Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Free stuff is one of the many reasons we wish we had gotten to go to the Nintendo Media Summit. Like most industry events, those in the press who were lucky enough to attend also walked out with swag.

Game|Life's Chris Kohler took this picture of his bounty: not an epic E3-sized haul by any means, but it includes some exclusive items, like the giant Wii bottle (he already covered the joke) and the light-up Wiimote keychain. Attendees also got a free Wii Points card and a Wendy's giftcard, so they can download Blazing Lazers and live Burgertime. By which we mean "eat burgers," not "assemble giant burgers by walking on them while avoiding animated food."

We figured the Wii-themed toys that Wendy's were giving away would be the last we've heard of the union between the two, then Jack Thompson comes in and tries to go after the fast-food chain. Now, the two have come back together as Wendy's and Nintendo announced a promotion to give purchasers of the new Vanilla Frosty Float a chance at winning a free Wii and other prizes.

The two have come together to give away a total of 800 systems, placing a code on each cup of the ordered treat that can be taken to this website and input for the chance to win a free system, or other prizes that include Wii Points cards and games. This new promotion is planned to be advertised in-stores, as well as through national advertising, presumably through radio, television and print. The promotion will run from now until June 30th, which doesn't give your chances of winning much time.

The ever-antagonistic Jack Thompson is up to his usual business of publicly decrying anything remotely connected to video games. It doesn't get much more remote than Wendy's. According to GamePolitics, Jack sent an angry email to the CEO of the company about their association with the Wii.

As we know, Manhunt 2 will be released on the Wii. And as we also know, Wendy's has begun giving away promotional Wii-themed toys. It might be kind of hard to tell from the picture, but look closely and you'll see that the toys have nothing to do with Manhunt 2.

We may only be amateur logicians, but in addition to the inaccurate claim that the promotion of the Wii is an indirect endorsement of Manhunt 2, we think we see a hasty generalization here: one violent game doesn't mean that the entire set of Wii games (which contains the games promoted here) is violent, or that the Wii is a violent platform. Feel free to correct our analysis in the comments. We could always use more logic in our discussions of Mr. Thompson.

Fast food chain Wendy's plans to pack its Kids' Meals with Wii-related toys soon. The new knickknacks don't look like they're anything to fawn over, but that miniaturized and muddied Excite Truck might make a nice addition to your collection of Micro Machines and Hot Wheels racers.

Truthfully, we've never been partial to the restaurant's square-shaped burger patties or its bland french fries. Wendy's chicken nuggets, however, are like the real-world equivalent to Narnia's turkish delight. Families have been betrayed and wars have been set into motion over these bits of meat. The fact that we can get a pocket-sized Wii remote with these nuggets pretty much settles our schedule for where we're eating lunch at when this promotion goes into effect.

[Via Infendo]