Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Speculation that Microsoft may be about to launch a rival to the Wii Remote started early last month, yet Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's thoughts on the matter have only publicly emerged now. His verdict? A resounding, distinctly unimpressed "Meh."

Well, we're paraphrasing a bit there, but it's more or less what he meant. "We are not concerned about what other companies may do," Iwata told an audience of investors. "[We're] rather more concerned with presenting [...] new ideas to our customers based on the prospect that our existing customers will surely get tired of [gameplay] enabled by the Wii Remote if we do not try to improve the experience."

Rather than fret over what Microsoft and Sony get up to, Iwata says he'd prefer that Nintendo concentrated on producing more "new surprises" for consumers. Or, to put it another way, keep one step ahead of the competition, and they'll never catch you.

[Via Develop]

"For those times that you are away from your beloved gaming system, at least you can pretend to be fighting your evil nemesis, Gargamel."

Rather than referencing the arch-nemesis of the Smurfs, we presume the folks at Cufflinks.com actually meant to say Ganon. Still, we'll forgive them the odd error, because hey, these sterling silver Wiimote cufflinks are pretty much the dapperest accessories we've ever seen for Wii lovers. They're fully reversible thanks to the tiny silver nunchuk on the end, and are just about discreet enough for your next wedding/awards ceremony/court appearance.

But before you reach for your wallet, know this: at $150, they're not that much cheaper than a Wii itself.

[Via Engadget]

Even Wii lovers can find a few things to complain about, but let's be real here -- if you're going to complain, make sure your beef is accurate (and worth writing home about). Chad Sapieha of the Globe and Mail's Controller Freak blog seems to disagree with that, however. While we have to offer up kudos over the fact that he spread the anti-love around evenly among all three current-generation consoles in his recent post of hate, we still take issue with some of his Wii complaints.

His first complaint about the Wii is that it isn't as cheap as it appears. In order to play the best multiplayer games on the system, he says, within the comfort of your home with friends, you have to buy three more controllers and three nunchuks. To support this, he uses the examples of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Wii Sports. However, you don't need four nunchuks for the latter unless you feel like building a rounded tower, and the only game that even requires four Wii remotes is four-player tennis. As for Brawl, it seems likely to us that most Wii owners who have picked up Brawl have a GameCube controller or two lying around, and since that seems to be the preferred way to play anyway, that certainly cuts down the expense. Next he mentions the required investment of a 4 GB card for "avid downloaders," but we're of the opinion that "avid downloaders" who are strapped for cash might just do what Nintendo recommends, and download, delete, and re-download at need. We're not saying the Wii's storage system is without problem, but a 4 GB card is hardly a must.

Sapieha's other complaints strike chords, however, even if one is the most rehashed complaint of all: friend codes. His other issue? The lack of demos for Virtual Console games. While we agree that demos would be awesome, there's no shortage of videos of Virtual Console games available. Not only can you get them on Nintendo's official site, but you can see 'em right here, too. It may not be as good as a demo, but it's better than nothing.

The point? If these are the worst things we can find to complain about, Wii owners are doing okay.

On the face of it, the latest rumor that Microsoft is planning a Wiimote-esque peripheral (purportedly developed by Rare) for the Xbox 360 carries all the hallmarks of a wind-up. There's the obligatory "anonymous source," the hastily drawn MS Paint sketch you see to the right, and plenty of disclaimers -- "if it is indeed released," "if the project comes to fruition" -- in the MTV Multiplayer blog post that broke the rumor.

Look closer, however, and the speculation seems to gain credibility. As our sister site Xbox 360 Fanboy notes, Rare also happens to be developing The Fast and the Furriest for Xbox Live Arcade, which features "a wand type input device for gesture recognition." And it's no secret that Microsoft has spent the last few months jealously eyeing Nintendo's hold over the "casual" crowd -- but would the company be quite so brazen in ripping off Nintendo's gaming wand?

[Via Joystiq]

Christmas 2006 will always be remembered at Casa de Greenhough for this blogger's second Wiimote running out of juice just ten minutes into the family's first (and last) Wii Tennis session of the day, and for the tears that followed from younger relatives (okay, and me).

That minor black mark aside, the battery life of the trusty Wii Remote has always seemed quite respectable, but GamePro decided to get its science on and test exactly how quickly each home console sucks the life from batteries.

The results proved surprising, with the Wiimote (36 hours and 43 minutes from each set of batteries) almost bang in the middle of the PlayStation 3's Sixaxis (a piffling 18 hours and 41 minutes) and the Xbox 360 controller (56 hours and 56 minutes). As GamePro notes, the presence of so many extras (speakers, gyroscopes, etc.) make the Wiimote's performance all the more impressive.

[Via Go Nintendo]

Most of all, however, we're keen to hear why Snakebyte has chosen to charge €39.99 for one of these, when the official model from Nintendo costs more or less the same? We're not going to criticize the ergonomic qualities of this Wiimote before we've held it in our own hands, but lower pricing is typically the greatest attraction of third-party peripherals. Perhaps Snakebyte is gambling on shortages of the official Wiimote continuing?

If your own Wiimote lacks sufficient amounts of purple, these will be appearing from February 8th.

[Via Go Nintendo]

The idea of using the humble Wiimote to create music seems to have really fired the imagination of the hacking community recently. DJing WiiJing and drumming are already both possible with the waffly versatile controller and a bit of know-how, and now those of you who lack the funds for Guitar Hero III can get your virtual shred on for free.

Hacker Evan, maker of the Wiimote drum sampler we linked to exactly one paragraph ago, has developed software that allows users to play air guitar, simply by "strumming" the Remote while holding down the d-pad to alternate between chords, or the B button to toggle between major and minor chords. As Evan points out, this has a similar feel to Jam Sessions on the Nintendo DS, which is far from a bad thing if you ask us.

[Thanks, Evan!]

When students in Queensland, Australia recently attempted to make exercise bikes interesting to use (surely an impossible feat if you ask us, but good luck to them), they turned to the Wii's unique controller for a helping hand. Their idea was straightforward enough: place a giant screen in front of the user which shows them merrily zipping through the countryside and other virtual vistas as they cycle.

But for this to work effectively, two Wiimotes were required -- one strapped to the cyclist's helmet (so that turning the head would allow users to take in scenery around them), and one to the leg of the cyclist (meaning the device could detect what speed users were travelling at, and adjust the on-screen image accordingly).

They're calling it "virtual exercise," and say the next step is to take the image from the screen and have it projected into a pair of goggles, before selling the idea to gyms. Presumably they'll have found an alternative to the Wiimote by then, but if this does show up in your local sweatshop in the future, know where the inspiration came from, eh?

[Thanks, Maddles!]

Some people are all in favor of the Zapper, as we discussed this morning, but Game|Life's Chris Kohler is not among them ... at least, not when it comes to Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. After trying the game several times, he has consistently found that the Zapper is less optimal for this game than the simple naked combination of the Wii remote and nunchuk. At TGS, he was playing co-op with a freelancer who was even excited about the Zapper and its potential with the game. He played without, and she played with -- and halfway through, they switched.

Once finished, he asked her which she preferred ... and she agreed with him. The Zapper may end up being great for other games, but in Umbrella Chronicles, it seems to make actions ungainly rather than precise, particularly when one has to reload or pick up objects.

This makes us doubly interested in seeing how the shell affects other games, like the pack-in Link's Crossbow Training, but for now, we think we may just stick to the remote and nunchuk. After all, the remote is a pointing device all on its own, and we've seen just how fantastic it can be for shooting.

Here's rule one about owning pets: if you allow them to chew on or scratch one type of thing, they're often going to think similar materials are fair game. Give a cat one of those carpet-covered scratching posts? Sure, lots of us do it, but it's hard to be mad at them when later you find them sharpening their claws in the middle of the dining room rug. The similar nubby texture gets them every time. So it shouldn't be much of a surprise what happened to the Labrador one Colorado family allowed to chew on an old television remote. Not only did the dog eat it, but once that was down, he turned on the next remote-like object in his sights: a Wii remote.

Which he swallowed whole.

The poor pooch started spitting up blood, and once at the vet, vomited up bits of the original remote ... but there was still a mass in his stomach visible on an X-ray. It was only then that the Wiimote-swallowing was revealed. Luckily, the dog was able to expel the controller after having his tummy massaged, and he's just fine after an overnight stay at the doctor.

The Wii in question belonged to the family's son, who was punished for leaving the controller out where the dog could get to it ... but who's going to punish everyone else for allowing the dog to chew on electronics in the first place? Sharp plastic bits probably don't digest so well, after all.

On the lighter side, now we all have an excuse to tell jokes about the horrors of dogs chewing on your Wii.

[Via Kotaku]

Apparently, some folks are of the idea that Wiimote promo boxes given out at the Japanese press event closely resemble or are exact copies of how the package will be present at retail. The picture, which first surfaced on a flickr user account, looks the part, so we're assuming that the final retail package will closely resemble this.

What do you guys think? With the Wii game boxes featuring that white tab, wouldn't it make more sense for the hardware to come in white packaging?

[Thanks to all that sent this in; via Joystiq]

What do you get when you combine a camera and incredibly zealous fanboys? Not to be confused with a joke involving an owl and a bungee cord, this video quite possibly demonstrates Wal-Mart's worst fears. Regardless, the video is some light humor for your mid-day Monday.

As always, the video is embedded into the post, after the break.

[Thanks Erich!]