The Shaft, the Wii Classic Controller joystick that isn't the Hori Fighting Stick, was on display at this year's CES, and Gizmodo couldn't help but check it out, mostly because it has a funny name that can be giggled about. It's the "Wii" technique of attracting mainstream attention.
Surprisingly, for something that looks like the misshapen hybrid of a Classic Controller and a cheapo arcade stick (well ...), Gizmodo thought the thing felt nice. Apparently the different colors also have different finishes: the black controller is rubberized, while the white one is smooth plastic. We don't know if they actually tried the controller out with any games. Talking about the thing was probably fun enough.
Nintendo Wii Fanboy is related, in an odd sort of second-cousin once-removed kind of way, to the hyper-popular Engadget, which like totally everyone reads all the time forever. As such, their annual Engadget awards are nothing to sneeze at, and so we look with great pride (we helped, after all) at their selections for 2k6. Let's take a glance at the honors:
Reader's Choice: Most Innovative Peripheral
Reader's Choice: Game Console of the Year
Editor's Choice: Game Console of the Year
Reader's Choice: Gadget of the Year (!!!)
Editor's Choice: Gadget of the Year (!!!)
Yeah, that's right. That means the Wii pretty much wins at life. It's quite a series of awards, but which console will take home 2007? It may come down to one showdown: Halo 3 vs. Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Which will suck up more of the average gamer's free time? Bring it, Chiefy.
Joystiq's resident 'man in a far-off land' recently checked out Japanese manufacturer Thanko for the skinny on rechargeable battery pack availability. He found that the company is taking pre-orders for their product starting today, promising delivery of said product before the end of February.
Each pack, which includes a lithium-ion battery and the USB stand (pictured), allows one to plug it into one of the available USB plugs on the back of the Wii. Not only that, but the company says that a three-and-a-half hour charge will keep players in the game for up to 25 hours.
Some folks will do anything for a little attention, and we're happy to oblige, particularly when we get to showcase our big daddy blog Joystiq in a spot of debunking. A reader sent them pictures of his bruised face (and bruised television) and blamed the whole thing on the Wii. He really should have blamed his poor Photoshop skills. Next time you try to scam folks, may we suggest not choosing the second result on a Google image search? Make us dig a little deeper.
Apparently, Wiinjuries and Wiisasters are the hip new accessories for gamers everywhere. Forgot those NES belt buckles. The cool kids 'chop in fake Wii wounds for their MySpace pics, and the more hardcore idiots are probably going around actually punching one another in the face with Wiimotes. We just hope someone films it. Where's Jackass when you need it?
On a side note, anyone else think the word "wiinjuries" should die along with all these yawnariffic claims of Wii-related disasters?
The "great and esteemed Ludwig" (his words, not mine) stumbled across this video today, and of course felt the need to validate his existence by immediately sending it to me. Though quite old (2003), the hilariously dubbed montage of several Nintendo classics has awesome to spare. Watch! And be merry.
(A small warning: this is perhaps NSFW, due to a bit of profanity in the first few seconds.)
... or, in the case of this blogger, lack thereof? With Nintendo boasting the intuitive, easy motion-sensing control scheme allowing all types of people to game with ease, we wondered if the control scheme was realistic enough to favor those who excel in these sports in the real world to do the same on the Wii. Sadly, we're all gamers and not a one of us can protest to be great at golf out in the real world. As such, we decided to document our trials in a couple of games to see if we could get the hang of the game, with the future goal being dominating anyone we come across.
Can we step up and own the links right away? Is the game more realistic and challenging than its presentation would have you believe? Read on and find out!
Remember when we learned about the mysterious "Startup Disc" from the back of a Wii box? Turns out the disc will be used once to set up your Wii on its initial cycling of power. One Joystiq reader, and Engadget blogger, named Paul miller snapped the above picture of a Wii kiosk in a South Shore Mall Software Etc. store, located in Bay Shore, NY. The message, which is in English, Spanish, and French, reads:
"Please insert your Wii Startup Disc. This will set up your Wii console."
Now that the Tokyo Game Show has come to a close and you've been assaulted with numerous videos, we can all finally take a deep breath and carefully scrutinize all of this new data following the event. For Nintendo having no presence of their own at the show, the Wii was out in full-force. Before we get into what we liked and didn't like from the show, let's recap on what the show brought us, for both the DS and Wii:
So how did Nintendo do? The DS certainly rocked the house! Even though the DS was literally bombarded with nothing but RPGs, it still had a great show. A slew of new content will keep the already incredible platform from going stale. Those with an insatiable appetite for turn-based battles and potions will get their fix with Square-Enix's incredible lineup of RPG games to come.
As for the Wii, it had a smaller presence through third-party publishers this year. Konami had the award-winning Elebits on-hand for eager attendees, as well as Sega tossing down the red carpet for their mascot with Sonic and the Secret Rings. Nintendo failing to make a unified presence themselves could've hurt their momentum going into launch, but we aren't worried. If we should be, then why?
For all of Joystiq's Tokyo Game Show 2006 coverage, click here.
[Update 1: Added in the interview with the Final Fantasy III developers.]
Tipsters, whether they submit to Joystiq or one of the excellent NintendoFanboy blogs, usually are a breed unmatched. Willing to submit news and following the blogs much like a detective monitors a murder suspect, they are ever-vigilant in their quest to find and submit all news.
Such a news tipsters spends his days as an employee at Wal-mart, a kind of double-life we imagine an extra-terrestrial super-hero or millionaire vigilante might live. During his off-hours, working at his store, this tipster commented that his higher-ups informed him that Wal-mart would not be receiving any Wii demo kiosks later this year for fear of "our shoppers being awakened from their brain-dead, zombie-like state and rebelling against us, their low-cost, reassuring overlords." No, wait that's wrong. What he really said was the company had a "fear of some kid getting hurt or injuring others in the process of flailing his arms around." Last time we checked, that's all kids do (besides crying in restaurants and ruining the experience at the movie theater).
Joystiq tried to get a comment from someone at Wal-mart, only to never hear back from them and received the obligatory "we do not respond to rumors" response from Nintendo on the matter.
The last two days have been nothing but an avalanche of Wii news. We got release dates, territorypricing, and some new features all dropped on our laps. We're full, stuffed to the brim from the delicious smorgasbord of news. We're going to have to undo our belt, if you don't mind...
So in all the excitement, has anyone ever checked past Nintendo promises in regard to the Wii to ensure that our beloved gaming company is providing us with truthful, accurate information? One blogger over at Joystiq, our good friend Ludwig, has done just that. The results show that Nintendo, like another gaming company who made a few promises, failed to deliver.
Our favorite burn from the article: Then: In March 2006, Satoru Iwata tells CNN all about the USB ports on the Wii and how "practically any storage method can be used" in lieu of SD cards and the 512MB of internal storage. Now: Perrin Kaplan empties her Magnum into that idea, telling Wired News' Joel Johnson that only flash storage will be supported. Iwata's suggestion becomes relegated to something Nintendo "could" explore in the future. This "future" place we keep hearing about sounds fantastic.
A report over at Reuters is quoting Reggie Fils-ass kicker, name takerAime as saying that the Wii "will make a profit on the entire Wii proposition out of the box -- hardware and software." This is good news for Nintendo, who are not adapting the business models of their competition. With Sony and Microsoft, initial units sold are at a loss, so in this manner Nintendo has already managed to win in the next-gen console wars.
Now that we have the pricing on the hardware, is this the reason the Wiimote and nunchuk attachment cost a ridiculous amount of money, to ensure profit immediately?
That theme from The Jeffersons came to mind when we first saw what a share in Nintendo stock was costing. Coming in at $26 (a six-year high) a share, high confidence in Nintendo's Wii is the main cause of this hike in price. Meryll Lynch even raised their price of Nintendo stock from $25 to $29 last Friday, stating that anticipation for the Wii was the main driving force behind the decision.
A solid showing from the console at May's E3, along with continued support from third-party developers, and a large launch lineup are all contributing factors to Nintendo's pre-launch success. Should they follow through with plans and launch the console for an affordable price, make due on their promise of launch titles, and provide a robust online component through their WiiConnect24 service, there will be little to stop them from regaining the market share they enjoyed over 10 years ago.
Have you been a long-time poster at Joystiq or one of its awesome network-affiliated sites, only to see others have stars placed next to their name (or negatives) and wonder what exactly dictates that rewarding or stripping of star(s)? Well, Joystiq's Vlad Cole has broken down the star system to show you exactly how it works. These guidelines apply to all the Joystiq network sites:
Value: Does the comment enhance the topic at hand and add new perspective to the discussion? Is it a good question or interesting insight?
Impartiality: This is hard, especially for Fanboy sites such as this, but as much as we loudly proclaim this system to be the superior, it detracts from the discussion at hand. It's OK to be touched with Fanboyitis, however try to curb it as best as you can as to not damage the topic at hand whilst commenting.
Civility: This is just common sense. We all have opinions and want to share them, however as human beings we have the ability to exercise civility, even during the most heated debate.
Other: Humor, wit, and bribes of cold, fresh chocolate milk. We like chocolate milk.
As such, these are the guidelines followed when hiring Bloggers for the network (you have no idea how much chocolate milk it took for me to get the job), so keep that in mind should you one day wish to kill me and take my place. Vlad is answering as many questions as he can over at Joystiq, but if you post any questions here, we'll try as best we can to answer.
Over at Joystiq, blogger Ross Miller strives to keep you updated on all the pertinent information regarding
official third-party support for the Revolution. Ross, not one to half-ass it, goes on to explain the respective
company's ties with the Nintendo of old and summarizes all that is currently known regarding the project. It's really a
worthwhile read and a trusty bookmark as it will be updated with new information as it surfaces.
Epic Games' Mark Rein, in a Q & A session attended by Joystiq Blogger Christopher Grant during the recent GDC,
said that we probably "won't be seeing Unreal Engine 3 on the Revolution." Mark implied that the Unreal
Engine 2 would be more than sufficient for anything the platform may demand and had yet to be informed on what the
final specs for the console would be.
Mark's comments were more towards down-scaling HD projects, such as the upcoming Gears of War, for the
console and cited that it would not be very cost effective. We assume that titles will eventually utilize the Unreal
Engine 3 on the console, however upcoming titles created specifically with HD resolutions in mind are
more than likely not going to see an incarnation on Nintendo's system.
Some folks will do anything for a little attention, and we're happy to oblige, particularly when we get to showcase our big daddy blog Joystiq in a spot of debunking. A reader sent them pictures of his bruised face (and bruised television) and blamed the whole thing on the Wii. He really should have blamed his poor Photoshop skills. Next time you try to scam folks, may we suggest not choosing the second result on a Google image search? Make us dig a little deeper.
Tipsters, whether they submit to Joystiq or one of the excellent Nintendo Fanboy blogs, usually are a breed unmatched. Willing to submit news and following the blogs much like a detective monitors a murder suspect, they are ever-vigilant in their quest to find and submit all news. 
The last two days have been nothing but an avalanche of Wii news. We got release dates, territory pricing, and some new features all dropped on our laps. We're full, stuffed to the brim from the delicious smorgasbord of news. We're going to have to undo our belt, if you don't mind...
That theme from The Jeffersons came to mind when we first saw what a share in Nintendo stock was costing. Coming in at $26 (a six-year high) a share, high confidence in Nintendo's Wii is the main cause of this hike in price. Meryll Lynch even raised their price of Nintendo stock from $25 to $29 last Friday, stating that anticipation for the Wii was the main driving force behind the decision.
Over at Joystiq, blogger Ross Miller strives to keep you updated on all the pertinent information regarding
official third-party support for the Revolution. Ross, not one to half-ass it, goes on to explain the respective
company's ties with the Nintendo of old and summarizes all that is currently known regarding the project. It's really a
worthwhile read and a trusty bookmark as it will be updated with new information as it surfaces.
