Nintendo Wii Fanboy

After its laughable coverage of Brain Training's "discriminatory" stance on accents earlier this year, the BBC had some work to do to get back in our favor. The feature above, part of a recent edition of flagship news program Newsnight, does just that.

Rather than automatically accusing videogames of having a negative effect on children (a default position for countless media outlets), the piece suggests that games have helped to produce brighter kids now than at any stage in history. Leading the charge for this side of the debate is Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good for You. Johnson contends that because so much modern media (the internet, interactive television, games) is no longer consumed passively, many children grow up to be "more creative, more dynamic." Later in the piece, he also suggests that games help us to believe that "complex problem-solving is fun."

There's some solid evidence to support Johnson's claims, most notably in the IQ scores of children, which have climbed considerably over the last century. Could computer games truly be assisting in making today's kids the smartest yet? We're not certain there's a conclusive answer to that, but it delights us to see the BBC covering the debate in such a measured fashion.

[Update: Not actually shown in the UK on Friday, as original post stated.]

Majesco has announced a deal to bring Humongous Entertainment's venerable series of kids' games to the Wii this year. Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam and SPY Fox will make their first appearances on the Wii in "mid-2008" in a series of point-and-click adventure games developed by Interactive Game Group.

Pajama Sam in Don't Fear the Dark, Freddi Fish in Kelp Seed Mystery, and SPY Fox in Dry Cereai will all retail for $19.99. These are all the first titles in their respective series, and it is currently unclear whether any changes have been made other than Wiimote integration. This may not be of huge interest to adult gamers, but parents will be happy to have some proven games for kids on the Wii. At the very least, having three more adventure games on the Wii may raise the system's profile as a destination for point-and-click.

[Via press release]

Speaking at the recent Game Developers Conference, Nintendo's Takashi Aoyama revealed that the Wii very nearly shipped with a tantrum-inducing, Xbox 360-style parental control timer, designed so that our mums and dads could make sure we weren't getting square eyes.

In fact, one of the biggest supporters of this feature was supposedly Satoru Iwata himself, who was keen for Nintendo's console not "to be seen as an enemy in the household." Eventually, however, an alternative way of monitoring use was found: the play history list that we're all now familiar with.

Said Aoyama: "Instead of instituting some play limit ... this allowed parents to monitor and discuss how much their children were playing ... this is why you can't erase the play history on the console."

Interesting! Any parents/kids out there who care to give their opinion on which they think works best? Also, does this mean that Iwata is something of an authoritarian with his own kids? It's difficult to imagine him being so strict and ruling with an iron fist -- just look at his happy face!

Some people will complain about anything.

We here at Wii Fanboy may have mixed feelings about the Wii Zapper, but there's one thing that we're pretty sure none of us has thought about: its potential in training children to becoming ultimate killing machines. Apparently, however, that's exactly what some people are thinking upon seeing different versions of the lightgun-like setup. The New Jersey Star-Ledger's Parental Guidance blog's most recent Question of the Week centered around the attachment, and it seems to have some folks alarmed. One commenter said, "I think it's irresponsible for Wii to come out with a controller that looks like a gun so kids can play games simulating shooting. What kind of message are we sending as parents when we buy these things for our kids?"

What we didn't see was any mention of previous lightguns -- like, say, the one for the NES -- or laser tag, or paintball, or any other item that might involve simulated gunplay. Instead, we see a lot of mention of children and guns, and while we don't know the rating yet on the accessory's pack-in title, Link's Crossbow Training, the other games slated for use with the Wii Zapper are (or probably will be) rated Teen or Mature. Last time we checked, that meant they weren't for children.

We know it's hard for some people to separate the idea of video games and children, but considering the vast (and ever-increasing) number of adult gamers, we can only hope that eventually, the outspoken, uneducated nongaming minority will realize that not all video games and accessories are for kids. We might also add the neither the NES zapper nor the existence of paintball have thus far destroyed the world, but we'll keep an eye for signs of the apocalypse.

[Thanks, Andrew!]

Brian McConnell left his son, Adam, alone with a game of Wii Sports: Tennis for only a few moments to fetch a drink, but that was all the time the little demon needed. Not even a Wii remote strap could've saved Brian's plasma TV once the three-year-old set his mind on avenging a lost match.

Brian came back to the living room to find his £1,000 television ruined, its 42-inch screen bashed by his Wiimote-wielding progeny. Queue up the darth_vader_nooo.jpg images.

The forgiving father let Adam off the hook with only a light lecture and a two-week Wii ban. That's a lot more lenient than the hanging, drawing, and quartering punishment one of our NintenDadz would've sought.

[Via Engadget]

Pandemic Studios, best known for big-kid games like Destroy All Humans and Full Spectrum Warrior, are working on a new children's game for Wii. According to a quote on Business Week's website from Pandemic Chief Executive Andrew Goldman, the game is the reflection of a desire to do something fresh and offer new gameplay, in a medium that they see as becoming stale. "The Wii does something new, and draws people back in."

We have to wonder, is it really wise to go on record with sound bites like that as they're promoting their Xbox 360/PS2/PS3/PC war game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames? We suppose it will sell anyway.

[Via NeoGAF]