Mario Baseball Wii Finally Acknowledged

It’s that time of year again. The weather is beginning to heat up, little leaguers are hitting the diamond, and gamers are staying inside to play baseball games. Of course, readers of this blog usually prefer their sports games to have a heavy dose of Italian plumber, and Nintendo has these people covered.

Mario Super Sluggers, the successor to the Gamecube’s Mario Superstar Baseball, was officially announced during Nintendo’s media summit this weekend. A Mario baseball title had been mentioned at previous events, but very little was known about the game.

The company revealed that the game will make use of the Wii’s motion-sensing remote to replicate real-life maneuvers, much like Wii Sports did at the system’s launch. Mario Super Sluggers is likely a stepping stone for expanded audience gamers who started with Wii Sports Baseball and are ready for a more in-depth gaming experience.

Unfortunately, a North American release date has yet to be announced, but an early to mid-summer launch seems likely, due to the game’s seasonal subject matter.

However, there is still the question of whether the many fans of Wii Sports will be anxious to pay upward of 50 dollars for a more detailed version of a game that was part of a free compilation. Mario Superstar Baseball failed to capture much interest from the gaming community when it was released, so this sequel may be a hard sell to the core gamers as well. Let’s hope that the developers are able to incorporate even more fun motion-controls and an impressive single-player campaign. Otherwise, all the lightning bolts and banana peels in the world wont keep this one from striking out at retail.

Games Dated and Awarded at GDC

The annual Game Developers Conference (where the industry gathers to party and discuss the development of games…but mostly to party) is currently underway in San Francisco and, as usual, Nintendo has a presence at the event. With that presence comes some interesting news tidbits.

Nintendo announced yesterday that they have officially set release dates for the North American launch of two items. Wii Fit, the game/exercise program that is already making record sales in Japan, will be released May 19; just in time for players to start getting in shape for the summer.

Also announced was that WiiWare will be available beginning May 12. The service, which allows Wii owners to purchase and download original gaming content, is expected to provide competition to Sony’s Playstation Store and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade. Nintendo is supporting their service with two announced games so far: Dr. Mario and Pokemon Farm. The former is an update to their classic NES puzzler and the latter is a virtual training space for Pokemon fans to raise their favorite critters. Both games are expected to launch simultaneously with the service, or soon after.

Nintendo’s presence in the gaming market was also present during the Game Developers Choice Awards. The industry voted The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass as the best handheld game of the year. Nintendo was also honored with nominations for Super Mario Galaxy in the Best Game of the Year and Best Game Design categories.

Nintendo Awesomeness will be sure to be updated with any other news that may be announced during the rest of the conference.