Will this gadget kill 3D?
Want to know what the death knell for 3D content looks like? Check out these pictures.
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[via TechTosh and Gizmodo]

Silicone skins for your controllers will not just protect your Wii Remotes, wii Nunchuks and Classic Controllers, but also are available in many cool shades and stylish designs. They can help to improve your grip as well as help to prevent your controllers from developing scratches and dents. Wii skins come in a wide array of colors and patterned designs, including two toned and solid colors and some also glow in the dark. They are created particularly for the Wii controllers so they’ve holes to expose the sensors and buttons in all the correct locations. You can also get skins for your game console. These skins are so useful for maintaining your Wii console and controllers clean and guarded. It can also be a fun way to dress up your Wii and show your fashion.

You can find also wrist straps that you simply can put on to protect your Wii Remotes from getting dropped or flung throughout the room. The wrist straps also arrive in the variety of colors and you can find even leather ones. This is an additional excellent method to not only protect your Wii accessories but have some fun dressing them up as well.

Another style statement you can make would be to wear Nintendo jewelry and clothing to show how much you adore the video games. I love the Mario Brothers t shirt. There is also a necklace and a number of shirts that feature the Zelda logo. You can find Guitar Hero shirts, pajamas, hats, and underwear. Yes you can find even boxers featuring scenes from the Mario games.

As you are able to see there are a lot of fun ways to demonstrate your style with Wii remote add-ons and Nintendo apparel. You can make your own fashion statement with your personal shades and designs. Make your Wii gaming system all your personal, and it will assist to make your gaming encounter even more enjoyable and unique. So get creative together with your Wii add-ons and demonstrate your style.

Can we agree that Modern Warfare 2 was an average shooter, just one that happened to be backed by a gigantic marketing budget? It wasn’t bad, certainly, but the story was bat-shit crazy—Red Dawn was more plausible—and No Russian was so clearly developed to spark controversy. This is why this Mario story warms my heart so. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is now the fastest-selling game on a single console to reach 10 million units sold worldwide. The previous record holder was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The key to all this is the single console caveat. The game, as its name implies, was only available on the Nintendo Wii, while Modern Warfare 2 was available for multiple consoles, and technically available for the PC, the lack of dedicated servers notwithstanding.

It took Mario only seven weeks to reach the 10 million mark. That breaks down to 4.5 million sold in North America, 2.9 million in Japan, and 2.9 million everywhere else.

It just goes to show you: Nintendo could release a new Mario game every few years and be guaranteed a hit. Mario is untouchable.

Meanwhile, in just a few years I’m sure we’ll be looking at Modern Warfare 18 and Modern Warfare-branded kids vitamins. Who knows, maybe Activision will actually become a defense contractor in order to better milk the license for money?

Japan’s biggest gaming magazine, the Famitsu [JP], has given Nintendo’s newest Mario game New Super Mario Bros. the highest honor in the latest issue. All four editors who tested the game gave 10 points out of 10, resulting in a perfect 40/40 score.

New Super Mario Bros. is already the fourth game in 2009 to get a 40/40 rating, even though until 2007 the magazine was well-known for not giving away this score easily. But the perfect rating isn’t that surprising, as the game seems to be really that good and many reviewers outside Japan gave it the thumbs up already.

Here is a time line for all of Famitsu’s 40/40-games so far:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998, for Nintendo 64)
2. Soul Calibur (1999, for Dreamcast)
3. Vagrant Story (2000, for PlayStation)
4. The Legend of Zelda – The Wind Waker (2003, for GameCube)
5. Nintendogs (2005, for the DS)
6. Final Fantasy XII (2006, for PlayStation 2)
7. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008, for the Wii)
8. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008, for PlayStation 3)
9. 428: Fusasareta Shibuya de (2008, for the Wii)
10. Dragon Quest IX (2009, for the DS)
11. Monster Hunter Tri (2009, for the Wii)
12. Bayonetta (2009, for PlayStation 3/XBox 360)
13. New Super Mario Bros.

It must be pretty darn easy being an analyst at one of those fancy Wall Street firms. Take this story, that Nintendo may well launch an on-demand video service for the Wii here in North America next year. Japan’s Nikkei reported the same thing nearly two months ago, but it’s only now that someone at Lazard Capital Markets has officially predicted such a store for the North American market.

Here’s what the analyst said, two months after the Nikkei said the same thing:

We expect Nintendo to continue experimenting with content delivery and eventually to launch a service in the U.S., establishing a family- oriented media hub in the living room, and providing a more competitive option to Xbox Live and PlayStation Home.

The Wii is a really strange system, no? Nintendo as a whole, too. While Microsoft and Sony welcome and promote violent games like Modern Warfare 2, Nintendo goes out of its way to promote New Super Mario Bros. , a game that’s going to be huge, yes, but is for a totally different audience.

Nintendo’s hasn’t really jumped onboard the online bandwagon, either. There’s no Xbox Live or PSN you can point to, downloadable content is rare (excepting the Virtual Console, which I wouldn’t really consider DLC in the traditional sense of the phrase), and there’s no emphasis on “extra” features, like Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

All well and good, yes, but I have one question: where’s the new Zelda? Surely I’m not the only person who looks at Nintendo systems as Zelda/Mario-to-TV adapters.

Flickr

New Super Mario Bros. Wii hits stores today, and it will probably be on of the biggest games of the year. (Little Tommy and Little Susie shouldn’t be playing Modern Warfare 2!) To celebrate the launch of this latest Mario game, Nintendo invited its fans to the Nintendo World Store in New York yesterday. In addition to being able to buy the game a whole day early, fans could participate in a Mario tournament, get their picture taken in Mario garb, play the older games in the series, and meet Gary and Alison from Nintendo Week.

It was basically madness. I strolled in, along with my younger brother (who desperately wanted to meet the Nintendo Week hosts… it’d be like me wanting to meet Brock Lesnar or Lionel Messi), and found the Nintendo World Store swarming with children. You immediately realized that yeah, for all of the money games like Modern Warfare 2 or Assassin’s Creed II make, Nintendo’s audience is completely different. That’s not exactly breaking news, no.

Unfortunately for the Nintendo faithful, New York was being battered by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, so it was windy, rainy, and gray all day long. That made standing in line to buy the game much more of a hassle, and meant that I was juggling my camera, an extra lens, and an umbrella while trying to avoid running into anybody while taking photos.

The line to buy the game was quite long, stretching about halfway down the block. I waited, like an everyman, and was out there for around 20 minutes. Keep in mind that I find the idea of waiting in line for a video game to be ludicrous, but you sometimes have to make exceptions.

That’s about it. It was a fun little afternoon, only hindered by the fact that it was something like 98-degrees Fahrenheit upstairs (where the tournament took place). I also ran into E-Rock from the Opie and Anthony Show, which was pretty great in its own right.

I’ll have my thoughts on the game itself in the coming days.

The Ready for Play pack includes a 20-pack of AA batteries, a copy of Mario & Sonic at the Olympics game, an Ultimate Gaming Ottoman, and your choice of any four Gear Monkey video game accessories. Sounds like a screaming deal to me. Go get one at your local store, or online.

So by now you probably already have Modern Warfare 2, have beaten the single-player mode (cheap shot!), and have been killed within three seconds of re-spawning in multi-player mode more times than you’d care to admit. Great, good for you. Something that has been taken for granted, though, is that the game will be one of the best-selling games of the year, if not the best-selling. Hold your horses, partner, because an Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst has said that New Super Mario Bros. Wii will well outsell Modern Warfare 2 when it’s all said and done.

There’s an important distinction to make: what we’re talking about is eventual sales. What may happen is that Modern Warfare 2 could well end up the best-selling game of the year, but it won’t necessarily be the best-selling game released in 2009. New Super Mario Bros. Wii just might have longer longevity than its first-person shooter competition.

Does this matter to you and I, really? Eh, no. Who cares what game outsells what? Don’t let sales numbers get in your way of enjoying whatever you play.

It’s expected that the new Mario game will sell 15 million units over its lifetime. That new Mario games (well, not counting smaller titles like Mario Learns to Cook or whatever) are so rare, compared to Activision’s ability to publish Call of Duty after Call of Duty suggests that there’s not enough time for the shooters to get a foothold, as it were.

Of course, this is all speculation designed to help your day go by a little faster. Hopefully I have achieved my objective.

Super Mario Bros. Wii doesn’t come out here in North America for another five days, but, for whatever reason, it comes out in Australia in two days! That explains why you can find the world’s first review (nearest I can tell) on IGN Australia. The Web site gave the game a 9.2 (I swear, these decimal point reviews are 100 percent absurd), but I think it’s safe to conclude that the game is, indeed, fun, which is really all you can ask for.

As is customary from my “oh here’s a review!” posts, I’ll merely highlight the nut graph, which is the wrong phrase to use here but whatever, but I’ll also encourage you to read the whole thing. It’s only two pages (you’ll recall that IGN’s GTA IV review was seven pages long) so get to it.

Whether or not this is the best Mario game to date is purely a matter of personal tastes; it’s certainly the most humble on outward appearances. The red game case – a bold and loud statement of fun – is the first indicator that there’s something special under the hood in this one. Still sorting the men from the boys after 20 years, Mario and Luigi’s new adventure is not important because it’s the continuation of a franchise we know and love – rather, it’s because New Super Mario Bros. Wii demonstrates one more time why Nintendo are masters of the all-ages gaming market; relevant and refreshing but at all times reverent and above all, incredible fun.

I can only add that I played the game for, oh, 15 minutes about a month ago, and it struck like Smash Bros does: it’s fun on its own merits, yes, but the more people you play with, the better.

Or, simply, if you own a Wii, you’ll probably want this under your Christmas tree (or whatever) this year.