What enters your mind when you hear the word "gamer"? Chances are you're a gamer yourself, so your answer's pretty different compared to a non-gamer's. According to Dawn Paine, Nintendo UK Head of Marketing, a non-gamer's definition of a "typical" gamer is a "long haired nerd, screaming as he gripped a control pad."

To address this, Paine aims to bring in a new type of gamer, one that would stand for "self development, health, beauty and fitness" with their Touch! Generation software. More in the full article.

Penny Arcade's Child's Play, a five-year-old fundraising outfit that started out dedicated only to the Seattle Children's Hospital, has now evolved into a full-time charity drive.

Child's Play is now extending its reach throughout North America and five countries. Major online retailer Amazon is also giving Child's Play a boost-up by letting participating hospitals create wishlists of items to give to children.

Read more about Child's Play at the full article link below!

 

If you've been playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and have been scanning and tinkering with everything in sight, you must have noticed a cryptic little hint about the highly-speculated Super Metroid sequel for the Nintendo DS, namely Metroid Dread. Many others have picked up on that, blowing the rumor completely up into the air - and it's not exactly hard to see why. After all, with twice the screens and touch-screen capability, wouldn't it be logical of Nintendo to make one?

Unfortunately for us, Nintendo's released a statement that pretty much dashes any hope of portable Metroid happy. Yes, they've come out with it:

Nintendo is not making the 2D Metroid at this point in time.

Short, blunt, and heart-breakingly direct to the point. Although, it's to note that they said "at this point in time." So it means that they're not making it yet, which presents the possibility of them making it in the near future. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week - maybe even this week. But definitely not today. Who knows? One thing's for sure, though, a Super Metroid sequel on the DS would be totally awesome.

Nintendo is aiming for all walks of life with innovative gaming machines that are easy to pick up and play. The number of casual gamers are multiplying at an unprecedented rate, and even your grandma who thought a joystick was a demonic object is probably now interested in training her brain or cooking with a Stylus.

Expanding the user base isn't a bad thing at all, and today is a lot better than before when gamers were rare, but what of the hardcore who would frown at digital crossword puzzles or next-gen tamagotchi?

"The hardcore gamers will always be important to Nintendo," said Nintendo Australia Marketing Manager Greg Arthurton to IGN. While Ninty is dishing out countless of light-hearted titles to attract the non-gamer, Arthurton stressed out that the big N won't turn tails on loyalists that followed Nintendo since the early days.

He expressed disappointment after hearing that some hardcore fans feel they're being left behind since all the buzz is on casuals. Arthurton reassured that "there is no way we're taking our eye off the core gamer unit." Fingers were pointed at Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Mario Kart Wii, and other upcoming titles as peace offerings for the core gamer.

Arthurton went on saying there is no fear for the hardcore market to shrink with such games coming soon. One would notice that all the games he mentioned were spin-offs from franchises of old, but he named Animal Crossing, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and Hotel Dusk: Room 215 as relatively new brands that will cater to both core and casual gamer alike.

Anyway, if you want to know how the entire interview with Greg Arthurton went, feel free to click the Read link below.

Are you a casual gamer or a hardcore gamer? Do you like your games short, sweet, pick-up-and-play, or immersive and borderline masochistic? Whatever your answer, Nintendo's got your fix, with an assorted summer lineup for the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii that's sure to satisfy any player, no matter how hard your core or casual your playstyle is.

What's most exciting about the summer lineup? Let's just take a look-see: Mario Strikers Charged, that's for the Wii, available on July 30. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption's another highly anticipated title for the Wii, as well. Not sure about High School Musical: Sing It, though - cheery upbeat high school musical simulator?

For the Nintendo DS, it's Brain Training 2 and Picross DS, both very good mind-sharpening games in their own right. Now who says that games rot your brain? They very well don't! Of course, the third chapter in the ever-so-popular Phoenix Wright series - Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations - will be out in September. A very good summer indeed.

In any case, here's the summer lineup. Mark your calendars!

Wii

• July 30 Mario Strikers Charged
  
• Aug. 20 Metroid Prime 3 Corruption
  
• September Battalion Wars 2 Nintendo
• Aug. 14 High School Musical: Sing It!
  
• Aug. 14 Madden NFL '08
  
• August Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08
  
• August Space Station Tycoon
  
• August Brunswick Pro Bowling
  
• August Dave Mirra BMX Challenge
  
• August Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection
  
• September Brothers in Arms
  
• September Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal
  
• September George of the Jungle
  
• Fall Boogie
  

The summer lineup for the Nintendo DS after the jump!

It's about time video game title Metroid Prime Pinball hits the European continent. The game has been available in North America for around two years already and it is only now that developer Fuse Games and Nintendo decided to ship the game overseas.

Basically, the title is a pinball game set in the sci-fi Metroid universe. So expect every table here to be Metroid Prime-themed; and players will be controlling Samus Aran in her morphed ball form. The game will have numerous flippers and will allow players to tilt tables and bend the rules a bit.

The game itself comes with a free Rumble Pak that will vibrate with every bump and explosion. Needless to say, Metroid Prime Pinball offers a single player mode, but more importantly, it also allows up to seven others playing simultaneously using Nintendo DS's wireless capability in Wireless Mission mode.

The Multi Mission mode, on the other hand, invites players to unlock our bonus tables based on worlds from the franchise. Metroid Prime Pinball will be available in Europe on June 22 for 40 Euros or roughly around US$ 54.

It's a big headliner in the news, and it probably baited the Shigeru Miyamoto-ites and Spartan fans to quarrel over semantics and context. But seeing as how a legend spent most of his life tackling designs of the most critically-acclaimed games of Nintendo's time, it's out of respect we decided to cover his side of the story.

In an interview conducted by entertainment media mogul Entertainment Weekly, Shigeru Miyamoto addressed a question about delivering Japanese-centric games to American gamers. The main issue involved that gamers bought more copies of Halo than of Metroid, so was Nintendo losing a grasp of Western tastes?

According to Shigeru Miyamoto, he could have made a Halo or a game like Halo - he certainly had the ability to - but he chose not to. "One thing about my game design is that I never try to look for what people want and then try to make that game design. I always try to create new experiences that are fun to play," Miyamoto replied.

American game companies, for one, are less likely to take risks in introducing a game with a new concept than publishing a game that has had a strong franchise following behind it. It's one thing to earn profit to keep a company in the black, but franchise spamming doesn't seem to be in Miyamoto's to-do list. Miyamoto also left something for us to ponder about:

With rising budgets, I understand why game companies have a great deal of concern if they don't design games in this way. But you need to create what you want to create! In that sense, I would really like to see people develop games like I do. When I show a game to people I don't ask their opinion or give them a survey. I just watch their eyes and their face while they play. Do they smile? Do they look frustrated? So I guess I do test my games — but it isn't very scientific.

The success of Nintendo will be bad for the video games industry; at least according to Kaufman Bros LP analyst Todd Mitchell. Before loyal Nintendo supporters take umbrage on this statement, we should go over the data presented by Mitchell and consider what he is saying.

Most analysts agree that the fourth quarter sales of Nintendo was really strong. They have made this declaration because Nintendo has sold 23.56 million DS units and 5.84 million Wiis for the 2007 fiscal year. In addition to this, 123.55 million copies of DS games and 28.84 million copies of Wii games have also been sold. These numbers have eclipsed the original expectations by a large amount. The only product that didn't hit the mark was the Wii which was expected to sell six million units.

So why is this bad? The success of both consoles may not be a "positive dynamic" for the major video game publishers. Since Nintendo has stimulated market growth and re-segmented it in its own favor, publishers are left with only a smaller market share as compared to Nintendo. Case in point: the author's company believes that only Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will "highlight this phenomena this holiday season". In addition, the "likely shorter product cycles of Nintendo's platforms" will have major publisher having a hard time catching up.

Now they have made some valid points, but it's all speculation based on the current market numbers. We'll have to see in the coming months whether or not it holds true.

Winifred Phillips, known for her audio pieces on game titles like God of War, The Da Vinci Code, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the upcoming Shrek the Third, has recorded a Super Mario Bros. tribute track to commemorate the 20 year anniversary of the game that redefined the gaming industry and remains as "The Best-Selling Game of All Time" in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Together with award-wining producer Winnie Waldron, Phillips they conjured up the track entitled "Go Mario! (Super Mario Brothers)" to contribute to a game music compilation as a tribute to great game tracks. The track sports a catchy tune of the lovable Mario theme song, accomplished in an a-capella fashion featuring her own voice.

The result: it's a multi-tracked, a-capella piece adorned with classic video game sound effects to create an orchestral feel, but still amazingly faithful to the original NES version.

Winifred's numerous awards include an Interactive Achievement Award for Best Original Score from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, and four Game Audio Network Guild Awards, including the prestigious Music of the Year Award.

She believes, like many composers, that "older video games ... have helped shape our current industry" and "are an important part of our shared heritage." She claimed to be happy to add their track to the game music tribute album coming soon.

Entitled "The Best of the Best: A Tribute to Game Music," the album will be bringing the game industry's best composers together and compile tribute works to music from The Legend of Zelda, Myst III: Exile, World of Warcraft, Metroid Prime, Medal of Honor, Final Fantasy and many more. The album is slated for a May 1 release and should be available at the opening of the Game Music Central website.

 After the creation of the solar-powered Wii station, TwitchGuru responded to a request to build a solar-powered DS Lite, and as such has produced it. Many people commented on the solar-powered Wii Station that was created by Tom's Hardware Guide and even requested a solar-powered DS Lite to be created, and as such, one has been created.

Taking no more than a slightly modified cell phone solar-powered charger and a DS Lite, TwitchGuru has modified their DS Lite to run solely off of the power produced by the Sun. Many were agitated that the device would be running off of battery power and will be recharged with solar energy, however this modified DS is solely powered off of solar energy.

With two solar panels, closely the same size as the NDS Lite folded out, the modified DS folds up into a nice small package not much longer than its original size. You can attach the solar panels however you would like but this modified DS features it attached to the top of the DS Lite's top screen and seems to balance out just fine. Now all we need is a sun-friendly Nintendo DS as it's not pleasant to play in the sunlight with any product that features a LCD. You can view the instructions after the jump and watch the video via the link below -

Watch: [Tom's Workshop Video]