Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Cheer up, Aussies and Kiwis -- even though your local Club Nintendo appears to have gone completely AWOL (checking ... nope, still nothing), you'll shortly be getting your very own version of Official Nintendo Magazine, basically the UK equivalent of Nintendo Power. That's ... almost as good. Right?

Like its Brit cousin, Official Nintendo Magazine - Australia and New Zealand will be assembled by the talented folks at Future, the same name behind such excellent time-wasting periodicals as N64 Magazine, Amiga Power, and Arcade, and who currently churn out Edge. The first issue, a special edition no less, should be hitting shelves in December for AU$8.95.

[Via press release]

Apparently, Korea isn't the only place on the globe where the Wii is selling poorly. Yet even in Korea, the Wii isn't the bottom-feeder of this generation -- not so in New Zealand. Nintendo's great white hope is the country's last-place current-gen console, selling only 16,000 units compared to the PS3's 34,000 and the 360's 45,000.

Perhaps the Kiwis wouldn't be so adverse to the Wii if Nintendo actually showed some love to the neglected country. In the current climate, though, New Zealanders are distributor-less. Phoenix Distribution is picking up the slack for Activision's games in the region, but according to the company's founder, "Nintendo is a lemon." To top it all off, Nintendo doesn't even bother advertising the console to its beloved casual crowd, making the Wii a system for the Nintendo hardcore only. Obviously, the distribution problem needs to be fixed, but will it be?

If any of you Kiwis want to shed some light on the situation, feel free to do so in the comments.

[Via NeoGAF]