Living now on the west coast, I am used to waking up, checking my email and being greeted by new and interesting (though sometimes expected) pieces of news. Yesterday, I woke up to an email that was far from what I could have imagined. Along with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD Bundle which is a great play to try and get people to purchase a Wii U by remaking a legacy title and presenting it as something new, Nintendo also announced the Nintendo 2DS. That’s right. The 2DS.

Now at first glance, it definitely sounds ridiculous. The Nintendo DS was a success so it spawned the Nintendo 3DS which brought 3D to handhelds. Even after a shaky start, Nintendo was able to pull it together and make the system a success. And now they announce the Nintendo 2DS. It will be a fixed unfoldable design and play the 3D content exclusively in 2D. What? Why take away one of the key features of the 3DS by removing the 3D?

Epic franchises have been doing crossovers for years. It was only a matter of time before the team behind The Lord of the Rings movie franchise took notice of the success of other film blockbusters like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Indiana Jones and how well they all did when they met the LEGO world. Not only did the toys sell, but their video games were all certified hits. LEGO The Lord of the Rings promised to again do something never before done in a LEGO crossover.

The Long

Unlike LEGO Batman and its sequel which were original stories, LEGO The Lord of the Rings took the path of Star Wars and put the entire film trilogy and its most epic encounters into LEGO form. Unlike Star Wars though, LEGO The Lord of the Rings included actual voiceover taken directly from the film. That means the most iconic scenes, though given LEGO twists and humor in many cases, have the authentic audio from the movies. Hearing LEGO Gandalf utter, “You shall not pass” to the Balrog is unexpectedly still incredibly powerful even though, for all intensive purposes, it’s a toy saying it.

At a minimum of $300 a pop, hitting sales of 400,000 units is nothing to sneeze at. That means that in the first week Nintendo was able to earn a MINIMUM of $120,000,000 in sales off the newly launched Wii U. Factor in that some percentage of these consoles sold were the $350 Deluxe Edition means they the number may be actually be closer to $130,000,000. But how does that compare to console launches in the past?

Back in 2006, the original Wii clocked in sales of 600,000 units in its first week on shelves. That’s a 200,000 unit differential. The Wii U’s launch was more in line with the PlayStation 3’s launch which was also in the 400,000 range that same year showing that the Wii U may be more of a core gamer system as opposed to the mass appeal that the Wii had to non-gamers.

There are two known facts about The Flickcast’s gaming division (a.k.a. the Bitcast):

1. WallE and I love video games.

2. WallE and I cannot wait until Wreck-It Ralph hits theaters.

So it only makes sense that we would be following the news on the Wreck-It Ralph tie-in video game. Now while we all know that movie tie-in games run a high risk of not living up to expectations for the film, or for games in general, there is a shed of hope for Wreck-It Ralph. After all, it is a game… based off a movie… that is based off of gaming. What could possibly go wrong? Well, don’t answer that as we have seen many a project that should have been a layup go wrong.

In the new teaser trailer, we take a quick look at Wreck-It Ralph but don’t get the opportunity to see his gameplay so that is what leads us to speculate. What is Wreck-It Ralph going to be like? Players have already been given the opportunity to play browser based versions of Hero’s Duty and Sugar Rush on the Wreck-It Ralph movie site as well as a Fix-It Felix iOS game.

One aspect of LEGO games that has always stood out was the central hub location where players would go in and out of missions. Originally, this was a small location of only a few rooms that chapters could be explored by entering. This was the primary setup for LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones. More recently, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes changed this format with an open world Gotham for players to traverse and go into story missions when they saw fit. Now, Traveler’s Tales needs to switch up for the format again for LEGO The Lord of the Rings.

While it made sense in LEGO Batman’s world for the caped crusader to be able to travel around Gotham at his whim, that just isn’t the case with the tighter narrative that needs to be told during The Lord of the Rings. Even in LEGO format, The Lord of the Rings needs to have a clear beginning and ending location that players can’t just skip to. As anyone who has watched, or especially read The Lord of the Rings, it isn’t the destination that mattered to the story as much as it was the journey that got the heroes there.

Now it’s no secret that the Flickcast team are fans of the original G1 Transformers as well as Highmoon Studios’ work on the franchise with Transformers: War for Cybertron and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. And when we have all seen the blockbuster abomination from Michael Bay, that doesn’t mean we are closed off to a reimagining of the robots in disguise. Most recently, this has come from Transformers Prime on the Hub network. And with all toy franchises, it was only a matter of time before a new game would be launched for it coming from NowPro.

The Flickcast has shown both the reveal of the game as well as the first gameplay foodtage for Transformers Prime: The Game. Now following the announcement that Transformers Prime: The Game will be a launch window title for the Wii U, we get to take a peek at some of the story for what Optimus and the rest of Team Prime are going to encounter. In the trailer after the jump, a new weapon is revealed that Megatron is intent on powering up to unleash devastation upon the Autobots and the rest of the world.

One of the most intimidating prospects for a game developer may be the chance to work on a franchise they grew up loving. There is so much pressure put on themselves to uphold the high standards they set because they don’t want to let down themselves, other fans or the creators of it. But it also gives great opportunity for talented teams to make something special that can stand alongside other creative works associated with that franchise. Traveler’s Tales is one of those teams that has shown both love and respect for everything from Star Wars to Harry Potter in the LEGO universe and are undertaking the formidable legacy of The Lord of the Rings in their next game.

When you look at LEGO The Lord of the Rings at first, what you may notice first is the world going on behind the characters. There is a blend of both picturesque landscape combined with scenics from the films created out of LEGO. Much like they did with LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, LEGO The Lord of the Rings will have a large open world format with side quests for players to take part in instead of just following the story of the game.

If there was ever a movie to not surprise us with a tie-in video game announcement, Wreck-It Ralph would be it. What is surprising though is that the video game adaptation of Wreck-It Ralph, the Disney animated flick that revolves around a video game villain who wants to become the hero, is being limited to only the Nintendo platforms.

In the film Wreck-It Ralph, characters from all over gaming’s past and present make cameos from those we have seen to what is sure to be a bunch of star studded surprises as well. Whether that happens in the game remains to be seen.

Here’s the official word from Activision:

Get ready for classic arcade video game action with a whole new modern look and feel as Activision Publishing Inc. and Disney Interactive today announced a collaboration to produce and distribute a Wreck-It Ralph video game. As a story extension to the highly anticipated upcoming blockbuster film of the same name from Walt Disney Animation Studios, the Wreck-It Ralph video game is set to inspire a whole new generation of young gamers as a classic, arcade-style side scroller featuring Ralph – the misunderstood villain of his own arcade game who sets out to prove he can be a hero too.

When movie makers started taking toy lines from twenty years ago and made it into movies like Transformers or G.I. Joe, the concepts at least made sense. But when Battleship was announced that it was coming to the big screen, the only thing more frightening than what would appear on screen was the chance that a game adaptation of the film might be made as well. Traditionally movie tie-in games are quick cash ins to coincide with the film’s release, a few exceptions being the much beloved Spider-Man 2 or X-Men Origins: Wolverine games. Now, a strategy game that started on a table top using red and white peg and miniature ships has made its way to the world of movie tie-in first person shooters.

Gameplay

Battleship consists of two main gameplay aspects. Where players will spend most of their time is in a traditional military FPS. While traversing the tropical beaches of Hawaii, players’ choices are limited to three human weapons, a pistol, a shotgun and a carbine, two alien weapons, one resembling a turret gun and another similar to a sniper rifle, and grenades. The lack of variety of weapons or just the sheer lack of different weapons is disappointing as it doesn’t feel like the game really gives a player the opportunity to progress and earn better items. In terms of control, the game moves and shoots in a fairly standard manner, not doing much to try and set itself apart from other shooter combat scenarios but still at least getting the basics right.

About a month and a half ago, we covered the announcement of the Transformers Prime series getting its own game coming to all the Nintendo platforms. Today, we have the latest trailer for Transformers Prime featuring all gameplay footage. Though the release date hasn’t been revealed yet, Transformers Prime is slated for later this year, likely after Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

It’s interesting to see two Transformers games coming out in the same year, though it makes sense as the two have widely different audiences of fans of the same core franchise. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is built around the classic fan who is now in their later twenties or older. The story is more mature, has a darker art design and features classic versions of characters.

Transformers Prime on the other hand is the Transformers for the current youth generation. The character designs are simpler and brighter and the series has the three young human sidekicks for kids to relate to. Transformers Prime also is coming out for the Wii, DS and 3DS, systems which are skewed towards a younger fanbase.

Check out the trailer below and stick to the Flickcast for more on Transformers Prime coming later in 2012 for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS.