Nintendo Power V243

Nintendo Power V243 is the July 2009 issue of Nintendo Power. Featured articles included in-depth previews of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Scribblenauts, Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Astro Boy. There was also brief interview with Tsunku♂, a cocreator of Rhythm Heaven.

The Conduit, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, and The Legendary Starfy were reviewed this issue, though the highest rated game was Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 at "9.0".

News
Some of this month's news:
 * The next Shaun White game, Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage, will be Wii-exclusive.
 * In Flip's Twisted World, players can rotate the game's world using their Wii remote controller.
 * ''LEGO Rock Band is coming to the Wii and the Nintendo DS, and will be released during the holiday season.
 * Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, a text adventure/dating sim/military strategy game, is the first game in the series to be released in North America.
 * 'Based on the cartoon show of the same name, Marvel Super Hero Sqaud will be heading for the Wii and Nintendo DS.
 * Three Harvest Moon games are announced: Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands for the Nintendo DS(a sequel to Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness), Harvest Moon: Animal Parade for the Wii, and a WiiWare game titled Harvest Moon: My Little Shop.
 * Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter, the sequel to the popular 2007 Nintendo DS game, will be released on both the DS and the Wii.
 * Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga will the the first Wii online cooperative RPG.
 * A sequel to Jambo! Safari, an obsure arcade game where players interact with wildlife, is in development for the Wii and the Nintendo DS.
 * ZootFly Studio announced a game where Mr. T teams up with SimCity creator Will Wright, fights Nazi's, and solves environmental puzzles while engaging in platforming and combat.

Wind beneath Your Wings
Icarian: Kindred Spirits is an upcoming action/platforming WiiWare title. The protagonist is an angelic creature named Nyx who is searching for her lost friend. She leaves the skies to go down to Earth, only to find it destroyed and turned into a wasteland. Nyx will have the power to use the environment around her. Using the Wii Remote, blocks, pillars and even fireballs can be used to aid Nyx in her quest.

What to Ware
In honor of the one-year anniversary of WiiWare, Nintendo Power listed their top ten WiiWare games so far:

Meat Your Maker
Super Meat Boy is an upcoming WiiWare platformer based on an online Flash game. Besides action and adventure, it also feature a multiplayer mode, boss fights, and unlocable playable characters. The magazine interviewed co-creators Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, asking them about the origins of the original Meat Boy game and what they plan to bring to WiiWare.

Evaluation Station
The following reviews are for downloadable games. "Recommended" is a critic's positive response, "Hmmm..." is a lukewarm response, and "Grumble Grumble" is a poor response.

Departments

 * Pulse: Chris Slate pondered how things have changed in the gaming industry as exclusive games are released on Nintendo platforms. The development of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days seems to be what spuured this editorial, and he listed some of the exclusives as examples such as 'Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Scribblenauts and Muramasa: The Demon Blade'', all of which were features this issue. As for letters, second round of answers to “What games series would you love to see come back?” were printed. The question this month asks readers for their thoughts of E3 2009
 * Preview July '09': The previews this month were Academy of Champions, The Bigs 2, Bleach: The 3rd Phantom, Cursed Mountain, G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Madden NFL 10, Need for Speed Nitro, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Scooby-Doo: First Frights!
 * Power Profiles #28: Interview with Hideo Yoshizawa, the chief producer and general manager at Namco Bandai. He has been a director and producer for various games but his best known games are Ninja Gaiden and Klonoa. When asked why he made the Ninja Gaiden games so hard he said that “Tecmo had the philosophy that the user would throw a game away if it wasn't hard enough”.
 * Playback: A look back at Mighty Bomb Jack
 * Community: This section had an article about a cosplayer who made and wore a realistic Varia Suit worn by Samus Aran (she went on to win two awards because of the suit). There was also an article about an electrical engineer who built a miniature version of Mario in a kart with paper clips, push pins, binder clips and other small materials. This person says that he likes to create custom toys on his spare time and created numerous toys out video game characters, many which can be seen at[http//www.kodykoala.com].
 * Next Month: Nintendo Power will cover the announcents and surprises at E3 2009.

Reviews
Eleven Wii games and seven DS games were reviewed. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 was the highest rated game at “9.0”. The next highest rating was “8.0”, which was shared by The Conduit, Knights in the Nightmare, Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming, Boom Blox Bash Party, and Phantom Brave: We Meet Again.

Eight games were not reviewed this month, but were still mentioned: Personal Trainer: Walking, Ghostbusters: The Video game for the DS, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings for the DS, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits, Reel Fishing: Angler's Dream and MySims Racing.


 * Please use the symbols next to each heading to sort the games by "title", "score", "console", "reviewer" and "ESRB rating".

Trivia

 * In the May 2009 issue of Nintendo Power, Sam Barlow, the lead designer of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, asked Silent Hill fans what Elvis, Willie Nelson, the Pet Shop Boys, Sheryl Crow, and Brenda Lee had in common. In this issue's Pulse section, a reader answered that they all did a cover of “Always on my Mind”.
 * Hideo Yoshizawa, who was featured in the Power Profiles this month, told Nintendo Power that the first game he made as a director was Mighty Bomb Jack. Mighty Bomb Jack happens to be the playback game of the month.

Staff

 * EDITOR IN CHIEF Chris Slate
 * EXECUTIVE EDITOR SteveThomason
 * SENIOR EDITOR Chris Hoffman
 * ASSOCIATE EDITOR Justin Cheng
 * ART DIRECTOR Chris Imlay
 * CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER Rebekah Lane
 * CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Carolyn Gudmunson, Andrew Hayward, Tom Holoien, Kaiser Hwang, Casey *Lee, Chris Shepperd, George Sinfield, David F. Smith
 * COPY EDITOR Candace Cunningham
 * LICENSING MANAGER Frances Wall Jha
 * EDITOR AT LARGE Scott Pelland