Surprise: People Prefer Wii Sports Resort To Wii Fit Plus [Screengrab]
As seen on Coffee With Games via the Go Nintendo blog. Me, I’m loving Wii Fit Plus — but I don't own Sports Resort and I have a virtual crush on my virtual Wii Fit Plus trainer.
Comments (0)Black Wii system going to Europe as part of Wii Sports Resort bundle
Nintendo UK will release the black Wii system on November 6, as part of a limited edition bundle including matching Wii Remote, Nunchuk, and MotionPlus peripherals, and both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. This bundle will be available elsewhere in Europe on November 20.
Along with the black bundle, Nintendo is releasing the black Classic Controller Pro accessory. No price has been announced for any of these items. Nintendo of America has yet to announce any plans to release any of these items — in fact, it has announced that there are no plans. But, really, it’s waiting until every holdout gets impatient and buys a white system.
Black Wii system going to Europe as part of Wii Sports Resort bundle originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sept. game sales: Better, but hardly cause to celebrate
September was the month things were supposed to turn around
for the video game industry. Analysts were forecasting increases of up to 25
percent from the 2008 numbers – but the economy and the buying public gave them
an ugly surprise.
Sales were up…
Good Advice: Don’t Work Out Like A Programmer [Fitness]
Wise choices may make EA's Wii fitness sequel improve upon its predecessor. But the decision not to support MotionPlus makes the game prone to cheating — as, it seems programmers, like many who try to exercise, are wont to do.
I recently, briefly, tried the revised boxing game programmed into November’s Wii sequel EA Sports Active More Workouts. And I was chided, kindly, by the EA trainer showing me the game.
He said I was throwing my punches like a programmer.
I wasn’t jabbing and hooking, Wii Remote and Nunchuk in hands, with gusto. I was, I didn’t realize, just making short moves.
Just this past spring, different EA representatives had trained me out of the bad habits of shortening my Wii-playing gestures. They did this while demoing the extra-sensitive modes of EA’s latest tennis and Tiger Woods games. These modes proved how a Wii Remote enhanced with the Motion-Plus add-on, could detect the difference between a player who swung their arm fully and those who just flicked their wrist. The Wii Remote’s acceleration sensors could be fooled by those two types of motion. But the position-detection in the MotionPlus could not. It could not be tricked. It would recognize a wrist-flick into a chip shot in Tiger and reserve big drives for full-arm swings.
What I learned in the spring I must have un-learned for the fall.
With no MotionPlus engaged for EA Sports Active More Workouts, I was back to my cheating ways. My punches were short. Can we say I was just trying not to hurt anyone at a public event? Apparently my EA-public-demo punching style is also the fighting style of EA programmers. Presumably this is not because they are lazy but because it is easier to test and replay a fitness game by taking a motion shortcut than by knocking oneself out throughout the day.
The new EA fitness game doesn’t support the Wii add-on, but it does have a host of other features to distinguish it from its recent predecessor, June’s EA Sports Active.
It includes a six-week workout program and a more interactive fitness calendar. It includes core/ab workouts, something the first game omitted. It has an overall count of 35 new exercises. Yoga-stretching has been added as well, by popular demand, EA claims — though it does cost them the talking point from the first game that EA Sports Active is the sweat-inducing Western complement to the gentler strain of Wii Fit's Eastern balance-based routine.
The new game has plenty to exercise the player who wants it. As proof, a public relations specialist working on the game answered Kotaku’s challenge and demonstrated the game’s new obstacle course mode. She ran (in place) until her avatar reached a lunge station. She lunged until she was prompted to run more. Then she hit another upper-body exercise. She finished, mildly winded.
There may well have been ways to cheat all the exercises I saw. But that's how it goes with games and fitness — users are pulled by the gravity to find shortcuts, be they cheat codes or less-than-complete sit-ups.
The lack of MotionPlus support may make it harder for users of the new game to resist temptations to cut their moves short and cheat, but as with the use of all fitness products, the user would just be cheating themselves. Oh, this is how it is for all kinds of fitness training, right? You need to want it.
Review: Wii Fit Plus
Wii Fit Plus is a $20 upgrade to Wii Fit. It includes everything from the original title, plus new games and new "fitness"-related things that I only sort-of care about. The game now tries to count how many calories you’ve burne…
OK, This Wiimote Mishap? We’re Calling Not Fake. [Ruh Roh]
That infamous “Mama!!!” video where the Wiimote destroys the flat-screen has been endlessly debated: staged or real? In this, it’s safe to assume the Home Shopping Network did not intend to smash its own TV showing off Wii Tennis.
Hand it to that guy, he does not deviate from the sales pitch after such a colossally embarrassing f—kup, even with his cohost laughing and, no doubt, a production crew trying to keep it together. And hats off to the director who switched over to the b-roll while they got the pitchman positioned perfectly in front of the TV to cover up the scar the Wiimote left.
Now, $329.90 for a standard Wii bundle and a doubled-up set of peripherals? That’s a tragedy. Especially since they pretend it’d retail for $379.99.
Nintendo Wii Gaming System with Wii Sports and 15 Accessories [YouTube via Joystiq]
Weekend Coupons: The Known and Unknown [Dealtaku]
Today’s coupons roundup contains a bunch of reminders of ongoing sales you may have heard about. They might not be breaking news, but they’re definitely where you should be looking first if you’re looking for new games.
Hardware
• Technically not a sale, although the $349.99, 250 GB PS3 Slim could be construed as getting another 130 GB of hard drive space for just $50. Amazon has it listed, release date is Nov. 3 but you probably already knew that. [Dealzon]
• If you need hardware other than a hard drive, there are two bundles to consider from SonyStyle. An 80GB PS3 with two DualShocks for $249.99, or the 160GB/Uncharted/2 DualShock bundle for $349.99. Free shipping on both. [Dealzon]
• Also, should you be in the market for a Wii MotionPlus (or an additional controller) consider the bundle being offered by Amazon. It’s $56.99 but you get Wii Sports Resort with two MotionPlus Controllers. It’s $10 more than the game’s standard package but the two controllers is a bargain, especially when one goes for $19.99 [Dealzon]
Software
• Friendly reminder, The Toys R Us buy 2, get 1 free deal ends today. All titles eligible.
• As you may know already, Amazon’s gotten into the 3:2 act. You’ve got to pick from an eligible list so the offer is not as comprehensive as the Toys R Us deal, but it’s still a deal. [Amazon]
• You might also have seen that Gordon Freeman triumphed over Mario in GameSpot’s greatest hero contest. To celebrate, Steam’s offering all Half-Life games at 55.8 percent off, that figure representing Freeman’s winning percentage of votes. [Steam]
• Steam’s other sale this weekend is a 25 percent off deal on the Red Faction games. Red Faction: Guerrilla is $29.99, and a bundle of it, Red Faction and Red Faction II is $44.97. [Steam]
• While not a part of Amazon’s 3:2 sale, DJ Hero is the subject of its own special deal. Use coupon DJHERO10 to preorder the game/turntable bundle for $108.99, or $11 off the launch price. [TechDealDigger]
• Finally, another reminder, the GameStop offer to get Brütal Legend or Need for Speed: Shift for $19.99 with two trade-ins from a most-wanted list, and its $10 and $20 bounties on trade-ins of 3 or 4 games, respectively, is still on and ends Oct. 25. [GameStop]
As always, smart gamers can find values any day of the week, so if you’ve run across a deal, share it with us in the comments.
Wii, PS3 Sales In Dead Heat In Japan [Console Taisen]
This week’s report from Japanese sales tracker Media Create shows that recent price drops on Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 are having nearly equal impact on sales of each console, a slight edge going to the PS3.
A curious tie, we suppose, as Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus continue to sell better than the PlayStation 3 competition. But less curious is the continued dominance of the Nintendo DSi and PSP, both doing just fine on the software and hardware front.
For the bestselling console hardware in Japan for the week of October 5 to 11, look down.
- Nintendo DSi – 50,144
- PSP – 40,100
- PlayStation 3 – 30,896
- Wii – 30,741
- Nintendo DS Lite – 5,454
- Xbox 360 – 3,326
- PlayStation 2 – 2,133
Water Sports coming to the Wii
There is only one reason why I chose to run this story. You already know exactly what that reason is. MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - October 14, 2009 – GameMill Entertainment today announced Water Sports. Set to release in October for Wii™, t…
Wii Fit Plus Takes Japan by Storm [Sales Get]
The release of Wii Fit Plus has been met with open arms in Japan. The newest Wii Balance Board-powered fitness game from the house of smiles sold more than 340,000 copies in its first week on sale.
It was a good week for Nintendo platforms, with Level 5’s soccer RPG sequel Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryokusha scoring the second place spot, an impressive 280,000-plus copies moved week one. It was also the first week that Square Enix’s Dragon Quest IX didn’t appear in the top ten since its release in Japan. It was pushed out by four new PSP and PS3 releases.
Yeah, that’s right. It was also a very good week for Sony’s platforms, with Gran Turismo and Macross Ultimate Frontier for the PSP making appearances at the top of the chart. Also showing strong (enough) were Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and Shin Sangoku Musou: Multi Raid Special for the PlayStation 3.
Looks like sales tracker Media Create is now clumping together sales of Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Probably for the best!
01. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) – 340,000 / NEW
02. Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryokusha (DS) – 281,000 / NEW
03. Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver – 267,000 / 2,285,000
04. Gran Turismo (PSP) – 134,000 / NEW
05. Macross Ultimate Frontier (PSP) – 81,000 / NEW
06. Tomodachi Collection (DS) – 68,000 / 1,288,000
07. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3) – 42,000 / NEW
08. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – 27,000 / 1,253,000
09. Shin Sangoku Musou: Multi Raid Special (PS3) – 27,000 / NEW
10. Tales of Vesperia (PS3) – 26,000 / 292,000
11. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Portable 4 (PSP)
12. Dragon Quest IX (DS)
13. Love Plus (DS)
14. Minna no Sukkiri (PSP)
15. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP)
16. SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu – Goddess of Destiny (DS)
17. Trinity Universe (PS3)
18. Monster Hunter 3 (Wii)
19. Winning Post 7 2009 (PSP)
20. Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Tag Force 4 (PSP)
21. Mana Khemia 2: Ochita Gakuen to Renkinjutsushi Tachi Portable+ (PSP)
22. Shin Hisui no Shizuku: Hiiro no Kakera 2 (PS2)
23. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Bargain Edition) (PS3)
24. Dynasty Warriors Multi Raid Special (Xbox 360)
25. Ys 7 (PSP)
26. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
27. Sloane to MacHale no Nazo no Story 2 (DS)
28. Penguin no Mondai X: Tenkuu no 7 Senshi (DS)
29. Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360)
30. Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha Kanshu Shiranai Mama dewa Son wo Suru: Mono ya Okane no Shikumi DS (DS)
Media Create Weekly Software Sales [Gpara]