It was given away just yesterday that Retro Studios was one of the first developers to receive a Wii 2 development kit, and that they have been working on a game for it “that everyone wants” ever since. Naturally, speculation began to pour out about what it could possibly be – some of the more popular guesses at the forums included F-Zero and Star Fox. But according to Zelda Informer, we may be in for something a little more…let’s say, low-key. The news comes from – get ready for this – an anonymous person that works for “a very large gaming studio” and who has a friend or two at Retro. Sure…let’s go with that.

But wait! There’s some real evidence that suddenly makes this rumour seem that much more plausible. Last year, Nintendo renewed the trademark for Eternal Darkness, which would make a lot of sense if they were planning a sequel to it. And Retro Studios have proven themselves with a string of hit after hit that they can handle pretty much any game development challenge that Nintendo throws at them.

I’m not sure if Eternal Darkness qualifies as something that “everyone wants,” as Retro was said to have put it, seeing as I’m completely unfamiliar with it. But fan love for the game does appear to be very strong, and Nintendo’s recently started a trend of re-introducing their less-known franchises to new audiences with projects like Kid Icarus: Uprising, PilotWings Resort, and the revitalization of the Excite! series.

I’m looking for an assistant writer to help out with covering news for Wii 2 Blog. Sound like something you’d like to do? Hit the break for the details!

Applications are now closed. The new writer will be announced shortly. Continue reading…

Arguably the most heavily discussed feature about the Wii 2 is the controller, which is rumoured to host a 6-inch touchscreen. It certainly does sound a little odd to include such a large screen on the controller itself, so I’m naturally curious to see what it really looks like. The image below very well may be our first glimpse of it.

Click for a bigger version.

Have your salt ready, as the image’s history is a little shady. It first surfaced on 4chan, before being picked up by @numerical7 on Twitter, who addressed it to TechnoBuffalo’s Jon Rettinger, who then proceeded to post it on that site. According to him, the image is a document that Nintendo is currently passing around to approved third-party developers.

Make what you will of this rumour, but if that image is legit, the controller does appear to make a bit more sense now than when we first heard about it.

Remember all those developers who were listed off just a short while ago, who are supposedly in possession of Wii 2 development kits? Turns out they might not quite be going full speed ahead with their projects, as we’ve now got word that not all of them have received controller units yet.

Actually, for the Wii 2, I'm pretty sure it is.

Personally, I’m curious how it’s possible to develop much of a game at all without the controller, particularly one as complex and interesting as the rumours make Project Café’s out to be. Then again, depending on how recently Nintendo began sending dev kits around, it’s possible that the controllers are still just in the mail.

The second part of this update is a claim that the Vitality Sensor still has a future ahead of it, but it’s unknown whether that future lies with the current Wii or with its successor. I’m inclined to think that Nintendo has taken it behind doors to retool it for use in the Wii 2, perhaps as an integrated part of the controller. Ever since it was revealed, I’ve been curious about what exactly happened to it. I think it would be cool to see it come back as a bullet point on the Wii 2’s retail box.

The last portion of this update pegs an “early 2012” release date as a possibility, stating that Nintendo had originally been planning to get it out by the end of 2011, but pushed it back to some point in 2012. The original source of these particular rumours, Puissance-Nintendo, rules out a late 2012 release as illogical because Nintendo cannot wait too long to release their new hardware.

The Kyoto Report revealed today that Nintendo has one of the PlayStation 3’s head engineers working for them, and is researching tracking systems and head-mounted 3D displays. If it’s true, it seems Nintendo is truly keen on making 3D gaming a mainstream thing. Here’s what they said:

It looks like Nintendo Technology Development, the Seattle based hardware group under Howard Cheng, has been quite busy researching and developing several of the technologies being used in Project Cafe. One of the more interesting features is their work on tracking systems and head-mounted stereoscopic displays along with CPU and GPU research and evaluation.

“Tracking systems” may be referring to Kinect-like camera technology that tracks your bodily movements, but the mention of 3D displays in the context of a home console is definitely eye-catching, particularly after we were told that 3D wouldn’t be a focus in the Wii 2. However, don’t get your hopes up just yet – just because Nintendo is looking into a technology (or five) doesn’t mean they’re planning to do anything with it any time soon, if ever. For all we know, this could be research into an add-on for the Wii 2 further down the line, or even the Wii 2’s successor.

One thing’s for sure: Nintendo are doing all they can to ensure that Project Café, whatever it is, remains a secret until they’re ready to reveal it to us. April 26th just can’t come soon enough!

Emily Rogers, who first brought us the rumour of Rockstar and Nintendo being onto something together, has released a slew of new information from her secret sources, much of which is very tempting. Do take it with a grain of salt, however – the mechanics of her writing aren’t really too great, and there’s a high likelihood the original article might’ve been bogus link bait. But that’s all part of the fun of speculating about a console that we know practically nothing about, right? So here we go!

On hardware, we’ve got the following:

Some tidbits about Wii 2 games supposedly in development:

And bits on what we should expect to see at E3 ’11:

I must stress again that all of the above is completely unconfirmed information, so trust it at your own risk. But none of it sounds particularly far-fetched, to be honest.

Special thanks to Play4Fun for posting this at the forums!

Finally, we’ve got a fresh rumour that is neither about the elusive Project Café controller nor Nintendo’s mission to recapture the hardcore. Word has it that Retro Studios, Nintendo’s famous Texas studio, is working on a game for the Wii 2.

According to the Paul Gale Network, the house of Metroid is taking on “a project that everyone wants [them] to do.” Not only that, but they claim to be one of the very first developers to be entrusted with a Wii 2 development kit – not surprising, really, considering how close Nintendo and Retro have become, and their incredible track record for quality gaming experiences – and have been working on their secret project ever since.

Paul says the information comes from a personal conversation he had with two employees from the studio. Now, anybody could go ahead and just say something like that, but RawmeatCowboy of GoNintendo has given the rumour his personal endorsement, which probably means something.

At least, that’s what the French site 01net thinks. Just a couple of days ago, a rumour broke out that Nintendo had been talking to Rockstar about getting their franchises onto the Wii 2. The rumour originated from Gameolosophy, a site not so well known for its quality, so at the time, I wouldn’t blame you if you thought it was little more than wishful thinking.

However, we’re now getting an almost identical report from 01net, which is a source with a far better track record – they famously broke the NGP’s specs before Sony did, and their last big story was one of the first Wii 2 “leaks” (which we’ll soon know the outcome of).

01net’s anonymous source claims that Rockstar is in possession of a Wii 2 development kit, and is working on getting Grand Theft Auto V onto it in time for the system’s widely reported late 2012 launch.

Coming from the goodness of the IGN Boards, the user Kungfooligan has written up an amusing script for how he thinks Nintendo’s E3 2011 conference will go down. What I love about it is that Kungfooligan took the time to make it sound very realistic, to the point where I can imagine the reveal going down as he expects it to.

Here’s a short excerpt from the middle of the piece:

*Cut to Big Sister and Little Sister in the living room. Big Sister picks up a Remote and a wireless Nunchuck. Little Sister picks up the touch controller. The TV shows an HD Legend of Zelda game. Big Sister controls Link with MotionPlus accuracy. As she battles a Moblin, Little Sister administers a health potion using the touch screen. Jump cut, Big Sister looks around the breathtaking environment. Little Sister pulls up a map on her touch screen and leans over to show Big Sister. Little Sister pokes a spot on the map with her finger, and a destination marker appears on the TV screen. Big Sister and Little Sister use motion and touch controls together to solve a complex puzzle. The “Zelda Chime” plays from the touch controller.

Check out the rest of it here!

Nintendo Life has been teasing the Wii 2 on their Twitter account for the past few hours. It began after they posted the following cryptic message, which many of their readers replied to in an attempt to lemon-squeeze more details out of them:

[blackbirdpie id=”59925845732634624″]

After awkwardly explaining that they cannot confirm nor deny that Project Café exists, they left off another message warning people to have their salt about them as they looked up Wii 2 info online.

[blackbirdpie id=”59929805306593280″]

In reply to some reader tweets, Nintendo Life also appeared to deny the existence of a touchscreen on the controller, saying that it makes no sense to “add the expense of a handheld console to a home console.” However, note that they are probably on a strict “release nothing” order from whatever source it was that showed them the Wii 2.

The part about possibly hearing more details next week is probably referring to Nintendo’s quarterly investors’ meeting, which I understand is due to happen on April 25th, Japan time (which equates to April 26th for much of the rest of the world). This is also throwing more gasoline on the earlier rumour of an April announcement.

The last of these meetings revealed new Kirby and Rhythm Heaven games for the Wii, so it’s not unlikely that Nintendo will make another huge announcement at their next one. A few days after the meeting, Nintendo always posts a translated version in both text and video form, which I’ll be sure to let you know about as soon as it becomes available.

The last of Nintendo Life’s tweets was a short conversation about what we’re actually in for with the new console. In short, we’re in for something absolutely awesome.

Click for a full-size version.