“Not everyone is cut out to be a president, but every Wii™ and Nintendo DSi™ user must act as commander-in-chief of his or her own gaming republic. On this Presidents Day holiday, Nintendo recommends reaching across the aisle in the spirit of bipartisanship, creating harmony between new and classic titles, puzzle games and platformers, sprawling console adventures and crisp hand-held challenges.”

Hit the jump for this week’s releases.

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Aww, Sackboy. Your woollen charms were enough to sway millions of budding level designers into the enchanting world of LittleBigPlanet, a pinnacle platformer that set the benchmark for user generated content in the YouTube generation for consoles. It may have taken a while to truly take off, but LittleBigPlanet remains one of the most ingenuous and unique titles of this generation, allowing players with unbridled imaginations and too much time on their hands to “Play, Create and Share” custom designed levels with the online community.

It was certainly an ambitious concept, and one that finally gave Sony a mascot character for the PS3 in the form of Sackboy, an infectiously cute mass of cloth and stitching tailor made for ample merchandising opportunities.

Developer Media Molecule was always adamant that LittleBigPlanet’s incredible depth meant that a direct sequel would be highly unlikely, but this was soon quashed by the surprise announcement of LittleBigPlanet 2 last year. Does it suffer from sophomore syndrome or can LittleBigPlanet 2 once again turn legions of gamers into masterful creators?

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The AOU 2011 Amusement Expo (AOU short for All Nippon Amusement Machine Operators’ Union) is pumping up excitement for many new, super splendid arcade games like Tekken Tag Tournament 2. This trailer boasts new characters, customization features and a more robust tag system than the original Tekken Tag Tournament.

The gameplay shows the ability to activate assists similar to the Marvel vs. Capcom titles, and, according to the adriasang live blog, you might be able to do battle with ghost data of players overseas. That’s the world getting smaller in a good way.

In light of Activision killing off the Guitar Hero franchise, John Riccitiello said some interesting things when he spoke at this year’s Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.

The EA CEO mentioned that “If you go back seven years, we were the leader. And we dropped the ball. Our IP deteriorated, our costs went up, and we didn’t really have an answer for the rise of digital. Need For Speed ended up flat on its back. That annual sequel thing got to us. That was a very tough business run. We just didn’t have the portfolio.”

Now if only EA could lighten up on the yearly sports releases, and give us more awesome stuff like Dead Space 2, Dante’s Inferno and the Medal of Honor reboot I’d be a really happy camper.

[Via GoNintendo]

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Last week, we reported that Activision is killing off the Guitar Hero franchise “due to continued declines in the music genre.” While we’re certain that the folks over at EA and Harmonix are quietly celebrating, not everyone is so happy to see the music behemoth go the way of the dinosaurs.

RedOctane was the publisher that teamed up with Harmonix back in 2005 to make Guitar Hero I and II. They were subsequently acquired by Activision in 2006, and dissolved last year. Their former CEO, Kelly Sumner, doesn’t have the nicest things to say about Activision’s management of the franchise.

His words await you after the break.

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Today Sony announced that PlayStation Plus subscribers will be getting some free Sega Genesis games. On top of being free, subscribers get these retro games before they are available to the rest of the PlayStation audience. Be warned though, they will only be available for a limited time.

The games that will be available include: Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Golden Axe 2, Comix Zone, Altered Beast, and (my favorite game ever made) Streets of Rage 2.

To see the full release windows for both PlayStation Plus subscribers and non subscribers, hit the jump. Read more… »

During a panel at Design Innovate Create Explore summit Blizzard’s president, Michael Morhaime, discussed the death of StarCraft Ghost – a title that has been on “indefinite hold” for the better part of a decade. Many of us have lost friends to World of Warcraft, some have lost their lives, and now we’ve lost StarCraft Ghost as well.

Last week, Morhaime mentioned that “They were working on StarCraft Ghost the same time we were working on World of Warcraft and StarCraft II” when “World of Warcraft exploded and we needed to make some resource decisions. It just wasn’t an environment in which a project like (StarCraft Ghost) could succeed.”

Back in the day, I was really looking forward to this. Of course, that was back when my Gamecube was shiny and new, but at least Blizzard is finally getting around to giving us an explanation. It just kind of sucks to hear that it’s because of the software equivalent of heroine.

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The above image is from the 1982 title Microsurgeon, one of the many that are getting nods from an unsuspected group of people — museum curators. Reaching beyond the  much exhausted ‘Video Games As Art And Culture’ argument, this fine group of people essentially says “yes, video games are and they deserve to be appreciated as such.”

More than just talk, they back it up by opening up museum exhibitions like those found in Germany and Rochester, N.Y. Now, gamers can add two more to their list of places to visit — the mecca of the gaming world San Francisco, Calif., and Washington D.C. Unlike the fun-to-say-three-times Computerspiele (Berlin) and hard to find ICHEG (Rochester), the two new exhibits are treating games like they are supposed to be treated — for the gamers.

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Apparently, selling roughly one million copies on each platform, and an aggregate review score hovering around eighty percent isn’t quite enough to ensure a speedy sequel over at Electronic Arts. While a sequel to DICE’s Mirror’s Edge was confirmed in the works last year, the development team has reportedly moved on to other things.

That’s really a shame too. Like many of EA’s newest IPs, Mirror’s Edge is one of my favorite games of this generation. More so than the others, it’s the one that really could have used a sequel. Mirror’s Edge was an absolutely fantastic concept that left a great deal of room for improvement. If they’re not doing it now, I just really hope EA gets around to revisiting this series at some point.

[Via Videogamer]

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Happy Valentine’s Day everybody. Why not celebrate with your loved ones by purchasing them some downloadable content for your Wii and DSi? There’s even Valentine’s Day themed WiiWare, à la Pucca’s kisses game, to get your manufactured-excuse-for-yet-another-consumer-holiday off on the right foot.

Hit the jump for today’s other offerings, including two new WiiWare demos.

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I realize this review is a little late, but I don’t think fans of Camelot’s Golden Sun series will mind.

After all, they’ve been waiting since 2003 for a sequel to the GBA titles Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. After such a long time coming, is Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the series’ first DS iteration, worth the wait? Can Camelot capture that same sense of wonder that permeated the first two games? Read on to find out.

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While Sony might be planning on 3D becoming the next big thing, right now the gaming world is focused on HD, and more specifically HD remakes. The fad caught my eye when the God of War Collection first came out in 2009. Then there were others. It feels like more and more HD remakes are coming out of the woodwork almost every day. Is this a good thing? Or is this HD-ification of the past just a shameless cash grab? Read more… »