Wii

Virtual Console game saves on your Wii won't be able to transfer over to Wii U Virtual Console ports of the same game, Nintendo confirms (via Kotaku). Company boss Satoru Iwata revealed the first details of the Wii U's Virtual Console plans during the latest Nintendo Direct video stream, and he made a point of mentioning even that the Wii U releases have been developed separately, due to the unique capabilities of the new console.

Games purchased and downloaded onto your Wii can still be played on Wii U by transferring that data over to the new console. Such content can only be accessed from the Wii U's Wii Menu, which is basically a separate OS for the older console built accessible right from the Wii U's main menu.

Once the Virtual Console launches on Wii U in spring 2013, you'll also have the option of re-buying previously purchased NES and SNES games at a reduced price ($1 and $1.50, respectively).Old saves won't carry over, but Wii U VC titles will be accessible from the console's main menu and also offer new features like restore points and second screen play.

Nintendo won't be bringing the Virtual Console to Wii U until later on in 2013, as confirmed yesterday by company boss Satoru Iwata, but a just-launched 30th Anniversary promotion feeds directly into that. Balloon Fight is the first sale offering, with its price knocked down to $0.30 for the next 30 days on the Wii U eShop.

Six other titles are confirmed for each subsequent 30-day period through mid-August: F-Zero (SNES, 2/20-3/21), Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream (NES, 3/20-4/18), Kirby's Adventure (NES, 4/17-5/16), Super Metroid (SNES, 5/15-6/13), Yoshi (NES, 6/12-7/11), and Donkey Kong (7/15-8/13).

These items will be available via the Wii U eShop before the Virtual Console launches this spring, starting right now with Balloon Fight. Those of you with an established library of games on the Wii won't be able to carry that content over to the Wii U, but reduced prices will apply for titles that you own already. NES games will sell for $1, down from the regular-priced $4.99-$5.99 range, and SNES games will sell for $1.50, down from $7.99-$8.99.

TT Games' open world crime drama LEGO City Undercover, one of the more highly anticipated Wii U launch window titles, is now officially confirmed for a March 18, 2013 release on Nintendo's latest release calendar. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon follows a week later on March 24, also the same day that Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity is released for Nintendo 3DS.

That's not all. March 5 sees the 3DS release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, which mixes up the traditional 2D side-scrolling of portable and classic Castlevania games with the 3D environments and action of MercurySteam's 2010 console revival. Also coming to the 3DS in 2013 is LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, a prequel to the March Wii U game that hits stores on April 21.

Hit the jump for the full rundown of upcoming Nintendo platform releases, ripped straight from the announcement.

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Who would win in a race between Dash from The Incredibles and Cars' Lightning McQueen? Who is stronger, Mr. Incredible or Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.? Disney Interactive gives you the chance to find out as they've announced Disney INFINITY, a new game that allows you to take control of Disney characters old and new and explore open worlds from Disney and Pixar classics. Using actual character figures of Disney's popular line-up, players can combine the many worlds of Disney across all major consoles, mobile devices and online. Think Activision's Skylanders, only with the vast history of Disney characters and properties.

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With the action movie, Jack Reacher, in theaters on Dec. 21st, we take the time to look back at our favorite action games.

There are shooters and there are action games. Shooters feature action, but action games don't always involve shooting. Over the past five years -- what most of us would consider the meat of the current console hardware generation -- we've seen a diverse assortment of action titles from any number of talented developers. Soon enough, possibly even as soon as 2013, the gaming world will be starry-eyed for the next generation's slate of hardware. 

Before you start celebrating what's to come, why not take a look back now on the best action games of this generation. From the must-play sleepers to the AAA marquee blockbusters, these are all backlog titles that you should make a point of finding some time for before they're all outclassed by the video game industry's shiny, new toys.

Batman: Arkham City

Rocksteady Studios took everything that worked about Batman: Arkham Asylum and dumped it into the content-filled open world of Arkham City. The improvements are legion. Exploration gets a renewed focus thanks to a wider offering of Riddler puzzles and a hefty helping of secondary story arcs, each of which amounts to a multi-mission challenge. The combat continues to be just as tight as it was before, with the added bonus of respawning bad guys and an open world that supports any number of approaches to a given challenge.

Wrapped around all of it is a Batman story that knows exactly who its audience is. This is a comic book game for comic book fans. The characters are elevated by top-notch performances by the likes of Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Troy Baker. The main narrative thread carries actual consequences within the fictional world, a daring-yet-successful move. This is a game that can be enjoyed by a Batman fan of any stripe, and it continues to stand as one of the most entertaining action experiences of this generation.

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The Wii Mini was a nebulous, unconfirmed thing only 24 hours ago, but retailer postings and a couple of official product images have pretty much confirmed it. The downsized, downpriced last-gen Nintendo console (feels weird to say that) popped up hours after the unconfirmed report on Best Buy Canada's homepage. It's still there now, though the product page and pre-order offer doesn't appear to be live yet.

You can get an even better look at the revised console in product shots on Future Shop's Tech Blog (via Kotaku); as you can see in the image above, it's certainly a sleek-looking thing. The blog notes a $99.99 price for the December 7-releasing Wii Mini, which concedes features like GameCube backwards compatibility and Wi-Fi(!) to nail that lower price. The Wii Mini also reportedly ships with a Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk controller.

A subsequent press release from Nintendo Canada (via Engadget) confirms that the Wii Mini is exclusive to our neighbors to the north for the time being.

Nintendo may have fired the first shots in the next console generation yesterday with the November 18, 2012 launch of the Wii U, but the new console's Wii predecessor arguably made the bigger splash. In an effort to widen its audience, Nintendo introduced motion controls and a less hardcore gamer-minded approach to release calendars. The result was a massive success.

There's a more involved story, however, one that many of us don't know. Its principal star is an underdog American inventor whose pitch for gyroscopic motion controls was turned down by Microsoft and Sony before being embraced by Nintendo. It's a fascinating tale and a great read over at CVG, with plenty of firsthand insight from people who were closely involved throughout the Wii's development.

It's also especially interesting in the context of the current conversation around the Wii U. CVG's feature closes with a rundown of the technical innovations that Nintendo pioneered and mass-produced: motion control, shoulder buttons, even the D-pad. It's impossible to say right now if the Wii U will bring another notch to this list, but a track record like that cannot be ignored.

Ralph, star of the new Disney film Wreck-It Ralph, is racing his way in to Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. In the Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed video below, you can catch Ralph learning to wreck it on the race track in his vehicle that can go from a car, to a boat, to a helicopter, depending on the situation.

The 2012 Presidential Election is swiftly approaching, and while we won't know who's won the race for another week, we wanted to simulate Barack  Obama and Mitt Romney facing off against each other in a different sort of battle. Utilizing WWE 13's character creator, we re-created both Obama and Romney and pit them against each other in three different matches: a TLC (table, ladder, and chair) match, an inferno match, and a steel cage match, to determine who the victor of the election (and the title belt) will be.

Transformers: Prime is the upcoming third-person action game featuring the Autobots and Decepticons fighting over a meteor made of dark energon. If this sounds familiar, it's because the game takes place during the events of the new Transformers: Prime cartoon. Check out the game's launch trailer below, in which Megatron shows off a new weapon and Team Prime defends against the oncoming onslaught. 

This year, Halloween hits on a Wednesday. Forget about trying to wrangle the last few bits of a costume you only half care about to drag yourself to some party that you’ll need to leave early just so you can go to work or class tomorrow. Take that bag of candy that you were going to pass out, lock the doors, turn off the lights, and play some great Halloween games again.

We look back at a list of some great games to give your Halloween spirits a lift. From busting ghosts to blowing apart necromorphs, we have you covered no matter your tastes in horror. Since the list is a couple of years old, you’ll probably find these titles for a reduced price. And you know what that means – more candy money for you.

If that doesn’t guarantee you an amazing Halloween this year, make sure that you check in with G4TV.com until the big day for all the tips and tricks you need. And while you’re at it, pick up that extra bag of candy anyway.

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two is all about working together and making decisions that will affect the world around you. In this Epic Mickey 2 "Oswald" gameplay trailer, you'll get to learn all about Mickey's new playable friend, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and find out how Oswald will be helping Mickey with his special remote control that can re-program robots and animatronics.

Extra Life, the 24-hour video game marathon event benefiting Children's Miracle Network hospitals around North America, is officially underway. Thousands of gamers are live streaming their progress towards the 24-hour mark, and here at G4, we've brought a number of our G4TV team members' live streams all under one roof. Please visit them, give them support and if possible, donate to the cause at g4tv.com/extralife.

You can re-watch G4TV's Extra Life charity stream, or any of the following by clicking the links - or browse Twitch.TV for more. Not all streams will be live at one time, and we'll add more as they come online:

G4TV.com Team:

• The Donell Zone
• Eric Eckstein
• Rob Manuel
• Becky Westmoreland

Some of the other G4TV Team Members

• Taylor Caines
• Amber Cowan
• Chris Delucia
• Lunar Demise
• Miss DJM
• Charles Gilbertson
• Sean Healey
• Hyperkind HD Gaming
• Jeffrey Knopf
• Adam McKiel
• Michael Perrotto
• Zachery Schwarz

Thank you all for doing what you can to help raise money for this charity. Please donate today if you can at g4tv.com/extralife.

Ubisoft is bringing Gangnam Style, the Internet sensation from South Korean rapper PSY, into Just Dance 4 come November 2012. The DLC drop will offers all "motion sensor platform"-owning fans everywhere the opportunity to do a horse-riding dance in front of their TVs. This is a world I am happy to live in.

There's no confirmed release date other than "November" and the press release also notes that pricing "will be similar to previous Just Dance DLC." To save you the time of searching for the Gangnam Style video so you can watch it again, I've embedded it up top. Just hit play. You know you want to.

In Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, the choice will be yours to decide if you want to use paint to bring things into existence, or thinner to remove things from the world. The concept of paint and thinner is explained in the all new gameplay trailer for Epic Mickey 2 below, which shows Mickey and Oswald using the magical paint brush to access all new areas of the Wasteland, and to bring new characters to life.