Nintendo Wii Fanboy

The next time you pay a visit to the Nintendo World Store, we advise taking a balaclava and a glass cutter. As the above video demonstrates, the outlet now boasts a bunch of hard drive-equipped Wiis, each of which has around 20 games stored on it, ready for instantaneous selection; generally really good games, as well.

Judging by the menu from which you choose titles, these are identical to the Starlight Foundation Fun Centers that have been getting installed in hospitals. Now, you can try one out for free, without even having to break one of your limbs or anything.

[Via Go Nintendo; thanks, Glare!]

WiiHacks forum moderator ModderMan recently took his kid to the hospital for a broken leg, and discovered one of the Starlight Foundation Fun Centers made specifically for hospitals. We're sure he paid appropriate attention to his son and all, but the calling of, uh, someone who cares a lot about the Wii cannot be ignored.

While he was unable to figure out how to open up the unit, ModderMan took video footage of the device and its interface instead. The selection of games ranges from the expected Nintendo hits to things like Elebits and Zack and Wiki, whose release Nintendo apparently noticed!

He also inspected the inside of the unit with the aid of a flashlight. The biggest revelation here is that since there are 20 games on the device, and since one of the USB slots was occupied, there's probably a hard drive at work here. In a Wii. But this probably has as much to do with the development of retail Wiis as those hotel systems did with other Nintendo systems.

[Thanks, Eoin!]

Sick kids are in for some fun, thanks to Nintendo and the Starlight Foundation. The Wii is heading for hundreds of hospitals in North America and Canada, all bundled up in Fun Centers packed with awesome stuff. Rehabilitation seems to be the Wii's favorite word, as Nintendo manufactures 1250 Fun Centers -- with 500 to be in place by the end of the year.

The Fun Centers come with a Sharp flat-screen TV, a DVD player and a Wii with a bunch of games including Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports and Mario Party 8. What, you were expecting Resident Evil 4?

Paula Van Ness of Starlight said "Our Fun Centers transform the hospital experience for children, bringing enjoyment and laughter to an otherwise daunting experience." Yeah, damn straight it's daunting -- and what did the friendly hospital staff bring this blogger when he was down and out with appendicitis? Battletoads. Yeah, the most ball-breakingly difficult game ever conceived didn't make the hospital stay any more fun.

[Via press release]