Nintendo Wii Fanboy

We love Sundays, as there are always new game sales to look forward to. Luckily, this week there are some sweet deals on a few Wii titles. Scouring through the ad listings at Cheap Ass Gamer, the ones we found of interest include:

• Okami for $29.99 at Best Buy
• Boom Blox with a free $10 gift card at Circuit City and Target
• Speed Racer for $29.99 at Target

Keep in mind that while Circuit City offers its deals online, Best Buy and Target's are brick and mortar only. Also, Target deals vary by region, so the ones above may or may not apply to stores near you.

[Via CAG]

Read: Best Buy ad with Okami for $29.99
Read: Boom Blox with free $10 gift card at Circuit City

Barring those ridiculously annoying mid-race voice-overs from your competing racers, we still like what we're seeing from Speed Racer. Originally, we thought the roads looked too narrow to pass anyone, but it seems like you can also flip over other racers (which is pretty sweet). We're also still insanely curious about the music. Considering the game's F-Zero and Wipeout influences, it has a lot to live up to in terms of soundtrack.

We've embedded another video below that was labeled as a "Stunt Gameplay" trailer, which shows the player (in Racer X's car?) tossing other racers of the way, among other things.

Are you likely to be spending some money at Target in the near future? Then you might as well head on over there sometime soon and pick up this Speed Racer-themed gift card (which you can use later to buy what you actually wanted in the first place). Even if you're not interested at all in the upcoming game (or movie), you'll still land yourself the free mini USB 2.0 Flash drive that comes with it. The drive only holds 62.8 MB worth of stuff, but should that bother you, you're missing the key word here -- free.

Initially, 51.6 MB will be taken up by promotional Speed Racer goodies, but that stuff can always be deleted. Those of you who are looking forward to seeing the Mach 5 in action soon enough, though, might enjoy some of the extras provided. According to GamerTell, the drive includes:

• Five coloring book-style pages featuring the Mach 5 and Racer X's car (PDF file)
• A coupon for $1 off a Speed Racer Powerburst racer and $3 off a Speed Racer Powerburst figure-8 track set (PDF file)
• Two Speed Racer desktop wallpapers
• A Speed Racer family movie (MOV and WMV files)
• A special code for the Wii version of the video game (we wonder what that will do/unlock?)

MTV Multiplayer has some exclusive gameplay footage of the upcoming Speed Racer game (embedded above), and we're actually more impressed than we thought we'd be. We do, however, have some complaints:

1. The constant barrage of comments from the other racers -- is that really necessary? It might be fine at first, but we can foresee our patience wearing thin if that continues throughout the whole game.
   
2. The tracks look a little on the dull side.
   
3. Where's the music? Obviously the actual game will have it, we just wish we could've gotten a taste of it in the gameplay video.

Since we haven't heard any news of an F-Zero title heading to the Wii, though, this seems like the next best thing. We definitely don't get the sense of polish and utter awesomeness that F-Zero games tend to bestow upon us, but considering this is a license-based game that's being targeted to kids, Speed Racer isn't looking too bad.

(Note: MTV's videos are region-locked, unfortunately, so we're sorry if those of you outside of the U.S. can't watch it!)

If you spent your days as a youngin' watching cartoons, you're probably familiar with Speed Racer. Yet, most fans of the series are all grown up now, considering that it aired over a decade ago. (Yes, Speed Racer X was around more recently, but that doesn't count since it got yanked after only a few episodes.)

That's why we were kind of baffled after watching this interview with the game's producer, Jeff Nachbaur. Nachbaur explains that the target audience for the upcoming Speed Racer title is 8-12 year olds, so the developers focused most of the game's testing on them. He also mentions that kids will love the roller coaster-esque tracks, in case you weren't sure that this game was made for kids. While we can definitely see those in a young age group becoming enamored with the new movie (which is what this game is based on), what about the gaggle of oldschool Speed Racer fans (like this blogger)? Will we enjoy it, too?

Perhaps -- after all, Mario Kart is an all-ages racer -- but the constant emphasis on this being a kids game has us a little less excited.

[Via GoNintendo]

Take, for example, Speed Racer. After Nintendo announced the peripheral at last year's E3, WB Games approached the company so that they could test it out with Speed Racer. In an interview with MTV Multiplayer's Tracey John, Jeff Nachbaur of WB Games stated that it took some tweaking to make sure that players wouldn't oversteer with the wheel. After a lot of testing, though, he says that they've managed to get it just right.

Nachbaur also said that the Wii Wheel doesn't add much of a difference in gameplay, but most testers enjoyed playing the game with the wheel rather than with just the Wiimote alone. So, if you like racing games, you can at least rest assured knowing that the Wii Wheel won't be some peripheral that you chuck away and forget about once your done playing Mario Kart -- assuming, of course, that you'll ever be done playing Mario Kart.

Gone are the days when racing with speed was the sport of gentlemen who would kindly wave over merging motorists and never dare dream of taking their hands away from the 2 and 10 positions. Instead, people now speed race for money ... or darker reasons. For money.

Look, we dig the new car and we'll hold our breath on the ridiculous "stuntin' it up" gameplay stuff we're probably looking at, but what is the deal with the monotone, Colbert-like narrator (sans all of the intended wackiness)? That we just can't abide by.

[Thanks, Chris!]