Nintendo's Wii Launch Line-Up Unveiled

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Within the first five weeks of launch, Wii owners can pick from up to 62 games, according to Nintendo. Licensees and developers have lined up to support the Wii launch in unprecedented numbers. Wii and its Wii Remote completely change the way people play and experience video games by making every motion of the controller translate into action on the screen. All at once, Wii makes games both easier to play and more immersive. By year's end, Wii owners will have 32 new titles to play, including industry powerhouse games like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Madden NFL '07, Need for Speed: Carbon and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam; category-redefining adventures like Red Steel, Elebits and Trauma Center: Second Opinion; and Hollywood favorites like Cars, SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Wii owners also will return to their youth with 30 classic games available for download to play on Wii's Virtual Console. These include games for the NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx16 consoles. Players redeem Wii Points in the Wii Shop Channel and download their games. And that's not to mention the entire library of more than 530 Nintendo GameCube games that can be played on the Wii console from day one because Wii is directly backward compatible.

Every Wii owner starts off with Wii Sports, which comes packed in with the console itself. The sporting collection of bowling, tennis, baseball, boxing and golf lets players literally swing the Wii Remote like a bowling ball, racket, bat, boxing glove and golf club. The games are easy for anyone to try and they dramatically demonstrate how Wii makes video games fun for everyone. For avid gamers, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess emerges as this season's video game masterpiece. The epic adventure lets players swing the Wii Remote as a sword and can play in a 16:9 aspect ratio with beautiful visuals and glorious sound. Have you ever tilted your controller while playing a driving game, hoping in vain that extra oomph would help you land a huge jump? Now Excite Truck translates those movements of the Wii Remote as players hold it sideways and turn it like a steering wheel.

Wii's launch library contains games of all genres, and each one gives gamers a new way to play. While Wii Sports, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Excite Truck will be ready to go on launch day, last-minute polishing by third parties means their exact dates will soon be locked down, though most will launch by the end of November. A complete list of launch-day titles will be announced in the near future. Third-party publishers have created an impressive list of launch titles for Wii, and their backing will continue steadily into the new year. Before the end of December alone, the following titles will be available:

- Activision: Call of Duty 3, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Rapala Tournament Fishing, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions
- Atari: Dragon Ball Z : Budokai Tenkaichi 2
- Atlus: Trauma Center: Second Opinion
- EA: Madden NFL '07, Need for Speed: Carbon
- Konami: Elebits
- Midway: Happy Feet, Rampage: Total Destruction, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, The Ant Bully
- Sega: Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
- SNK: Metal Slug Anthology
Tecmo: Super Swing Golf
THQ: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Barnyard, Cars, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Creature from the Krusty Krab
- Ubisoft: Far Cry: Vengeance, GT Pro Series, Monster 4X4 World Circuit, Open Season, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Red Steel, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent
- Vivendi: Ice Age 2: The Meltdown.

In addition to these new titles, Nintendo is making a great video game archive available for download to its Virtual Console. NES games start at 500 Wii Points, Super NES games start at 800 Wii Points and Nintendo 64 games start at 1.000 Wii Points. Sega Genesis games start at 800 Wii Points and TurboGrafx16 games start at 600 Wii Points. Wii Points can be purchased online or at retail at an MSRP of $20 for 2.000 points. Before the end of December, the following titles will be available:
- NES: Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. , Ice Hockey, Pinball, Soccer, Tennis, Urban Champion, Wario's Woods, Baseball, Solomon's Key
- SNES: F-Zero, SimCity
- N64: Super Mario 64
- Sega Genesis: Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Columns, Ecco the Dolphin, Gunstar Heroes, Space Harrier II, Toe Jam & Earl, Ristar, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
- TurboGrafx16: Bonk's Adventure, Super Star Soldier, Victory Run, Bomberman '93, Dungeon Explorer.

As previously announced, Wii contains built-in parental controls that let adults set the console to play only games of a certain rating and lock their selection with a PIN code.

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