Nintendo Releases Wii Holiday Games and More

Plenty of new Nintendo products are expected for the Christmas season, including new games, a Wii console chat feature and the expansion of its North American Club Nintendo rewards program.

Leading up to Christmas, Nintendo plans to release the following new Wii games—Wii Music and Animal Crossing: City Folk. The company also plans to debut WiiWare, which allows players with Internet access to download a variety of games, such as Tetris Party, Strong Bad Episode 3, World of Goo, Cave Story and Boingz.

Nov. 16 will usher in the new Wii Speak Channel, a free download given to those who purchase the Wii Speak microphone ($29.99 each). Wii Speak allows gamers to chat and leave messages with others at no additional cost.

The Club Nintendo rewards program is set to debut this holiday season in North America. Through it, players can complete surveys and register for Nintendo products with loyalty coins that can be redeemed for items only available to Club Nintendo members.

Nintendo also has announced its 2009 game lineup, including a new Punch-Out and Sin & Punishment 2 for Wii, and Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and Mario & Luigi RPG3 for Nintendo DS. There also is a new 'Personal Trainer' series of titles in development.