Nintendo to Offer 62 Wii Games by Year End

Nintendo, the Japanese electronics firm, plans to launch its much anticipated Wii game console on Nov. 19 in the United States, and it said on Tuesday that it will offer up 62 games—32 of which will be new titles—for use with the new system before the end of the year, according to an Oct. 31 press release on Yahoo Finance.

Wii (pronounced “wee”) will sell for $250 when it hits the United States, and it will go on sale in Japan in early December.

Nintendo Wii

Among the new titles to be offered on or shortly after Wii’s launch are The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess—an update to one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises—Madden NFL ’07, Need for Speed, Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam and Red Steel, according to the release.

In addition to the new selections Nintendo will offer, it will also sell 30 classic games for the Wii Virtual Console on or shortly after the system’s launch, including games from the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super NES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis and the TurboGrafx16 console.  Gamers will be able to purchase “Wii Points” via Nintendo’s website or at participating retailers at $20 for 2,000 points, according to the release.  The points can then be exchanged for games to be downloaded and played on the Wii Virtual Console.  NES games will sell for as little as 500 Wii Points, Super NES and Sega Genesis games will start at 800 points, Nintendo 64 games at 1,000 points and TurboGrafx16 games will start 600 Wii Points, according to the release.

The console comes with Wii Sports, which includes bowling, tennis, baseball, boxing and golf games.  It can also play any of Nintendo GameCube’s roughly 530 games, as it is backwards compatible.

Nintendo calls the upcoming game offerings “the most diverse, and most exciting console video game library available.”

Wii Remote

Many of the games will be played using Nintendo’s innovative Wii Remote controller, which enables users to swing the mechanism like a sword, tennis racket or golf club to make games “both easier to play and more immersive.”

“Whether you pick a completely new property or a classic franchise, the Wii experience draws you in,” said George Harrison, senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications for Nintendo America, in the release.

Check out the release for the complete list of upcoming games.

In related news, Sony will launch its PlayStation 3 (PS3) console in the United States two days before Nintendo releases Wii, and it recently announced a number of new details about the system and its online gaming features, many of which will be free to PS3 users.

Microsoft launched its Xbox 360 system about a year ago, and all three firms are set to go head-to-head in a battle for the King of the Hill slot in the next-generation game console space.  In the previous generation of game consoles, Sony was the market leader.

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