Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Greenpeace has had it in for Nintendo for quite some time now. Despite the Wii being the biggest thing since sliced bread, they've taken up the position of the minority in opposing the system. No, not because of its features or games, but because of Nintendo's supposed lack of caring regarding our environment.

Following the latest blow struck by Greenpeace, Nintendo has responded with, well, basically what they did last time. "Nintendo has not been badly rated by Greenpeace," said a Nintendo spokesperson. "Greenpeace chose to conduct a survey and produce a report, which graded companies upon the voluntary submission of information."

Nintendo went on further to say that they "fully comply with all the necessary EU Directives on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances aimed at environmental protection and consumer health and safety. Furthermore, in order to ensure our products are safe for use by young children we also take into consideration the standards applicable to toys."

[Via CVG]

Greenpeace is at it again. In disassembling the three major home consoles on the market, they came to some interesting conclusions regarding each system's toxic ingredients. Now, we'll save you all of the specifics if you're the kind of person who just wants to know the bottom line: the Wii beat out the Xbox 360 and PS3 for having the least amount of toxic chemicals within it. For the rest of you, check out some interesting details that Greenpeace found out, which have been organized by bullet-point for your convenience:

• The PS3's AV cables contain phthalates up to 21.2 percent by weight, as well as "the highest level of bromine found in all components tested from all three consoles" in the housing of the cooling fan, which comes to 13.8 percent by weight, as well as low levels of bromine in the controller
  
• The Xbox 360's power cable contains phthalates up to 27.5 percent by weight, as well as low levels of bromine in the controller
• The Wii has phthalates 12.5 percent by weight in its internal housing, along with no beryllium
  

In an interview with Gamasutra, Greenpeace's Zeina Al-Hajj discussed the relative greenness of the major consoles and their companies. Nintendo still manages to rate below Sony and Microsoft despite having a console that uses far less electricity and standard (and thus more easily recyclable) parts.

The reason? Nintendo has no stated policy about hardware recycling. Both Sony and Microsoft have made efforts in that area, but Nintendo has said absolutely nothing about the disposal of old consoles. "What is available right now," Al-Hajj said, "is that Nintendo is committed to the environment, so they recycle in their offices. Okay. Good work guys, but that's not the issue. The issue is the responsibility to their product."

Nintendo is the only console manufacturer out of the three not to engage in communication with Greenpeace. Al-Hajj said that they have attempted conversation with the company multiple times, while both Sony and Microsoft are already in talks.

We know that the first impulse for any gamer is to attack and ridicule Greenpeace for saying bad things about Nintendo, but, if nothing else, this interview makes Greenpeace's claims seem more sensible. This is far from tree-hugging or Would it really hurt Nintendo that much to at least talk about recycling, or offer some opinions on reducing energy consumption?

Following the initial report from Greenpeace regarding Nintendo's apparent lack of care toward the environment in their business practices, some took the time to actually comb through the report, citing that a lot of the negative marks were due to Greenpeace just handing them out at their discretion. Now, after a few weeks of silence, Greenpeace has come up with some compelling evidence regarding Nintendo's affect on the environment: a parody cartoon.

Greenpeace must have some great writers at the company, because the comedy in this cartoon is the kind of stuff that should be extracted and worn as jewelry. It's pure gold, we tell you! But, as hilarious as it is (for all of the wrong reasons, mind you), it's completely ridiculous. From Mario farting out a small brown mushroom (for serious, he does) to the Kratos saying he's the "friggin' God of War," this whole thing will make you cringe.

Odd how they only focus on consoles and not handhelds, however. We guess the PSP and DS don't cause any kind of pollution or whatever else they claim is bad to the environment when they're being manufactured.

See also: Nintendo (finally) responds to initial report

[Thanks to Shaun for the GT link; via Joystiq]

The dojo reveals the stage that s belonging to the Ice Climbers, The Summit. Aside from its look, the stage is also different than you might remember in that it has a bit more action going on within. The large glacier will become detached from the ground, sliding downhill and finally making its way into the sea, as you see above. Once out adrift, the environment becomes a bit more dangerous.

Who knew that having a dome could be so cool? Paul Bourke outfitted one to create an immersive environment that he could steer through with a Wii remote. Using a data projector and specialized software on his MacBook Pro, he was able to display navigable movies on the hollow half-sphere.

Considering its accelerometers and bluetooth functionality, the remote seems perfect as a low-cost interface device for this kind of setup, but Paul found that though the controller is usable, it isn't as accurate as he'd like. We hope that doesn't stop someone from creating a fully-developed astronomy simulation out of this! Check past the post break for video of the experiment in action.

[Via Metafilter]