Nintendo Wii Fanboy

There is some variety available for those of you looking to download something new to play on Wii. For the retro fans, a pair of new Virtual Console titles should tickle the fancy. If you're looking for something more akin to the frat experience of today, then check out this week's WiiWare download. Without further ado, let's get to the games!

This week's WiiWare game is:

• Pong Toss - Frat Party Games (JV Games, 1 - 4 players, 800 Wii Points)

This week's Virtual Console games are:

• Chase H.Q. (TG16, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
• Art of Fighting 2 (NEO, 1 - 2 players, 900 Wii Points)

Sadly, there won't be a video wrap-up for this week's releases. But, we should be back next week with our usual video coverage of the Virtual Console releases on Wii.

[Via press release]

It's official: Beer Pong was way too controversial for the family-friendly Wii, and the forthcoming lulzworthy WiiWare game has undergone a name change. Beer Pong: Frat Party Games is now Frat Party Games: Pong Toss. What, like taking the beer out of the name takes it out of the frat party? That will certainly work. Next up: Frat Party Games: Quilting. You know how those boys at the chapter house like to fight over the best remnants.

Here's the thing: in this case, it really did work. Not only is Beer Pong now operating under a different title, but all the references to alcohol have been removed, too. Publisher JVGames already made the change (in response, we assume, to previous protests), which resulted in the assumed rating being dropped down to E. Now, a whole new argument has arisen, thanks to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who feels that, despite the lack of beer anywhere in the game (it's juice in them there cups), an E rating will encourage underage drinking. Blumenthal wants an AO-rating, which just ain't happening -- liquor references in games rates teen, per the ESRB.

The ESRB is having none of it, though; they smartly responded with a racing game analogy: if you pulled the same stunts in real life as you do in a racing game, they'd certainly be illegal. However, as they noted, many racing games are rated E. So why give this one, with no overt alcohol use and no illegal behavior whatsoever, a restrictive rating?

From the screenshots, we can't help but think people should have not only left this one alone, but also be celebrating this game as a PSA. If drinking makes everything look like this, we're taking the first train to sobertown.


[Via Game|Life]

The ESRB well isn't totally dry, luckily: just a few days after the announcement that new game reveals would be curtailed, several unannounced games have appeared. Most notable is Penny Racers Party: Turbo-Q Speedway from Tomy, which is likely to be Choro-Q Wii, the party-game-filled version of Takara Tomy's toy-based racing game series.

The ESRB database has revealed some other new releases: Gameloft's Wild West Guns, likely a WiiWare game; PDC World Championship Darts 2008, which was released earlier this year in the UK; N-Space's bean bag game; and Beer Pong.

On the Virtual Console front, SNK's top-down ninja shooter, Ninja Commando, has been rated for release. Totally sweet!

When Beer Pong: Frat Party Games was announced for WiiWare, many Wii owners protested it based on its stupidity. We should have guessed, though, that some people would actually protest the software for moral reasons.

The problem here lies with the games ESRB rating, which is T (13+). Lisa Lombardozzi of the Greater Herndon Community Coalition is concerned that Beer Pong will encourage children to play the game in real life. In fact, many college students who partake in the activity (which is also called Beirut, depending on who you talk to) are not even of legal drinking age. Since the United States' drinking age is 21, activists claim that the game will promote binge drinking ideals to youths.

JV Games' response to the issue was more dismissive than eloquent. Company spokesman Vince Valenti said, "We are not advocating drinking any more than watching cartoons or watching the TV show Cheers, or even going bowling or to a baseball game ... If anything, you're going to be drinking less, because you are too busy playing the game, trying to beat your opponent, to be constantly picking up a beer and drinking it."

We doubt parents and community members were soothed by this response.

[Via Game Politics]

Wow, we've been happy with WiiWare. You all have been happy with the titles, correct? Well, regardless of how you would rate the service so far, we have a tough question to ask.

Do you think the steady flow of new titles will remain constant going forward? Would you expect at least one new WiiWare game each week, or do you think that the well is getting close to dried up? Sure, there's Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People to look forward to, but what else? Will the flow continue?

[Update: trailer after the break! Looks pretty okay, we suppose, for a beer pong game.]

Beer pong is one of the weirder recent trends in party games since the out-of-nowhere resurgence of poker, at least as seen through the eyes of someone who isn't currently in college. Now JVGames has announced their intention to translate the drunk version of Bozo the Clown's "Grand Prize Game" to WiiWare. We read the press release and started to reach for the picardfacepalm.jpg, but then we went to the website and were presented with an unexpected hilarity bomb.

Let's just say that the website (screenshot above) doesn't really scream professionalism. Blurry, blown-up beer glasses with choppy filling animations, and a 3D logo that looks like it was rendered in a DS homebrew program. It actually makes us kind of love it. Beer Pong: Frat Party Games will be out in June.

[Via IGN]