[UPDATED: 9:00am PST] Today's regularly updated newsbriefs include news of four “new” releases for the Wii's Virtual Console download service including NES classic
Zelda II), a partnership between the ESRB and Good Housekeeping magazine, and a new 18-track celebrity game music CD.
- Nintendo has released a quartet of “new” games for download over the Wii's Virtual Console. Purchasable from the Wii's online Wii Shop Channel, the games released today include NES action adventure classic
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, originally released for the NES in 1988. The game is available for 500 Wii Points ($5) alongside another NES classic, Hudson's
Milon’s Secret Castle. Other additions to the service include Turbografx-16 shooter
Dead Moon for 600 Wii Points ($6), and
ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron for the Genesis, which costs 800 Wii Points ($8). As
noted earlier, these releases bring the service's catalog to a landmark 100 titles.
- The ESRB has announced a new partnership with
Good Housekeeping which will see a series of exclusive articles by ESRB president Patricia Vance featured on
the Good Housekeeping website. The goal of the series will be to educate visitors on the ESRB game rating system in order to help consumers make better informed purchasing decisions for them and their families. The agreement will also see a regularly updated list of the top 20 selling video games on the site, complete with each title's ESRB rating. “I’ve been reading Good Housekeeping for years, as have millions of other women across the country, and it’s clear that it is a truly great fit for this type of information,” said Vance. “Good Housekeeping has been an iconic, trusted source of information for over a century, and we’re extremely pleased that this partnership allows ESRB to become a part of that rich tradition by helping its online readers become more informed consumers when it comes to which video games to buy for their children.”
- Officials from
Game Music Central, an online music store devoted to game music, have announced the release of Best of the Best: A Tribute To Game Music, described as “the world’s first compilation CD featuring music inspired by some of the greatest games ever, performed by award-winning celebrity game music composers.” The CD features 18 all new works from 20 featured video game composers, including Tommy Tallarico's remixed tribute to
Earthworm Jim 2, Inon Zur's “the Hunt” from
Conan The Barbarian, and a pair of pieces by Gerard Marino inspired by SquareEnix's classic
Chrono Trigger. Other composers featured on the CD have contributed to the music behind
God of War, EverQuest, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Hitman, Jade Empire, King Kong, Myst, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Lord of the Rings, Outcast, Rayman, SOCOM and
World of Warcraft. Availble exclusively from Game Music Central, the collector’s edition CD includes a 6-page booklet with photographs and printed autographs from the 20 featured composers.
