Nintendo Wii Fanboy

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.

Here's a simple question: with all the AAA titles (supposedly) being released in 2007, which one are you actually looking forward to the most? Super Smash Bros. Brawl will certainly be a favorite, but recent hype and an unwavering faith in Miyamoto-san make us want to experience Super Mario Galaxy just a tad bit more. Maybe you're looking for the first truly-done-right first-person shooter on the Wii, courtesy of Metroid Prime 3, or perhaps you simply desire a return to a certain blue hedgehog's former glory in Sonic and the Secret Rings. Maybe we're wrong altogether. If you could have just one of the 2k7 games, which would it be? Which title can you just not live without?

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]

And you know what that means ... new games! Unfortunately, it looks like Nintendo has one hell of a hangover (we can't blame them, we were up till 6 AM ourselves), and they only managed to spit out two rather inauspicious titles: Baseball and Urban Champion, both for the NES. After five hundred points each, we maintain that both playing baseball and punching someone in the face are both far more enjoyable in real life in Wii Sports.

And by the way, fellow fanboys, Happy New Year! Did your megaton party involve raucous Wii-playing? As you know, there was a more important countdown in Times Square around a month and a half ago, so if you played right through midnight, wish yourself a happy belated 2007 and check the ball-drop on your TiVo. Just kidding. We know you've already erased that to make room for the next episode of Heroes.

As we here at the Fanboy ready ourselves for the revelry of a new year, we must turn back and view 2006 through shiny, gold-tinted glasses. It's been a full twelve months of taking names and kicking ass (look forward to a special Review of 2006 series), but we can't help but think that we could do better.

What's in store for 2007? The Wii looks to hit it's stride with games like Sonic and Secret Rings, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and dare we even say it, Super Smash Bros: Brawl. As online play is finally implemented, we're going to bring over Game Night from DS Fanboy, so you can have your chance to beat the crap out of us bloggers. We'll be starting up a series of Fanboy podcasts quite soon, and we'll be bringing some new talent into the fold as well.

Let's not forget, of course, the reason you guys come here in the first place: the weekly Japanese Hardware Sales posts. In case you've missed the hilarity (most of the posts came on DS Fanboy exclusively, as Wii numbers were obviously not available for most of the year) there's a run-down of every edition after the break. We're curious: which were your favorite? Let us know! We look forward to 2007, readers, and have a wonderful New Year's!

And holy hell look at those DS Lite numbers.

- DS Lite: 485,584 165,876 (51.88%)
- Wii: 279,277 171,040 (158.02%)
- PSP: 138,588 89,626 (183.05%)
- PS3: 76,882 5,940 (8.37%)
- PS2: 46,209 8,479 (22.47%)
- Xbox 360: 17,213 45 (0.26%)
- Game Boy Micro: 2,394 903 (60.56%)
- GBA SP: 1,858 9 (0.48%)
- Gamecube: 1,250 98 (8.51%)
- DS Phat: 380 222 (140.51%)
- GBA: 57 15 (35.71%)
- Xbox: 11 8 (266.67%)

[Source: Media Create]

According to the latest Wii Mailbag over at IGN, Super Paper Mario, the sequel to the awesome game that is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, is to release on the Wii and not the GameCube. The game was supposed to release next month, but according to retail listings and the fact that Japan has yet to receive the game, we doubt this is still the planned release date.

Given all of this, we can safely assume that gesture-based controls will somehow be implemented into the final game. We can see ourselves utilizing the Wiimote as if it were a hammer, gripping it tightly with both hands above our head and swiping it downward to squash Goombas. Flicking the nunchuk attachment upward could naturally cause Mario to jump in-game.

In what other ways could the Wiimote's unique control scheme improve the game experience?