update for the Wii. Everyone who purchased the Internet Channel between July 1, 2007 and September 1, 2009, will now be getting a refund in the form of a free NES game off the Virtual Console. It can be used on any NES game costing 500 Wii points ($5) from now until the end of the year.

This should hopefully end the trauma associated with spending $5 on the Internet Channel in the first place. What are you waiting for? Mega Man 2 is waiting to be downloaded.

There has been a lot of discussion recently if Nintendo would/should drop the price on their phenomenally popular Wii console. Recent price drops of the Xbox 360 and PS3 seemed like good indicators but Nintendo has always gone to the beat of their own drum. It seems Nintendo has given in and all signs point to the Wii getting its first price drop since it launched in November 2006.

Joystiq is reporting (via Kotaku) that they have gotten their hands on an upcoming Toys R Us ad showing the Wii dropping to $199.99 effective September 27th. Nintendo has not confirmed the news but we will update when we know more. Will this price drop get any members of the "core" audience who have held out to take the plunge? It could be the perfect time to catch up on some Nintendo classic franchises and some new ones like Madworld, Boom Blox, and No More Heroes. Let us know in the comments.

For those of you who may have your Wii on a shelf, collecting dust, you may have forgotten that they offer a customized version of the Opera web browser for the little white box. When the system first launched, the browser was free, but later, Nintendo started charging for it. Now, they've rectified that cash-grabbing move. The browser is now free!

That's right, with the latest update to the browser, ostensibly giving it a more recent version of the Flash player, Nintendo has decided to make the Opera browser once again free to get the average Joe and Jane onto the internet.

Said Cammie Dunnaway, Nintendo's executive VP of sales and marketing:

"Wii has truly changed the way people play games, but it is more than just a game console. Wii owners have access to a wealth of fun entertainment, information and practical tools like the Internet Channel, which is another great way for the whole family to enjoy their consoles with no additional costs involved."

This is all well and good, but for those of you out there who previously already paid your 500 Wii Points so you could watch YouTube on the TV, there is no need to fret. Starting in October, people who previously bought the channel will be awarded one NES game of their choice from the Virtual Console (valued at 500 Wii Points).

So that being said, fire up your Wii and get browsing!

Are you an owner of Nintendo's white, waggle-filled console? Do you want something more to do with it than playing virtual console games and Wii Sports Resort? Well today might be your lucky day friend. MediaMall's PlayOn service has entered the "open" beta phase for the Nintendo Wii.

PlayOn uses the Internet Channel to stream video services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video on Demand, and Youtube through your Wii. You can sign up for a free 14 day trial and if you like it, you can purchase the liscense for a one-time fee of $39.99. You can check out MediaMall's official site for further details.

To coincide with the release of Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Activision has made it known that they'll be porting the original MW to the Wii, of all places.

Dropping the numbering, the game will now be known simply as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. This title, originally developed by Infinity Ward, is having its port handled by Treyarch, which could stir up a bit of controversy, as some fans see IW as the superior CoD developer.

CoD: Modern Warfare for the Wii is due to ship November 10th. Details on possible Wii-specific modes are unknown at this time, but we'll keep you posted.

Wii gamers have generally had it tough when it comes to rhythm games, but it looks like Guitar Hero 5 is attempting to alleviate some of the frustrations of the past.

In a recent interview with IGN, Vicarious Visions' (maker of the Wii port of GH5), Karthick Bala announced that Guitar Hero 5 will not use in-game friend codes as the primary method of gaming with friends online. Rather, anyone already in someone's global friend address book will automatically be allowed to create multiplayer sessions without any additional friend codes needed. Also, confirmed to Eurogamer was news that Mii Freestyle Mode will return in GH5, alleviating fears that Microsoft Avatars would be the only customizable system characters available in the game.

Guitar Hero 5 is slated for release on September 1st of this year.

Well it seems that THQ does indeed like making money. Two of their latest offerings, UFC 2009 Undisputed and Red Faction: Guerilla, have enjoyed solid sales and solid reviews. Why stop the gravy train when you have an untapped source like the Wii? Company CEO Brian Farrell announced that the UFC brand will be coming to the Nintendo Wii and handhelds by next year, at the earliest. During the company's first quarter financial call Farrell had the following to say:

"We plan to build our UFC franchise by expanding international sales and by developing games on new platforms such as handhelds and the Nintendo Wii."

Unfortunately, no specific release dates were discussed. With this announcement, several questions come to mind. Will the franchise succeed on the Wii? Will it support Wii Motion Plus? One thing does seem inevitable: There will be a whole new round of Wii-related injuries popping up pretty soon.

via IGN

Ever since its launch in 2006, the Nintendo Wii has been flying off store shelves.  The Wii has been dominating sales due to its limited supply and huge buzz factor in the mainstream population.  People used to have the delivery schedules memorized in order to give themselves a leg up on purchasing a Wii, it was nuts!

According to Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter those days are now over.  In an interview with Edge-Online, Pachter says that the "Wii supply has finally exceeded demand, so we expect hardware sales to show year-over-year decreases for the first half of 2009."  One of the reasons the Wii was such a hot commodity back when it first launched was the limited supply on store shelves.

Nintendo will have to shake things up if they expect to sell 26 million additional Wii systems during the current fiscal year, like they have predicted. Pachter said Nintendo will need to lower the price of the Wii to meet this goal, saying, "In order to hit its full-year Wii shipment forecast, we expect Nintendo to cut the price of the Wii before [the] holiday, likely to $199.99."