Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Do you remember that whole Wiijing thing? Well, it's been taken a step further with the new Les Paul wireless guitar that comes with Guitar Hero III. As you can see, it lends itself a little more to the whole musical theme a bit better than having a guy twirl a Wiimote around. Plus, it looks like it takes more skill to rock with the guitar than just Nintendo's newest controller.

It isn't our kind of music, to be honest, but the folks in the video sure seem to get a kick out of it.

The idea of using the humble Wiimote to create music seems to have really fired the imagination of the hacking community recently. DJing WiiJing and drumming are already both possible with the waffly versatile controller and a bit of know-how, and now those of you who lack the funds for Guitar Hero III can get your virtual shred on for free.

Hacker Evan, maker of the Wiimote drum sampler we linked to exactly one paragraph ago, has developed software that allows users to play air guitar, simply by "strumming" the Remote while holding down the d-pad to alternate between chords, or the B button to toggle between major and minor chords. As Evan points out, this has a similar feel to Jam Sessions on the Nintendo DS, which is far from a bad thing if you ask us.

[Thanks, Evan!]

Forget DJing. That is so old school. Nowadays, it's all about WiiJing.

We're sure you can put two and two together, but just in case you can't, WiiJing is the art of using Wiimotes and software while performing DJ sets. The alterations in the music are therefore based on physical movements. Starting this fad was DJ !, who even hosted a whole WiiJing event, and now? It seems that a guy named WiiJ Timski is also using this technique.

The above video has Timski himself explaining how it all works, with some demonstrations included. It's definitely worth a watch, if you find the art of WiiJing as interesting as we do. We still can't confirm the rumor that Nintendo will be making a WiiJing game, but once they realize that all the cool kids are doing it, we think they'll be on board. This is nerdcore at its finest, folks!

[Thanks, Marc!]

Back in the day, so to speak, we brought you news of a homebrew project using the Wiimote called "WiiJ"ing, in which one (or two) Wiimotes were used to control various functions of popular mixing software (Traktor). We're convinced the technology is indeed real at this point, but according to the WiiJ creator and head-honcho, Nintendo has come forward and straight-up purchased the website and concept from him for release in a future game.

Sounds cool, and certainly in line with Nintendo's strategy, but color us a bit skeptical. A quick WHOIS shows domain registration as unchanged in the site's history, and in addition, the front page news post regarding the deal has a bazillion-word long actual game description. It's unlikely that Nintendo would simply allow the creator of WiiJing to simply dictate the full design of a videogame, and at this point, certainly, little to no actual development has been completed.

What say you? Even if it isn't real, would you enjoy or look forward to an application like this?

[Thanks, Jason!]

Now, you could very well be questioning many things right now, most importantly the title of this post. Trust us, we did not know either upon receiving the press release in our inbox, however upon further inspection we found that using Wiimotes and a PC to DJ (dubbed Wiijing by the fine folks who sent us the mentioned press release) is actually quite fascinating, although at times appears to be fake. So all of you tech/music junkies, pay attention to the video that has been embedded past the post break.

What do you guys think? Fake or not?

As sort-of promised, we've got some more coverage for you. After meeting up with various head honchos of the geeky online blog community (Christopher Grant, Andrew Yoon, Raw Meat Cowboy from GoNintendo, Chris from Advanced Media Network, I'm talking to you), the "festivities" started. They opened with a rather lackluster performed by someone named "DJ Ravidrums", who was essentially a drummer playing along to some prerecorded music. Bah. But then ... wait! It's friggin' Reggie!

This man should have received a deafening applause. Eardrum-destroying. And truth be told, it wasn't bad. But Nintendo made the mistake of setting up the stage on a side-street, in which there was no way anyone standing in line could watch. As such, the viewers of the event were curious bystanders and members of the media, such as myself. Can you imagine this sad scene?

"Hey, guys, it's great to be here. You can fill in the blanks, right? My name is Reggie, and I'm about ...!"

Only around nine or so people shouted the obvious answer, including myself. How horrible.

Still, the speech he gave was decent, and the rest of the stage performance consisted of some TRL/Miss USA woman and more of that weird drumming guy. Exit, stage left.

Where to now, we asked ourselves? Well, let's check out the Wii display upstairs and then HOLY CRAP it's Reggie again! Yes, the Regginator was giving yet another interview for a major station (don't ask, we don't know), and right afterward, a few well-informed fans ran up to him to get their DS Lites signed. He was busy, he was in a rush, but Nintendo Wii Fanboy was able to edge in one question! And here it is.

"Reggie. Honestly, and PR spin aside, do you truly believe that the Wii is going to take first place in sales in the next generation against the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360?"

A slight pause. He turns to stare me down.

"Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind. We're offering what gamers want, and they're going to love it."

Hear that? It's the sound of oh snap.

And by the way, that man's handshake is a vice of absolute death.