Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Gamefly is having a sale on some of its used-but-in-great-condition games again, also offering free shipping to spice up the deal a bit. As always, we're passings these savings along to you, while picking out a few we think are worth highlighting for their respective prices:

• Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire for $12.99
  
• Dewy's Adventure for $14.99
  
• NiGHTS for $14.99
  
• Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law for $14.99
  
• Manhunt 2 for $14.99
  
• Victorious Boxers: Revolution for $15.99
  
• Soulcalibur Legends for $15.99
  
• Bleach: Shattered Blade for $17.99
  
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for $27.99
  
• Super Mario Galaxy for $36.99
  

Click on the picture or "source" link to see the full list of Wii games, but keep in mind that you might be able to find some of them cheaper elsewhere.

If you're one of the cool kids that visits Wii Fanboy often, you probably know that we love bargains. Even more so, we love sharing them with you. We thought we'd tell you, then, that aside from Circuit City having some sweet deals this week, GameFly is also looking to take money out of our pockets.

From today to the 19th, GameFly is having a storewide sale, which means cheap games galore. The catch is that they're used, but that's not a big deterrent since the game conditions are usually tip-top.

Some highlights include:

• Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law -- $14.99
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams -- $17.99
• Battalion Wars 2 -- $27.99
• Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles -- $29.99
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption -- $29.99

We also found some other nice sales over there, so it's worth checking them out if you're craving a new (yet used) Wii game.

Japanophiles and sales chart nerds, it's that time of week again to take a look at last week's sales in the Land of the Rising Sun. Those of you who've been keeping up won't find much excitement in this week's chart, though. All the same software from the week before showed up, but it might not be long before Family Ski and Winning Eleven fall out of the top thirty.

It was also nice to see Metroid Prime 3: Corruption stick around, as the Nintendo FPS nabbed the number eleven spot for this week. Other than that, the only noticeable difference is that Smash Bros. dropped to fourth. What's interesting is that Brawl is no longer the best selling Wii game, either, as Wii Fit reclaimed that honor. We also learned that you can't keep the big three (Wii Fit, Wii Sports, and Wii Play) out of the top ten for long.

In hardware sales, the Wii fell a smidge behind the PSP, and did only slightly better than the DS.

Hardware:

• PSP: 57,651
  
• Wii: 55,845
  
• Nintendo DS: 53,266
  
• PlayStation 3: 14,934
  
• PlayStation 2: 9,930
  
• Xbox 360: 1,744

To see the software numbers and rankings for last week, make sure to click past the break.

To most of us, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is old news. The U.S. has had it since last summer, and even Europe has been enjoying the game for a few months now. It only debuted in Japan last week, though, and we were happily surprised to see it make the top five. It only sold 32,000 copies in its first week, but that's still not too shabby for a Metroid game in Japan. Hopefully, the game will have some legs and not plunge off the charts after its first week, like many other first-person shooters tend to do.

As for other software, the Wii didn't have too many games in the top thirty -- only eight, in fact -- yet it was still the second most represented gaming system on the charts. With the exception of the aforementioned Metroid and Everyone's General Knowledge Training TV, all the Wiis top games have consistently stuck around for (at least) a few weeks.

In other news, Smash Bros. once again failed to take the first place spot. The game beat out last week's chart champ, the new Gundam for the PS2, but fell behind the newly released Yakuza 3.

In hardware, the Wii claimed the top spot once again as Japan is clearly so over the Mint Green PSP (that was so five minutes ago). You can check out the hardware and software numbers for last week in Japan after the break -- we recommend that you do so.

Japan isn't getting Metroid Prime 3: Corruption until March, but Nintendo is making up for it (in a gameplay-insignificant way) by releasing the game with a boxart that looks nothing like Sonic Adventure 2's. We're not complaining about the tri-Samused American boxart, just stating that the Japanese boxart is quite nice -- the kind of thing we wouldn't mind having on a poster. The color scheme is unique among Metroid games, as is the decision to feature some characters that aren't Samus.

This (arbitrary) Boxart Victory is even sweeter for Japanese Nintendo fans, who have been subjected to some fairly rough Metroid Prime series boxarts.

Sometimes, it's interesting to compare what's popular in different regions. Of course, release dates come into play, as various parts of the world get games at different times, but there's a surprising amount of crossover when we look at what's big among Wii owners around the world.

Not everything is surprising: Guitar Hero III is shredding most of the competition in the US, Metroid Prime 3 is clinging to a top spot in the UK, and Super Mario Galaxy is muscling out other titles in Japan. But with the sales the various minigame collections are boasting, is it any wonder we've seen so many? Even the lackluster Carnival Games is raking in the money in multiple regions. Hit the jump for the top five sellers to see for yourself.

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, who you may remember hating for his shockingly-worded preference of 2D Metroid, still really likes Metroid Prime 3. In fact, he likes it so much he came up with an alternate button placement on the Wiimote for ideal Prime playing, one that puts the - and + buttons around the A button like the GameCube's layout. He even suggested, during the same discussion that sparked the original outrage, that Nintendo could have shipped such a 'special edition' Wiimote with the game. He backed up this discussion with a Photoshopped Wiimote that Newsweek put together.

We think that's a pretty fun idea, despite being a collector's nightmare. If the function of the thing doesn't really change, why not let people spend their money on weird one-off controllers? It's no different than, say, the Guitar Hero controller or the $200 Steel Battalion doodad, except that it could still be used with other games.

A lot of the industry folk are concerned with the longevity of the Wii, the latest of which is Silicon Knights' Dennis Dyack. He understands the console is popular right now, thinks it's hip, but wonders if the system can keep it up in the long run. Dyack seems to think the platform isn't capable of providing deep, rich experiences. We guess he didn't get to try Metroid Prime 3 yet.

But, even if the console only provides Wii Sports-like experiences, if it sells well, is that really a problem? We may not like it in quantity, as we're more than happy to sit down (or stand up, rather) every now and then and throw down in Wii Sports, but overall want more meaningful experiences from the system. But, if we're not happy and a billion grandparents are picking up the system for Wii Sports or other quick, mass-appeal titles, is that really a bad thing?

Not only were Retro trying to make a great game in Metroid Prime 3, they also set out to prove that the Wiimote could be a viable control method for not only the FPS genre, but on the whole, apparently. And, if we had any say in the matter, we'd say they did an excellent job on both counts easily. But, it's not like they didn't run into their fair share of problems.

"When we went to Japan and first saw the controller for the first time I got really concerned because there weren't a lot of buttons," says game director Mark Pacini. But, that didn't turn out to be an issue, as most will agree the game controls wonderfully.

So, do you think Metroid Prime 3 proved that the Wii's control method is a viable solution for genres outside of minigame compilations? Or, do you think that Retro just doesn't settle for anything less than the best in what they do?

See also: Taking a stroll through Retro Studios

Some people considered it a big deal when it was confirmed that the Wii would not feature DVD playback on release, but now that you've had one for a while (we hope), has it bothered you? There's been only one time when this blogger lamented the lack: the DVD player had been unhooked temporarily in order to offer up the progressive scan inputs* for Metroid Prime 3 (y'know, when we bought this television years ago, we thought the bank of connections on the back looked like more than we'd ever use), and we didn't feel like unhooking anything or putting the DVD into another game system due to the unwieldy DVD controls. For a moment, we discussed how convenient it would be if the Wii featured DVD playback -- after all, it's got a built-in remote! -- but it was a fleeting wish, and changing out the hookups isn't much of a problem. Beyond that single time, we've never even thought about the Wii lacking DVD playback.

Have you ever wanted to shove a DVD in there, for whatever reason?

*Yes, yes, we could get a switch, but it's rare when we really need all the connections at once ... it was really just the one time! Perhaps it's a sign of changing times, however ....

Even in a month when hardware sales are down, Nintendo's Straight Up Success bus just keeps on rolling. Let's hope this keeps on challenging Iwata and company to avoid "doing the easy." Even the re-priced Xbox 360 couldn't compete with the Nintendo juggernaut.

• Nintendo Wii: 403K
• Nintendo DS: 383K
• Microsoft Xbox 360: 277K
• Sony PS2: 202K
• Sony PSP: 151K
• Sony PS3: 131K

In software, however, the story was different. After Metroid Prime 3's moment in the spotlight, Bioshock's longer release window won out between those two. Nintendo games barely even struggled into the top five, with Wii Play and its extra controller snapping up that spot. Madden, which is its own juggernaut, dominated sales last month. To see the top ten titles, slip past the break.

This week's releases hardly present an opportunity for those of us who want something new to play to enjoy our favorite console. Sure, we could enjoy Sonic 3, but the game isn't something that can't be utterly dominated over the course of a single day. What's a gamer to do?

What will you be playing? Going to enjoy some Virtual Console games this weekend, or will you be enjoying a retail release game? Dare we ask if you still have as of yet to complete Metroid Prime 3?

Reader fatherb sent in this video of his sad encounter with one of the bosses in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Apparently, he isn't the only one experiencing this horrible glitch in the game, which we won't go into detail about for those of you who have yet to come into contact with this boss. In fact, since this is chock full of spoilers, we've gone ahead and tucked the video past the break.

Watch at your own risk.