Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Folks at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center are of the mind that Wiimotes aren't just for playing games on your Wii. Oh no, inside the bundled mass of plastic, wires and miniature unicorns that make the Wiimote so wonderful, there is something else, something magical (besides the unicorns): hope. Hope for a brighter future, hope for a more perfect world and hope for a device that can do more than just help you get a wicked game on.

In setting the controller up to operate with BigBen (PSC's 4,000 processor, 21-teraflop Cray XT3 supercomputing system), the students used the Wiimote to play Buckyball Bowling. This WiiMD technology will hopefully "offer scientists an easily usable tool to gain insight into simulations" and provide "an entertaining educational outreach tool to help interest students in biology, chemistry and physics." More Wii in the classroom is something we can definitely get behind.

[Via Engadget]

Video games are certainly a convenient scapegoat for all the world's ills these days. Whether it's violence, temperament, or something more innocent that seems "wrong" about a child, many people are quick to blame gaming -- and simple facts (like whether or not the children in question actually play games, or what they play) hardly get in the way. The latest pointy finger of blame concerns the lowered reading skills and interest levels of British youth, and of course, if it's a problem, games must be the culprit, and of all the major consoles, regardless of the references to computers throughout the article, it's the Wii that gets the honor of being name-dropped as part of the problem.

So what's the proof that games are at the heart of the falling reading skill levels? According to the Daily Mirror, "The 37 per cent of children in England who reported playing computer or video games for more than three hours a day constitutes one of the highest proportions among participating countries." So, despite any of the other factors mentioned in the article -- such as the fact that English students in the UK are less likely to be assigned reading homework than students in other countries, or the teachers who lambast that nation's "overloaded curriculum and testing system" -- clearly, the only problem is gaming, because kids are playing a lot of games.

We love the basic idea behind High School Musical. We think a karaoke game would be a big hit with the "expanded audience" out there in the "blue ocean." If we were the type to perform in front of people rather than hiding in total silence, we'd totally play it.

The major problem with High School Musical is High School Musical. If we're going to be singing in a game, we'd rather not sing material from a Disney made-for-TV movie. We'd rather belt out the theme from Night Trap than whatever was written for High School Musical.

Check the link for some new screens. We hope the game is more exciting than the microphone peripheral!

The first Wii game likely to ship with a peripheral in the US (not counting foam doodads) is not a Nintendo first party game. It is a licensed game. From Disney. Based on a made-for-TV movie.

Disney Interactive is bringing an adaptation of their hit movie High School Musical to the Wii as a karaoke game. The story of the game will follow the first movie, while also affording players the chance to sing the songs from the second. We weren't really aware karaoke games needed or could support stories, but we'll accept it. High School Musical is set to ship this August with an included microphone.

High School Musical is facing competition only from Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party in the race to be the first US-released Wii game with a special controller as well as the first full music game for the system. That's pretty progressive for Disney!

Once again, Wii Sports is the media darling of the mainstream press. Time is as big as they come. But Game of the Year? Many of us may disagree. As hardened, totally awesome gamers, we've come to expect grand adventures, interesting characters, nail-biting action sequences, and wonderfully infuriating logic puzzles. (And if you were wondering, dear readers, our own game of the year award goes to Twilight Princess, naturally.) But totally awesome gamers do not run Time, and thus, we don't think they really care about such nonsense.

Still, stepping off our pedestal for a moment, Wii Sports has brought more new and lapsed gamers to the screen than any game since Super Mario Bros. Having fun with friends and family; is this not the point of gaming in general? It's an interesting question, and one akin to comparing Old School with American Beauty. One may have been an inspiring, cinematic masterpiece, but which did you have more fun watching? Which do you guys think deserves the award?

[via Joystiq]