With the Nintendo Wii price being dropped $50 to a nice cool $200 I figured it was time for us to look at the most anticipated games coming out this holiday season.  Normally, the holiday season marks a time when publishers put all their eggs in one basket and release a slew of high profile games.  This time of year is also known as the “fall rush” or “poor college gamer becomes in debt college gamer”.

Wii Fit Plus
Release Date: October 4th, 2009

It’s more Wii Fit – which includes all the content from the first game plus 15 new balance games, six new strength training games and yoga activities. Wii Fit Plus will be bundled with the balance board and also be available separately for people who already own Wii Fit.

Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games
Release Date: October 13th, 2009

The second game in the Olympic Games crossover series sees Mario and Sonic along with their friends competing in the Winter Games. Since the game is family oriented you won’t see any big changes in how it plays, but you can now use the Wii balance board for some of the events. All of the characters from the previous game were brought over and Nintendo has announced two new playable characters Donkey Kong and Silver the Hedgehog. Another new feature is the ability to use WiiConnect24 and import your Miis into the game. You can outfit your Mii with clothes and accessories if you are into that sort of thing.

A Boy And His Blob
Release Date: October 13th, 2009

This remake of the classis NES game was developed by WayForward technologies and published by Majesco Games. In the game, the boy feeds his blob jellybeans, which transforms him into whatever is needed to solve the task that is put in front of you. This side-scrolling 2D plat former will have eighty levels of jellybean goodness (forty standard and an additional forty hidden challenge levels) with the standard levels consisting of an average of ten hours of gameplay.

Rabbids Go Home
Release Date: October 27th, 2009

First shown at E3 2009, Rabbids Go Home is an action-adventure platformer in which Ubisoft has decided to drop Rayman from the title and game. The premise of the game is that two rabbids decide they are tired of living the party lifestyle and decide to go home. Thing is, they have no idea where they come from, so they start piling up a bunch of junk to try and reach the moon. You’ll control two rabbids with one sitting in a shopping cart and the other one pushing. Man, that sounds like a bad Internet video. Two Rabbids, one shopping cart.  Jacques Exertier, the game’s director, has confirmed that Rayman will return for more action-adventure video games.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Release Date: November 3rd, 2009

‘Shattered Memories’ is a “re-imagining” of the first Silent Hill game released in 1999 on the original PlayStation.  Shattered Memories follows a similar plot to the original, which has Henry Mason searching for his daughter, Cheryl, in the town of Silent Hill.  Mason, equipped with only a cell phone and a flashlight, must avoid all encounters with monsters since combat has been taken out of the game entirely. The most publicized feature is how the game will monitor and evaluate how you are playing and your actions will have an effect on multiple things within the town.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Release Date: November 15th, 2009

New Super Mario Bros was another exciting Nintendo Wii game announced at this years E3 Expo. SMB Wii is the sequel to the DS title and the first Mario game to have simultaneous multiplayer gameplay in normal levels since the original Mario Brothers. The four players are Mario (first player), Luigi (second player), and two Toads characters: one blue (third player) and one yellow (forth player). It’s strange that with all the characters in the Mushroom Kingdom that Nintendo decided to go with two Toad characters. They also have added two new suits to the game; the propeller and penguin suits, and will allow players to ride on a Yoshi.  Nintendo also announced that the Koopalings, Koopa Kids from Mario 3, will be the major villains in the game.