How do we know? Because they're throwing a lot of money into advertising the game. $10 million, to be exact, all in the hopes that you'll want to hit the virtual slopes with Shaun and the gang.
The campaign started last night, where Ubisoft purchased all of the ad space on the season premiere of popular television show South Park. That's not it, either, as it's being reported that Shaun White will make appearances on ESPN shows on November 16th to promote the game. In addition to that, Ubisoft is also purchasing air time on select Viacom channels with the purpose of promoting Shaun White Snowboarding.
Tetris Party is out soon, which means we get to dust off our Balance Boards and play Tetris the way Tetris was always supposed to be played: by leaning and squatting. Tetris Party producer and cool hat-wearer Tony Tran has generously demoed the Balance Board mode, which looks straightforward enough: you lean to steer your tetrominoes across the screen, and squat to rotate them. The playing field is drastically reduced to allow for the imprecision of balance-based controls.
It looks quite fun, though this video did miss one thing: footage of Tony playing this mother on level 20. We suspect our own knees, weakened by a lack of exercise due to a life spent blogging, would struggle to get beyond level 5 with all that squatting.
Family Ski: World Ski & Snowboardlooks cute and fun, sure -- mostly because it looks a lot like We Ski. In fact, it pretty much is We Ski, just with the option of turning the Balance Board sideways and some new levels, and yet we're oddly compelled by these screenshots. Whether or not you enjoyed the games' predecessor, which got mixed reviews, we'll guess you'll find these shots as appealing as we do.
Hudson just sent us a press release stating that Marble Saga: Kororinpa will be making its way to North America in the spring of 2009. The sequel to Marble Mania: Kororinpa, the game will feature Balance Board support (which we already knew about), Wi-Fi compatibility and lots of new levels to explore. On top of that, there's also 4-player local multiplayer to enjoy, as well as "customization features."
Hit up our gallery below for some new screens and if you want to see the game in motion, check out the GC 2008 trailer here.
Nintendo used the first Family Ski from Namco Bandai (called We Ski here) as a showcase for the Balance Board, to show that the board could be used for more than exergaming. One of the next titles to use the Wii Fit peripheral will be ... the sequel to Family Ski!
Called Family Ski: World Ski & Snowboard, the new game adds (obviously) one new method of downhill transport, the snowboard. The snowboard can be operated like the snowboard in Wii Fit, using a rotated Balance Board, or with the Wiimote alone. The new game also features a new locale, the Jamboree Snow Resort, with all-new courses.
Shaun White's Balance Board-compatible game will be hitting retail shelves on November 14th across Europe, for all of you who've been watching the game and found it to be to your liking. When the game was announced, we merely got a "holiday 2008" window, so it's good to get a concrete date down. And we assume that North America will receive the game around the same time, so look for an update here when we find out more.
Who's anxious to hop on the Balance Board and check this out?
If there's one thing we don't tolerate, it's rabbid hate. All of the rabbid haters can suck on a lemon, for all we care. And, like previousteaser trailers, this latest one does not disappoint and haters have no grounds to ... well, hate. It's a spoof on the television show Heroes, which is incredibly appropriate given that Raving Rabbids TV Partyis doing the spoofing.
Racing. Sci Fi. Labyrinth levels. Balancing. Upgrades. Balance. Human bowling. Playlogic's Vertigo doesn't look like the greatest game ever or anything, but it's damned weird. "Upgrade your Xorb, seek hidden shortcuts and collect power ups to help you survive, to become the fastest and most envied Xorber in the Universe!" How can you not get excited? They pretty much just told us to get excited.
Games like Vertigo, which is slated for both PC and Wii before the end of the year, raise interesting questions. If the controls are decent, particularly with the Balance Board -- which Vertigo supports -- does it become worthwhile? What does something like this really need?
Uh, guys? Did your Balance Board come with a set of damn monkey bars? We're starting to feel a little ripped off. Just asking.
The first trailer for Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009 is out, and while it's full of promised butt-kicking, there's also a fair amount of game footage, as well as some discussion of the title's features. Verdict: the graphics look a little less than good, but does something like this need to look great? It's already one-up on Wii Fit: part of the title's philosophy is simultaneous multiplayer. Does that mean two Balance Boards? From the footage in the trailer, it's impossible to tell whether those games are Wiimote and Nunchuk only, or if they require boards.
Poor Shaun White Snowboarding. Ubisoft's Balance Board snowboarding title is still most famous for being played by a barefooted Cammie Dunaway during Nintendo's ill-received E3 press conference, rather than for ... actually looking quite nice. Surely there are others out there who privately think this looks like it might be fun?
Personally speaking, this blogger largely enjoyed the SSX games, and absolutely loved1080° Snowboarding on the N64, and different bits of this video reminded us of both. If you also think Shaun White shows promise, but you'd rather keep this extremely shameful secret to yourself and save internet face, give us a wink or some other coded hint in the comments.
Sometimes you just have a bad day. It happens to the best of us; even video game bloggers are not infallible. And after a rage-inducing, hair-pulling bad day, you can go home, curl up in a ball and listen to The Wallflowers in surrender, or vent some of that anger. By punching people.
But hold up there, tiger. You can't punch real people. That's, like, illegal. Enter the Wii: the best simulation for punching people outside of the real thing. Unfortunately, Wii Sports Boxing does not offer the realistic experience of mashing in someone's face Stallone style. Worse, no other boxing game since the Wii's release has really delivered a solid boxing experience. That could change in the near future with Facebreaker K.O. Party, forcing me to eat my words like a knuckle sandwich from Rocky Marciano. But if its Xbox/PS3 counterpart is any indication, there's not much chance of that. The same goes for Don King Prizefighter. This shaky reliability just won't do. We need Punch-Out!!
Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Jet Set Radio, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.
Tetris Party, the Hudson-developed, Balance Board-supporting Tetris game with more modes than you could shake an inverted L tetramino at, will be out on Japan's WiiWare store at some point next month. Unlike most Tetris games, Hudson seems to be putting some real effort into Tetris Party, coming up with some obscure (but fun-looking) variations on just dropping some blocks.
Be prepared to pay, though: at 1,200 Wii Points, this will be one of the most expensive WiiWare titles on the market. One day, we'll sit down and calculate how much money we've spent over the past 20-odd years on different Tetris games. This will probably be followed by incessant sobbing.
Wii Fit is helping all kinds of retailers make money. In fact, the fitness bundle from Nintendo is still hard to find. Now, we hear that the package helped drive profits up for retailer Toys R Us. During Q2 of last year, the retailer had a loss of $42 million. This year, the company turned profits of $13 million.
Gallery: Can't find Wii Fit? Try these alternatives!
These videos for Skate It -- today's andothers -- beg one major question: how long is it going to be before people start busting their Balance Boards? A week after the game's fall release? A day? The one thing we're sure of is that it's going to happen. Boards will be busted. People will cry. But in the meantime, we're going to lean into lots of fun, and all without having to brave the prospect of introducing various body parts to the rough, hard asphalt.
Despite its toony appearance, Shape Boxing Wii de Enjoy Diet regards itself more seriously than the boxing in Wii Sports. There are no Miis to be found here, more technical details (such as different boxing stances) are taken into consideration across the title's 28 lessons, and the game will dole out nutritional advice in a bid to get/keep you toned. Less seriously, you can punch bears, which we don't recall seeing in Rocky IV. Anyway, the overall vibe seems to be self-improvement.
This releases in Japan on October 30th, and will use the Balance Board in some way. We're betting it could actually improve your fitness, based on the fact that we were wheezing, crimson-faced wrecks after one and a half minutes of Wii Sports boxing.
Family Ski: World Ski & Snowboard looks cute and fun, sure -- mostly because it looks a lot like We Ski. In fact, it pretty much is We Ski, just with the option of turning the Balance Board sideways and some new levels, and yet we're oddly compelled by these screenshots. Whether or not you enjoyed the games' predecessor, which got mixed reviews, we'll guess you'll find these shots as appealing as we do. 
Racing. Sci Fi. Labyrinth levels. Balancing. Upgrades. Balance. Human bowling. Playlogic's Vertigo doesn't look like the greatest game ever or anything, but it's damned weird. "Upgrade your Xorb, seek hidden shortcuts and collect power ups to help you survive, to become the fastest and most envied Xorber in the Universe!" How can you not get excited? They pretty much just told us to get excited.
Sometimes you just have a bad day. It happens to the best of us; even video game bloggers are not infallible. And after a rage-inducing, hair-pulling bad day, you can go home, curl up in a ball and listen to The Wallflowers in surrender, or vent some of that anger. By punching people.
Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Jet Set Radio, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.
