December 31, 2007 - What are you doing New Year’s Eve? Thanks to the Wii™ Shop Channel, you’ve got some outrageous new options. This week’s classic game additions offer brilliant fantasy and crackling action to help you ring in ‘08. So if you haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions yet, allow us to suggest a few: pop more bubbles, battle more medieval beasts and try to save the universe a little more often.

Three new classic games go live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Nintendo adds new games to the Wii Shop Channel every Monday. Wii™ owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

BUBBLE BOBBLE® (NES®, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): BUBBLE BOBBLE’s release in 1986 introduced the two bubble dragons, Bub and Bob, and brand new play mechanics, with players defeating enemies by trapping them in bubbles and then popping them. Although the puzzle-action game can be beaten by clearing all 100 rounds, it also contains secret elements such as not being able to get the “true ending” in single-player mode; hidden commands that lead to secret rounds; and a ton of different items. These elements are some of the game’s most memorable and important features. Each round even has different air currents that are not visible, so bubbles rise in unpredictable patterns. Aspects like forcing players to understand and utilize these different patterns while playing help make this a revolutionary game that is fun to play anytime.

Light Crusader™ (Genesis, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone-Animated Violence, 800 Wii Points): Each day, more good townspeople of Green Row have been mysteriously disappearing, and beleaguered King Weeden summons the knight Sir David to investigate. Armed with his wits and his sword, Sir David must find the cause of this strange evil and save the citizens of Green Row before things get any worse. Take the role of the brave knight in this action RPG and get to the bottom of the mysteries of Green Row as you fight enemies, solve puzzles and use your best combination of brains and brawn to save the kingdom.

TOP HUNTER (NEOGEO, 1-2 players, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and older-Cartoon Violence, 900 Wii Points): Take on the role of either Roddy or Cathy, bounty hunters in this side-scrolling action game set far in the future when humans have colonized space. But all is not well: Space pirates called the Klaptons are making their way through the galaxies, wiping out peaceful settlements along their path. This disgraceful behavior leads to them having a price on their heads, so now Roddy and Cathy must travel through four distinct worlds on a mission to defeat their leader, Captain Klapton. Both characters have retractable arms-used to grab enemies or other objects in the scenery-that can then be thrown at others to destroy them. Also, be on the lookout for rings or levers to pull, as this might reveal special bonuses. Further adding to the mix, the game uses a unique system where the action happens on two planes, with the player switching between them at will. Can you prove yourself worthy of the Top Hunter name and help save the universe?

For more information about Wii, please visit wii.com.

A tabloid magazine has photos of Nagase Tomoya (29) and his “Utahime” co-star Aibu Saki (22) at a local video rental store together.  Nagase Tomoya, the lead vocalist of TOKIO was previously engaged to pop diva Hamasaki Ayumi (29).

The duo were dating for seven years until they broke up in July.

Aibu Saki has been seen previously in commercials for “Mister Donuts” and the dramas “Water Boys”, “Ushi ni Negai wo: Love & Farm” and “Karei-naru ichizoku”

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All Japanese eyes were on NHK 58th Annual Kouhaku Uta Gassen (actually, news should be out soon to see how the viewing percentage was for New Year’s Eve 2007) but here are more clips from Kouhaku Uta Gassen that are on youtube.com.

Kouhaku Uta Gassen Opening

GACKT: Returner

Nakagawa Shoko - Sorairo Days

Hamasaki Ayumi - Together When…
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vLQFHO32olM

DISCLAIMER: youtube.com videos are courtesy of youtube.com and are not on J-ENT Servers.

ZARD’s Izumi Sakai (40) never really performed live on television that much and many fans wanted to see ZARD perform at Kouhaku Uta Gassen but with Sakai Izumi’s death in May 2007, her label and NHK decided to do a ZARD memorial at Kouhaku Uta Gassen which would feature a video of ZARD performing a medley of classic songs and the recently release of “Glorious Mind”.

While a video was playing on stage, her friends, well-known musicians took to the stage to perform and the ZARD fans finally got their wish to see Izumi Sakai perform on Kouhaku Uta Gassen.

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Image courtesy of Sankei Sports

DISCLAIMER: youtube.com video is courtesy of youtube.com and is not on J!-ENT servers

Eyes were on SMAP leader Nakai Masahiro (35) who was the captain of the red team at Kouhaku Uta Gassen.  Media have kept their eyes to see if there were any truth to the rumors that Nakai and pop diva Koda Kumi (25) are a couple.

After Kouhaku Uta Gassen, Nakai made his first comment to the media regarding the rumors and denied the rumor that he and Koda Kumi were a couple.

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CRIEnglish.com reported, “Chinese pop diva Faye Wong may attend China Central Television’s Olympic charity event, “You Are the Torch Holder,” on January 10 in Beijing, her first public performance since her withdrawal last year.”

“The newspaper Chongqing Times reported on Sunday that the event, focused on the moving stories of Olympic torch bearers and the grand mission of the torch relay, is the most important charity event centered on Olympic torch holders since their selection.”

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Mainichi Daily News reported, “The winners of the 49th annual award were announced at the New National Theatre in Tokyo’s Shibuya-ku on Sunday.”"The best singer award went to the all-male R&B group Exile, known for their hit song “Toki no Kakera,” while the best rookie award went to all-girl group C-ute, who are produced by Tsunku (producer of Morning Musume).”

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The following music video pick of the day goes to the live performance by Morning Musume of their “Special Love Mix” from “Kouhaku Uta Gassen” (NHK’s New Year’s Crimson Red vs. White special). Not many clips posted so far on youtube at this time but these but nevertheless enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: youtube.com videos are courtesy of youtube and are not on J!-ENT servers

Leah Dizon (21) sung in a medley with female theater/pop group AKB48 and Nakagawa Shoko (22).

The singer wore a sexy costume and media reports that the trouble that Leah experienced at rehearsals (forgetting the lines for Saburo Kitajima’s lines and also choreography) was non-existent on the televised appearance.

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Image courtesy of Sankei Sports

The rock duo Kobukuro has won the biggest award “Grand Prix” at the 49th Annual Nihon Record Taishou on December 30th.

The duo which consists of Kobuchi Kentaro and Kuroda Shunsuke talked about the song “Tsubomi”. Kobuchi talked about how the song was written for his mother who passed away but talked about how his mother protected him and now watches over him.

The group ended the show by performing their hit song.

Other winners of the night included EXILE for best song of the year with “Toki no Kakera” and °C-ute who took best new artist.

As a side note, Kobukuro’s album “All Singles Best” was released in September 2006 and stayed on the Oricon Best Albums top 10 and top 25 for a long time earning now around 3 million in sales and becoming one of the best 2006 albums sold in 2006 and 2007. The group released their new album “5296″ on December 19th (WPCL-10445).

Photos from the 49th Annual Nihon Record Taishou can be seen here.

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Image courtesy of Mainichi Shimbun