Nintendo Wii Finder

Due to the holiday season, sale of Wii is on high along with the British newspaper’s scary stories. Two UK publications have issued articles relating that how playing on a Wii can cause physical damage to users. This is somewhat the same way like any physical motion could hurt somebody somewhere.

UK’s newspaper, The Daily Telegraph got the first lead on this issue describing how young doctors at Leeds Teaching Hospital have discovered about “Wii Knee.” However, there was no further mention of the term except mentioning the name. Following this news was The Sun which pointed out that ten people from Britain was hospitalized due to knee injuries each week. It also mentions the famous “Wii-itis” which was a 2007 favorite even before referring to Wii-knee.

Lazard Capital Market’s Colin Sebastian detailed out a list of games that are expected to release in 2009. With these releases, he believes that the industry will have a growth by 5%. There are 22 titles in the list and Colin included two new games, one is Legend of Zelda and new Princess Peach game for the DS.

Nintendo’s President, in the company’s E3 2008 press conference had insisted that the Zelda team was very hard at work on new titles which included the new Zelda, so we might get something on the game next year. Nintendo took a lot of time to put out Twilight Princess, so let’s hope it doesn’t take that long time for the next game.

Musha Aleste came in April in Japan and OFLC had rated it for PAL release which is still pending. Since the game is a shooter game, it has to be available worldwide on the Virtual Console. When the game was released in America, it was known as M.U.S.H.A. on the genesis. M.U.S.H.A has been developed by Compile who is the creators of awesome games like Zanac and Blazing Lazars. M.U.S.H.A. will have fewer blocks in getting released in North America as it has now been rated by the ESRB. The game is now ready for release on the North American Virtual Console.

M.U.S.H.A. is an arcade-style space shooter in which players pilot a robot that involves ships of the enemy into constant combat. Challenging boss characters appear at the end of stages.

Taiko no Tatsujin has been released in Japan. The release of the game was more exciting for the people of Japan than its ad which has two enthusiastic kids. The game’s localized version was to be released by Namco on the PS2 in 2004 but looking at the drop in retail sales of Taiko Drum Master, nobody wanted to take chances with another music games. Guitar Hero, which is a craze now, was also not there at that time.

Above all, the American public was not that willing to pay $60 for a miniature Japanese drum. Coming back to Taiko no Tatsujin, Josh has made a copy from the Wii folder and composed a video for those who don’t have the privilege of living in Japan where the game has been released. So, go ahead and check it out!

Wii finder tracks store inventory at major stores at right time. They help you by showing you there are Wii in stock. Wii are hard to fond so when you see one in stock it is good to buy it immediately. There is a shortage of Wii again this Christmas. Amazon.com generally has the stock but this is the first time that it is running out of stock from the beginning. More than 40 million people use the eBay site but this time even they are disheartened as there is hardly any stock left on the site.

Wii finder has been checking eBay auction if by any chance they track a Wii but in vain. When Amazon started the 15 Days 15 Deals they had no clue that they will run out of stock so early. However I do not find any reason for not thinking so. Obviously if somebody sells products at a reduced price who will not go for it? It was everywhere on the Wii finder about the reduced price.

Even Circuit City and Toys R Us are running out of stock. Currently it is only Wal Mart that has occupied the top position in Wii finders. Wal Mart has thousands of Wii in stock and gradually they are taking it out. However it is not sure for how long we will be able to see it in stock. Looks like Reggie when committed to keep up with the demand of Wii, he meant only with Wal Mart.

In spite of the economic slowdown, Nintendo has not been affected at all in the sales of its Wii video game consoles and DS handheld game player. During the last year’s Thanksgiving holiday week, even though there were major shortages, still Nintendo sold 350,000 consoles. This year, the number has gone upto 800,000 since the stores were full this time.

According to Nintendo’s President, Satoru Iawata said in an interview to Reuters that
when the economy is strong, people tend to buy three things from the top of their wish list. But when things are bad, people often buy only the first thing on their list," Iwata said. "Fortunately for us a lot of shoppers put our products at the top of their list." He also added that sales of DS handheld were up about 20 percent during the Thanksgiving holiday week in the U.S. as compared to last year.

Nintendo has cleared the doubts that there would be no up gradation of Wii Remote’s accelerometer technology and that it will not change the internal components of the Wiimote. TechOn, the Neiki business publication claims that Nintendo would be looking into alternative accelerometer chips for the Wiimote by evaluating samples obtained from a number of acceleration sensor manufacturers. However, it would not consider this time Analog Devices Inc and STMicroelectronics which currently provide the motion-control sensors in the Wii Remote.

While speaking to Edge, a Nintendo spokesperson denied that there would be any internal upgrade of the Wiimote’s internal parts and stated that this is all “purely rumor and speculation.”

Reggie had committed that only if Disaster: Day of Crisis would fair well in Europe, it could have chances of getting released in U.S. So, we were a bit pessimist about the release, but this will-it-won’t-it saga has taken a turn. Go Nintendo reader, Silver Lunar sent a mail to Nintendo Customer Support asking if the game would be released in the region and he received an interesting reply.

 The response was positive which said the game would be released in U.S. but it was considered to some degree of suspicion. However, this suspicion was carried off as Go Nintendo’s RMC received screencaps of Silver Lunar’s email exchange to reckon its no rumor.

The Play on Wii release Donkey Kong Jungle Beat had some changes which made it look like more of a traditional platformer which was dicey whether it would work or not. However, the game’s updated look will be liked by everyone, that’s a bet! The changes are side-by-side with the originals so they cannot be noticed at the first glance.

Still, the refinements and the additions can be easily viewed and comparisons can be made. The refinements can even be seen in the form of tiny images, like the scales, but for the full effect, one has to look into the Nintendo gallery.

PETA has confirmed that it will continue the format which it did for Super Mario Bros. and Cooking Mama games. This will be a way to be “engaging with the public”. They say that this way of spreading their message is as important as “music, movies and television.” The organisation’s clarification to its recent webgame Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals was an attack on the meat industry instead of to the game.

PETA told GamesIndustry.biz that many people are unaware of the real life violence that animals endure in the factory farm and in slaughterhouses. It is their effort to highlight the cruelty to animals through games as it appeals to people who are interested but may be turned off by more direct appeals. A spokesperson explained that apart from this game, it had also commented on Sega’s Samba de Amigo adverts which features ‘ape’ actors.