Publisher Hudson announced today that it is bringing the colorful puzzle adventure Marble Saga: Kororinpa over to Wii next spring. Players take control of a marble and are tasked with guiding it through numerous obstacles in over 150 action-packed levels.

Hudson is promising offline and online-based 4-person multiplayer gameplay, along with a bevy of customization features, Mii support, and compatibility with the Wii Balance Board peripheral. Additionally, players can create their own stages in “Edit Mode” and share them with friends via Wii Connect 24.

First screenshots can be found after the jump.

Marble Saga: Kororinpa Screenshots

Rumor has it that Nintendo’s highly-anticipated October 2 press conference will be home to not only the announcement of a souped-up DS model, but also a brand-new Wii title. Interesting thing is, according to French site Gamekyo, this Wii title is said to be based on an “old [Nintendo] franchise,” one that likely harkens back to the NES era.

Punch-Out and Kid Icarus seem to be likely candidates for the announcement, seeing as past rumors have pointed to new installments in both franchises being worked on.

Guess we’ll find out on October 2, assuming this rumor is in fact true.

Nintendo reviving an old franchise for the Wii [Gamekyo]

Citing quality concerns, EA has axed Tiberium, a squad-based first person shooter set in the Command Conquer universe announced last December. The title was recently delayed into EA’s 2010 fiscal year, but repeated attempts to overcome the design challenges associated with the project have failed, ultimately leading to cancellation.

According to an internal memo passed throughout EA, several of those who were working on Tiberium will be let go from the company. For the rest of the Tiberium team, EA “make every effort to place affected individuals on projects within the studio,” as well as connecting them with other teams inside of EA.

The full memo is after jump. more »

Developer Pandemic Studios has sent word that it will release the “Total Payback” update for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames on October 13th for Xbox Live and on October 20th for the PlayStation Network. This update will allow players to create even more chaos in the streets and hills of Venezuela, offering the following additions:

* Cheats – Unlock the total-payback power of all weapons, vehicles and airstrikes in Mercenaries 2, as well as everyone’s favorite: Infinite Ammo and Infinite Health

* SIX New playable characters – From Blanco to Fiona, Ewan, Eva and more

* Cross-region Co-Op multiplayer SUPPORT – Tear through Venezuela with friends from around the world

more »

PS4? It is of course still years away from release, but as with all new hardware, planning begins early on in the development cycle. According to a report from Japanese site PC Watch, Sony is considering to re-use the multicore Cell architecture in the fourth iteration of PlayStation hardware.

While the PS3 was largely criticized as hard to develop for by numerous studios in the first year of its launch, developers are now more experienced in working with Cell. Thus, keeping the same core architecture in place with additional enhancements would be a huge plus.

Additionally, Sony plans to switch over to standard DDR3 memory for the PS4, rather than continue using XDR modules. The move would undoubtedly help save on costs, seeing as DDR3 availability will become more widespread and cheaper over the next couple years due to the impending launch of Intel’s Nehalem platform. more »

GameStop is running a sweet deal for those looking to purchase the upcoming Chrono Trigger port for Nintendo DS. If you pre-order the game now, offline or online through GameStop.com, you’ll receive a free soundtrack CD, which includes two tracks, namely “Chrono Trigger, Orchestra Version” and “Chrono Trigger Medley Orchestra Version.”

Promotions such as these are often left exclusive to Japan, so it’s great to see that Square Enix is expanding the reach of this deal to its fans in North America.

Chrono Trigger with Bonus! [GameStop]

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan today unveiled its Tokyo Game Show lineup, revealing that it will showcase 14 yet-to-be-announced titles during the event. In total, three announcements will made on the PSP front, while eleven will be made for PS3, including one from Irem Software of R-Type fame and another from Konami.

The full list of confirmed playable offerings for both platforms can be found after the jump. Expect to see PlayStation Home on the show floor, along with fully playable renditions of anticipated titles like Supernova Lumines, MotorStorm 2, LittleBigPlanet, and Resident Evil 5. more »

Homebrew developer Zx-81 strikes once again with an update to two of his popular PSP-based emulator applications, the TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine flavored PSPHugo and PSPColem, a Colecovision emulator.

For the complete changelog on each, look past the jump. more »

The Nikkei broke word last weekend that Nintendo is set to release an updated DS model by the end of this year, complete with built-in camera and support for the playback of music files. Now, a Chinese site has posted up a photo that allegedly showcases one of the LCD screens from the new and improved DS hardware.

To the right is the new screen, which interestingly, has a slightly expanded width of 3.25 inches, up from 3.

新型任天堂DSの画像が流出！10月に発表か？ [Yukawanet]

Back in August, Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski stated, quite adamantly, that Gears of War 2 was definitely not coming to PC. Speaking in a recent interview, he further elaborated on the heart-wrenching decision to stray away from PC development, highlighting serious piracy concerns as the core issue. more »