Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Good news, everyone! No matter how it turns out, Samba de Amigo on the Wii won't have the worst controls of any Samba de Amigo game! That honor now goes to the promotional minigame Sega just released. In this scaled-down version of Sonic Team's joyous music game, pairs of keys on the keyboard substitute for maraca motions. It's not really that the controls are bad, but they are a bit confusing if your hand happens to move. And obviously they don't compare with maracas.

Unfair comparisons aside, this three-song Flash demo actually illustrates how to play Samba pretty well for new players. Just imagine those three rows of circles as representing heights at which you shake. Samba vets will also be interested in the downloadable wallpapers and such that you're awarded for clearing a level -- and in the first chance to hear the bowdlerized lyrics in the "Mambo no. 5" cover.

The creators of the sometimes NSFW (and also amusing) webcomic The Least I Could Do (and also, Looking for Group) have ventured into new territory: parody Mario Bros. games. Or rather, game, singular ... or, if you want to be very specific, Super Rayne's World.

The first level is currently available, and it's a good and silly mix of traditional Mario-esque gameplay, with all the staples replaced by cameos of characters and themes from the comic. For fans of the comic, the choices make hilarious sense; no one else could parody a Piranha Plant the way they do. Forget fireballs, too; here, you're hurling bottles of tequila. Guess that's a little more tasteful than some other things they could have chosen, considering Rayne's proclivities. Not a fan of the comic? Let's just say the main character's favorite anecdote involves that time he bought a horse a prostitute.

While it's still in the early stages, the game serves as a nice diversion, and could actually develop into something fun, particularly for Rayne's devotees. Check out a couple of screens from the level after the break.

Surprise! Four brand new Chocobo games are available for your enjoyment right now -- exclusively to registrants at the Square Enix Members website. They are, of course, the four adorable web games released in May of last year to promote the Japanese release of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon.

Now you can read the instructions and understand the nuanced control schemes involved in keeping Jail Bird on top of a stick so he can catch apples in Chocobo's Balancing Act, deftly avoid ice in Chocobo's Snowboard Glide, fly on borrowed wings in Chocobo Flight, and goof off in class in Chocobo's Classmate. Not that you couldn't have figured out how to play those.

With both E3 '08 and the midpoint of this generation fast approaching, while it may be a bit premature, we wouldn't mind seeing a few changes in the Wii hardware. Within their lifetimes, the PS2 slimmed down, the Gamecube parted with a port, and the DS shed its baby phat, so it's not unreasonable to expect some sort of alterations to the Wii.

A compact box that's already inexpensive to produce (and continuously remains in greater demand than supply can keep up with) may not cry out for revision, but there are a few bits that can be nipped and tucked to enhance the appeal and value of the Wii. This week Revolutionary goes Revisionary.

Those of us too cheap to buy DVRs love that most TV networks offer their programming online -- after all, we'd hate to tell our friends that we couldn't hang out on a Friday night because we had to watch BSG. Even so, we prefer to watch TV on actual televisions rather than computer screens. The Wii seems like a perfect way to compromise this, but until Adobe releases a Flash upgrade on their software development kit, it's not going to happen.

We already know that a lot of you use your Wii's Opera browser, but what do you think of it? Are there any limitations you've noticed besides the Flash issue? What other improvements do you think Opera could make? And are there any games or applications that you find perfect for Wii browsing?

IGN has a rather extensive interview, along with other media, for WiiWare title Defend Your Castle. We don't have to tell you how good this new downloadable title is looking, so when we hear the developers behind it made a conscious effort not to do a quick port of the PC Flash game and instead are working to completely overhaul it, adding in 4-player co-op and the new graphical style we all love, we fall in love.

XGen Studios, your chocolates and roses are in the mail.

We weren't exactly hard to convince, since we already loved the "sweded" look of the Wii Ware version of Defend Your Castle, but we think that had we been in the "do not want" camp, seeing the game in motion would have melted our hardened hearts. Every interface is made to appear as if it was crafted from household items.

The temple, where you convert enemies into followers, is a paint can. The battering rams are popsicle sticks. The cursor is a bread clip. It's as if you made a found-art collage depicting a Wii game! And then, uh ... made it move and stuff.

The really awesome new look of Defend Your Castle got us thinking about Flash games. With the budgets that come with the possibility of sales, Flash game developers are able to expand and revamp their games significantly for the Wii Ware audience. Defend Your Castle looks great, and we wouldn't mind seeing more.

Which Flash games would you like to see made for Wii Ware? What would you pay five bucks for, with potential motion controls and graphical upgrades?

XGen Studios has revamped the look of Defend Your Castle significantly for its May 12th Wii Ware release, swapping out the, well, "Flash game" look of the original for a lovely "made of junk" theme. The castle has become a set of construction-paper rectangles decorated with paper flags on toothpick poles, and the enemy invaders have become doodles with button heads. Our absolute favorite detail is the user interface: the health bar is now made of fabric scraps.

We hate to make the comparison to a not-particularly-awesome game, but this style was used to excellent effect in the Napoleon Dynamite DS game. The art was by far the best thing about that game, whereas this has already been proven to be a pretty good game.

According to XGen, Defend Your Castle (not to be confused with Castle Crashers) will be coming to Wii Ware in "early" 2008. The publisher reported last month that an "existing cult classic" was currently in the works for Nintendo's downloading service, but only recently confirmed which game it was. Most of you assumed it would be Stick Arena, but instead it's the castle-defending Flash title that's headed to the Wii.

The game will cost 500 Wii Points, and will (as you'd expect) look better than its Flash counterpart. XGen also promises some extra gameplay features, but will all this be enough to make you guys shell out some cash for the title?

If you have no idea what Defend Your Castle is, you can check it out the Flash game here.

[Via GoNintendo]

Before you go clicking on any links, we want to warn you that the following flash is NSFW in many ways. Now that we're clear, we thought you might enjoy this (again, NSFW) jumble of short flash skits available at Newgrounds, based on the upcoming (and highly anticipated) Super Smash Bros. Brawl. These skits are meant to spoof many of the daily updates that we've gotten from the official Smash Bros. site. While some are completely unfunny, on the whole the Flash is pretty entertaining (specifically any scene with Snake in it).

Keep in mind that although the scenes themselves are short, the compilation of them all leads to a pretty long video. On the chance that we've cause you to waste five or so minutes of your life that you'll never get back, know that we'll cry inside every day just thinking about it.

[Thanks, hvnlysoldr!]

As excited as we are about the Super Smash Bros. Brawl's four thousand other features, we're especially anxious to play with the recently-announced Stage Builder. Penny Arcade forumer Mntorankusu shares our enthusiasm, but rather than wait until next February to live out his dream of constructing levels for a video game, he whipped up a barebones Flash application that mimics the Brawl's edit screen.

In its current state, the online editor doesn't support specific structures or skinned platforms, but as you can see from our sophomoric sample stage above, there's still a lot of room for creativity. Past the post break, we've included some of the funnier and more ingenious arenas we've seen so far from the Penny Arcade forums and NeoGAF. Try it out yourself, and leave a comment with your results!

Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

When WiiWare was announced, it seemed like a godsend for the garage developer wishing to make Wii games for mass appreciation. But details on how to get your hands on a WiiWare development kit and the costs involved are not public knowledge, and the official launch of the distribution channel (on the Wii Shop Channel) isn't going to be happening until some time next year. So what's a Wii-loving, budget-restricted developer to do in the meanwhile? Making games for Wii's Opera Browser is one option.

Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

In the coming weeks, I'll be detailing the process of writing a GlovePIE script, from concept, through testing, to completion. You will see that it's not so tough to get something running, and I hope you'll also get a better understanding of the mechanics of the hardware inside the Wii Remote and its accessories.

This time around, I'll be deconstructing the simplest of the GlovePIE scripts I've written to date, but also one of the most rewarding -- Alien Hominid.