hello, nintendo

Anticipation

So, it's finally here.  The weekend we've been waiting for.

I don't have a preorder, I aim to take my chances at finding a Wii sometime on Sunday at one of several non-electronics retailers in my area.  There are several grocery stores with home electronics departments near my house, and a couple of Zellers locations, which for you non-Canadians is sits somewhere between Target and Wal-Mart in terms of quality, and isn't as good as either.

At this point, I have no idea what my chances are, but if things go properly by this time on Sunday I'll be bowling, or boxing, or saving Hyrule yet again (What is with that place anyway?  Get some law enforcement people!)

Austin Wii Party

Last night I attended the Austin Nintendo Wii party- about 20 people were selected, told to call a number and leave our name and phone number, and then contacted back by a Nintendo rep who gave us instructions and a password. On the day of the party everyone recieved a text message detailing where to go, and we were met by a couple of vans and some Nintendo reps who had us surrender our cellphones, show ID, and give our passwords. I took my DS just in case, but no DS-Wii interoperability was being demoed at the party. We were taken to what looked like an artspace with about 5 HDTV's, Wiis, and a multitude of Wii remotes. Blessedly, beer, softdrinks and pizza were also served. We jumped right into the games pretty quickly. The games being demoed were Wii Sports, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, a Marvel comics game, a Madden game, and a racing game (who's name I have unfortunately spaced on, but I'm sure someone here will refresh my memory).

The first game I picked up was Trauma Center, which was a good place to get started using the Wii Remote. I had heard a few reports of people having difficult times with the remote at various demos, but I found it fairly easy to pick up on, using the metaphor of a laser pointer for Trauma center, and then refining that with the general location awareness of Wario Ware and Wii Sports. The demos of some of the games really only allowed a taste of the possibilities and got us accustomed to working with the controller- Trauma Center and Wario only had a brief set of levels, Twilight Princess had one figting tutorial level and a demo of a fishing mini game (the fishing was one of the most impressive interactions I had with the wii, great use of feedback and physical movements, and the camera movements and water looked great). Wii Sports seemed to be the most appealing package- The bowling and tennis games were easy to pick up, simple and very fun. I especially had a good time taking part in a 4 person tennis match, and could definitely see myself playing the tennis and bowling for hours with my drunken friends. The boxing seemed like a good idea, but I couldn't quite get the hang of using the controllers for it. The swordfighting in Zelda also wasn't as precise and reactive as I had hoped, but I've heard that a star wars lightsaber game is in the works that will use the full range of motion for more precise sword movements.

All in all I was very impressed with my first look at the Wii. Nintendo sent us on our way with coupons for free Wii Remotes when we purchase the console. I left a little buzzed, with a slightly sore shoulder from tennis, and a definite feeling I was going to pick a Wii up in November.

New DS Lite Colors!

Two new colors, Onyx and Coral Pink, will be released in the US on September 13th. So that means you have about 3 weeks to auction off your boring Polar White DS Lite to some unsuspecting person on ebay.

Press Release: Nintendo Launches New DS Lite Colors Amid Record-Breaking Game Sales

The new ACWW, now with guns!

from Drew and Natalie's Married to the Sea

Mario Travel

Seen on Ko Samui in Thailand. Bought my ferry ticket to Ko Tao there.

Mario Travel

Mario Kart

Squid

Squid necklace via finn.

Cloud Bed, Courtney Skott

Cloud Bed, Courtney Skott
Originally uploaded by heather.

Wario Ware Wii

It’s a remarkable experience. Instead of passively playing the games, with the new controller you physically perform them. You act them out. It’s almost like theater: the fourth wall between game and player dissolves. The sense of immersion–the illusion that you, personally, are projected into the game world–is powerful. And there’s an instant party atmosphere in the room. One advantage of the new controller is that it not only is fun, it looks fun. When you play with an old-style controller, you look like a loser, a blank-eyed joystick fondler. But when you’re jumping around and shaking your hulamaker, everybody’s having a good time.

The Wii Zone has the scoop on the new Wario Ware for Wii. Since Wario Ware Twisted was so much fun (as opposed to Wario Ware Touched), it makes perfect sense to make Wario Ware the pilot game for the Wii.

IRC on the DS, and DS Lite release day and price

Make magazine today features SylphIRC, an IRC client for the Nintendo DS.

Also, Nintendo announced the DS Lite's release date and pricing in the states- (which everyone reading this probably already knows now): June 11th, for $129.99, just in white (we're assuming they will roll out additional colors later).

Alright, I've had enough...

The time has come for action, since he's clearly not willing to do the work himself. Help buy Dr. Kawashima some fucking allergy medicine.