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Is it possible that this beautiful piece of leaked art could be the box art for Super Mario Galaxy 2?

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At the 2010 Nintendo Media Summit, there was nothing on display – not even the behind-closed-doors demonstration of Metroid: Other M – that looked quite as good as Sin & Punishment: Star Successor. Every other game I sampled due to curiosity or a sense of duty; but with Sin & Punishment 2, the reason I chose to play was because I simply couldn’t keep my eyes off the screen.

The rainbow of brightly colored projectiles, beams and explosions, the fluidity and grace of the character animation and the huge quantity of detailed foes on screen made other Wii titles on display look drab by comparison, and the screenshots you’ll see here don’t do the game justice. Graphics are hardly the only reason to be excited about Star Successor, of course. But for those to whom “Sin & Punishment” sounds more like the title of a Nietzsche book than a video game, let me digress: (more…)

Figure out Nintendo had a Media Summit last week? No? Great! Infendo Radio has you covered!  Sean Hollister pops in fresh from Nintendo’s San Francisco Media event to give us the skinny on what we can expect later this year – Hands on previews with Metroid: Other M, Super Mario Galaxy, and Monster Hunter Tri – Commentary on the DSi, upcoming WiiWare games, Megaman 10 – and more! Check it out:

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And don’t forget to write in for our big EMAIL BLOWOUT episode next week! It’s easy to join in – why, just look at all this contact information:  Email us, via tips@infendo.com, call the Infendo Radio Hotline at (434) 535-BIGN, hit us up on Twitter, or hop in the Ustream Chat during the next live recording! Infendo Radio LIVE is scheduled to record on Ustream every Wednesday night, but watch the Infendo front page, or follow us on Twitter for updates and changes!

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Space. Wreckage. An storm of asteroids or possibly energy particles, destroying the remainder. And in the midst of the chaos and nothingness, a familiar-looking yellow-haired child encased in a sphere of energy, rendered in beautiful CG. Cut.

“Why am I still alive?” speaks Samus in a cool, computer-like voice, dejected yet curious, as she stares out the inside of the translucent jelly of a giant Metroid. Her entire Varia Suit floats in midair, half swallowed by the creature. “The baby?” she thinks aloud, as the giant alien cyclops Mother Brain recovers from its stunned state and prepares a final, fatal attack. The eye-fired laser beam lances out, but Samus is no longer in danger, quickly dropped to the floor below as the Metroid takes the brunt of the attack for her. As the Baby Metroid withers away, shrieking in agony, Samus’ heartbeats echo in our ears. As the teardrops of iridescent Metroid fluid rain from the sky in the chamber, her resolve strengthens, as does the orchestrated music that surrounds. “Mother, time to go!” she says with quiet rage, as the camera plunges deep into the depths of her Arm Cannon — where among the myriad mechanisms, a new power has been awakened. She unleashes a ball of destructive energy… and all goes white.

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I’m posting this just because these look cool.  What do you think: Mario or Luigi?

Slowly making my way through the throng of video game reporters exiting the 2010 Nintendo Media Summit‘s newsworthy opening presentation, I climbed the stairs to the third floor of the W Hotel in San Francisco, where Nintendo’s coveted hands-on gameplay demonstrations were just getting underway. Immediately, I saw a friendly face: Associate PR Manager David Young, clutching one of the brand-new DSi XL handhelds debuting March 28th. Seeing a chance to demo the new system and greet David at the same time, I moved closer — and found myself face to face, in more ways than one, with the hilarious DSiWare title PhotoDojo.

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Wired got the grubby mitts on Mario Galaxy 2 yesterday. Here’s what they had to say:

Galaxy 2 exists because the development team just didn’t stop coming up with ideas, thinking up enough new levels and concepts to justify a whole sequel. The two big new ideas this time around are the drill power-up, which lets Mario drill straight through a planet through to the other side, and Yoshi, he of the green skin, long tongue and varied powers.

For the full preview, including seven case studies, click here.

From Nintendo’s megaton presser yesterday, some numbers:

• Virtual Console now has 347 titles, WiiWare has 189, and DSiWare 12
• 76 Wii titles have sold in excess of 1 million copies
• 22 of which are first-party
• 54 of which were made by third-parties
• 108 DS titles have reached 1 million or more
• The DS number breaks down further into: 45 first-party and 63 third-party games

There’s no “secret” to developing for the Wii, nor is the audience more casual, less savvy or even, dare I sound like many in the enthusiast press today, stupider, less knowledgeable or less engaged than an owner of another system. Better still for all the developers out there who lost their jobs in 2009—and there were hundreds if not thousands—if you develop quality software for a system with more than 60 million owners, you will join this exclusive club. Why not start up a smaller studio and try your hand at some truly innovative software on a system that’s cheap enough to take some risk?

It seemed like only yesterday I, at least, was opining in the Infendo HQ how 2010 was actually going to be a bigger success for Nintendo than 2009. With this fresh information, I’ll modify it a bit: 2010 will also be bigger than 2008.

I’m not actually a paid journalist. Go figure. I’m just a Nintendo fan boy with an outlet to talk about video games. I’m actually a University student majoring in psychology. The mysteries of the human body and behavior are like crack to me. I love that stuff. So, naturally the implications of a device that could potentially measure the level of fear was super exciting to me. However, I’ve been thinking about how likely that the vitality sensor will do what they claim it will, and I’ve been itching to take a stab at it ever since. I’m no genius here, but allow me to become the science geek here and teach you a lesson.

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