KDND-FM, a

Jennifer Strange, a mother of three, decided she would take part in this madness for a chance to win the console for her children. The end result for her was second place finish in the contest and an eventual death caused by water intoxication several short hours later.

The Strange family filed a wrongful death suit against the station and was awarded $16 million in damages.

What else can I say that the family surname and the contest concept don’t already? It’s a shame. A shame that adults feel the need to put themselves in harms way to obtain items for their children. That said, I think the thing that angers me the most here has more to do with the roll retailers play in this supply and demand mess.

What I don’t think a great deal of the public knows is that Nintendo, and companies like it, often produce more than enough product to adequately fill the demand of consumers. But retailers like Best Buy and Toys”R”Us stockpile units in their warehouses to give the illusion of a shortage. Then, they slowly trickle the product onto their shelves in small amounts (usually on weekends to coincide with their circular and generate additional traffic/sales).

If that’s not enough, they come up with lavish ways to extort even more money from potential consumers by forcing “soft bundle” purchases like the Toys”R”Us “bend-over bundle” I reported on back in 2007.

So please, think twice next time before you set up an overnight tent outside your local retail store in the middle of Winter or enter a half-baked contest to get your hands on some “hard-to-find” merchandise.

source: gamepolitics

With Netflix coming to PlayStation 3 next month, the rumors are already flying about the service coming to the Nintendo Wii as well.

Dan Rayburn over at Streaming Media apparently has inside information that Netflix is, indeed, coming to the Nintendo Wii. He claims to also have pictures of it in action, but doesn’t want to post them in fear of getting his source in trouble.

According to his info, Nintendo originally wanted Netflix this year, but is also considering holding off until they release the supposed Wii 2 in 2010.

The upcoming dark, creepy, and downright awesome looking Mickey Mouse platformer Epic Mickey will be a Nintendo Wii exclusive. Hit the jump for gameplay details.

According to Gamezine, the game will involve painting and erasing levels, which sounds just like the unique functionality the Wii is perfect for. Epic Mickey currently has a release date of Fall 2010, but given how far away that is, don’t be surprised if it changes.

This week in NintendoWares features the release of the Super Star Wars from the SNES hitting the Virtual Console, along with the Balance Board-inspired Rock N’ Roll Climber and the Greek Mythology journey of NyxQuest: Kindred Spirts for the WiiWare, backed-up by a new addition to the Brain Age series with Arts & Letters for the DSiWare. Hit the jump for a brief description of each new downloadable title and how much they’ll cost you.

WiiWare

NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits (Developer: Over The Top Games; Players: 1-2; Price: 1,000 Wii Points)

Experience the awesome story of Nyx, an enigmatic winged girl who must descend from heaven in search of her missing friend, Icarus. Fly over the ruins of ancient Greece and avoid falling into blazing sands or perishing in the claws of cruel harpies and hydras. You will need the help of Zeus and other benevolent gods from Olympus to summon their powers. They will let you cast rays, modify the scenery and control winds as you wish. By making your own wrist movements and pointing to the game screen, you will be able to achieve these and many other feats. Fly, aim and shoot using your Wii Remote controller. Play with a friend and maximize your abilities: While one controls Nyx, the other will control the powers from the gods.

Rock N’ Roll Climber (Developer: Vitei; Players: 1; Price: 800 Wii Points)

Prepare to “rock out” like never before in Rock N’ Roll Climber. Climb rocks using the innovative control scheme, which has you controlling your character’s movement using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers. If you want an even more immersive experience, optional support for the Wii Balance Board is also available. Make your way up an array of courses, ranging from the Pop level’s indoor rock wall to the Heavy Metal level’s waterfalls (watch out for those moss-covered rocks – they’re slick). In addition to the sense of accomplishment you’ll feel upon reaching the top, you might just be rewarded with your own guitar.

Virtual Console

Super Star Wars (Original platform: Super NES; Developer: Sculptured Software & LucasArts; Players: 1; Price: 800 Wii Points)

Risk your life as a Jedi Knight. Join Luke, Han and Chewbacca in their fierce war against the Evil Empire. Battle treacherous aliens. Pilot two vehicles in high-speed, first-person 3-D sequences. Rip through the desert in Luke’s landspeeder. Clash with aliens in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Blast menacing boss monsters and Imperial stormtroopers. Attack TIE fighters in the trenches of the Death Star. Fight your way through the wastelands of Tatooine to the hostile streets of Mos Eisley and beyond. Grab your blaster, strap on your lightsaber and take on the fight for galactic freedom.

Nintendo DSiWare

Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters (Developer: Nintendo; Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points)

This edition of the popular Brain Age series offers players a mix of new and familiar exercises, all with an artistic focus. Test your spelling in Word Attack, enjoy literary classics in Reading Aloud and tune your musical skills in Piano Player. A new Themes mode challenges you in drawing, photography and voice acting and lets you share your creativity with friends and family. And if you need a break, the always-enjoyable Virus Buster makes its return. Prepare for another round of training your brain in minutes a day.

Man what’s with all these Jimmy Fallon-related stories that we’ve been posting lately? I don’t even like the guy that much! I don’t know how I feel about Tiger Woods, though.

Red Steel for the Nintendo Wii wasn’t terrible. I don’t think it was good, necessarily, but for being the first of its kind, it was fun. Red Steel 2 will make use of the Wii MotionPlus and the devs want to make sure that shit is off the hook.

“Being Wii Motionplus exclusive, we really needed the information in the Wii MotionPlus, it’s an amazing device. With the gyroscope we always know which way the Wii remote is pointing. We’re trying to make a game that is the best reason to have a Wii MotionPlus, and really pays off with that experience.”

I hope these guys stay true to their word and I get to shoot/tear it up in a Japanese bathhouse with precision accuracy.

Nintendo D-Pad

To complement Chad’s sugar-fueled post about The Conduit, here’s a nice little video of the special edition unboxing. Yeah, take that box off. You know how I like it.

Yessir! With a little over a week away from it’s release, Nintendo has put out a commercial for the new Punch-Out!! for the Wii. Kinda feels like a mini-documentary on Little Mac’s 15-year struggle to get back to the ring in hopes to reclaim the W.V.B.A. Championship. Pretty funny commercial, complete with Little Mac in his pink sweatsuit. Check it out. Punch-Out!! hits the Wii on May 18.

When I first read the headline that said Zelda: Ocarina of Time was coming to the Nintendo Wii, my first thought was “I thought it was already on virtual console.”

It is already on virtual console and I’m just an idiot.

The article wasn’t talking about the VC at all, but the possibility of one of the best Zelda games of all time being remade for the Wii.

Keep in mind that this is just a rumor for now, as nothing official has been said. However, the rumor also states that an announcement will be made around April 5th. If such an announcement does occur, you can bet your bottom dollar that we’ll let you know.

As the name suggests, this is a sequel of sorts to Umbrella Chronicles. I’ve only played part of its predecessor, but being the Resident Evil whore that I am, I’m excited about this nonetheless. One day I will I go back and play them all, like I’m collecting Pokemon.

For Christmas Nintendo gives us a Genesis classic in Phantasy Star IV for the Virtual Console and a few stocking stuffers in Tiki Towers and Fun! Fun! Minigolf for the WiiWare. With three downloadable releases this week, the Wii almost gets more new releases in digital downloads than actual retail releases on any other console this week. Kind of sad really. Hit the jump for a full description of the games and how many Wii points they’ll cost you.

WiiWare

Tiki Towers™ (RealArcade, 1 -2 players, Rated E for Everyone-Comic Mischief, 500 Wii Points): Tiki Towers is a game of construction, destruction, problem-solving and monkeys. Reclaim the islands of your tribe by defeating a series of evil enemy chiefs. Work with your monkey friends to build towers out of bamboo poles, coconuts and vines. Match wits against the enemy chiefs bent on destroying your towers and driving you from the islands. Navigate levels filled with crazy building challenges, and deal with unfriendly wildlife and other environmental obstacles. Get your monkeys to chant for the BananaMana necessary to counter enemy attacks. Play in either single-player or two-player cooperative mode in this game where monkeys rule.

Fun! Fun! Minigolf (Shin’en Multimedia, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone, 900 Wii Points): Play minigolf with your friends in beautiful environments. Choose a character and turn your Wii Remote™ controller into a golf club. With its easy-to-use controls, all you need to do is aim, swing and see who’s the best putter. Play 27 holes spread across America, Asia and Europe. Enjoy exotic locations all over the world. Go for gold in single-player mode, or invite your friends. Fun! Fun! Minigolf supports up to four players. You can use one to four Wii Remote controllers. Fun! Fun! Minigolf is the ultimate party game for everyone.

Virtual Console

Phantasy Star™ IV (SEGA GENESIS, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone-Fantasy Violence, Mild Sexual Themes, 800 Wii Points): Phantasy Star IV is the fourth released game from SEGA’s epic Phantasy Star series, one of SEGA’s biggest RPGs on the SEGA GENESIS. In the year AW 2284, planet Motavia is once again plagued by strange biocreatures, and it’s up to the brave men and women of the Hunters Guild to exterminate them. You are Chaz Ashley, a rookie Hunter straight out of training who is supported by Alys Brangwin-a crafty veteran whose good looks and prowess with the blade have earned her an awesome reputation. These two Hunters, along with a cast of supporting characters, will go beyond Motavia to unwittingly save their entire solar system.

Source: Nintendo

Senior citizens were horrified to learn that their Nintendo Wii was stolen from the Northeastern Senior Community Center in Mount Wolf, PA. The missing $2,700 in cash, the $3,000 in checks — they don’t care about that. They just want their Nintendo Wii back, stating “Give us our Wii back, you assholes!”

Okay, they didn’t say that exactly, but they still want their Wii back… you assholes.

The senior center, located in the basement of the Otterbein United Methodist Church, was actually robbed twice in the past few years. In fact, this happened in my home town and I know where all of this is and how easily it would be to rob that place, but this statement is totally not an admission of guilt. Anyhow…

The thieves are apparently so hard up for some shit to steal that they actually took the cough drops out of the executive director’s desk. But the old peeps don’t care about the cough drops either. According to the executive director, they only miss the freedom and excitement a Nintendo Wii magically gives to the geriatric and not the money that was to be used to make the senior center bigger, better, and more badass. It’s cool that we continually hear these stories about how the Wii makes old people feel less dead, but I find it odd that they now don’t care about anything else in life except the Wii.

Do they not realize that they could buy, like, twenty Wii’s with the amount of money that was stolen? Do they not realize that cough drops can be planted in the yard and grow into trees bearing Wii fruit? Okay, I made that one up (and I hope that was obvious), but I still find this sad situation has been made somewhat stranger by the fact that these old people are now jonesing for some Wii action. Luckily, some local dealer donated money to buy a new one to prevent an irate elderly zombie rage, but it could still take up to a year of fund-raising to replace all of the money that was stolen.

The senior center has since been outfitted with a security system. Smart move.

Source: The York Daily Record

Wii owners have been bitching and complaining over the past year on the issue of lack of memory storage for the console, which currently only offers a 512MB flash drive to store both your Virtual Console and WiiWare titles, as well as game saves.

A solution, of sorts, has been announced at Nintendo’s Fall Media Conference in Japan, which already announced the exciting news that a new DSi is on its way and that an all new Punch-Out!! game is coming to the Wii.

Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata, revealed that in Spring 2009 Wii owners will be able to download games directly to an inserted SD memory card. That’s there solution? What, no external hard drive? Not a surprise coming from Nintendo.

Not a great solution by any means, especially when it doesn’t look like you’ll actually be able to play the games straight from an SD card.

This hasn’t been confirmed as of yet, but it would just be horrible if you had to download a new game to an SD card, then free space on your internal memory to transfer the game and then finally play. That’s just downright frustrating.

We’ll see how the Wii storage situation unravels when the new firmware update becomes available in Spring 2009.

Source: shacknews.com

A campaign launched earlier this year by the UK’s National Health Service has picked up pace, now targeting the country’s universities. The initiative ushers young people to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases by offering a Nintendo Wii for their…wee.

Working on the predictable pun, UK doctors hope to make a dent into the 10% of sexually active 15-25 year olds who have a Chlamydia infection. Though it can lead to infertility,  this STD is easily cured, as illustrated by Michele Presbury, Chlamydia screening coordinator for NHS Lincolnshire:

The test is simple – a urine sample for men or a vaginal self-swab for women – and treatment is by oral antibiotics so it couldn’t be simpler.

The ‘A Wee for a Wii’ campaign will pick up steam through its presence at University Freshers’ Fairs, offering the chance to win a Nintendo Wii for a simple teSt. So far the response has been positive, with one student displaying the stereotypical carefree attitude of young people:

I probably wouldn’t get tested if there was no incentive. But if you could win a Wii you’d probably do it even if you weren’t at risk.

All signs point to a successful campaign.  At least, more successful than the “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” radio competition that left a Californian woman dead from water intoxication.

Source: thisislincolnshire.co.uk

Do you get excited by Wii? Not as much as five-year-old Archie Lovett in the UK it seems, who got onto his Grandfather’s eBay account, and promptly bid nearly £200,000 a secondhand console – more than 1,000 times above its retail price.

Gramps didn’t know anything about until he had an email from the seller asking for £197,654, who doubtless thought he had found a right mug. Oh how he must have cried as he let them back out of the deal.

What worries me is that both his mother and an eBay spokeswoman described the boy as ‘clever’. Which isn’t quite the word I’d use. Especially since he already has a Wii.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Castlevania gamers rejoiced when a new installment in the popular series was announced at this year’s E3. Fans then became less enthused when they learned that instead of a traditional action-adventure title like those the series is known for, the new Castlevania is going be a fighter for the Nintendo Wii.

In a recent interview with current Castlevania series producer Koji Igarashi, Wired questioned the man on this bizarre transition, and his answers were a little worrying.
His first response to the change in format is that playing a traditional Castlevania game for hours on end could get a little tiring on the Wii, where you would use the Wii remote as a whip. This was his reason for wanting to create a game with a certain time limit.

However, certain parties don’t believe that that’s the full story. Jeremy Parish from 1up had this to say after experiencing the game at E3:

“The saddest thing is watching Koji Igarashi on the E3 show floor, hovering around the Castlevania Judgment kiosk for half an hour, knowing that everyone hates it, knowing that he knows they hate it, then realizing that it’s not the game he really wanted to make anyway because his publisher won’t give him two dimes to rub together to develop the really awesome games he does want to create.”

Later in the interview with Wired, Igarashi opened up more about the development.

“Wii is selling, but the ‘gamer’s games’ aren’t selling. That’s what I’m concerned about. I think there are two roads you can take: Create a game for the core fans with as low a development cost as possible, the other is to just find a different market for these consoles outside the core gamer. I have to adapt to the times, but I can’t alienate the core fans.”

We all know that Nintendo is going after casual gamers in a huge way. The benefit is that more people are being drawn to video games. The downside is the worry that Nintendo – and video game developers in general – are paying less and less attention to hardcore gamers, which is a sentiment that has been echoed by many fans.

Igarashi’s comments definitely support the latter theory and it’s disheartening to think that even big name developers like Konami – who just recently gave us the phenomenal Metal Gear Solid 4 – may be putting less effort into traditional games. If they’re willing to water down a fan favorite franchise like Castlevania, what hope do we have?

Source: Game|Life

I led a parade of animals through E3 yesterday, but it was pretty unobtrusive since all I had to do was wave a Wiimote at NanOnSha’s station in the Majesco booth.

Major Minor’s Majestic March (from Masaya Matsuura and Rodney Alan Greenblat, the designer and artist of PaRappa the Rappa) is a music game where you set your own tempo as the conductor of a marching band. Through the colorful, cartoon levels you recruit new animal musicians to flesh out your band and collect helpful items, all while keeping a good stepping pace.

Each of the seven stages start with a tempo setting period. You raise and lower the baton (Wiimote) as fast as you want to go, but can always make gradual adjustments later if you find you’re going too slow to keep the interest of your band members, or too fast for you to hit the beats.

Once you’re off and marching you’ll come across animals and items on the side of the path. By flicking the remote left or right on the indicated beat you can recruit characters to follow you. Keeping good time can be tricky with all of this flicking, but if you collect jelly beans your band will be able to continue keeping time even while you’re busy doing something else. If you lose the beat, there’s a metronome showing the up and down swings on the left hand side of the screen.

Besides jelly beans, there are other items such as sunshine, which improves morale (three Xs and they walk), rain that lowers morale, and whistles that halt the band so your can rest your arm. The chili pepper will make members of your band run off, and the aubergine character will steal them away, too.

Major Minor’s Majestic March ships holiday 2008, so they still have some time to iron out the sometimes awkward controls. Frankly, it’s adorable and a great way to use the Wii’s motion control, so I’m hoping there will be a little tightening here and there and some tweaking of the graphics– it’s another one of those games, like No More Heroes, where imagining it on the Xbox 360 or PS3 – just visually – makes you shed a tiny tear.)

Major Minor’s Majestic March will be a good present for the nephews, nieces, and band geeks in your holiday circle.

Just got my hands on one of the newest games Nintendo revealed at E3 08, Wii Music. I guess it’s their answer to Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but just in a much more simplistic, casual way. 

Using one of your many Mii characters, you can play with up to four other players and jam out to a number of different songs with over 60 different instruments.

I hopped on to play the game with three other random dudes, and while they grabbed the drums, guitar and saxophone, I got stuck with the flute. The exhibitor at the showcase called the game mode a “Jam” session.

To play the flute, I held it up like a flute, of course, and just pressed the 1 and 2 buttons to play. I noticed the other guys playing their instruments and it all was like “air” instruments.

One guy was just rocking out using the Nunchuk and Wii Remote as drum sticks. The other guy was playing the guitar with one arm up and one arm down, and just kind of seemed to waggle around. The last guy played the saxophone and just kind of held it in front of himself and tapped the buttons.

All the Miis are on the screen at once with their designated instrument. In the corner there was a little timer to keep players on beat, but other than that there was nothing else that displayed the timing of your instrument. Not only did it seem like a bunch of chaos, but the music sounded like ass.

Chad spoke to a PR rep at the Nintendo conference about this issue and the PR rep said there would be an on screen thing called a “ledger” to display the timing. Both Chad and I were really confused at this because if every player has there own ledger it would take up the whole screen.

It was confusing for sure, because when I played the game I didn’t notice any sort of ledger for me or any other player, just that one little timer in the corner. Without a real ledger, I had no real way of knowing if I was on beat with the other players or not.

The game really seemed like a freestyle session. Just pick a song and you can try to go along with it, but you necessarily didn’t have to. I guess it’s a sort of freedom compared to most music games, but what the hell is the point of the game then if you aren’t trying to match your tones to the rhythm of the song.

Oh, and although you aren’t scored on your performance, every performance is recorded and can be replayed. You can also send your performances to anyone on your friends list and they can add their own tune to your song.

A pretty neat idea, but it would we be a lot better if you could actually play the game online with a friend through the Nintendo Wi-fi Connection. Come on Nintendo, it shouldn’t be that hard.

Wii Music will be available this holiday season, but hopefully we’ll know more about the game in the upcoming weeks.

Nintendo is sharpening the realism of the Wii. No, not the games. Just the motion sensing capabilities of the Wiimote.

In an attempt to make the Wiimote more accurate, Nintendo has released the first glimpse of the Wii MotionPlus. It’s a device that plugs into the back of the Wii remote and provides more accurate sensory information, allowing the Wii to better represent the player’s actions on screen.

The MotionPlus is intended to create a more realistic sense of movement, down to a 1:1 response, which should make it easier to nail head shots in shooters and harder to hit long drives in golf games.

One thing is certain, this is a step up for the Wii, as the greater accuracy should help the Wii achieve its potential.

Nintendo has promised more details at their E3 press conference tomorrow. Stay tuned to RipTen for the details.

Source: Nintendo

Earlier this week, Ripten’s own John “Wardrox” Kershaw reported on Nintendo of Europe’s marketing director Laurent Fischer flapping his gums and saying that the Nintendo Wii’s small storage issue only poses a probem to “geeks and otaku.” Now, Laurent wants you to know that he’s sorry. Hit the jump for details.

Talking to videogame blog videogaming247, Fischer was quoted as saying “I have huge respect for those who, like me, share a common passion for Nintendo and want to make it clear that I would never use and I didn’t use this terminology in such a context or way to cause offence. I regret that this misunderstanding has created such offence and disappointment within the community.”

Sure, he may be passionate about Nintendo, but he’s not obsessive like those filthy otaku. As far as I’m concerned, this is too little, too late. Not that the guy should burn for his comment, but it was a stupid comment to make and I don’t buy that it was a “misunderstanding.” Next thing you know he’ll say he was getting off of a helicopter and was under sniper fire at the time.

Ba-zing.

Source: Thegamereviews.com

So the May NPD data is out and there are few surprises. The Nintendo Wii remains king of the consoles and Grand Theft Auto IV continues to dominate the software charts. Hit the jump for a more in depth look at the numbers.

Despite Wii Fit’s tremendous success with 1M copies sold, it falls slightly behind Xbox 360 GTAIV sales, which came in at 1.10M. The Playstation 3 version of GTA moved 577K copies.

Other Wii gems include Mario Kart, which sold 854K units, compared to last month’s 1.12M, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which sold 248K units, down from 326K.

Despite the Wii’s software success, the gap between Nintendo’s console and its competitors is smaller this month than last. The 360 and PS3 saw hardware sales increase by 39K and 32K, respectively, while Nintendo only say an increase of 8K.

Which doesn’t mean that the Wii isn’t outselling both consoles combined by 276K. Maybe smaller isn’t the right word. Let’s the gap is <i>less gargantuan.</i>

Rounding out the hardware list is the Nintendo DS with 505K units sold (last month saw 415K) and the PlayStation Portable with 211K (last month was 193K).

Source: The Sim Exchange

Reggie Fils-Aime, President and Chief Operating Officer of Nintendo of America, told GameTrailers TV’s Geoff Keighley that we can expect something big when Nintendo unveils the Wii’s fall line-up at E3 2008.

“There’s gonna be a big game for the holiday that the gamers will want. All I can tell you is what we announce during E3 is gonna be fantastic. The gamer is gonna be excited and the expanded audience is gonna be excited.”

Reggie also stated “We’re going to have great new content maximizing all of our key franchises.”

The buzz around the internet seems to be that we’re going to see the return of a popular Nintendo franchise. Surfing around, I’ve seen Donkey Kong, Animal Crossing, F-Zero, and Star Fox all mentioned.

What franchise would you like to see make it’s Wii debut?

Source: Cinema Blend

The NPD numbers are in for February and both Microsoft and Sony give their little twists on things. Hit the jump  to check out the results.

February was a good month for video games, as both hardware and software sales were above expectations. 1.1799 million hardware units were sold, beating out the expected 1.602 units. This strong growth came from Nintendo DS sales; 427,300 units were expected to sell but the total end number was 587,600.

The Playstation 3 sold 280,800 units, outselling the Xbox 360 yet again, which sold 254,600 units. The PS3 outdid expectations by 411%, while the 360 underperformed by 2.33%.

This is where the PR battle starts. Microsoft claims that the 360 still had some supply issues, accounting for the loss. Aaron Greenberg, Xbox 360 group product manager, actually told Next-Gen:

“Our expectation is that because of our shortages at retail during February, we will sell less than PS3.”

He goes on to call Sony’s win a “hollow victory.” Sony obviously didn’t see it that way, boasting that “PS3 Sales Eclipse Xbox 360 for Second Straight Month,” without acknowledging Microsoft’s supposed supply issues.

Sony also reminds us that GTA IV, Gran Turismo 5, MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots, as well as many other large titles are on the way, so they’re only getting started.

And then way ahead of the pack is the Nintendo Wii, which sold 432,000 units, 31,300 more units than expected.

Finally, the Sony Playstation Portable underperformed by 4.71%, selling 243,100 units.

Software sales fared even better than hardware, beating out the expected sales by $76.7 million, coming in at $668.7 million. Software sales have also increased 47% from February of last year.

Call of Duty 4 took the top spot once again with the Xbox 360 version selling 296, 200 units. Devil May Cry 4 under whelmed on both consoles, selling 295,200 units on 360 and 233,500 on the PS3. The predicted numbers were 438,400 and 272,600.

Sales of newer titles such as Lost Odyssey, Turok, and Frontlines: Fuel of War more or less met expectations.

Sources: Simexchange, the bitbag, next-gen

In a recent interview with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto admitted that Wii Fit isn’t designed to make you fit at all.

The project came about through Miyamoto’s own obsession with his health and weight and he admits to actually enjoying tracking his weight through the use of charts. He thinks that maintaining your health can be fun for the entire family.

So it was decided early on that Miyamoto and his team would focus on fitness, but just how they would go about it was still up in the air. Then one day, a staff member brought two scales into the office and was trying to stand on both at once while trying to keep them even. This led to the idea of using balance as a central theme.

It was at that point that Miyamoto made it his personal mission to see this game through. Scale manufacturers that they discussed the project with didn’t show much enthusiasm, so they decided it would best if they just made the accessory themselves. The testing began and they eventually settled on the idea of having four balance points: front, back, left, and right. By the end of the process, the balance board became more than a scale and grew into its own.

Finally, Miyamoto expressed what he felt was the game’s true purpose.

“I don’t think Wii Fit’s purpose is to make you fit; what it’s actually aiming to do is make you aware of your body.”

In keeping with the personal image theme, perhaps Nintendo can come out with a Wii Bulemia game, where you stick the Wii Remote down your throat and hop on the balance board. I think that would go over well with certain crowds.

Via GameDaily

MI6.co.uk, a James Bond fan site, reports that Rareware is supposedly trying to remake Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo Wii virtual console and Xbox Live Arcade, but with all of the James Bond elements removed, as to avoid any legal issues between Nintendo and Microsoft.

The rumor surfaced a while back about the classic Nintendo 64 game heading to Xbox Live Arcade, but as we reported in early January, Microsoft and Nintendo couldn’t come to an agreement regarding monetary issues, so Rare canned it.
Well now it seems the developer may be back at it, but with no Bond. I’m not sure how I feel about that, honestly. Part of me feels that it’s better than nothing, but at the same time, removing all of the 007 elements is going to rip the nostalgia right out of it, which is a very large part of the appeal. I’ll definitely be waiting to see how this turns out before committing to a purchase.

Source: M16.co.uk

Today’s edition of Smash Bros. Dojo brings us a pokemon new to the series: Manaphy.

When used, Manaphy will swap two characters’ hearts, forcing the players to play as the opposite characters for a time. Your health will remain the same and if you try to get smart and leap off the edge, you’ll still lose a life.

After a while, you’ll switch back.

I don’t know about you guys, but I think this sounds super awesome. At least, I will until it causes me to play as a character that I’m terrible with, and then I’ll hate it with a fiery passion.

Last week, Smash Bros. DOJO!! revealed that stickers you collect in the single player campaign of Super Smash Bros. Brawl would act as power-ups when applied. However, the website may have inadvertently revealed something much, much bigger.

The stickers can be stuck to the bottom of a character’s statue to grant that character certain powers in Subspace Emissary, the single player portion of the game. When viewing the stickers in your sticker book, the bottom of the screen shows what the sticker does and who the power is applied to.

Last week on the Japanese Wii web site, a preview video of Brawl was released. During this video, they showed the sticker book screen and down at the bottom of the screen – where the characters applicable to the selected sticker appear – were the heads of two characters that have yet to be mentioned.

If this screenshot is any indication and what we know of the stickers is correct, it seems Pokemons Lucario and Jigglypuff might just be playable characters. Jigglypuff is a series regular but Lucario would indeed be a new addition.

Other reports have claimed that Ness’s face appears alongside Lucario’s, but the face also looks like that of the Pokemon Trainer, so I don’t want to jump to conclusions there. It could be Ness, of course, but I don’t think there’s currently any reason to think so.

What makes this all the more suspicious is that Nintendo quickly took down the video in question and replaced it with another. Sneaky, sneaky!

Story and image via Destructoid

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Famitsu seems to know what’s what when it comes to good gaming. The other six games that earned themselves perfect ratings are – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Soulcaliber, Vagrant Story, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Nintendogs, and Final Fantasy XII. All great games, very deserving of – wait, what?

Nintendogs? What the hell? Are you kidding me? I mean, yeah, I enjoyed Nintendogs and I still dream about Doctor Scratches, but a perfect score?

Well, at least the rest of the list is solid, so I guess I’ll let it slide. As if I wasn’t already too hyped over Brawl. And now we have to wait until March.

Criminy.

Seriously, Nintendogs?

Via N4G, Vooks

Fans have been anticipating this one for a while. Today’s edition of Smash Bros. Dojo confirmed that the character of Sheik will indeed be returning.

Just like in Super Smash Bros. Melee, players using Zelda can turn into Sheik, her alter ego from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This transformation is Zelda’s down special move.

Sheik’s special moves are as follows:

Standard special move – Needle Storm
Side special move – Chain
Up special move – Vanish
Down special move – Transform
Final smash – Light Arrow

Here’s an interesting tidbit: even though Sheik wasn’t in Twilight Princess, her appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl is based off of concept designs that were drawn up for that game.

Are you looking to aesthetically mod your Wii? Well don’t look here, because these designs are so good that they’ll surely discourage you from doing anything of the sort.

Tech Blog has posted five nifty Nintendo Wii custom cases. I’ve never even given any thought to modding the cases of any of my systems, but after taking a gander at these beauties, I’m giving it some serious thought. But I’m lazy, so it’s never going to happen.

I present to you – in some sort of loose order based on my prefences – the five cases.

Rockstar Wii

While this is my least favorite of the designs, it’s very impressive none the less. With all those sparkly lights, the Rockstar logo has never looked prettier.

Chrome Wii

While it doesn’t score very high in the originality department, this chrome Wii looks like the T-1000 just waiting for you to drop your guard and play some games, so that he can sneak in for the kill.

Samus Wii

You thought the morph ball transformation was impressive, wait until you get a load of Samus morphing into Nintendo’s latest console. Like the Rockstar case, this puppy sports a beautiful light up logo. Bonus points for the custom Wii Remote.

Zelda Wii

It may just be the rabid Zelda fanboy inside of me talking, but this is one of the best things that I’ve ever seen. The sword and shield look fantastic and that little triforce on the bottom of the front makes me squeal like a little girl.

Nes Wii

I’m stumped. I honestly can’t decide if I like this design or the Zelda design better. While it doesn’t have all the fancy attachments of the other ones, the creativity here is fantastic and the nostalgia factor is off the charts. I’m not sure why they put Revolution instead of Wii, but that’s a minor gripe that’s easily lost in all of the praise.