Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Oh, Japan, how we love you. And you love us back simply by existing. Mecca for gamers, the country has more video games than Halle Berry has bad post-Oscar career choices. Every gaming nerd on the planet would love to live there.

So, what Wii games do the Japanese public enjoy most? Well, it's not that surprising this list of the six top-selling Wii titles in Japan. But, we know how much you all love this kind of data, so without further delay, let's get to the numbers!

The Wii's six top-selling games in Japan are:

• Wii Sports - 2,979,275 units sold total
• Wii Play - 2,368,967 units sold total
• Wii Fit - 2,038,730 units sold total
• Smash Bros. Brawl - 1,620,119 units sold total
• Mario Party 8 - 1,254,542 units sold total
• Mario Kart Wii - 1,227,169 units sold total

All first-party titles. Big shocker there!

Why do we love the Wii with friends? Because we want all to share the splendor and majesty that comes from playing the best home gaming console around. So that's why we set out to bring you a nice, easy package of great multiplayer games for the Wii.

Both online and local multiplayer is covered, as well as games that have released and those that are still in production. We hope you find this useful in your own life, in some small way, or at least a good place to link a friend who has no idea what they're getting into with the Wii. So read on and see what we have in store, then come back here and tell us what multiplayer experiences you enjoy most on the Wii!

In little over 60 weeks, the Wii console has managed to sell over 5 million units in its home territory of Japan. As impressive as this is, it falls short of the DS, which achieved sales figures of this nature in 56 weeks. But, the Wii did manage to beat the PS2, which cracked the 5 million mark after 66 weeks on the market.

A system is only so good as its games though, right? Well, in Japan the games pushing the Wii are Wii Sports (2.6 million copies sold as of now), Wii Play (2.1 million copies sold as of now), Mario Party 8 ( 1.1 million copies sold as of now) and Wii Fit (1.1 million copies sold as of now). Super Mario Galaxy comes in fifth place in the country, only selling a total of 843,961 copies.

With the end of 2007 approaching at near lightning-fast speed, we thought it would be nice to check out what you, the excellent reader, thought about the games of this year. First up, we have the obvious: first-party games. We have a good idea which game you're going to say, but in the name of healthy debate, check out all of the choices past the break.

It should come as no surprise to any of our readers that the Wii is selling pretty well, hindered almost solely by its own production problems. Today, Nintendo confirmed any suspicions in announcing its Q1 sales figures -- 3.43 million Wiis sold since the beginning of April, bringing the running worldwide total to 9.27 million. In light of the greater than expected success, it also upped its forecast for the entire year's Wii sales, now predicting to sell upwards of 16.5 million Wiis by April 2008. What do you think? Can it be done?

And what do you get when you remove those pesky production constraints? The company also confirmed nearly twice as many Nintendo DS' sold in the same period (nearly 7 million), and it now thinks it can sell another 19 million this year. Between the two systems and the confirmed million sales of both Super Paper Mario and Mario Party 8 (and a couple little guys named Diamond and Pearl), Nintendo verified it's reaping windfall profits on the order of $666 million in just three months, an increase of 416% over last year. Some out there may think the company's recent success isn't going to last, but Nintendo certainly believes otherwise.

Europeans, get set to receive Mario Party 8 (again) on August 3rd. For those of you outside of "the know," the controversy comes from an included word that, really, wasn't too controversial. After having it removed, the game should now be squeaky clean and ready to hit UK retail shelves.

Some of the original release copies could still include the word, however. Nintendo states that they "are confident we have taken the correct appropriate levels and action necessary and in all new versions of the game there are no issues – however we cannot 100 per cent guarantee that every copy of the initial batch was returned to us and as such there may still be a small number of copies of the game in circulation."

Who can't wait to get their party on August 3rd?

We can't help but wonder if people aren't getting a little too sensitive. First Ubisoft's Mind Quiz for the DS and PSP was yanked, and now Mario Party 8 suffered the same fate right after its UK release. So what was the offense? An infamous four-letter word? Dirty insults that would make nuns and sailors alike blush down to their toes? Hot coffee level mistakes?

No, in both cases, it was the word "spastic."

Now, there's more at work here below the surface than is obvious at first glance. First, in Mind Quiz, the spastic label was applied to those who couldn't manage much in the game, and so yes, it was a little insulting. Second, while "spastic" is pretty tame as far as slang goes on this side of the proverbial pond, in the UK, it's apparently a little more insulting. It's the equivalent of calling someone a drooling retard, if you will (we use this phrase for the purposes of example here, so please, don't issue a Wii Fanboy recall). So we can understand that it maybe shouldn't have been used to identify lower-caliber players.

But in Mario Party 8, the word seemed rather more innocent. Here's the direct quote, including the offensive word, from Kamek: "Magikoopa magic! Turn the train spastic! Make this ticket tragic!"

So, apparently, we're to make the train shake. It's not necessarily insulting, though we suppose if someone were in the mood to take offense, they could. Admittedly, we're not British, so maybe we're missing the level of insult inherent in the word "spastic" here, but it seems that there are a number of words in every video game ever that could be interpreted as possibly, potentially offensive to someone, somewhere. Should we start recalling those as well? We'd love to hear from some of our UK readers on the matter.

Call us old-school, but it just doesn't seem like Mario Party without damage to controllers or players. Our college dorm was a mausoleum of N64 controllers, their lifeless joysticks rattling limply around in the casing, dooming us to a fate of smaller Smash Bros. matches. However, with the substitution of waggle for rotation, those days of joystick fatigue and court-mandated free thumb gloves may be over.

Being dedicated Wii players, have you managed to find a way to hurt yourself or your Wiimote playing Mario Party 8? Has the combination of Mario Party and projectile Wiimotes caused a deadly nexus of TV destruction and personal injury? Or is your thumb happy now that you've found a new way to Party?

[Thanks for the topic suggestion, Zack!]

CVG is reporting that Mario Party 8, which was originally slated for release this Friday, has been delayed until July 13th. That's like Friday, only much later. Nintendo cites some kind of "production issue with the English version," which, in light of recent history, can mean only one thing: they're being forced to tone down the brutal violence.

This only affects the English release, and not other European versions. So there are other options if you're in a huge hurry to get the game, for some reason.

This is one of those really random videos that we just can't resist. YouTuber MammaMia19 can't stop playing Mario Party 8, and he wants you to know about it. He's also uploaded a ridiculous number of videos of the party game to YouTube, so after checking this one out, you can clock your own massive number of hours with Mario Party 8, just without, y'know, playing it.

This week saw the release of a few different games for our beloved Wii console, something that hasn't happened in quite some time. Even with their being a variety to choose from this week, we're sure most of you will be sailing the high seas of Mario Party 8 this weekend. Is that what you plan on playing?

If not, what else will you be playing this weekend?

It's been awhile since we've been able to do one of these and, frankly, we're surprised at the mixed bag of reviews Mario Party 8 is getting. Sure, we had a feeling that with a game in its 8th installment, many might find the franchise to be lacking, but we were certain the implementation of the Wiimote would adequately spice things up.

Guess we were wrong?

• GamePro (90/100) finds fun in the multiplayer: "Played alone, against the computer, the game is barely worth popping out of its case. But, having even one other human opponent ups the fun exponentially--you just can't get the same satisfaction out of trash talking against a faceless computerized enemy."

• GameTrailers (83/100) says it's intuitive: "The level of customization and personalization available in Mario Party 8 and the intuitive fun of the Wiimote make it the quintessential party accessory of 2007. What few control weaknesses are present are overshadowed by the inane fun and competition, a host of unlockables, and addictive mini-games."

• Yahoo! Games (80/100) says it's the same old thing, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing: "Let's be honest, who looks to party games for stunning originality, cutting-edge presentation, and engrossing single-player modes? It's Mario. He parties. So will you."

• GameSpot (65/100) finds the chance aspects of the game to be a downer: "There are some good minigames in Mario Party 8, but the overly familiar, chance-heavy board game wrapper gets in their way."

• 1UP (55/100) finds it disappointing, but still fun: "A really disappointing (but, as mentioned at the start of this review, inevitably still entertaining) Wii debut for the series. Perhaps the next game will truly take advantage of the Wii controls through and through."

• IGN (52/100) thinks the Wiimote doesn't get the attention it deserves: "All of our complaints about previous games – the slow pace, the lackluster single-player affair, the loose attention to detail – all remain and with Mario Party 8 we can add another criticism: ignorance of the Wii remote."

Anyone have a pair of pennies they want to toss in?

With the release of Mario Party 8 today in the United States, those "Wii would like to play" ads have a new one in rotation featuring Nintendo's latest game. Obviously, the ad plays up the whole party aspect of the game, as we're shown many a party-goer taking their turn in the game to find it is (GASP!) quite enjoyable. Wait, an ad for something showing people enjoying it? Now there's a first!

Can you believe it? This week, we have a list of Wii releases -- an actual list, which means more than one title. Brilliant! At least, it seems that way until we head out to the shops and peer into our wallets, which immediately shrivel in the face of the epic list of games we want to buy. But we're greedy like that.

So what's it for you this week? Will you bear the brunt of multiple game purchases? Are you going to wait awhile before making any decisions?

• Mario Party 8
• Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
• Surf's Up
• Tamagotchi: Party On!

The Nintendo Media Summit may not have offered up the huge news, but it did give us one thing that's awesome -- a metric ton (less than a megaton) of trailers for all the games we'll be playing in the coming months. So we thought it might be a good week for a very special video spotlight, and instead of one or two videos, we'll hook you up with several. Dare we even say many? See for yourself after the jump.