Nintendo Wii Fanboy

This might just be the coolest thing we see all weekend.

Darkeru from the Ben Heck forums came up with the idea for this beauty, and after months of "careful planning," finally finished his creation. It's exactly what you think it is; a mod that plays NES games on a NES game cartridge. What an ingeniously simple idea (though if we really think about it, our brains might implode).

The games are built into the portable -- ninety-nine of them, in fact -- which sounds pretty convenient. Other than that, we have nothing to say except that we're still gawking at this thing. Oh, and do want.


[Via Engadget]

Nintendo consoles have usually enjoyed a five-year life span, Iwata explained during a Japanese conference documenting the Q3 earnings of the company. During this briefing, Iwata spoke of the new gift-giving feature and TV guide Channel, but what was overlooked until now was his comments regarding how long of a life the Wii will have.

"As we continue our research and study for new hardware, when we will be able to launch a new kind of hardware will actually depend on when we can change entertainment completely, and so have a strong impact on people around the world," he said. "Or, there will certainly be a time when we have to say that we have done everything possible with the current machine, that we can never propose anything new."

Iwata further explains that fresh hardware is often the result of the company needing a new weapon in the fight against other consoles. With the Wii, however, he feels that the company won't be needing any new weapons for quite some time, stating "But today's situation is such that we are not desperate for any new weapons at all."

So, could the Wii be the first console to break the tradition of a five-year lifespan, even though its hardware is considered by the mainstream to be weaker than its competition? The way Iwata is talking, and the fact that it could be almost 2 years before the supply meets the demand for the console, makes it sound like it could very well be a reality.

[Via Aussie-Nintendo]

Remember the days when Nintendo's hardware was at a permanent and incredibly depressing third place in the sales charts, month after month? We sure can't; all this success has gone to our heads.

The April NPD numbers, tracking hardware and software sales in North America, were released recently and Nintendo once again obliterated the competition. The Nintendo DS and the Wii took the top two spots for the fourth month running, with 471,000 and 360,000 units sold, respectively. Both of these figures more than double their nearest competitors (PSP and the Xbox 360), and the PS3 could only move a paltry 82,000 units.

It's the same story in software. Nintendo took home the top four spots across all systems with the releases of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl and Super Paper Mario, along with the still oddly popular Wii Play. The Pokemon titles, of course, were only available for a single week in April, yet still captured the top spots with a combined 1.7 million units sold.

It just makes you all tingly inside, doesn't it? For the full hardware and software figures, click after the break.

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.

We don't see many features about individual Virtual Console games, which is kind of a shame. We love talking about old games, and we kind of thought other people did too. And since we can't download demos, it's beneficial for bloggers to talk up their favorite VC games and let people know what's good, or even what these games are.

That's why we're highlighting this article on Comix Zone over at GayGamer. While their recurring feature isn't always going to be about Virtual Console games (it's about comics-related games), we're happy to point you to it now that it is. And don't forget to check out our own Virtually Overlooked feature every Thursday for the best Virtual Console games that aren't Virtual Console games yet. And let us know if you've found some in-depth VC game features!

It seems that Square Enix isn't quite convinced about the whole Virtual Console thing. In an interview with Nintendo Dream magazine, Square's Shinji Hashimoto was dubious about the prospects for Final Fantasy games on the Virtual Console, stating that the Japanese audience (which is, of course, the audience that matters) needs physical media for their games. And like the responsible, friendly, consumer-oriented company that Square Enix is, they are happy to provide physical copies of Final Fantasy games. Over, and over, and over, and over again. Of course they don't want to sell a $5 copy of NES FF1 when they've got the PSP remake coming out.

We aren't that upset, since they've already released the best game in their library (in Japan and Europe, at least). Go ahead and argue with us. You know Actraiser is way better than Final Fantasy.

[Via Game|Life]

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode isn't exactly a great game. In fact, it's more like an awkward agglomeration of a lot of not-that-great games into one game that is mostly mediocre. But somehow, out of its many imperfect elements, it manages to deliver an impressively James-Bond cool story that motivates players to continue the experience.

Two superb Capcom fighting games are headed to the Virtual Console. Final Fight and the inevitable Street Fighter II Turbo Hyper Fighting have been spotted on the ESRB's list of rated Wii games.

The SNES version of Final Fight lacks co-op play and Guy, but has plenty of "Oh! My car" to satisfy us. Street Fighter II Turbo is just like Street Fighter II, but sped-up, with more moves, more characters, and some bizarre changes made to the color scheme. We aren't sure why we're explaining this, because everyone in the world has played enough Street Fighter II to know the different versions.

Oh, also new on the list was Tecmo's Mighty Bomb Jack. As obscure game advocates, we feel like we should be most excited about this one, but ... yeah, Final Fight is really, really awesome.

[Via Siliconera]

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

This is the second time we've ended up following a theme from week to week in these features-- in this case, we wanted to talk about Ninja Spirit for the Turbografx-16, and didn't remember until we started researching that, like last week's Photograph Boy, Ninja Spirit was developed by IREM.

The best way to describe Ninja Spirit for people familiar with Virtual Console games is "The Legend of Kage, but good." And we say that as fans of Kage.

This week's games have been downloaded and we've given each of them a lengthy play, ready to make a verdict on which games are worth your money and which ones aren't. This week saw us receiving one well-known title, along with two less-known games. For you Turbografx16 fans out there, no luck as the Virtual Console didn't get any games for that system. So, without further ado, read on and see what we thought!

Ben Herman, who runs SNK Playmore USA, is almost as excited about Neo-Geo games on the Virtual Console as we are. In a recent interview, he discussed SNK's VC plans and Nintendo's operation of the system in general.

According to Herman, who, of course, can't give details, SNK expects to release "a certain limited number of titles per month," which is enough to have us cheering, because that's a lot more than the N64 is getting. It's also a much brisker release schedule than the Neo-Geo ever had. The best news, in our opinion? Herman is interested in the Virtual Console as a means of releasing lesser-known and niche games.

SNK isn't sure yet whether the Neo-Geo games on the VC will be the AES home versions or the MVS arcade cartridges. We had no idea there was a difference!

Of course, there has to be bad news, and it's kind of big: Herman says that Nintendo is not letting publishers add online functionality to games, VC or retail, and probably will continue this restriction throughout 2007.

Herman goes on to talk about Nintendo's console library, saying that Nintendo has all of the code for third-party NES and SNES games and needs only permission to release them. Which means Konami officially has no excuse for the fact that we haven't played Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse on the Wii yet. Konami, you're on notice!

[Update: added the sad, sad news about online games.]

The Virtual Console is really starting to heat up! We can't believe it, but it looks like American and European fanboys are going to get a great game before Japan does: Namco's gory Turbografx-16 brawler Splatterhouse. This is definitely one of the three best games ever about a masked parapsychology major trapped in a haunted mansion and forced to destroy lots of disgusting monsters with a board, and it's coming sometime in March!

We're also getting Double Dungeons-- but as Turbografx-16 lovers, we're trying to put a positive spin on this news article, and would prefer to talk more about Splatterhouse.

What Turbografx-16 games are you waiting for? We're dying for Blazing Lazers and China Warrior ourselves.

[Via Siliconera]

European Wii Shop users got a pleasant surprise: a secret area inside the Virtual Console section! To access it, follow these simple steps:

1. Be European (depending on your circumstances, this is either the easiest or hardest step).
2. Download the latest update.
3. Click on the little smiley emoticon.

So far, there's not much other than a blurb about Kirby (a "blurby"), but it's going to be a trivia channel about Nintendo characters! An encyclopedia of gaming! Between this and the Virtual Console, the Wii is on the way to becoming the premiere console for librarians.

Jump over the post break to enter GERMAN YOUTUBE DEMONSTRATION ZONE!

[Via GayGamer]

Now for a reminder of what gaming looked like when the Virtual Console was a collection of actual consoles: these scans of old Sears Roebuck catalogs almost have us printing them out, circling the TurboDuo, and sending the page to our parents just in case they still need any Christmas shopping ideas for Christmas 1992.

These catalogs looked cheesy to us back then too, but there's really a magic about them that is lost in game retail materials these days. Maybe it's just because the early 16-bit "system wars" were one of the most amazing periods in gaming history. Which side did you take in Genesis vs. Turbografx-16?

[Via NeoGAF]

Update: screens!

Welcome to our new weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

This week, we'd like to talk about Snatcher, a Sega CD game from Konami released in the US in 1994. The game was also released in Japan for the MSX2, PC8801, PC Engine CD-Rom, Playstation, and Saturn.

Why the game hasn't been announced for Virtual Console yet: Not too long ago, the obvious answer to this question would have been "because it is a graphical text adventure." Luckily, however, the DS has changed that, bringing an era where graphical text adventures are the subjects of rabid fandom. What hasn't changed is that Snatcher is a Sega CD game, and Nintendo has made no announcements regarding support for CD systems. The size of the files may be prohibitive, although it would be possible to save space by compressing the sound and music.