Warning: you are now entering a Wii Fanboy nostalgia zone; if we get wrapped up in jabbering about our wholesome childhoods over the next 200 words, you've been warned. The cause of this trip down memory lane? The announcement that Tomy would be bringing a Pop-Up Pirate game to WiiWare. Yay!
Pop-Up Pirate Wii will emulate the pop-ular children's board/party game, in which players would hold their breath (that bit is optional, but helps) while inserting plastic swords into a plastic barrel containing a pirate. If you chose the wrong slot, the pirate would spring out, startling everybody. As dull as it sounds now we've written it down, it was all the rage back in the '80s, before those damn computer videogame whatchoomacallits came along and ruined everything.
Like other board games of our childhood that relied on a steady hand (such as Buckaroo and Operation), we're not yet certain that a videogame version will capture the same ridiculous levels of tension, but still, three cheers for Tomy for at least trying! The chunky, colorful visuals are a great start, in our opinion.
Also on Nintendo of Japan's WiiWare page: Simple Series Vol. 2 The Number Puzzle Neo. If ever a series was designed especially for WiiWare, the cheap-but-cheerful Simple series would be it. Both of these will launch next Tuesday in Japan for 500 Wii Points each.
Yes, we posted about this before, but as the giant boulder that is the holiday season ominously thunders towards us, we may as well say it again: GameStop will probably have some major Wii shortages in the near future.
Chief financial officer David Carlson admitted in a conference call that the hardware "may be well out of stock by the holiday season," echoing another executive's recent claim that the 'Stop's inventory would be empty by the first week of December. He added that both Wii Fit and Guitar Hero: World Tour were "in very, very short supply" and "out of stock in many cases" respectively.
Obviously, plenty of other places sell Wiis, but if a major name like GameStop is running out of the things, you can bet they won't be alone. Unless you want to end up like Johnny and Orlando up there, get your skates on.
The research bods at EEDAR have got their abacuses out and calculated that Wii games are more prone to "price protection" than titles on rival machines.
What's price protection? Price protection occurs when a publisher of a game that isn't selling offers its game to retailers for a lower price, allowing stores to get rid of excess stock quickly. If this happens too soon (EEDAR defines "too soon" as "when a title's third month average selling price has decreased by 20% or more from its original average selling price"), it is known as "early price protection."
Anyway, EEDAR found that 15.1% of all Wii software goes through this process, compared to 7.5% on Xbox 360 and 9.09% on PS3. What does this disparity say about Wii software? EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich thinks it backs up the theory that third-parties struggle on the Wii because they and retailers have "overly aggressive expectations" for Wii games, and that it proves "quality is one of the most impactful features for a video game."
Four new WiiWare titles came down the tubes in Europe and Australia today, and the selection couldn't be more diverse. Art Style: Cubello and Strong Bad Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands you'll already know about, but CueSports and Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam are more mysterious beasts. The former looks promising, the latter, er, not particularlygreat, according to the few reviews that are about.
Those online Tetris Party tournaments won't just enhance your fearsome internet reputation -- they'll also offer Wii Points as prizes, a pretty awesome way of keeping player interest high. The first tournament kicks off December 1st, and contains four rounds, each featuring one of Tetris Party's eighteen variations. After you complete a round, the game will give you a rank and confirmation code, which you can register at the official Tetris Party tournament site. Perform strongly over all four rounds, and you could win!
Five hundred prizes are up for grabs (though how many points will be given away isn't known), and we're fairly sure this is a global contest -- there's no mention of regional restrictions in the press release. Skip past the break for start dates, end dates, and other details of the first tournament, then get practicing!
Boxing manufacturer Everlast has revealed that it will be joining the burgeoning Wiimote/Nunchuk add-on market, starting with these $30 synthetic leather boxing gloves. Why? Because it's the end times, that's why.
Still, The New York Times seems impressed. "The gloves give you some sense of being in the ring," lies the once-respected newspaper. Obviously, we don't have to tell Wii Fanboy readers that this is tat, but, y'know, inform your relatives/friends or something, before you find yourself wearing these Christmas morning.
Why? NOBODY KNOWS. Maybe he desperately misses the days of blowing in slots. Whatever reasons he had, this is now up on eBay, with bidding starting at $49.99. The auction notes that the mod is "100% working!" (uh ... good?) and that the Wii's blue lights still illuminate when it's switched on, which we have to admit is kind of neat. Also, the seller calls it a "Wii64." Hmm. See more of this peculiar beast past the break, and more illustrious Wii mods here.
Sega will release The House of the Dead: Overkill in Europe next February, and there'll be an optional bonus at "selected retailers" for fans who preorder: this rad Collector's Edition. Arriving in a fetching minimalist slipcase (loving the authentic scuff marks), this will come bundled with a graphic novel that tells the stories of Agent Washington and Varla Gunns, and the events that lead up to the game.
Here's the downside: this sweet package has so far only been announced for PAL regions -- apart from Germany, obviously. Sucks to be Germany, eh? Hit up our gallery for a closer look at the comic's cover and a sample page.
Christmas: for those who celebrate it, a time of joy, happiness, togetherness, and rampant, ugly consumerism. Love it or hate it, you can't exactly ignore it, so let's talk some more about your plans for this season of "love and laughter and joy" (thanks, Cliff). Which Wii games do you plan to put on your list to Santa, and -- more importantly -- what will you be buying others?
Although we regard this golden statue of Link and Epona as tacky, we're clearly in a minority. Despite being the most expensive item ever in the European Club Nintendo shop (15,000 Star Points, thank you), it sold out in the blink of a Goron's eye.
How rare is this, exactly? Our guess: pretty damn rare. We've never seen one on eBay. But now it's back in stock, chintzier than ever, and ready for some lucky collectors to swipe. It's still 15,000 Star Points, and we suspect this latest batch will go quickly, so long as somebody out there has resisted splurging their Star Points on Wii Points.
How about you, North Americans? Would something like this catch your eye when Club Nintendo launches in your neck of the woods later this year?
The first shots of Evasive Space invaded our inbox earlier today, and apparently things get quite ... trippy in the Yuke's/High Voltage collaboration. Not Jeff Minter levels of trippy, but still pretty out there in parts. The game itself, which will cost 1000 Wii Points, seems to be a mix of open play shmupping (as seen in Geometry Wars) and more linear, contained areas.
The screens in our gallery are drawn from the first two of the game's four acts, each of which will contain five scenarios to play through. In turn, these come in two types: either you'll be doing timed runs, or you'll be collecting stuff (spacemen, energy cells) while avoiding other stuff (asteroids, gas clouds). It's brave of Yuke's and High Voltage to release a shmup on a system overflowing with the things, but we like what we see so far! Hit up the gallery and tell us what you think.
Nintendo bossman Reggie Fils-Aime (who is earning a reputation for frankness) is the latest industry figure to question the Wii's third-party output, suggesting that third-parties don't yet understand the platform. He reckons people who purchase Wiis are interested in games that sell strongly on other systems, but that the quality is missing. "I will be able to say our licensees 'get it' when their very best content is on our platform," he told Forbes. "And with very few exceptions today, that's not the case."
Yes, the localized version of Milestone's Ultimate Shooting Collection may have horribly generic boxart (seriously, compare this to the Japanese box and weep), but we still want the game badly.
Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait. Previously, the game was scheduled to come out on November 11th, but as it isn't in our homes right now, we had to assume it had slipped. When contacted, publisher UFO Interactive confirmed our worst fears: the new release date is December 15th, right in the middle of the Christmas rush. Pew pew your way past the break for a trailer.
While it prepares to wheel out Club Nintendo in North America later this year, Nintendo has decided to torture us one last time with stuff we can't have.
Every year in Japan, Platinum and Gold members in the Japanese program get a free gift. This year, Platinum members have three to choose from, including the snazzy golden Wii Wheel you see above. This takes us back to GoldenEye's multiplayer, and us petulantly refusing to play unless we could steer Oddjob with the only gold-colored N64 controller in the house. Also up for grabs is a Super Mario Cap, which Nintendo reports is too big for girls and schoolkids (but not adult male bloggers), and a Club Nintendo Calendar 2009, which will be the only option for Gold members. That's better than our only option, which is to own nothing.
All very lovely then, and all very out of our reach ... but for how long? Go past the break for a look at the cap and calendar.
There is a popular viewpoint pushed by those who campaign against the likes of Manhunt 2, and it runs a little like this: motion-controlled on-screen violence is more likely to corrupt players than that which is played through pressing buttons. Senators have used this argument in the past, as have journalists, but they're both wrong. Gloriously, wonderfully wrong. Who says so? Science says so, that's who.
A new study from the labs of Villanova University has revealed that swinging a Wiimote and pressing a button generated the same amount of "hostility and aggressive thoughts in" 118 college students (68 female, 50 male). The participants played either Manhunt 2 or Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008, with each individual having their levels of "psychoticism" tested before and after play. Nobody completely flipped out, and whether flailing with a controller or pressing a button, levels of hostility remained even -- and thus another anti-gaming myth crumbled.
Warning: you are now entering a Wii Fanboy nostalgia zone; if we get wrapped up in jabbering about our wholesome childhoods over the next 200 words, you've been warned. The cause of this trip down memory lane? The announcement that Tomy would be bringing a Pop-Up Pirate game to WiiWare. Yay!
