Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Nintendo's WiiSpeak demo was one of the freakiest things that happened during E3. Basically, Nintendo had an Animal Crossing demo running in their conference room, with a WiiSpeak mic connected. In an undisclosed location somewhere else in the convention center, Charles Martinet was also playing City Folk, with a Mario-style avatar, and riffing in the Mario voice with whoever happened to wander by.

Mostly, this entailed yelling at other players for messing with his flowers, and complaining about the lack of bugs nearby. I tried to interact with Mr. Martinet, but the WiiSpeak couldn't pick up my normal speaking voice (which is admittedly mousy and whisper-quiet). As I was walking away, Mario started smacking the other players with his axe.

Charles Martinet, whom you may know as the voice of Mario, has decided to write an autobiography that he hopes to finish sometime next year. The book will go into detail about what it's like to be the voice of an icon and work for Nintendo.

Martinet has been working for Nintendo since 1990, so he probably has quite a bit of insight when it comes to the video games industry. We're sure the book will also be filled with some profound points regarding violence in video games, like when he states, "It's up to parents and family members to know what their children are doing and how much time they spend doing it and the impact those things have on them. People playing Mario games don't make them like pasta any more."

While we agree with the sentiment, using pasta as his comparison point probably hurts the argument more than it helps it. Either way, gems like that may make this book an interesting read.

Heralding the release of Super Mario Galaxy this November 12th, Nintendo plans to deliver Super Mario Bros. 3, a title which many feel to be the NES's finest product, with this week's Virtual Console update. We've already pulled 500 Wii points out of our wallet, just waiting to hand the cash over to anyone who'll give us the game in return. We'll sleep tonight with the bills gripped tightly in our fists, smiling as we dream about spending the entirety of tomorrow ensconced in a giant green boot.

Treasure's classic run-and-gun boss-travaganza for the Sega Genesis, Alien Soldier, will also be available for download tomorrow, having previously appeared in North America only through the ill-fated Sega Channel. Hardcore gamers won't regret spending 900 Wii points on this one. And if they do, that speaks more to their character than Alien Soldier's qualities.

On the TurboGrafx-16 side, we'll have the option of buying Power Golf for 600 Wii points. Unfortunately for Power Golf, we've already resigned ourselves to only purchasing games which feature either a Tanooki Suit or a Seven Force robot this week. Sucks to be Power Golf.