It's the first cover appearance of Wario in over a decade (last seen in Volume 58, and not counting him in the background of Volume 158). Anyway, in this issue of Nintendo Power, Volume 212 (February 2007), we'll skip Pulse, it's stupid and nothing worth showing (except for a rather homemade-looking Wii cake) but we're still basking in the release of the Wii, the hottest new item of the 2006 holidays (and priced far more reasonably than a PlayStaion 3), and the last issue before the Wii sales charts show up (the top sellers for the GameCube in late 2006 were Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, and LEGO Star Wars). The Game Boy Advance list have born fruit with the Player's Choice line so a lot of those are older titles. We also haven't gotten to the point yet where they switch the somewhat stylized designs of the staff to Miis (which was fun for a gimmick but that change was permanent), so we're still good at this point.

In the News section, they have the "News From Japan" section, which talks about MySims, which was a spin-off of The Sims series to "better appeal to Japanese tastes". The magazine reported it to be a Wii exclusive, but that's not what the original press release said and it wasn't created for the Japanese market; in fact, it wasn't released in Japan at all.

The "Wii Smash Files" this month is on Meta Knight, and after the game previews there's the cover feature, an article on WarioWare: Smooth Moves. I never did buy (or play) WarioWare: Smooth Moves, it looked fun especially with friends. Oh well. There's a poster for Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz for the Wii, then an article on Diddy Kong Racing DS, a remake of the Nintendo 64 title, but because of the whole Microsoft/Rare embargo they had to replace Banjo and Conker with Tiny Kong and Dixie Kong, and finally some strategy on the Cave of Ordeals in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

The Wii Channels section had planned to talk about future Wii Channels that were to be added (besides the stock channels, the Disc Channel, the Mii Channel, the Photo Channel, the Wii Shop Channel, the Forecast Channel, and the News Channel). There weren't actually too many additional channel-channels added (purchased games showed up as additional channels), ultimately those would only be the Internet Channel, Everybody Votes Channel, and a year into the system, Check Mii Out Channel (not fitting into the main category or the game category there were also some channels for streaming video like Netflix or YouTube). In any case, the column today had the Virtual Console games that were "currently available" (an inexact date as we'll find out when we see which games were and were not covered this month), and it does make me remember the original promise of the Virtual Console and all the old NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Genesis, and more games that could be added; if they kept up the release of three games a week, there could easily be hundreds of titles available by the end of 2011 (the actual number was FAR less). But I was frustrated at how Nintendo Power covered them, effectively not much more than a list. I get why they might not want to retread some of the older Nintendo games on there as most of them already got some level of coverage in Nintendo Power years ago (though they didn't put any references to old magazines there, later in the magazine they discuss EarthBound but DO have some issue references). However, not all of them did. The Sega games and TurboGrafx-16 games, definitely not, and even some Nintendo games got shafted. (I noted that back in Volume 23 with BurgerTime Deluxe, which only got review numbers). There were some games that were also too early for Nintendo Power (though stuff like Metroid and Mega Man did better coverage later on). For something like Pinball you really don't need a lot of coverage on it, but this had Sega games which were Enemy Number One when they were first released, and now can be respected immigrants into the Nintendo family. The games listed went up to December 2006 in the Sega Genesis category there was Altered Beast, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ecco the Dolphin, Golden Axe, Columns, Ristar, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Gunstar Heroes, Space Harrier II, and ToeJam & Earl. I realize some of the games had been re-released through stuff like Sega Smash Pack but they didn't get the treatment they deserved back then, either. "Staff Pick", they say (for a handful of titles) but the Genesis games were $8 in 2006, and if I'm going to buy something with no refunds for more than minimum wage, I better darn well know more about it than two sentences. I guess there's always the Internet, but what I am paying Nintendo of America for? Besides, I remember I had more of a problem when there were actually NEW games on WiiWare, where there WASN'T a wealth of pre-existing information and they still did this two sentences stuff and a tiny picture. Anyway, for the TurboGrafx-16 they only had the games up to December 4th (not the 31st) so only Bomberman '93, Bonk's Adventure, Super Star Soldier, and Victory Run. The NES games are only up to December 18, 2006, so those included Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Pinball, Soccer, Solomon's Key (the only third party NES Virtual Console game at the time), Wario's Woods (released just twelve years prior), Donkey Kong Jr., Ice Hockey, and Tennis. Note that it doesn't include Super Mario Bros. as that came out on December 25, 2006 (whereas ToeJam & Earl, which also came out on Christmas, is listed). There were only two SNES games, F-Zero and SimCity, the latter of which was removed before the end of the service (presumably licensing issues with EA). The Nintendo 64 side has Super Mario 64 which I bought because at the time it was one of the best emulated versions of the game you could get. There was a page about adding points and downloading games, but the other thing to note about this section is that it's the first depiction that I can remember with the staff as Miis, something that would take over within a few issues (possibly as early as next) and continue until the end.

The next article is "Host Your Own Wii Sports Challenge". Underneath the gimmicks it's basically an article on Wii Sports, though it brings to mind the feature they did for the Power Pad all those many years ago, the "Power Pad '89 Playoffs"...and that's NOT a favorable comparison.

The somewhat condensed guide (it's not badged as a "Miniguide") for Final Fantasy III (that is, the ORIGINAL NES Final Fantasy III, not Final Fantasy VI) follows, but it's only four pages. Another four pages is dedicated to a preview of the Wii version of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones and some of the remote-waggling moves you'll be able to do...and the Player's Poll Contest next with Kirby Squeak Squad and a Nintendo DS Lite in your choice of color. (I miss more elaborate contests.)

Speaking of Final Fantasy VI, there's a four-page preview on Final Fantasy VI Advance, the port of the game to Game Boy Advance. By this point, the Game Boy Advance was surviving on a trickle of third-party games, but Final Fantasy VI Advance would be the system's send-off (for Japan, that honor went to Rhythm Tengoku).

Volume 212 is the first issue I can find with what would plague the magazine for the next several years, the ESRB ads with the Penny Arcade-style drawings. These get really annoying really fast (and no, they don't show off their imagined "Adults Only" player...or "Early Childhood" player), so I'm dinging the issue for that...there's a few more pages that talks about Lost in Blue 2 for the Nintendo DS...a preview of Heatseeker for the Wii...and another preview for Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Alan Averill is mentioned again as one of the localization writers. I haven't played Hotel Dusk: Room 215 so if it's another "Treehouse botches the script" incident I wouldn't know.

Finally, before we get to the Reviews of this issue, there's The Family Tree (on Kirby: Squeak Squad) and Playback. This time, it covers EarthBound and mentions Starmen.net and some of the stuff they had done, like a fan-signed petition to bring Mother 3 to the West. Probably good timing, as by the time the magazine reached mailboxes and newsstands the Mother 3 translation patch was underway.

Reviews this month...starting with the Wii, WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Nintendo) gets a 9.0. Other Wii games covered in the section include Far Cry: Vengeance (Ubisoft), Elebits (Konami), Super Swing Golf (Tecmo), Chicken Little: Ace in Action (Buena Vista, the Disney Chicken Little film was released more than a year ago and as they note it's not as bad as it sounds, giving it a 7.0), Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (Activision), Need for Speed: Carbon (Electronic Arts), with the "Also This Month" including World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions (Activision), Rapala Tournament Fishing (Activision), and Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (Vivendi Games d/b/a Sierra).

The Nintendo DS games include Kirby: Squeak Squad (Nintendo), Spider-Man: Battle for New York (Activision), Xiaolin Showdown (Konami), Star Wars: Lethal Alliance (Ubisoft), Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All (Capcom), Full Metal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy (Destineer...another "DS" subtitle pun), the "Also This Month" had Brain Boost: Gamma Wave (Majesco), Brain Boost: Alpha Wave (Majesco...both of these games sounded like knockoffs to the Brain Age and Big Brain Academy series, though admittedly they were localizations of Japanese titles), Digimon World DS (Namco Bandai), and Monster Bomber (Majesco).

They took this time to finally give The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which they been talking a year and a half, a review, that is, the GameCube version, the version that isn't mirrored and using traditional controls. It got a 9.5 like its Wii counterpart (reviewed in Volume 211). There doesn't seem to be any GameCube games in "Also This Month", though there is a Game Boy Advance game in the section, Polarium Advance by Atlus.

While there is a second poster this month (for WarioWare: Smooth Moves (also this issue is the conclusion to "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Ginji's Rescue Team", a manga that they were running in between some pages, and in true manga form so smaller pages and right to left), there's nothing beyond Community (which is a wrapup on the Wii mall tour, fan artwork, and more tattoos). No backpage quiz or game help.

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