Nintendo Wii Fanboy

This one is a bit odd.

IGN recently published a kind of "What if?" story about connecting the DS and Wii versions of Guitar Hero together, to form some kind of Voltron-like super game. That's all well and good and we'll be the first to say that daydreaming is fun, but there was something curious tucked away within the three pages there.

"With a Wii channel already in the works that would output DS's audio from your TV speakers, it would be an impressive next step to sync the DS game with Wii, and use Guitar Hero Wii to truly interact with the pocket version." Wait a minute, there's a Channel in the works to output your DS's audio from your TV speakers? This is the first we've heard of anything like this (only the Speaker Channel comes to mind, but that's specifically for Band Brothers DX, so it doesn't fit).

What do you guys think? Error on IGN's part, or did they let something slip?

[Thanks, Sonic_13!]

For many, Animal Crossing: City Folk looks a lot like the original GameCube game, both from a presentation standpoint and included features. Sure, Animal Crossing: City Folk has some new stuff, but none of it is really that innovative or indicative of the franchise going into any kind of new direction. It's basically the equivalent to treading water. But, it turns out that popular opinion may not be justified, as some new details regarding the game can be found in the upcoming issue of Nintendo Power.

First of all, those of you who spent time with Animal Crossing: Wild World on the DS, you can transfer your avatar over to the new game. Another cool DS-to-Wii feature will allow you to "take your travel data and download it to your DS." We've no idea what that will entail exactly, but it sounds promising.

As for the Wii game, the holiday-themed events will be returning. Jingle the Reindeer will be back for Toy Day and a new character, Zipper T. Bunny, will make an appearance for Bunny Day. Sound promising!

Training games have been big on the DS, and a few have made it big on the Wii -- most notably, of course, Wii Fit -- but the lion's share of these "games" have remained on the DS. Big Brain Academy and My Word Coach are a few that have been on both systems. Have you tried them on both? We'd love to hear opinions about training games crossing the gulf, as it were. We're of the opinion that they're better when they're designed specifically for one system, and can thus play to that system's strength, but there are always exceptions.

It's common knowledge that half of Mario Kart Wii's 32 tracks are classic circuits from previous games in the series, but how kind has the transition been? IGN decided to find out, by comparing footage of tracks from Mario Kart DS with the updated versions that will appear in the Wii game.

At this point, we should probably state that we weren't initially thrilled to hear of Yoshi Falls being revived. With its wide corners and broad straights, Yoshi Falls in Mario Kart DS was far too easy and item-dependent. In Mario Kart Wii, however, the extra four karts in each race are just what's needed to make the same circuit look far more involving; it doesn't appear to be too big now. IGN also compared Delfino Square -- already a fine track on the DS -- and it looks predictably fantastic on the Wii. The visuals, as you'd expect, have made a significant leap forward.

Accelerate past the break to watch Delfino Square being played on the Wii, as well as footage of Yoshi Falls from both titles.

There comes a time in every system's life when its parent has to take off the kid gloves and say goodbye. Nintendo might not being doing that just yet with the DS, but the company is decreasing the amount of developers working on DS titles.

That doesn't mean Nintendo will be facing empty nest syndrome, though. By coddling the DS a little less, more developers can (and will) be able to focus on Wii games. The Wii will surely benefit from this, as more manpower means quicker game releases. As for the DS, don't fret. The handheld is littered with third-party titles, and it's not like Nintendo is jumping ship completely on its portable money-printer.

[Via NeoGAF]

NeoGAFfer JoshuaJSlone has devoted a serious amount of time to compiling weekly hardware sales figures in Japan, as they appear in Famitsu. That sounds like a task of almost Sisyphean proportions, but it's not all thankless. This week, for instance, his legwork and terrifying table of numbers (mercifully translated into the graph above) threw up an interesting little factoid: lifetime sales of the Wii in Japan have now surpassed those of the GameCube. Which is darn impressive, considering the Wii has been in Japanese stores for just 54 weeks.

Our new favorite NeoGAFfer also took the time to compare those first 54 weeks of the Wii's life with other consoles. Turns out the GBA needed only 40 weeks to reach where the Wii is now, and the DS an almost identical 53.7 weeks. What could have been in a world without Wii shortages, eh? Interestingly, the Wii is even outperforming the PlayStation 2, which required approximately 66 weeks to reach the Wii's current total.

For more graph-related tomfoolery, and to see how the PS3 is faring against the Wii (clue: it's not faring well, but let's not be complacent), head past the break.

Being a devotee of Nintendo in a PAL region is probably a bit like marriage (I'd urge you to stick with me here, because I've thought this analogy through for at least four minutes). For years, you slog away at the relationship, mildly irritated by the other person's foibles and imperfections, like that weird bumpy mole on their back, or how they noisily slurp soup, or how they insist on playing nothing but Keane during long car journeys.

Then every so often, you have your disputes, arguing about the merits of Magnolia Eggshell and Cream Eggshell in the aisle of Lowe's. And sometimes, these disagreements might build up to something bigger in your mind, begin to fester, and perhaps you occasionally think, "Is this it? Is this the rest of my life?" But then, something strange happens -- every so often, the other person does something really fantastic, something that reminds you exactly why you got hitched in the first place, and why you settled on this individual as your soul mate. And suddenly, everything is well with the world, or at least until it's soup night again.

The point of this long-winded comparison being: as a gamer in the UK, that pretty much sums up my relationship with Nintendo. For years now, PAL region gamers have often been treated fairly shabbily by Nintendo. I'll freely admit it doesn't take much too rile us -- we hardcore types are notoriously tough to please -- though Nintendo doesn't always help itself. Its insistence that we receive games or hardware late, or not at all, or borked ... well it's just plain infuriating is what it is. The prices, as well, leave a lot to be desired. And totally rad free gifts? Yea, forget about those.

The Nintendo DS really revived the point-and-click adventure genre for consoles. Because of the nature of the Wiimote, we're not surprised to see some point-and-click action hit the Wii, too. With games like Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure and Harvey Birdman leading the way, we're sure that the Wii will see many others of this breed to come.

Will you welcome these types of games to the Wii with open arms, or spit at them as they walk through the door? Perhaps you prefer to keep your point-and-click portable? Or maybe you just (shudder) hate the genre in general?

So which is it: yea to point-and-click, or nay?