It’s been over a year since we last heard rumors of a re-Vamped Castlevania installment on the WiiWare service — now, a new ESRB listing has rekindled the flames of conjecture. The board recently gave a Teen rating to Castlevania the Adventure ReBirth for the Wii — as you may have noticed, it shares the suffix applied to the similarly renovated Gradius ReBirth and Contra ReBirth, both of which surfaced on Nintendo’s download platform this year.

According to the ESRB rating, the game will finally deliver the “side-scrolling action” which classic ‘Vania fans have been clamoring for. If it’s based off the Game Boy title of the same name, our only request is that they smooth out the game’s unscalable difficulty curve. To this day, we’re not sure that game has a second level.

Do you think that – like trophy support on the PS3 – there is scope on the Wii for the new MotionPlus technology to be introduced for older games? Don’t be so optimistic.

Responding to speculation that developers would be doing just that, Nintendo have told GameDaily “The Wii MotionPlus accessory is only for games that are designed to make use of its abilities.”

Now, that’s not a “no, not ever, never”. But it’s certainly not promising. Very negative tone, that. So if you were quietly hoping MotionPlus would improve, say, the putting in Wii Golf, or crank-turning in Zack & Wiki, you might be better off trying to enjoy them for what they are, not what they could be.

Those whispers were right on the money: as you can see from the new Wii accessory’s packaging, MotionPlus will ship not as an elegant little add-on, but as a cumbersome rubber straitjacket.

Yes, Nintendo needed to get a “new” jacket out there for insurance/legal reasons. And yes, like the old jacket, we’re sure MotionPlus just pops right out. But still.

Hopefully this is just a temporary stop-gap, and Nintendo start shipping a new Wii Remote with this technology built-in.

“Secret Files 2 – Puritas Cordis”: A new adventure coming to PC, Nintendo DS^TM and Wii^TM in May

Deep Silver, the games label of Koch Media, a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products, announced that “Secret Files 2 – Puritas Cordis” is on its way into production. So players can look forward to May 8th when the game will be released for PC, Wii and Nintendo DS.

About “Secret Files 2 – Puritas Cordis”:

Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis… the world is on the brink of disaster. By the time Nina Kalenkow realizes that the recent catastrophes were caused not by nature, but by an unscrupulous secret society known as Puritas Cordis, it is almost too late.

While her ex-boyfriend Max, a scientist, witnesses the brutal methods of Puritas Cordis at the excavation site of an ancient Indonesian temple complex, Nina joins forces with a priest in France to investigate the connection between the secret society’s sinister prophesies and the creepy leader of an ancient order. A dramatic race against time begins.
Will the protagonists be able to avert the impending apocalypse?

Product information:
Platform: PC, Nintendo DS™ and Wii™
Genre: Graphic Adventure
Developer: Animation Arts and Fusionsphere Systems (PC),
keen games (Nintendo DS, Wii)
Publisher: Deep Silver
Release: May 8th 2009
Website: http://secretfiles.deepsilver.com/

About Animation Arts and Fusionsphere Systems:
The German development teams of Animation Arts and Fusionsphere Systems already have a wealth of experience in game development. They have been involved in managing projects such as Patrizier 2, Kick-Off 4th Edition 03/04 and Port Royale 1+2 (Ascaron Entertainment) as well as Robin Hood and Chicago 1930 (Spellbound).

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Nintendo just released the first proper details of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, following this morning’s showing of the DSi game in GDC’s Iwata keynote.

Via press release:

The new The Legend of Zelda™: Spirit Tracks game that Iwata announced will utilise the intuitive touch control of Phantom Hourglass in an all new adventure that will please longtime Zelda™ fans while keeping the game accessible to all DS owners. The concept behind this Zelda game includes utilising a steam locomotive to travel around the world, switching Phantom and Link to explore the dungeons, and solving puzzles using new items.

It’s out this year. There’s pics on Joystiq, if you’re interested

The trailer is chock full of jazzy music and gore, along with quotes from various publications heralding the disgusting fun to be had. Seeing as this is the UK trailer for the game, we get quotes from UK Magazines, like the Official Nintendo Magazine, Nuts, Loaded…and the Official Nintendo Magazine again. Huh.

With review scores so far heavily leaning on the positive side, you’d think they wouldn’t have to double up, or use the hackneyed “Be afraid. Be very afraid” quote. Still, it looks like Sega and developer Headstrong could have a winner on their hands, so we’ll excuse the odd marketing eccentricity [Via Kotaku]