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• Wii Sports Now Top Selling Game Ever

  So Wii Sports is now the top selling game of all time at over 40 million units sold. Of course, it was bundled with the Wii, so it's not as if anyone actually "bought" it, but then it wasn't some throwaway app like minesweeper that most users will never play. Every Wii owner has spent at least a few hours with the game. Wii Sports is most certainly gaming's most important cultural touchstone of the decade. Read More... Posted Jan 07 2009, 06:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: super mario bros, cole stryker, wii sports, innovation

• A Change of Paint For Nintendo

  Industry leader Nintendo has made a lot of changes recently, many for the better from a financial standpoint. Their current handheld, the Nintendo DS, introduced the radical concept of two screens (DS does stand for Dual-Screen, after all), one of which was touch-sensative. Their current home console, the Wii, did away with excessive cords and buttons in favor of a wireless motion-enabled controller. Both are decidedly less-powerful than their competitors' machines. Both introduced methods of play entirely unseen before in mainstream gaming. Both were initially scoffed at as risky gambles and almost certain failures. Both have ushered in a whole new demographic of casual gamers of all ages. Both have been outselling all competition for a long, long time. And so with all of this innovation and family-friendliness coming from Nintendo and not its rivals, it seems a minor facelift was in order for Nintendo as a corporation. Read More... Posted Nov 26 2008, 11:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, nintendo ds, wii, mario kart, wii fit, brain age, wii sports, nintendogs

• Lame Ads Do Not Diminish Coolness of National Gaming Day

  Some things never change. The above image could very well have hung in my local library in 1982 were it not for the pesky copyright at the bottom or the telltale “@” in the headline. It’s inevitable that advertising for educational, enriching institutions, events, or tools will be lame as hell. It’s as though Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro, and the American Library Association don’t want kids to go into libraries, like they’re trying to scare them away with intentionally lame imagery. Way to give yourselves away, guys. Your robot, wizard, sci-fi-lady trio and the studious youths who seemingly commando them are not fooling anybody with their attempt at coolness! Now, I’m taking my Macho Man Randy Savage Trapper Keeper and getting the hell out of here. Going to hang out somewhere where there aren’t any books around just to teach you a lesson! As you can see by this stunning promotional, this coming Saturday is National Gaming Day at libraries nationwide. Even though the event’s homepage is even less appealing than the ad on a superficial level, it actually is wonderfully pro-gaming and its my sincere hope that parents stumble upon it. Particularly heartening is the following passage from their FAQ. Read More... Posted Nov 12 2008, 07:15 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, wii sports, national gaming day, reading is cool

• Two Years In: The Wii's Feats of Strength and Its Disappointments

  The Wii is two years old this November. It seems like only yesterday a good friend kindly paid for my husband and I to accompany him to New York City and attend the launch. It wasn't all about shivering in a stationary line outside Nintendo World, however. I did have my picture taken with a giant Yugi Moto (see bio picture). To celebrate the Wii's terrible twos, game designer Brice Morrison has penned two articles. There's Two Years In: The Wii's Successes and the more frowny-faced Two Years In: How the Wii Has Failed. I'm going to argue against the Wii's "failures" because it's more fun to do that instead of agreeing with its successes. I recognise that the Wii has a lot of failings and untapped potential. Morrison is right when he says that the dreams we had of "virtual" gaming when the Wii's remote was first unveiled are still not realised (wait, I thought we were all yelling about motion controls being a stupid idea--I was personally very drunk that day so I thought my first glimpse of the Wii remote was just a pink elephant experience). I had a great time with the Wii remote in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, but third parties have merely been farting around with waggle control. DragonQuest Swords had the potential to be good instead of, uh, you know, shitty. Read More... Posted Oct 28 2008, 05:42 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, wii, super mario 64, super smash bros brawl, wii sports, nadia oxford, dragonquest swords, nintendo 64, legend of zelda twilight princess

• Wii Music: A Rare Miss For Miyamoto?

  The reviews for Wii Music are trickling in and the verdict overall seems to be "Meh." Wii Music doesn't look like it's on course to become the holiday item worth garroting fellow shoppers over. Most damning is What They Play's test play, featuring real live children. The game apparently didn't go over much better than homework. I don't often feel bad when a hyped game flatlines, but I kind of feel sadface about Wii Music's lukewarm reception just because Shigeru Miyamoto is so excited about it. I know some gamers put their hands on their hips and say, "Well, it's about time he was taken down a peg" when one of Miyamoto's projects is a notch below stellar, but I still have mad respect for the guy. He is one of my heroes (Nadia Trivia Bonus: another hero is Terry Fox and another is the inventor of cookies). I haven't seen any Wii Music-related scorn directed towards Miyamoto yet, but I'm sure it's out there, or it will be. The Wii has opened up video games for a whole new audience; even though it's easy to get mad and decide that Nintendo has abandoned hardcore gamers, I can't fault Nintendo for thinking Wii Music will be a runaway hit with the Wii Sports/Wii Fit crowd. But if Wii Music fails to sell, what will it mean for Shigeru Miyamoto? Read More... Posted Oct 21 2008, 06:08 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: wii, wii fit, shigeru miyamoto, wii music, wii sports, nadia oxford, holiday, creative process

• No Alternate Soundtrack: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

  Nearly a full year before the first Guitar Hero introduced gamers to the now all-too familiar concept of game controllers shaped like musical instruments, Nintendo released Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for the Gamecube worldwide. The game was a platformer in the vein of Donkey Kong Country that overlooked the Gamecube controller in favor of the DK Bongo peripheral used earlier for Donkey Konga, a rhythm game that aped (oh god, sorry about that) its own development team's Taiko Drum Master series of games. Rather than come off as gimmicky as a result of this peripheral use, though, Jungle Beat felt fresh and intuitive and was praised by critics for its innovation. Years before the Wii would get gamers off their butts, Jungle Beat was moving players and causing them to work up a sweat, all while playing a traditional platformer. Read More... Posted Aug 26 2008, 11:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, alternate soundtrack, derrick sanskrit, wii, guitar hero, wii fit, donkey kong, taiko drum master, gamecube, super mario galaxy, wii sports, bongos, jungle beat

• E3 Day Two: Spin, Malaise, Sony’s New Clothes, and Nintendo’s True Disruption

  Despite their show-ending bombshell announcement, Microsoft’s E3 press conference was something of a non-event. The house of X showed off titles that had already been seen or leaked, announced a handful of downloadable titles that weren’t exactly setting folks’ brains on fire, and revealed an embarrassing attempt to cash-in on the Mii phenomenon with Xbox Live Avatars. It’s embarrassing enough that the Avatars look so similar to Nintendo’s Miis, but it’s even worse that they were designed by Rare, the less-than-profitable appendage Microsoft cut away from Nintendo in the first place. It wouldn’t have been difficult for Sony and Nintendo to one-up Microsoft’s event, but neither of the console makers did, both of them focusing more on sales data and business strategies than on software. Read More... Posted Jul 15 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, nintendo, nintendo ds, microsoft, rare, xbox 360, wii, sony, animal crossing, e3, mii, avatars, satoru iwata, wii music, wii sports, wii motionplus