A report on IGN Games today brings awesome news for Nintendo Wii owners. According to a newspaper report out of Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Nintendo is all set to release a new Wii Mario game later this year in Japan. This gels with our earlier rumor report from last week where Macquarie Research told of new Mario, Zelda and Wii Fit titles expected to debut on Tuesday at E3.

While there are literally no details as to what the new Wii Mario game might be, there's other confirmation that the new Wii Fit title, dubbed Wii Fit Plus, will also launch later this year in Japan. Sadly, there is no word of a new Zelda game for Wii, although that doesn't mean that news on that project won't still be revealed on Tuesday during Nintendo's E3 media briefing.

For Wii Fit, the article says to expect internet connectivity, allowing for users to compete with friends and families in weight loss races. The new version will be able to more accurately measure weight and center of gravity.

The story does not mention if a new version of the Balance Wii Board will be required for this greater accuracy or if Nintendo has managed to attain the greater precision strictly at a software level.

For Mario, the article says absolutely nothing -- just that it's a new entry in the popular series. It lists this as being one of Nintendo's tools for pushing domestic (Japanese) Wii sales, so this is definitely a Wii game.
While a U.S. release date for both the new Mario game and Wii Fit Plus are unlikely to arrive until later in the year, this is surely encouraging news all round for core Nintendo fans. We're fully expecting this news to be the big showstopper for Nintendo next week at E3 so remain glued to GameSpy's Twitter feed and E3 coverage for the latest updates.

Salvation for hardcore Nintendo fans is coming this year (to Japan at least.)



Bryn says: It's now been nearly two years since the release of Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii so this news comes just in time to save my sanity (and my Wii for being sold on eBay.) I'm really hoping that Nintendo will put out a worldwide release on the new Mario game, and that Europe and the U.S. won't have to wait for months before a localized version hits.

If I were to take a wild stab in the dark, I would like to think that the new Mario game was a continuation of Super Mario Galaxy; a game which I loved a bit too much. What do you think it'll be like? And, yeah, Wii Fit Plus? Pffft. I'll take some Zelda news over that announcement any day, thanks.