Latest Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy, and GameCube news, screenshots, and game previews

Sega today officially announced the release date for MadWorld. The Wii exclusive will hit North American stores March 10th.

MadWorld is still awaiting its anticipated M-rating (mature) from the ESRB.

Tags: MadWorld, Platinum Games, Release dates, Sega, Wii

Sequel to the very successful Mario & Sonic at the Olympics for the Wii, Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics was hinted at by a Spanish Nintendo magazine and confirmed by sources talking to IGN.

IGN’s done a little digging, though, and has independently confirmed that the game is in development and set to be announced in the next month — which, by the way, really isn’t hard to believe given the astronomical sales figures for the first title in the franchise.

Look out for more coverage on the sequel when it’s officially unveiled. Until, let the speculation wars rage on about which winter games will and won’t make the cut, and just as importantly, whether the title will support Wii MotionPlus, as we all hope it will.

Tags: Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics, Rumors, Sega, Wii, Wii MotionPlus

Check out new screenshots of Sega’s Wii exclusive: The House of The Dead: Overkill.

Tags: House of the Dead, House of the Dead Overkill, Screenshots, Sega, Wii

A source talking to IGN claims that Sega laid off 30 employees earlier today.

Despite analysts’ beliefs early last year that the gaming industry would not be hit hard by the world’s economic strife, that has not been the case. Adding to the list of publishers cutting overhead is SEGA of America, which today laid off 30 employees. This according to a source inside SEGA.

It’s unknown if or how this might affect the releases of upcoming SEGA titles.

Update: This was later confirmed by Sega.

Tags: Layoffs, Recession, Rumors, Sega

Destructoid has an interesting preview of a game that’s been generating a lot of buzz lately.

Developed by Platinum Games and published by Sega, MadWorld for the Wii is an “ultra-violent” game making its way to the Wii in March. MadWorld features highly stylized visuals: everything is in black and white, with the exception of “gallons of red blood that will be spilled as you play”.

Killing is undeniably fun each and every time you do it. There are over 1,000 ways to kill people, from hazards in your environment to the moves that Jack can perform. If you beat up a guy enough, he will get dazed and players can perform finishing moves by using motion controls. Players can toss a guy into the air and stick their chainsaw into his belly as he comes back down, or do a back breaker on an enemy … the list of moves goes on.

Right now, my only complaints with the game are the enemy AI and camera. The AI rarely put up a real challenge as I fought them — they barely defended themselves, for that matter. The camera also needed some babysitting. There were a lot of times that I had to manually reset the camera to get it to snap behind Jack. It got pretty annoying having to do this every time, and I feel the camera would be much better suited if it was always positioned on Jack’s back.

It sounds like the game will be pretty fun — I’m definitely looking forward to it! MadWorld will no doubt continue to receive attention (both good and bad) as its release date grows closer.

Tags: MadWorld, Platinum Games, Sega, Wii

Sega has announced that Sonic and the Black Knight (developed by Sonic Team) will hit stores internationally on March 10th, followed closely in Japan on March 14th. The title is coming exclusively to the Wii and will feature a new sword fighting system.

It seems like Sonic games are becoming know for their inconsistency nowadays, we can only hope this one turns out to be a winner.

Also be sure to check out four new screenshots for the game.

Tags: Screenshots, Sega, Sonic, Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic Team, Wii