Master Chief is back in his tiniest adventure yet - this time on the Nintendo DS platform in the form of a homebrew game. No, no; it's not the "Halo DS" that Matt Casamassina was talking about before. Homebrew developer cobradragon1020 delivers the latest homebrew game starring the indomitable Spartan warrior from the Halo series with Halo ds. To find out more about this interesting homebrew game, check out our full article on it after the jump.

Download: Halo ds wip 2

The eighth iteration of the Nintendo Voice Chat has just been released. The show discussed quite a number of games such as Electronic Arts' Boom Blox and Sega's Iron Man for the DS (also available on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, and Playstation Portable) as well as a few of the storage issues on the Wii. To find out more, check out the full article.

Download: Nintendo Voice Chat Ep.8

Except for his appearance on the Wii's Virtual Console, Pit of Kid Icarus spent a very long vacation time away from the video game spotlight until his sudden and welcome appearance on Super Smash Bros. Brawl. But will he be a solo act again any time soon? According to a recent IGN podcast, the answer is "absolutely." More info in the full article.

IGN Editor Matt Casamassina is a troubled man. To quote his latest blog entry: "My Halo DS blog has haunted me since I posted it because many people were skeptical of my claims. I wouldn't make something like that up, of course, but that hardly silenced any of my critics."

Now with Halo 3 fever creeping over the Cortana network that is the XBL community, Matt has finally proven to everyone the existence of a Halo DS. Yes, he does maintain that it was real. But see, the important thing to note here is that it will never see the light of day on retail. It was never officially released, and will never be officially released. The copy that IGN got was simply a tech demo.

Matt says that big names were involved in developing this kick-ass demo (which he previously mentioned played a lot like Metroid Prime: Hunters). The graphics are actually very good for a DS game, and really - to quote Matt again - "prove that Halo DS wasn't a garage project by a two-man team."

To get the full deal (and evidence) from Matt himself, check the videos behind the Full Article link below.

The rumor mill is hot on the Halo DS project after Matt Casamassina testified about the existence of Halo on Nintendo's handheld, and IGN promised to talk about a demo they were able to get their hands on. Website Siliconera was able to get some clarification from Bungie's Brian Gerard and Frank O’Connor regarding the matter.

Straight from Bungie's community guy himself, "...there has never been an officially funded or sanctioned development of any sort of DS Halo game."

Before that, Bungie.net's content monkey Frank O'Connor did state that "we got pitched for it several times."That said, it's "very likely that somebody at some point in time created a prototype."

Halo on handhelds is possible, but O'Connor doesn't think an FPS would be a good idea given the hardware limitations. A scrolling shoot 'em up or some other form Master Chief can appear in is more feasible for the DS, he said.

Here's another fun thought from the interview: Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa could actually appear in Halo's universe. "I'm not going to say you're going to see Ryu in Halo, but I would say that our relationship with Itagaki is alive and well," O'Connor replied when asked about Ryu making a cameo appearance.

For the full transcript, click on the Read link below.

Point and click adventures used to be Sierra's forte, a reign that was only once rivalled by that of LucasArts' The Dig (nothing like Digg, mind you), and then recaptured by the limelight of the later Quest series (Police Quest, King's Quest, Space Quest, etc.). Until Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem on the GameCube.

 

Today Capcom is reviving the genre with a game that has certainly captured IGN Wii's attention (and their pockets for sure), coming in the iffy title Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure. What's that you ask? Well that's the new name for Project Treasure Island Z, a game we've heard little about.

But it's certainly got IGN excited - enough to get them to recommend that Wii owners pre-order a copy of the game right now. In fact, Matt Casamassina was quoted to have said:

But we're telling you, Zack & Wiki is fun. Really fun. Really smart. And really enjoyable. And we're not going to stop this campaign until you've pre-ordered it. Do it. Do it right now. What do you mean your local retailer isn't accepting pre-orders? That's no excuse for the truly dedicated. Start saving. Create a Zack & Wiki fund. And get on the message boards and spread the word. It's come down from the IGN Wii editors that Z&W (as those in the know call it) is the real deal and must be owned. As loyal Nintendo fans, you cannot disobey.

We're not quite sure with what got IGN so worked up with the game, but anything that capitulates on the strengths of the Wii and is comparatively great to a genre...uhh..older gamers started out with is appetizing enough. In fact, it's good enough to compel us to check out this game as soon as it comes out later in 2007.
But all the same, we'll be watching out for new developments on this game. Keep your eyes peeled.

The Halo DS project may have been nothing but vaporware - canceled and left deep within the inner crevices of Cortana's fiber optic network - however, IGN promises to reveal more details about the demo they played earlier this year.

As GameStooge points out, in a recent IGN podcast (06-15-07), editor Matt Casamassina once again brought up the subject of Halo DS. It's just a very quick comment, but right around the 38:00 mark of the podcast, Casamassina says that Halo DS is:

a real game… It was a Halo on DS! And it never made it to the light of day, for whatever reason. That reason was most likely Microsoft or Nintendo...

But a lot of people just don't believe that. We're gonna lay down some ownage next week or soon afterward by showing you guys that that is a real game. You guys are about to be owned - all you nay-sayers.

Some may have thought that IGN being able to play a build/demo of the game was just a hoax. Now, maybe we can actually confirm that.

Next week isn't all that far off anyways. It's already the weekend, so we've only a few days left to really find out. "Finish the fight," or so says Halo 3. Finish the rumor, more like. That's what we want right now. If you want to hear the podcast for yourself though, click the Read link below. Remember, the Halo DS comment was somewhere around the 38:00 mark.

*Halo DS (Deathly Spartans) fan art by Icarus_Flight from vgboxart.com.

 

For those allergic to hype, steer clear. Honestly speaking though, hype - or demand and anticipation for a game - is the reason why rumors about a said game persist. In this case it's Soul Calibur. While we've already reported on the rumor that a version of the franchise is supposedly going to be made for the PSP, this time, the rumor's for Ninty fans.

A lot of folks have noted that in IGN's Wii-k in Review podcast (for 05/04/07), Matt Casamassina said that there used to be a fighting franchise that came to the GameCube, and what's nice is that it's now coming to the Wii. The thing is now, it'll be a "crazy ass adventure game."

Wii news blog, Go Nintendo, speculates that the game could be Soul Calibur.

Well, a number of Soul Calibur fans here at QJ would like to add that Go Nintendo's speculation only makes sense. It can be recalled that, in the previous Soul Calibur online survey that Namco Bandai conducted, there were a lot of questions regarding the Wii. Moreover, a shift in game genre isn't farfetched, since the Chronicles of the Sword game mode in Soul Calibur III did work in its own weird way.

Our take on this rumor? Likely. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

In the later part of an interview with IGN's Matt Casamassina, Midway's Ed Boon said that  Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the Wii could have had online play, only if the Wii had something in place to support it. With the Xbox, they had Xbox Live. With everything else, they had GameSpy.

So while the Nintendo Wii had Wi-Fi capability and the Connect24 feature in place, they didn't have the service that mattered: game matching. If there was any, Midway would have had included multiplayer easily, because Armageddon already comes with online play capability.

But since Nintendo seems to be hush-hush about their dealings with GameSpy and their plans for online multi-play, it looks like the Wii version will remain a hot seat versus game instead. But Midway is not giving up hopes on Mortal Kombat Wii multiplayer.

Ed Boon answered a question regarding a sequel with online play support with: "If there was [multiplayer support] in place, of course we would definitely support it." Story of the Wii-gamers lives, isn't it?

IGN's editor-in-chief Matt Casamassina recently had the chance to talk to MySims producer Tim LeTourneau about the upcoming Wii and DS title from Electronic Arts.

Of course, one of the first few things that get asked about next gen videogames revolves around multiplayer capabilities. Casamassina had earlier revealed that while EA wouldn't confirm it right away, the MySims developers are indeed exploring an online component for the video game.

LeTourneau also confirmed this, although he declined to reveal specifics about their online strategy for MySims. Letourneau did say that they recognize Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection as a "great feature of the Wii" and that they "definitely want to take full advantage of all the capabilities of the system."

Judging from LeTourneau's answers on whether or not the title will be more focused on single-player gameplay, it seems that the online capabilities of MySims is more centered around "sharing". "It's more about sharing what you've done," said LeTourneau. "Showing people. Saying, 'Check out what I've done. Look at this.'"

DS and Wii connectivity also appears to be a no go at this point. According to LeTourneau, the dev team for MySims will be "taking full advantage of the DS platform and how it differs from Wii. We haven't really talked about the connectivity between the DS and Wii at this point in time."

For the full interview, click on the Via link below. You might also want to check out the new screenshots from the game below.

   

More screenshots after the jump!