But what the heck does that even mean, man?!

No real hints are present in this news about Nintendo head Satoru Iwata other than the title of his upcoming GDC keynote.

Called “Discovering New Development Opportunities” the keynote promises to deliver, well, I haven’t a clue. Given the Nintendo track record over the past three years the big announcement could be anything from a flash-in-the-pan Wii Channel (Everybody Votes, 2007); new games (2006, Brain Age and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass); a teaching tool/toy (Wii Music, E3 2008); or something else entirely, like… Kid Icarus.

Just kidding. As we all know by now Kid Icarus only exists in Matt Casamassina’s crazy hair.

The keynote is scheduled for Monday, March 25 at 9 a.m. Pacific time. But, by all means, guess away at what this keynote title means in the comments.

This week on Infendo Radio, Kyle and I are joined by both Will and Sean for a podcast full of .. well .. full of Ubisoft’s 2012 prediction, 1st party vs 3rd party games, the UK release of the Prof Layton sequel, New Play Control games topping the chart, and even more!

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Be sure to leave some comments or give us a call on the Infendo Radio Hotline: 206-338-BIGN (206-338-2446) after the show!

[Apologies for some sound issues.  Skype was being a cruel mistress this time around.]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The underground metal scene vomited all over its patch-covered denim vests in 1984 just because Metallica recorded a ballad.

Imagine the reaction if the band had released an NES game.

Nonetheless, Metallica revealed Friday a complete list of the songs included in Guitar Hero: Metallica, the legendary heavy metal band’s upcoming take on the wildly popular rhythm game franchise.

According to Metallica, the game will have 49 songs, 28 of which are their own. The other 21 are from artists Metallica were influenced by during their early years and newer bands influenced by Metallica.

Guitar Hero: Metallica includes the following songs:

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If you’ve read the January issue of Nintendo Power there’s no new news here, but if you haven’t there’s a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game set to arrive this fall, courtesy of Ubisoft. Cool trivia: It’s being developed by some of the same dudes who worked on Super Smash Bros. Brawl. An official announcement for the game hit the wires today (see link).

That latter point about Brawl should be fairly obvious once you see the screens and explainer in Nintendo Power, or read the presser.

To be brief, it’s a four-player brawler with no tie-ins to any movies or television shows. This brand of Turtle Power is being built from the ground up (the style is somewhat mature, however, so it is a bit reminiscent of the original comic).

Not a very thrilling day on the Wii Shop Channel, I guess.  Niki – Rock ‘n’ Ball is a new WiiWare game from Austrian developers Bplus and over on the VC we get another Sega Master System game, Wonder Boy in Monster Land.  Head past the break for full details.

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One of the games I was most pleased to see under the tree this past Christmas was de Blob. It’s a great game all-around, it’s third party, and apparently it did very well–even better than Nintendo’s Wario Land: Touch Shake It!, which released on the same day.

The game did so well, in fact, that THQ all but confirmed a sequel will be coming our way.

A sign of things to come from third parties on the Wii? We’ll see, but it’s a solid start.

It’s a pretty short release list this week.

DS
The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity
Coraline

Wii
Coraline

Apparently in a small blog update on the official UK Nintendo Magazine site, they released information that in the upcoming issue of their magazine that they are going to be looking at some upcoming titles. These titles include Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars, Ghost Busters, Dead Rising, and Professor Layton!? Here is an excerpt as seen on their website…

In addition to GTA we’ll be looking forward to Professor Layton and The Demon’s Box, Ghostbusters and Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop. There’s also a special feature on Nintendo’s New Play Control Range including Pikmin, Metroid Prime, Mario Power Tennis, Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat and Chibi-Robo.

Although this news is not really anything big, the fact that we know Professor Layton’s new game has a tentative title of Demon Box means a lot in the UK. As this gives us some hope to an official US release in some shape or form. With such a subtle confirmation, can it really be true?

Official Nintendo UK Magazine

“New Play Control!” promises to add motion controls, wide screen support, and a maybe some new content to classic Gamecube titles.  It’s been done before, with Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, the idea definitely has merit – but western audiences will have to wait unil March to see if these “Wii-Makes” are worth revisiting.  Still, looking at Japanese sales can give us some idea how the New Play Control series will fare stateside.

Last week Mario Power Tennis for Wii topped Japanese sales charts, boasting a sales total of 56,509 according to Media Create.  This beat out first week sales of New Play Control! Pikmin by about 12,000 units.  What makes Mario Power Tennis more successful than Pikmin, or any of the other games released this week? It could be multiple things – for one, the Mario franchise is highly recognizable – sales could be driven by the inclusion of Nintendo’s popular characters.  In contrast, Pikmin is a little more obscure, and lacks the brand recognition to grab those extra sales.  And don’t discount the play style – Sold separately in Japan, Wii Sports still makes the top 20 on sales charts – motion controlled tennis could be a driving force in and of itself.

New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis and New Play Control! Pikmin hit American shores on March 09, 2009.

Which of these titles do you think will do better in the US market? Let us know in the comments!

This is one of those titles that could end up being great, or it could simply suck…sorta like…*cough*Kingdom of the Crystal Skull*cough*