Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Even if you're holding out for Guitar Hero: World Tour, or if you just have Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for some reason, 60 bucks for a copy of Guitar Hero III and a guitar is a nice deal. The Les Paul alone costs $60 from RedOctane's website, and it doesn't come with "Paint it Black."

The deal gets even more awesomer when combined with the current "buy one, get 20% off" Wii game deal. We aren't Toys R Us policy experts, and we don't want to guarantee that the store won't give you some kind of trouble if you try to double-dip deals, but you can probably get a cheap Guitar Hero and a second cheap game.

[Thanks, Emre!]

Whether you don't yet own Guitar Hero III or just want to pick up another Les Paul guitar, you might find yourself shopping at Circuit City this week. The retailer is selling bundles of the game for the low price of $59.99, which is the same price (and even cheaper, depending on where you find it) as a standalone guitar.

If interested, you can either drive yourself over to a brick and mortar store or check out this deal online. It might be worth it to have an extra guitar for when Guitar Hero: World Tour rolls around, after all.

[Via CAG]

It was a good month for Wii, as the system again sold the most in the United States. However, sales were down, likely due to shortages of Wii Fit. And, as you'd expect, people went crazy for that high-tech Balance Board and software. But, hey, a win is a win, right? So let's pop those champagne corks and get the party started!

NPD Hardware sales for May 2008:

Wii: 714.2K 39.1K (5.5%)
DS: 414.8K 37.8K (9.1%)
PSP: 192.7K 10.4K (5.4%)
Xbox 360: 188K 1.4K (0.8%)
PS3: 187.1K 21.6K (11.5%)
PS2: 124.4K 8.3K (6.7%)

The software sales have been pushed past the break. And, like with the software sales above, you'll probably like what you'll see.

It's not often that we find great deals on big-name titles, especially two on the same day, but perhaps you were feeling lucky, punk, and the fickle game deal gods decided to reign their glory upon you.

Behind door number one, we have Super Smash Bros. Brawl for $48.99! Okay, we're just joshing you (not about the price, since it is marked down a dollar, but that's not what we're excited about). Rather, with a purchase of Brawl, Amazon is offering a $10 gift card. Around these parts, an Amazon gift card is as good as cash, so those of you who are Brawl-less (in North America) should consider getting your rumble on.

The other deal is for Guitar Hero III, which has been on sale before, but usually as a "Deal of the Day." We're not sure how long this particular sale will last, but if you want $20 off your Guitar Hero purchase, you can get it for $69.99 (also at Amazon).

Of course, there is one bad thing about popular games getting deals; the chances are high that everyone already has them.

[Via CAG]

Source: Super Smash Bros. Brawl with $10 gift card
Source: Guitar Hero Wii for $69.99

No new Wii games debuted last week; at least, none that ended up in the top thirty. There was one teensy weensy title that was introduced into the Japanese market, though. You may have heard of it: Guitar Hero III.

To put it bluntly, sales for the game were low. In fact, it didn't even make the top fifty in Media Create's charts, and Famitsu reports that the title only sold 1,300 copies. Compared to sales in other regions (like North America and Europe, for example), where Guitar Hero III performed fiercely, you can see that tastes often differ between western and eastern gamers.

Other than that, there's not to much to report about the software charts. Battalion Wars 2 managed to hang in the top ten, while Mario Kart Wii slipped into third place. Meanwhile, Smash Bros. Brawl might be in danger of falling out of the top thirty soon.

In hardware, the gap between the Wii and the PSP lessened as sales for Nintendo's console rose, while sales for Sony's handheld fell. Still, the PSP had a lead of about 15,000 units last week, keeping the Wii locked in its second place spot:

The software numbers are located after the break, so go on and take a look.

Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of Wii lovers.

While yours truly had trouble tracking down a copy of Mario Kart Wii on the high street (for our review), it appears plenty of others around Europe had no such problem.

Bar Denmark (where it has now dropped to fifth), the title sits at the top of every European chart, and we suspect it might even be influencing the sales of other games. Surely the rise of Mario Kart DS to 8th in Ireland, 8th in France, and 7th in Germany can't all be a mere coincidence? By our reckoning, Mario Kart Wii has ramped up Europe's interest in Mario Kart generally. Fortunately, Mario Kart DS is the bee's knees!

Finally, this week's overachiever award goes to Sega Superstars Tennis -- despite the Wii version's lack of online play, Sega's tennis/blue skies extravaganza climbed to fourth in the UK. Head beyond the break for more European chartage, and please accept our humble apologies for the lack of a Spanish top ten -- that should be back next week.

Refuting perceived negative statements against your console of choice is usually a very petty, fanboy kind of thing to do, but the New York Times' recent coverage of the Wii's terrible attach rate deserves it. The article has some problems that make the Wii seem to be in a worse situation than it is, though we don't know whether it's an intentional angle or a bit of haphazard reporting. John Scalzo of the Video Game Librarian blog identified some of the issues.

Scalzo identifies the paper's dependence on numbers from VGChartz (a "a team of analysts who study video-game sales"), their claim that Smash Bros. sales have tanked, and their spurious analysis of Guitar Hero III sales as noticeable problems with the coverage. The last is especially startling: the NYT claims that "Guitar Hero, for example, sold 2.2 million copies for the Wii, but 2.8 million copies for the Xbox 360 and almost 5 million for two versions of the PlayStation," bringing in the PS2 to make its point. "The only way the author could get the numbers he was looking for," Scalzo said, "was to combine the sales of Guitar Hero III on the PS2 and PS3 to push it past the Wii."

Hit the break for some of our own thoughts on the article.

Folks looking to jazz up their plastic Les Pauls for Guitar Hero or instruments they'll be jamming with in Rock Band, take note. Website GHSkinz is looking to offer you skins and other accessories for your fake instruments.

The skins themselves look like they're high quality, but with that comes the problem of price. It won't be cheap to outfit your instruments. But, then again, when your guitar looks as badass as this, we're not sure you're going to care about how much you spent to make sure it looks this way.

See also: Give your Rock Band drums some extra lives

You may have missed out on Amazon's Gold Box deals, but the online retailer is still selling Guitar Hero III for cheap. Sure, it's not as cheap, but it's $15 off the MSRP, nonetheless.

Since the Les Paul guitar will cost you $59.99 alone, buying the set for $74.99 isn't too bad of a deal. Also, it seems that Amazon is selling the fixed edition of the game, so you won't have to worry about mono sound issues or future disc swapping with your purchase.

[Thanks, David!]

Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of Wii lovers.

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue dominates Europe this week, and only plucky little Sweden (where the game lies second) prevented it from being top dog in every single European chart.

In many cases, however, it's being hotly pursued by Wii software. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is still holding its own (rising to 3rd in the UK, 4th in Ireland, and keeping fifth place in Spain), Mario & Sonic continues to grip to the higher positions like a particularly stubborn limpet, Germany is the usual Nintendo lovefest, and Sweden finally has a Wii game that isn't Guitar Hero III in its top ten. It's a good one, as well.

As far as new games go, there's just the one, with Dancing Stage Hottest Party strutting its stuff and grabbing its crotch at 7th in the Dutch charts. Finally, Game Party and Carnival: Funfair Games continue to plummet down the UK charts. Muahahaha.

Next week: some racing game.

In order to register for your replacement discs, just go to this site, enter the appropriate information, and print out the shipping label. Then, you just send out your glitched version and wait for your new disc to arrive.

Better late than never, we suppose.

[Thanks, Ashlee and Locke2007!]

Activision has been dealing with the anger of Guitar Hero III owners, which culminated four months ago in a class action lawsuit. The plaintiff, Sam Livingston, filed the suit against Activision because of the company's "deceptive" conduct regarding the lack of Dolby Pro Logic II.

Instead of letting the case get to court, though, Activision decided to offer a settlement. The amount of cash that exchanged hands in the deal was not made public, but we bet a check will be more satisfying than a complimentary faceplate. Oh, and speaking of those? They were actually less of an act of kindness on Activision's part, and more of a required legal stipulation from the settlement.

Even though Activision probably lost a whole lot of pennies in order to settle, we're sure the company is happy that there's now one less lawsuit to worry about this year.

[Via Game|Life]

While a lot of people here may have spent hours rawking out and pulling buffoonish poses to Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, it's safe to say that country rock musician Charlie Daniels wasn't quite as enthusiastic. Firstly, the guy is 71, and if performing high kicks and the splits is beyond us flexible twenty-somethings, it's probably going to be unrealistic for anyone who qualifies for a free bus pass. Secondly (and a lot more relevantly), he's not too chuffed about how one of his songs, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," has been presented by Legends of Rock.

According to an entry by the musician on his blog, the song in question is "a lighthearted novelty about a fiddling contest between a country boy and the devil and the devil always loses," but try telling that to Guitar Hero III. Instead, the game has players competing on the song with old Beelzebub himself, in a face-off which the devil can win. Insert outraged gasps here!

Anyway, this is the main sticking point for Daniels, who accuses developer Neversoft of "perverting my song," and huffs that he's "disgusted with the result." He also describes the game as having "a dark side, complete with grotesque monsters on stage with the band, strange, eerie lighting effects and all manner of weird things popping up on the stage," and reckons it's "not the healthiest thing in the world for young, impressionable minds to be exposed to."

As it happens, Daniels' complaints look set to fall on deaf ears, because he sold off the publishing rights to the track. Nevertheless, his diatribe is worth a read, if only for a chuckle.

[Via Kotaku]

Activision has made some mistakes with the Wii edition of Guitar Hero III, and it probably wasn't all too much fun for game owners to send in their discs and await fixed copies. The company, along with RedOctane, are trying to get back into people's good graces, though, by sending a free guitar faceplate to people who've replaced their discs.

We think this is a great move on Activision's part, especially since they didn't announce their good will publicly. It's nice that they're trying to compensate gamers for the inconvenience they've caused, considering they could have done nothing but fix the problem at hand -- that's what we call good customer service. From what we understand, the faceplates will arrive a few weeks after customers get their fixed editions.

So, what do you say, Guitar Hero owners? Will you forgive Activision, or will the company still be sleeping on the couch tonight?

To see Activision and RedOctane's love note to customers, check past the break.

Ah, how we all knowingly chuckled when Sega predicted it would sell four million copies of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games across the Wii and DS. Like a drunken, rowdy friend boasting of sexual conquests that never actually occurred, Sega's strutting came across as the stuff of fantasy.

And then the news came through. They'd sold five million. D'oh!

We were reminded of our misplaced Mario & Sonic cynicism again today, after That Videogame Blog listed the third-party games that have shifted one million units on the Wii. Sure enough, the plumber and the hedgehog taunted us from the top of the pile (with 3.4 million sales), while Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (1.8 million), Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (1.6 million), Rayman Raving Rabbids, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Carnival Games (all 1.2 million), and Red Steel (1 million) sat beneath it.

Helpfully, author Ashutosh Chhibbar has also listed those titles that are nearing the magical seven-digit landmark, with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, MySims, or LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga just needing one last push.