10th March 2010: Hanabi Festival, Nintendo’s celebration of Virtual Console gaming, returns starting on 12th March – with an all-star line-up of classics never before seen in Europe.

Named after the infamous Japanese fireworks festivals, this year’s Hanabi Festival will light up your Wii with an explosive array of games.

Hanabi Festival is a feast of gaming fun and this March there is something for everyone to get their teeth stuck into…… featuring the action adventure epic CASTLEVANIA RONDO OF BLOOD.(Turbografx)

Previously available only in Japan on the PC Engine system, CASTLEVANIA RONDO OF BLOOD is the legendary and beautifully rendered tenth instalment of the famous Castlevania series.

We will continue in the following weeks with more classics appearing in Europe for the first time, including the action-packed fantasy, Milon’s Secret Castle (NES), IRONCLAD (NEOGEO) and Lode Runner® (NES).

Virtual Console is available via the Wii Shop Channel, by connecting your Wii to the internet. It brings you classic games from a range of consoles, many of which have never been available before outside of Japan or North America.

As the Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop are continually updated with exciting and refreshing games and applications, make sure you keep checking the Nintendo Channel, Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop for all the latest news and releases on already available and upcoming Virtual Console, WiiWare and Nintendo DSiWare titles.

Be sure to also check out Nintendo of Europe's WiiWare portal, which functions as the main hub for the latest WiiWare news and game sites, while at the same time providing the perfect entry point for newcomers to the service. Weekly and all-time Top 10 lists show which WiiWare titles the UK Club Nintendo members are currently downloading most, and which are the most popular of all time.

The portal also provides step-by-step tutorials explaining how to connect the Wii console to the Internet and how to download WiiWare games, as well as a video showing how to use Nintendo Points. Visit www.wiiware.co.uk for all the details. Downloaded games can be saved to Wii's internal memory or SD card and added to the console's Wii Menu or SD Card Menu for anytime easy access.

For further information, please contact:

Lewis Digby, Nintendo;

lewis.digby@nintendo.co.uk

About Nintendo:

The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™, Nintendo DS™ and Nintendo DSi™ systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than than 3.3 billion video games and more than 558 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™ and Nintendo GameCube™. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™ and Pokémon™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of Europe, based in Grossostheim, Germany, was established in 1990 and serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in Europe.