Between the Spaces

Doing a search for “Wii” on GameStop’s website provided a plethera of Wii items already, 33 in total in fact. Two items in particular caught my eye. Skins for the Wii. Yeah, that threw me off a little as well. What could this be? I’m sure someone out there knows, but I have no idea.

The two things that come into my mind immediately are a UI (user interface) skin to mod the interface or a mod for the physical console itself. Either way, they are $12.99 each! Seems to cheap (sadly) for a physical mod and way too expensive for a UI mod! Further confusing is the release dates of these items, 11/01/06. 18 days before the release of the actual console itself!! Now, admittedly, they have Mario Galaxy being released on 11/15/06 which does not sound right either which makes me think this is just information from before the official announcement of the Wii release date. Why am I still speculating even after this obvious possibility? Well, the page for Mario Galaxy at least has a disclaimer on it: “Content based on the best available information. Price, release date, content and title are subject to change and/or cancellation by vendor.”, whereas the skins do not. Bah, who knows… I’m sure we’ll be well-informed soon enough.

Originally, Nintendo announced that the Wii browser (Opera) would be an additional cost but free in Japan. Apparently this offer is also valid in the United States for a limited time. I’m terribly glad for that as there is no way I would have purchased it.

“Go here to access the Opera internet browser. In addition to supporting flash (making this a step up from the DS browser), the browser uses the Wiimote to zoom in and out. The browser will normally cost money, but Nintendo will make it available for free download until June of 2006.”

Read the rest of this article on IGN

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Nintendo has finally officially announced the launch date and price for the Wii. Surprisingly, for once, the United States will see the hardware before Japan does!

Release Date: Nov 19th, 2006
Price: $249.99

In other news, wii.com has opened the US portion of the site.

Nintendo just launched the Japanese portion of wii.com. Considering it was during the Japanese Wii conference, it can safely be assumed that the United States portion will be opened after the US Wii conference.

A pretty decent looking site. I’m pretty sure it will be there for hype and promo only, meaning not much actual information. More to come after the US conference…

If rumors can be believed,

It appears as though someone leaked a press release which seems to have been pulled soon after which contained information about the Wii’s price and release date.

The document alluded to a $250 price point to be released on November 19th. Many other bloggers of notable reputation have added their own two bits about this since.

edit [9/14/06 @ 11:12pm]: Well, well. It looks as though they’ve placed this article online again, now that the conference has revealed this information, of course.

At the Wii event in Japan which took place today, Nintendo disclosed what items will be coming with the Wii console:

• 1 Nintendo Wii
• 1 Nintendo Wii Controller Strap
• 1 Nintendo Wii Nunchuck and Remote
• 1 AC adapter
• 1 AV cable (Non-Component Cable)
• 1 Wii Stand
• 1 Wii Auxiliary Plate
• 1 Sensor Bar
• 1 Plug Server Stand
• 3 AA Batteries

Well, looks like I’ll be nabbing a few extra controllers right away… Darn you Nintendo! Oh, alright… I suppose it is considered the lesser of three evils.

The next supposed “leader” of the up-coming (and partially already here *looks at Xbox 360) generation of gaming consoles, Sony’s PS3, has had a rough couple of days. Yesterday, an article on The Inquirer claimed that the graphics processor (RSX or ‘Reality Synthesizer’) was downgraded to be 10% of it’s original processing power.

This news seems to produce a few emotions in a very specific order when heard: First, “dang, that sucks, it’s not going to be as good now,” followed by either “ya know, it actually won’t affect me since I’m not buying one anyway, so nevermind.” Or if you are buying one “hmm, actually, this means it will cost me less money, so that’s cool.” I know I went through this, followed by “maybe after I buy my Wii, I’ll be able to get a PS3 a year or two after release when it’s gone down a tad (”a tad” equaling around $250-300) in price.”

After the news that Red Steel is upgrading their control schema to include real motion sword fighting, my entire Wii-life flashed before my eyes as dollar after dollar was passed to various stores in exchange for that oh so sweet Wii fix. Late nights of caffine and barely waking up in time for work the next day. Oh yeah, re-living my early 20’s… Thank you Nintendo for ruining my life!!

The worst part? Even after realizing all of that, I’m still getting a Wii. ;p

The only complaint I have had about this game was just killed, put in a plastic bag and drug into a dense forest to be buried.

“The developer has confirmed that the control scheme will be completely redesigned so the controller moves are converted into the game precisely. Besides the controller sensitivity will be completely adjustable in the final version. And the graphics were improved very well since E3, now the atmosphere is darker and thrilling.”

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SPOnG mentioned an announcement by Nintendo that Mario Galaxy will include a co-op play feature! This is very exciting news for those of us who play console games for the community of it instead of the concept of the game alone.

Nintendo Power announced that only six games will make it out of the gates on the day the Wii launches. Surprisingly, Mario was not one of them.

The games that will be launching are as follows:

• Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Wii Version
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
• Rayman Raving Rabbids
• Red Steel
• Super Monkey Ball
• Wii Dragon Quest

This does not necessarily exclude the possibility that more will be released on this wonderous day.  It simply means that Nintendo has confirmed these titles.  For those of you who are disappointed by this list, don’t worry! Nintendo seems to be doing things right this time around and to do things right includes releasing many many games just on or after launch. I’d expect at least double that amount within a month after launch.