Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Uh, if you play with your face, that is. Just go with it.

The Rage Wireless Wii guitar from Performance Design Products has been recalled due to its tendency to burn human flesh if not handled correctly. Well, it burned one set of flesh, at least, and that was enough. According to the official recall, if the batteries are installed incorrectly, something with the circuit board will cause those batteries to leak. That can't possibly enhance your fake-music-playing experience. If you happen to have one of these, check the manufacturer's website for more recall information.

Do not buy (or keep) guitars that have the potential to hurt you worse than you have ever been burned. Buy a safe guitar instead. Y'know, like one of these.

[Via GoNintendo]

If you received a lapel pin from Nintendo between 2004 and 2007, either as a giveaway or a purchase from the Nintendo World Store, you could be in danger. Not just the regular poking-based kind of danger associated with pins, either. The pins are painted with an unsafe level of lead, which could be harmful if ingested. Unlike other pins, which are harmless when swallowed.

Nintendo is recalling the affected pins, and will ship out non-poisonous replacements. More information is available at the link, or at (800) 431-0971. At least you get a shiny new pin out of the deal. Keep it out of your mouth just in case.

[Via Gamespot]

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.