GTA 5 coming in May? Kratos headed online? Mickey Mouse going HD? Wii U getting an app store?

2012’s videogames are the subject of intense focus now that the new year has dawned, so NowGamer has rounded up the biggest rumours to emerge over the Christmas break.

GTA 5

The next Grand Theft Auto could be headed for a May release according to a piece on the NME’s site – does it know something we don’t?

God of War 4

The much-rumoured sequel will include an online co-op mode according to speculation. Meanwhile, the most recent confirmation that development on the game is underway comes from a composer’s online resume.

Epic Mickey 2

A sequel to the Warren Spector-designed, Wii-exclusive sequel has been long rumoured – but it will have split-screen co-op and also hit Xbox 360 and the PS3 according to a chunk of text alleged to have been included in a recent Disney newsletter:

“Disney Epic Mickey 2 is the latest game in the critically acclaimed Disney Epic Mickey videogame series. In this all-new action-platforming game available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii, Mickey embarks on an epic journey and is pulled back into a world filled with Disney’s forgotten characters. Players can choose to play single-player as Mickey or for the first time players can also choose 2-player split screen mode. In the 2 player mode one person can play as Mickey wielding magic paint and paint thinner to dynamically change the world and the second player can play as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit – Walt Disney’s first cartoon star – with the power to fly like a helicopter and use electricity to fight or friend enemies and solve challenges. Team-up and choose your path to save this forgotten world because the choices you make will alter the story and change the end of the game!”

Wii U

A Newsstand-style service will turn the Wii U controller (and the 3DS) into an e-reader according to a new rumour, while apps are also headed to the next-gen Nintendo console according to another.

Hitman: Profession

Square Enix registered the trademark ‘Hitman: Profession’ on 22 December. Is it the name of the first game from new studio Square Enix Montreal?

PS Vita UK preorders have begun. We go window shopping for the best deals.

PS Vita preorders have gone live across retaillers such as Play.com, Amazon and Zavvi. Most stores are selling Sony’s handheld at £229.99 (Wi-Fi only model) and £279.99 (Wi-Fi and 3G model).

However, NowGamer has searched the internet for the best PS Vita deals and has found that Zavvi comes out on top with £199.99 (Wi-Fi only model), and £244.99 (Wi-Fi and 3G model).

You can preorder the PS Vita Wi-Fi only model at Zavvi here.

Or the PS Vita Wi-Fi and 3G only model here.

Zavvi is also taking preorders on PS Vita games, such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Little Deviants and surprisingly, Bioshock Vita. All of these games are preordered at £34.95.

Want more from PS Vita?

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Resident Evil Revelations gets new 3DS screens from Nintendo, showing off Raid Mode co-op and new costumes.

Resident Evil: Revelations gets some new screens today, courtesy of Nintendo. The pics show off Capcom’s all new Raid Mode, that delivers a series of standalone missions that can be played in solo or co-op play.

The new screens also reveal what appear to be a host of new outfits, including an FBI outfit and an impractical PVC number for Jill. 

Nintendo issued a press release for Resident Evil: Revelations today that explained Raid Mode in more depth.

“Compete in single player or two player co-op as Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield on a variety of missions to defeat enemies. Earn points for the enemies you attack and select from a range of upgrades to improve your weapon’s performance as well as levelling up your character.”

Resident Evil: Revelations is coming to 3DS on 27 January 2012, and we’ll have more on the game closer to launch. Stay tuned.

Want more Resident Evil: Revelations?

• Resident Evil Revelations Preview

We compare the PS Vita, Nintendo 3DS and iPhone 4S to see who wins the spec shootout on processor speed, graphics, battery life and screen size

A quick look at the highlights among the games coming out in Japan this coming week, courtesy the review pages of Famitsu magazine:

- Mario Kart 7 (10/9/9/9, 37 points): The point winner in this week’s issue was a pretty predictable one. “The game’s made so you’re always able to stage a comeback, making it approachable and enjoyable for anyone,” Famitsu wrote. “Competing for time is also exciting, and there’s more than enough room for hardcore play here. The Community feature makes netplay a lot more accessible than before, and finding opponents via Street Pass is also impressive. It’s really exciting to think how the community’s going to unfold.”

47-year-old Koichi Nakamura is one of those guys who joined the Japanese game industry early on and never quite left it. His company Chunsoft (which will formally merge with Spike next year) has held an influential role in the business for years — it programmed all of the Dragon Quest games until the sixth; it created the “sound novel” adventure genre, and it also pioneered the randomly-generated dungeon RPG genre on consoles with titles like Shiren the Wanderer. Way back in the day, however, it was just Koichi Nakamura. And Koichi Nakamura was an abashed computer nerd.

“I was living out in the rural areas of Shikoku western Japan back in high school,” he told Famitsu magazine for their retro-gaming column. “I didn’t have anyplace to sell my games, so getting them published in magazines was the best I could do. It was over an hour by train to the nearest computer store, and that was the only one in the entire prefecture.”

It seems fair to say that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a success for Nintendo, what with the largely positive reviews it’s been getting (including the requisite 40/40 from Famitsu). Following up on last week’s interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, the Japanese magazine sat down with Skyward Sword producer Eiji Aonuma and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi to discuss the game in further detail — here are some of the highlights:

- Plotwise, Skyward Sword is a prequel to Ocarina of Time, telling the story of the origin of the Master Sword. This came about despite the fact that the game’s Wii MotionPlus support came along long after plot details were finalized. “It’s funny,” Aonuma said, “but Fi, the sword-spirit who appears in this game, was something we finished up before we decided this would be a Zelda that used Wii MotionPlus. We already had her as a sword spirit beforehand, and during our announcement at the 2009 E3 show, her design was modeled after the Master Sword. At the time, though, you used her in a completely different way gamewise than you do now. The MotionPlus swordplay was something that was completed later on, and as a result the game’s story and action gameplay came to both focus more on the Master Sword. It wound up coming together pretty well.”

I was pleasantly surprised when I sampled Nintendo’s upcoming Wii party game Fortune Street last month at New York Comic-Con. Despite being a multiplayer title starring Mario and other game mascots in a virtual board game setting, Fortune Street is the furthest thing from Mario Party you could imagine. The few minigames it contains are generally automated affairs that play themselves in a few short seconds: no button-mashing or stick-twirling required. Rather, Fortune Street has far more in common with Hasbro’s Monopoly than with the usual minigame collections that have shown up as multiplayer releases over the past decade.

What I didn’t realize based on my NYCC hands-on is that it’s even deeper than that. Fortune Street is playable in both standard and simplified modes, and at public events Nintendo has been demoing it in the latter mode. With the training wheels taken off, Fortune Street is kind of ridiculous. Like a real “grown-ups” board game such as Risk or Monopoly, a single match can take hours. I recently played a demo with other members of the gaming press — including IGN’s Audrey Drake — and two hours wasn’t enough for us to complete a game. And that wasn’t even on one of the more complex boards!

Feature

Why Wario Land 4 Remains the Best Portable Mario Game

We’re marking this overlooked spin-off’s 10th anniversary by finally giving it its due.

By: Jeremy Parish
November 19, 2011

With Super Mario 3D Land freshly delivered to the eager hands of gamers the world over, Nintendo’s portable platformer legacy is at the front of many people’s minds. Sure, 3D Land isn’t as closely related to the old Super Mario Land games as its name would suggest, but that doesn’t make it any less fun… even if it does err on the side of being a little too easy. Much as we’ve enjoyed 3D Land, though, it still isn’t our favorite portable Mario game.

Admittedly, I’m using the royal “we” here, but I will cheerfully defend my claim that the best portable Mario game is the sublime Wario Land 4 for Game Boy Advance… which, by a handy coincidence, is celebrating its tenth anniversary this week. No, it doesn’t star Mario, but it can trace its lineage directly to Super Mario Land, and that’s good enough. Sadly, Wario Land 4 has never really commanded the loyal following and vocal praise it deserves. Launched in the early days of the GBA, it was generally overshadowed by Super Mario Advance and its sequel, despite the fact that (unlike those higher-profile titles) Wario’s game was wholly original, built from the ground-up for the system. What better time than its decennial to right the wrongs of fickle gamers and properly canonize Wario Land 4? Chances are you overlooked this portable masterpiece when it was released. Well, here are 10 reasons you need to correct that mistake.

1. It defies platform gaming conventions

Just over five years after releasing the Nintendo 64, and three days after Microsoft entered the home game console business, Nintendo released the GameCube in North America on November 18, 2001. Although it was more powerful than the PlayStation 2, released a year earlier, and priced at just $199.99, for the second generation in a row Nintendo didn’t enjoy anywhere near the level of success Sony did.

Nintendo wasn’t able to tout the GameCube as the most powerful system of the generation due to the Xbox’s presence. It did have an edge over the PS2 horsepower-wise, and Nintendo finally left cartridges behind for its home consoles. But rather than opt to use DVDs like Microsoft and Sony, it opted for a proprietary optical disc format smaller than DVDs both in physical size and storage space. The system itself was incapable of playing DVDs — a feature that did wonders for the success of the PS2 — although Japan did get the Panasonic Q system that remedied that particular problem for its small number of owners.