Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Reader Joe sent us his entry in the Nintendo Short Cuts Showcase competition and we have to give it to him and his friends. Having a Track and Field pad for a cape and a hollowed out NES for a mask are just too good. He's like a deformed combination of Batman and Captain Planet.

See what we mean past the post break.

Nintendo UK guy-in-charge David Yarnton dropped some sales figures on us all, revealing global sales for Nintendo's hardware, as well as European and UK-specific numbers. As you can imagine, both the Wii and DS have done extremely well on both the global front and in Europe and the UK.

Yarnton explains that Nintendo's projected sales were well under the actual sales figures for the region, stating "Yes, we set targets originally and we have definitely exceeded those. They are continually being re-assessed all the time."

Sales figures are as follows:

DS:

• Global: 40m
  
• Euro: 11m
• UK: 3.1m

Wii:

• Global: 5.84m
  
• Euro: 1.3m
• UK: 438,000

For how many hours we've spent playing the game (heck, we still play it on the Virtual Console almost daily), we can't say that we could clear world 1-1 with our eyes closed. Oh no, that honor is held down by the Japanese gamer above, who busts out the DS and shows us all how to do it. And, you know what? He doesn't make it look easy ...

Check out the video past the break.

Nintendo reported a final revenue of 966.5 billion yen and operating profits of 226.0 billion yen for the year ending March 31, 2007 today, managing to break previous records set by the company and completely stump the staff on how much that money would weigh if it were all laid out on one massive scale. We're pretty sure it would weigh more than a tractor trailer filled with bears riding scooters. In other words, it would be completely ridiculous.

The majority of this huge surplus in cash money for Nintendo comes mainly from the DS, which has sold over 23 million units and 123 million games over the last year. Of course, that's not to say the Wii hasn't done its part, managing to sell 5.84 million consoles in the less-than five months since its launch. Games for the system have sold a combined 29 million copies. Given these numbers, Nintendo must be expecting a lot from both systems over the coming year, right?

Yes, they do, stating that they expect the Wii to sell a total of 14 million consoles and 55 million games during the fiscal year beginning April 1, 2007. Nintendo also expects the DS to continue its strong sales, stating that they expect to sell 22 million dual-screened systems and 130 million copies of software for it. This brings the company to a projected consolidated sales increase nearly 18 percent to 1.14 trillion yen and operating profits growing nearly 20 percent to 270 billion yen.

Just for those of you keeping score, the Wii dominated hardware sales in January, did pretty well in that same month with software sales, then performed a repeat performance in February. Nintendo has gotten themselves a hat trick now, as they dominated the competition for a third month in a row with both the DS and Wii. GameDaily.BIZ has the skinny on exact figures from the month, which we've gone ahead and posted past the break.

[Via press release]

We'll admit, we haven't gotten that far in Super Paper Mario yet. That's why the above picture intrigued us so. Sent in by reader David, it hints at a future update that could allow Super Paper Mario and your DS to interact in some way. In which ways could the game and DS interact? We have no idea and, frankly, are incapable of even speculating at the moment, but if you want to see it for yourself, in-game, check around the kitchen on the first floor of Flipside. We just cannot conceive how the two would play nice together.

Any readers want to take a guess?

Update: Looks like the game won't have any DS functionality, as our Poppa site Joystiq, along with the comments, say otherwise. We want to believe though!

[Thanks, David! That's an awesome name, by the way.]

During the Q3 2007 Preliminary Financial Results Conference Call for Activision, CEO Mike Griffiths has confirmed that Guitar Hero is headed to Nintendo platforms. Now, he doesn't confirm which platforms, instead choosing to be vague in his confirmation. Mike goes on to say "The key difference in our strategy versus the prior cycle, is that in addition to full support on Sony and Microsoft platforms, we will aggressively target the Nintendo platforms consistent with our multi-platform strategy and Nintendo's expected growth. In fiscal 2008, we will double our offerings on the DS and the Wii, including Spider-Man, Shrek, Transformers, and Guitar Hero."

One would think that he meant Guitar Hero would be headed to the Wii and the DS would receive the company's other franchises, however it isn't beyond possibility. Look at Elite Beat Agents and tell us that Guitar Hero couldn't work in a similar fashion on Nintendo's handheld. It could work, right?

[Thanks Probot and Matthew!]

Coming in at over 50% of platform sales for the Month of December, Nintendo's handhelds and consoles kicked butt all over Europe this holiday season. The information comes via Chart Track, who also say that Nintendo's DS was the top selling platform for all of 2006. For those with a keen eye, this means that Nintendo's dual-screen handheld is the top-selling game system in every major gaming territory (with the other two being the US and Japan, natch).

How many of you in the region picked up a Nintendo product over the holidays?

First we had a Wii being played on a GBA SP, now we have it on the DS Lite. It seems hooking the Wii up to strange screens is all the rage now. With the brighter screen, the DS Lite is obviously the best choice for playing your Wii on an almost completely useless, tiny screen. Still though, as we said with the GBA SP, it at least makes for a cool video. Check it out past the post break.

Nintendo is headed to the Korean game market in 2007, deciding to release their first ever Korean language consoles in the Wii and DS Lite. The DS Lite will arrive first to the region on January 18th, followed by the Wii late next year. This isn't the first time Nintendo's products will be available in the region, however.

Earlier, Nintendo's games and consoles were available to Korean gamers through a distributor, although they were only available in Japanese. Nintendo's Satoru Iwata says they "plan to actively support Korean game software developers who have great expertise in developing online games and support their advances into foreign markets."

[Via Go Nintendo]

In looking to bring the fun and quirky Flash-based game to Nintendo's gaming systems, inXile Entertainment is hoping to exceed the success of the game on the internet. They plan on releasing the adaptation by spring including some sort of multiplayer aspect, but one must ask exactly what they are planning on doing to justify the cost of the title beyond that?

Considering one could just access the student-created application online whenever they want, why would DS and Wii owners, in their right mind, purchase inXile Entertainment's adaptation? Also, considering that the Wii browser's free trial starts very soon, why wouldn't Wii owners just play it that way?

[Via Joystiq]

We've been spending tons of time with Wii Sports and we never took the chance to check out the Fitness and Training modes. In correcting the situation, we found that each are fairly straight forward and just how you would imagine them; Fitness is a kind of Brain Age semi-clone, yet instead of a brain age you are given a fitness age, and with Training you are taken through several scenarios in each of the sports. Fitness mode is a good deal more in-depth, so initially you'd want to head into Training mode before checking that out so that you can train up before committing yourself to a fitness age the system is looking to label you with.


Continue reading for our first ever Wii Sports Fitness mode trial!

Looks like Australian gamers will be able to acquire Activision titles cheaper than they initially thought as Activision confirmed to Aussie-Nintendo that their games will not exceed a price of $99.95 AUD. Activision will be making available 3 games for the Wii at launch in Call of Duty 3 and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, both retailing for $99.95 AUD, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, which will retail for the lowered price of $79.95 AUD.

The above pumpkin, carved by reader graham, hits us in our various weak spots for the most massive damage imaginable. It fills us with the Halloween spirit (if there is even such a thing and if there is, patent pending) and makes us anxious to go out into the living room and give out candy to trick-or-treaters.

What about you guys? Still at that age where you can make off like a bandit in the night, pillow case full of chocolate goods? Or are you too old to pass for young and, like us, must instead sit in your living room, bowl of candy in-hand?

Ever had the fleeting thought that maybe those video game analysts just don't quite know what they're about? Don't worry, it's not just you -- even they admit that the ever-changing market can be a challenge to ride.

Next-Gen's Krist Graft sat down with Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities to discuss the challenges of predicting the business of video games. How does he do it? The same as any 'armchair' analyst, Pachter keeps up with the news. Some firms (like WMS) change their predictions as often as there are new developments, and this tumultuous week has brought about some major updates. What else? Analysts look for comparisons in gauging what's hot in the console war. He pointed to the success of the DS, particularly games that employ the stylus, as evidence that Nintendo is on the cutting edge of the interactivity that consumers want. Trend-spotting like that forms the basis of so much analysis in video games.

What's the final verdict for us? "The Wii's going to crush," Pachter says. Well, we don't understand all this fancy-schmancy business jargon he's using there, but we have to agree.