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Wii Warm Up: Wii Plan to Speak

The WiiSpeak microphone is ten bucks cheaper when purchased with Animal Crossing: City Folk. Obviously, it works with Animal Crossing, but it will also work with The Conduit, with the new version of the Opera browser, and on its own via the Wii Speak Channel. Of course, more compatible games will follow. We hope.

It occurs to us that even people who like Animal Crossing, but don't necessarily care about catching up with their friends while fishing or shaking trees may have interest in the WiiSpeak mic for other stuff. Are you in that group? Did you pick up the Animal Crossing WiiSpeak bundle with no intention of using the two items together?

Animal Crossing: City Jack O' Lanterns


For those of us who missed celebrating our favorite fall holiday with fake anthropomorphic jerks, Halloween is back in Animal Crossing: City Folk. We just have to ... wait almost the whole year for it, thanks to the November release of the game.

Your animal neighbors, dressed in identical pumpkinhead costumes, will accost you and demand candy. If you fail to comply, or try to pass off some junk out of your pockets as candy, as the IGN demo player has done here, you get a trick! For being stingy, the residents slapped a pumpkin head on him and changed his clothes.

In the little IGN player doodad, there's another video featuring a player picking fruit in the winter. Animal Crossing winters are so lovely!

Wii Speak Channel download tied to hardware


MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo opened his review WiiSpeak microphone box and discovered the secret behind the associated Wii Speak Channel: it's a free download, yes, but that download requires the entry of a one-time-use code included in the box. At first blush, this isn't a big deal, because anyone who wants to use the Wii Speak Channel is probably going to have a microphone anyway, right?

The problem, as Totilo identifies, is that you can't buy the thing used and expect the channel, because the "Download Ticket" will have been used. And Nintendo won't replace it. The channel won't be available for purchase, or for free download without the ticket. So buy the thing new or plan to chat only in games.

Wii Speak Channel hit by delay


Contrary to what we originally heard, it looks like the Wii Speak Channel won't be launching alongside Animal Crossing: City Folk on November 16th.

IGN snapped a picture of the WiiSpeak box, complete with a disclaimer that the Channel (which allows chat outside of Animal Crossing) will actually appear in December. When in December isn't clear, though we know the Channel will be available in Europe from December 5th, so maybe then. Until then, you're just going to have to pick fruit and chat simultaneously. We can probably cope with that!

Animal Crossing and WiiSpeak about £60 in UK


Nintendo has confirmed to Eurogamer that the Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City and WiiSpeak bundle will cost "£59" in the UK when it launches there on December 5th. We guess they mean £59.99, but let's face it: only chumps will pay that sort of money when the likes of Play have it for a penny under fifty quid. If you do still live in the late-1990s and buy stuff from high street stores with real people in them, then expect to pay a premium. Separately, the game will cost £40 and WiiSpeak £25. Again: if you're a chump.

As for the North American price, we're still waiting on official word, but Amazon's price hasn't budged from $69.99.

City Folk crossing into central mainstream with new ad


It's easy to hate on the new Animal Crossing: City Folk ad. Gut reaction is that it's not for us, for the real gamers, so clearly, Animal Crossing itself isn't, either. But that isn't the case; if you liked Animal Crossing at all before, you'll probably like it now. So, no, this commercial isn't for us. It's for everyone else, everyone who thinks Animal Crossing might not be for them. And when taken that way, it seems pretty effective to us.

Wii Warm Up: Peripheral issues


Wii peripherals have proven a profitable business for Nintendo, and a new member, the WiiSpeak microphone, will join this rapidly growing family later this month. In our experience, these accessories mostly enhance the games they support, and that's great and all, but it has been a while since we actually perched on our Balance Boards, or waved our Wii Wheel about to Mario Kart Wii, or Zappered zombies. When was the last time you played a Wii title with something other than a naked Wiimote and Nunchuk, and what was the game?

Animal Crossing/WiiSpeak bundle box revealed, price worries continue

A Portuguese Nintendo fansite happened to notice the appearance on Amazon of the Animal Crossing: City Folk/WiiSpeak microphone bundle. Only just now after looking at it have we realized what Nintendo has done here: they've guaranteed City Folk's bestseller status by making it yet another first-party Wii game with a bundled peripheral. It now joins Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Fit. People really love big boxes!

Amazon's price for the bundle is a cause for concern. Either they never bothered to update to the $59.99 price or the price is back up to $69.99. We'd like to make an official announcement at this time: Wii Fanboy endorses the lower price this November. We think it's the right decision for this county.


[Via FNintendo]

Make your pets hate you, win a Wii and Animal Crossing


If you have no interest in actually paying for a Wii and Animal Crossing: City Folk, Nintendo has your back. For the next three weeks, the company is encouraging people (North Americans only) to dress their pets in adorable outfits, and send photos of the unamused, uncomfortable animal(s) to this website. Come November 16th, the fifty best will win a Wii, a copy of Animal Crossing: City Folk, and a WiiSpeak microphone. Maybe this is the excuse you've needed to justify buying a pug?

The rules encourage an Animal Crossing theme, meaning the entries featured so far on the site are fairly rubbish, with most people just putting a hat on a disgruntled labrador. We sense our own idea is a winner. Protip, though: getting a necktie on a giraffe is hell.


[Via press release]

IGN's hands-six-to-eight-feet-away-from WiiSpeak preview


IGN's Craig Harris tested out the WiiSpeak microphone and voice chat functionality inside Animal Crossing at Nintendo's San Francisco office. His experience seemed much smoother and friendlier than my own, possibly as a result of improvements in the technology, a quieter environment, or a voice that is capable of normal human volume. Treehouse staffers told him that the voice chat has improved significantly since E3.

Conversations came in clearly enough from multiple positions in the room, though Harris noted a drop in quality when his interlocutors in Nintendo's Redmond office drifted far away from the mic, which seems pretty obvious. He was able to converse in a normal speaking voice from his position "six to eight feet" away. However, with no option to turn the music down or off in Animal Crossing, the game tended to drown out the voice output.

There was a mysterious "Use Headphones" option available in Animal Crossing, whose function is currently unknown. Harris speculates that it sends voice and game audio through separate audio channels, but maybe it just changes some preset audio settings to optimitze performance through tiny speakers. It's not as if you can plug a headset into the Wiimote or anything.



Ever since it was revealed back at E3, WiiSpeak has been the talk (both good and bad) of the town. Check out our hands-on time with the device, as well as the details you may have missed on the WiiSpeak Channel. Plan on picking one up? Then you might want to check out Game Night, where you'll surely be able to chat with your fellow Wii lovers in the future.

WiiSpeak Channel dated for Europe


Wii lovers and fans of speakerphones across Europe, the WiiSpeak Channel has been dated for your region. The Channel and peripheral will debut alongside Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City on December 5th, less than a month after North America receives the game and service. Sadly, there's no word on what the bundle will cost you and if it'll be much more expensive than the bundle we're getting in North America. We'd like to think it will cost around the same, but we know how you guys get the shaft sometimes.

Ever since it was revealed back at E3, WiiSpeak has been the talk (both good and bad) of the town. Check out our hands-on time with the device, as well as the details you may have missed on the WiiSpeak Channel. Plan on picking one up? Then you might want to check out Game Night, where you'll surely be able to chat with your fellow Wii lovers in the future.

Animal Crossing/WiiSpeak bundle cheaper than we thought


Remember when we reported on a $69.99 price tag on the Animal Crossing/WiiSpeak bundle? Well, it turns out that price was off, by $10. Yes, the bundle will in fact retail for $59.99. That brings WiiSpeak down to $10, with the purchase of Animal Crossing: City Folk.

Animal Crossing: City Folk and WiiSpeak will be out in North America on November 16th.

Nintendo sneaks Wii Speak Channel announcement out


Nintendo plans to introduce an independent Channel for the WiiSpeak peripheral, planned for release in Japan on November 20. Nintendo of America plans to release the channel stateside on November 16. It'll be a free download with the WiiSpeak.

According to NOA's announcement, it works for up to four groups, with each participant in each group represented by a Mii. The Channel allows sending of voice messages and photos. It's simple, yes, but at least people who buy the peripheral outside of an Animal Crossing bundle will have something to do.

Animal Crossing: Timely Folk


One thing Animal Crossing: City Folk won't be replicating from previous Animal Crossings is the horrendous delay in getting a PAL version out. Wild World on the DS took nearly four months to cross the Atlantic to Europe, while Animal Crossing on the GameCube turned up two years late (though lucky Australia had to wait for only thirteen months).

This won't be the case for the Wii game, which will launch in Europe this December, where it will be known as Animal Crossing: Pointless, Overlong, Awkward Subtitle Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City and come bundled with WiiSpeak. Happy news for any Europeans who thought they would miss out on any vital, fruit-related conversation at Game Night!


Point/Counterpoint: WiiSpeak vs. ISpeak


Nintendo, who recently introduced the stick controller and the scale controller, is at it again, with the WiiSpeak, a microphone that you put on top of your TV so a whole crowd can share in voice chat as they play Animal Crossing (and, later, other games). Voice chat isn't new, of course, but voice chat for a whole room is.

Is this a worthwhile innovation? Is Nintendo's new approach really preferable to just wearing a headset and having conversations with your Internet pals? Will having the mic several feet away even be a workable solution? We obviously don't know, but we can debate about what we think.

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