Nintendo Wii Fanboy

If you're one of the cool kids that visits Wii Fanboy often, you probably know that we love bargains. Even more so, we love sharing them with you. We thought we'd tell you, then, that aside from Circuit City having some sweet deals this week, GameFly is also looking to take money out of our pockets.

From today to the 19th, GameFly is having a storewide sale, which means cheap games galore. The catch is that they're used, but that's not a big deterrent since the game conditions are usually tip-top.

Some highlights include:

• Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law -- $14.99
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams -- $17.99
• Battalion Wars 2 -- $27.99
• Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles -- $29.99
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption -- $29.99

We also found some other nice sales over there, so it's worth checking them out if you're craving a new (yet used) Wii game.

For an indeterminate period, Gamefly has marked the price of used copies of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams down to $22.99. If you were ever curious about trying out Sega's flying adventure, now seems like as good a time as any!

Unlike the sticker-marred, printed-instructions-bundled nightmare of buying rentals from Blockbuster or a local video store (as someone who spent hours at a previous job cleaning rental sticker residue off of NES cartridges: thanks, local video stores) buying from Gamefly is surprisingly okay. You get the original case and instructions in perfect condition, since Gamefly files them away immediately upon receiving their copies, and the discs are guaranteed.

The thrifty kids at Cheap Ass Gamers have compiled a list of Wii games currently on sale at Amazon, digging up almost 40 different deals. Of course, most of them are junk -- pet sim shovelware and titles based on movie licenses -- but there are a few marked down that you'll likely find interest in:

• Alien Syndrome - $19.99 ($29.99)
• Battalion Wars 2 - $23.31 ($49.99), read our review
  
• Bust A Move Bash - $29.99 ($39.99)
• Nights: Journey of Dreams - $29.99 ($49.99)
• Nitrobike - $19.99 ($29.99)
• No More Heroes - $33.99 ($49.99), read our review
  
• Soul Calibur: Legends - $18.90 ($39.99)
• Sonic and the Secret Rings - $20.99 ($29.99)

We can't guarantee how long these bargains will last, so jump on them now while you can, or you'll end up having to settle for Chicken Shoot. Bring your cart past the post break for the full tally of discounted games.

According to Wiiz, Sega has officially dropped the European MSRP of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams to €30. We haven't found the statement from Sega, but Amazon.fr reflects this price. The UK price has also fallen to around £30, but, of course, while these amounts look the same, they represent different costs. To put it bluntly, the price is still way out of hand for the UK. A Freeloader and an American copy of NiGHTS would come out to the same price, plus you'd have a Freeloader.

This follows a similar price drop last week in the U.S. So even though the prices are still different across regions, they're all lower within those regions than they were before.

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams was one of the most important Wii games of 2007 -- for Sega nerds. For most gamers, it was "that game about the jester thing or whatever, right? I think I saw it on the shelf when I went to buy Super Mario Galaxy." Even with the prestige that comes with being the continuation of a beloved classic, many Wii platform-game fans were spending their money elsewhere last holiday season, and may have missed out on NiGHTS. Now might be the time to pick it up!

Gamestop has just lightened the game's price by $20, putting it at a very reasonable $29.99. You can buy the game and start saving up for some NiGHTS stuff!

Play-Asia has just started their "Easter Egg" sale, which is actually a sale on video games (though Play-Asia may sell you an egg if you ask). Most of the things they sell (released more than 30 days ago) are 20% off. The Freeloader isn't included, but lots of import games to play using the Freeloader are. It may be a little harder to find excellent deals on the Wii, as opposed to something like the DS which is bursting with deals, but we've found a few interesting items in our brief browse.

Shikigami no Shiro III - $35.92
Mario Strikers Charged - $19.92
Miburi & Teburi - $39.92
Crazy Climber Wii - $31.92
Oneechanbara Revolution - $ 47.92
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (US version) - $39.92
And, why not, Fishing Rod Advance - $3.19

It's definitely worth looking around yourself. Play-Asia's selection is vast.

After seeing the above auction on eBay (tip: sit down before checking the price), we couldn't help but wonder about what our readers have tucked away. Yeah, we're talking collectibles, especially the rare variety. Do you have anything special, either for sentimental or monetary value? It doesn't have to be a ridiculous(ly cute) set of NiGHTS plushies or a complete set of every NES game ever -- we'll listen to you go on and on about your first three issues of Nintendo Power, or whatever you've got lying around. After all, one man's trash ....

While there's (currently) no Christmas-related expansion like there was on the Saturn, Sonic Team still managed to sneak some seasonal content into NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. No doubt some of you have figured this out already, as holidays have happened since the game's release. But new NiGHTS players or those who don't mess around in the "My Dream" mode won't have seen any of it yet!

There's a special celebration of some kind in My Dream every single month. The Nightopians shoot fireworks all day on New Year's Day. In July, they don bullfighting gear for the Running of the Bulls. You can access this content in the manner of a cheating jerk by disconnecting from the Internet and changing the system's date, or you can wait like a decent human being.

Sega's sequel to Saturn title NiGHTS into Dreams was highly anticipated upon its first introduction into the stream of consciousness we call the internet. Now, those in the UK get their chance at cracking open this nut come January 18th, when the game will be available for purchase.

Do you take under heavy consideration what the critics had to say about the game? Are you so excited by the idea alone that this game was a sure buy for yourself the second you heard about it?

People seem to be pretty divided so far on NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. The critics tended to score it in the safe seventies, while some of our own commenters had similarly mixed feelings about the title. One thing looks pretty certain, however: if Journey of Dreams director Takashi Iizuka has his way, any future follow-ups to the follow-up will be soaring gracefully to the Wii.

Speaking to German site G-Wie-Gorilla, Iizuka described the console as "a good choice" for the game, before promising that future games in the series would appear on Nintendo's platform. Naturally, that still doesn't quash our supreme disappointment over the PlayStation 2 getting the original NiGHTS into Dreams, but we could certainly cope with a sequel to Journey of Dreams that resolves some of the niggles.

[Via Go Nintendo]

Fed up with his poor performance in NiGHTS, NeoGAFfer MobiusPigeon set out to remove the octagonal gate from his Nunchuk, allowing him full, unencumbered 360-degree rotation. Using a cone-shaped grinding stone on a drill, he bored out the joystick hole until it was circular. He reported an improvement in personal NiGHTS performance "from Ds and Es to (A's)" immediately after implementing this mod.

It came up in the thread that, while you've got the Nunchuk open, you could actually swap out the Nunchuk's joystick with a larger GameCube stick, for an even more comfortable experience. Also, all of these mods would work with a Classic Controller, as well.

We know where we'll be after Christmas this year: hitting up used game shops looking for spare parts. We're hoping to find some pre-thrown-away defective Cube controllers from which to mine joysticks.

The release of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams this week is something we, as well as most of you, have been waiting on for awhile now. It's finally hit shelves and the reviewers have found the game has potential, but isn't as groundbreaking as the title that spawned it. Some of you have picked it up and found it to be good, though. How about the rest of you? Going to pick this up for play over the weekend and holiday? Asking for it as a gift?

Or, are you playing somthing else? How will you be getting your game on this weekend?

It's time for a collective "Uh-oh!" We've been hoping against hope that NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams would be the game to bring Sega back from their current ruinous state to, well, where they were 11 years ago when the first NiGHTS came out. Back then they were a perfect counterpart to Nintendo, with NiGHTS exploring the move to 3D in a completely different way from Nintendo's Mario 64. It was fresh, exciting, and infinitely replayable.

So when Sega revealed the new NiGHTS on the Wii, we thought the timing was right for a brilliant return to form from Sonic Team, complete with another exciting new controller with which to tool around some ring-filled fantasy lands. Did it turn out like we dreamed? It appears not. At best, it looks like "a pretty good game" -- not quite the Sega renaissance we'd hoped. At least it's not Sonic the Hedgehog bad.

Nintendo Power -- 90%: Nintendo Power shows a secret love for classic Sega -- who knew? "Like the first game, Journey of Dreams does have its share of flaws -- some of the voice acting is questioniable, the on-foot levels are a bit dull, and the motion controls disappoint (steering NiGHTS with the analog stick works much better) -- but the whole is somehow greater than the sum of its parts. This was obviously a labor of love for the development team--something that goes beyond the nuts and bolts of typical game design."

GameSpot -- 75%: GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd makes the game sound fairly cozy for old NiGHTS players and gorgeously dreamlike for new ones: "Once you get settled in with your preferred controls, you'll find Journey of Dreams is an often joyous experience. You'll soar through some lush, colorful dream worlds, from a fragile land of glass to a Broadway-inspired neon utopia. You will often interact with elements of these worlds in clever ways, such as bumping into huge floating billiard balls or having to watch your reflection in the mirror to collect blue chips and fly through rings."

1UP -- 70%: Shane Bettenhausen found that the game's often-slavish devotion to 1996-era design ideals may have kept the game faithful, but it also brought along some unwelcome decisions: "Likewise, poor design choices and a ticking clock conspire to create some of the most confusing boss encounters in recent memory. After blazing through three flight stages you're given only one shot at felling a massive opponent -- if you don't clue into how to damage its tricky weak spot within the strict time limit, look forward to doing it all over again."

We tend to find our personal all-time classics in the mid-70s "good" territory, plus we're blindly devoted to the ideal of a real Sega, so we're just going to wait and see for our own playthrough. It's clear that NiGHTS isn't the smash hit we hoped for, though.

So, how did the fair Wii fare in the land of the rising sun this week? Regarding hardware sales, the Wii just barely eked out in front of the PSP to take second place with 168,000 units sold, jumping up over 50,000 units from last week. As for the software, there's some good and bad news. Check after the break to see the numbers.

It's more likely than you think. Look at Sega, spending money to promote their game! They really seem to be targeting more than just the insane NiGHTS fan demographic with their marketing for NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. One YouTuber caught a commercial for the game during Courage the Cowardly Dog. It's very strange to see something like NiGHTS, which seems like the exclusive domain of brutally devoted Sega fans, being advertised on mainstream television. Is it just us, or does the narrator make you think of those Claymation(esque) Puffs commercials? Maybe that's just the default "fairy tale" voice for commercial narration.

Speaking of advertising and Courage, Cartoon Network should really let people know that Courage is still on. We had no idea.

[Via GoNintendo]