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Here on Kotaku, as well as everywhere else on the net, it seems, Wiimote straps are breaking left and right. There's been TVs killed, walls smacked into, probably even an unfortunate fluffy animal bonked on the head.
It would certainly seem there's some manner of manufacturing fault with at least SOME of the controller straps. Whose fault is it that the TV is broken? It's an interestingly grey legal area, certainly.
There sure is an easy solution, though... wear two straps at the same time. 
Yes, it's been a ridiculously long time since the site has been updated. Blame my laziness, and the turmoil of a new job and uni exams. But exams are over, I'm settled into my new cushy job, and ready to start writing for SBP again. I'm really going to try to post daily info and news now, even if it only serves the purpose of keeping my fingers busy.
So, the Wii has been released in the US, just in time for Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales periods. And this site pretty much missed all of the hype and launch-day antics, such as they were. 
But I'm definitely going to at least attempt to count down the remaining fortnight til the Wii's Australian launch, then go absolutely crazy in a torrent of reviews and whatnot. For now though, here are some snippets of news courtesy of Kotaku, Joystiq and GoNintendo... the Nintendo Associated Press, by another name:
Kotaku's latest post is a GameVideos snippet, on the creation of Celebrity Miis... Hitler, Jesus, Iwata. Even poor ol' Jack Thompson makes an appearance, though I'm sure he'd say that Raving Rabbids promotes gross animal violence.
Joystiq, as one may expect, have a highy speculative article on possible 'enhancements' for Virtual Console games. Rather than being bug fixes for old games, they think, the enhancements will be more along the lines of online multiplayer capability for the Mariokarts and other games we've come to love. Seems a bit far-fetched to me, but I certainly wouldn't complain if it were the case. PC emulators have supported online play for quite some time (though undoubtedly illegally so) though it's been problematic at best. This could be a real boon for the Wii - a properly integrated system that rises above what's offered by emulators, with an online community and scoring system a la Xbox Live...
The IT section of The Australian (of all the places) has a nib that focuses on third-party support for Nintendo. Doesn't really contain all that much info apart from stating the obvious that there really are quite a few third-party companies out there making Wii (and DS, I guess) games, but it's thought provoking nonetheless. Nintendo were renowned for their distaste for third-party interaction back in the days of yore, but they certainly seem to have picked up their game in recent years. Red Steel, Rayman, Elebits... these are just three of the many third-party games for the Wii that seem decent. Of course there are some generic ones (GT Pro Series, anyone?) but that's to be expected. On the list of games that are exclusive to the Wii, too, there is quite a high percentage of non-Nintendo investiture. How will this continue in the future? Will Nintendo drop the ball again? Or will the Wii's third-party market become as strong as, say, Sony's (for the PS2/3)? Only time will tell, I think.
Can't find a Nintendo-branded component cable for your shiny new Wii in the shops? Oh well, that's no problem... make your own! It looks a little chaotic, though... the mad scientist in me would've used a length of ethernet cable and some soldering to cheat and convert a composite cable into a component one. Or, most likely, it'd turn out poorly. Very poorly.
Kotaku, in their infinite kindness, have a mirror of the Wii Sports cover that was released (by Nintendo themselves, I think?) a while ago on the 'net. Now, you don't get a real DVD case and cover for Wii Sports when it's shipped with the console, only a paper sleeve. For the obsessive-compulsive amongst us, though, this cover, when printed out, gives some semblance of consistency to your ever-growing library of Wii games.
OK, so this is a slightly odd video. Rabbits cooking turkey in a laundromat, and then dancing. Sounds like some great fun. Raving Rabbids is going to be one of the titles I pick up at launch, just for the crazy mini-game aspect of it.
That's it for now, but expect a post tomorrow, if not later tonight.
Thanks, folks!
So, I played the Wii last night.
And I liked it.
9PM last night marked the opening of the NSW leg of the national "Wii Party" competition, in the Millennium Room of Telstra Stadium in Olympic Park. Around 60 people rocked up, from young to (relatively) old. Once 9PM struck, everyone converged on the escalators to get to Level 4, where the Room is located. Poor planning on Nintendo's part meant that the registration table for the event was situated right next to the escalator. In theory, it must've been a good thing. People walk off the escalator and go straight to the table, and then head on in to the party. In practice, however, it wasn't so peachy. A queue soon built up... onto the escalator. People were unwilling to move even slightly away from the table, so those on the escalator were catapulted into an unmoving mass of nerdy fans. After a few seconds, it was evident there was a problem. The moving escalator became clogged with the queue, causing no small amount of chaos.
Eventually, though, the Nintendo reps took some initiative and moved the queue to a more reasonable location. Forms were distributed, stating in no friendly terms were we to take any photos, with any kind of device. Seeing as pretty much everyone had a camera, or at the very least a camera-phone, there was some minor unhappiness. The majority of the people, being internet denizens, however, were already aware of the no-cameras rule, having read about the Melbourne event. Anyway... after around 10 minutes of waiting in line, I managed to get to the table, was signed in, and headed on inside.
The room actually looked a little sparse. There were 12 or so Wiis, two to a stand, with a ~32" LCD TV each. This area was currently off-limits - patrons held back by the sheer willpower of the Nintendo reps. People instead decided to gorge themselves on the free soft-drink and party food that waiters brought out. After a few minutes, all 57 competition winners were inside and salivating. I don't have a clue where the missing three were, but you can be sure they weren't happy. A few quick words and pointers from the beardy Nintendo rep - no photos (once again), play nice, don't cut the queue - and it began.
A few people bolted, a few people sprinted, but the majority of people briskly walked to the consoles. The largest crowd gathered around the two Zelda consoles, where the latest and not-before-seen Zelda gameplay video was being shown. It was amazing - that's pretty much all I have to say. Seeing Link walking around a town, swimming through water, rafting through some dangerous rapids, trotting along on horseback, FIGHTING on horseback... amazing. I _really_ wanted to play Zelda. And as it turned out, after a short and agonizing wait, I was one of the first to be handed the controller and nunchuck.
Now, this was my first experience with the Wiimote. It felt the right size in my hand, and so did the nunchuck. I was actually expecting it to be heavier though, which was the slightest of disappointments. I'm a fan of heavy peripherals - my old Logitech MX700 mouse with a heap of 5c coins glued inside it comes to mind - but the Wiimote was light, though not dangerously so. With wrist strap tightened (so no chance of sword-swinging sending the controller across the room into someone's Coke), I started the dungeon demo level of Zelda. It was fantastic. I'm sure you've all read the experiences many times, so I won't bore you in much detail. The controls took a few seconds of getting used to - being a PC gamer for a long time, with only short stints on the Gamecube, so the joystick is a very novel thing for me - but soon enough I was slashing up orcs left and right. I found that it was pretty much all in the wrist... any too-vigorous arm movements had the dangerous possibility of pulling the nunchuck along with them.
So, Zelda was fantastic, and fishing was intriguingly playable. On to Excite Truck I went, this time waiting in line for a little longer than before. With car and track selected, the Wiimote was held in hand a la steering wheel, and the game began. It was very fast-paced and the controller was extremely sensitive, though playable. One thing I disliked about Excite Truck was that a seemingly-thin tree was able to stop your oversized marauding gas-guzzler in its tracks, really putting a stop to the fast-paced gameplay. I guess everyone'll just have to learn to avoid them.
With ET completed - placing a dismal 6th, I might add - I moved to the far corner of the room, where the Wii Sports and Wii Play consoles were set up.
I should take a moment here, after discussing Zelda and ET, to talk about the graphics. There's been a lot of debate on the power of the Wii, and the sensibility of Nintendo in releasing a console with no high-def support or awesome-processing-powah like the PS3/X360. I'm definitely not starting a debate here, so I'll say one thing. While the graphics on these two games - and they're the games which are the most traditional in terms of using polygons and shaders and whatnot - were not up to the standards of the X360 i was playing earlier in the day, they were certainly passable and functional. A little jaggy close up, perhaps, but not without an abundance of pretty shiny surfaces and lighting.
So, on to the Wii Sports games. First up was bowling. Playing against a rather pasty-faced fellow (who I assumed was on loan from the hallowed halls of Aussie-Nintendo), I quickly found my groove, and got the hang of putting spin on the balls. Several strikes followed, and I walked away victorious. Bowling is singularly easy to play. Aim the ball where you want using the D-Pad, hold B, swing back, swing forward, and release B. And that's it. Fun, too.
Tennis was next up. A best of 3, I found myself playing against a rather dashingly handsome fellow, muscle-bound and tanned... he seemed rather out of place. Now, I've never been particularly good at tennis in real life, and I think it may have shown in-game. I had a bad habit of twisting the Wiimote at just the wrong time, sending the ball straight out without any hope. So, after a few brief sorties - without so much as a momentary comeback from me - the game was decided. A little dejected at my lack of skill, I moved up to play the Wii Play games.
Duck Hunt - sorry, Shooting Gallery - was some great two-player fun, though I did sometimes find myself getting confused as to whose cursor was whose. I probably should've been paying more attention though, instead of talking to the Nintendo girl who I was playing against. Duck Hunt was enjoyable to say the least, though I lost out by a few points. The only other Wii Play game on offer was Laser Hockey, a reimagining of Pong, except with Wiimotes. It was actually a little hard to master. Tilting the controller tilted the paddle in-game, and was certainly hard to get used to.
The only other game on offer was Warioware. This, I admit, was what I'd been waiting for. The best use of the Wiimote there, it was incredibly fun. I must've played it about 3 or 4 times. Before each mini-game (hula, push the man over, pop the balloon, put in the false teeth, drive the car, lift the dumbell, don't drop the broom, hammer the nail... you name it) started, a note would come up telling which way to hold the Wiimote. There was a whole ~30 or so different stances possible, so I'm sure there's going to be a LOT of fun to be had with the retail version.
And, that's pretty much it. No more games to play and it was just on 11PM, closing time. I trudged back to my car with a happy heart.
PS. Because I'm a happy soul, I'll leave you with some pictures of a Wii demo kiosk in Japan:
So, I dropped down to Myer and pre-ordered myself a Wii yesterday. $600 worth of vouchers (though I probably won't use any of them, other than the game and controller ones) and a free copy of GT Pro Series II, also known as GT Wii. It seems like a pretty generic racing game, and from the gameplay videos the car collision physics leave a little to be desired. However, the main drawing point for me of GT Wii is Ubisoft's 'steering wheel' shell for the Wiimote - designed by Thrustmaster, of countless PC joysticks fame - which I'm sure you've all seen before:
The Wii's steering wheel attachment
[ Click here to read more ]
OK, here's my attempt at a list of the current state of Australian Wii preorders. If you know more than I do, or have another store to add to the list, leave a comment or drop me an email. I'd be more than happy to credit your contributions...
Myer
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Engadget recently posted up a heap of Wii retail packaging and accessories packaging, that's apparently destined for US Target stores:
[ Click here to read more ]
DSFanboy report on a homebrew DS browser in development. Now, I'm pretty sure everyone knows about the Opera DS browser. Simple - buy the browser, plug it in, surf the net. 'Homebrew' software for the DS isn't a topic I've covered so far, and it's a little more complicated than plug-and-play, most of the time. The majority of homebrew software runs from a device plugged into the GBA slot of the DS - the equivalent of a USB flash drive plugged into a computer. 'Homebrew' applications - that is, independently-made games, software, et cetera - can be transferred from PC to the device (the device's memory is usually comprised of a CompactFlash or SD card) and then run on the DS itself as if it were code running from a DS cartridge. Apart from the obviously illegal copied-game scenarios, there is a lot of software that has been created for the DS that increases its functinonality. MoonShell and DSOrganize are two of the main players in the homebrew market. DSOrganize basically converts your DS into a touch-screen-capable PDA, with a calendar, music player, file browser, scribble pad... the lot. Moonshell is a music and video player that uses the touch-screen for playback control. I invested in a Supercard (a common format of homebrew device) some time ago, and it's been well worth the purchase price - most of which is taken up by the cost of an SD card. So yes, hopefully the homebrew community will continue to thrive around the DS, including this hopefully-capable, hopefully-realised homebrew DS browser.
And THIS is Legend of Zelda being played by a string quartet. God, does life get any better
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September 26th 2006 23:33
Yeah, it's been a while, but's been relatively quiet from Nintendo recently - at least in comparison to the furore surrounding the Wii's launch...
The best pricing deal on DSes - black and white - seems to be at Target at the moment, at $179. Though if they're out of stock of the black, it's highly likely a JB HiFi in the area will pricematch or possibly even beat others' prices - I know that I got my DS for ~$20 less than Myer were selling them for, simply because I talked to the guy and was friendly The Futuretronics 15-in-1 pack is now relatively cheap, $39 at all Myers. This pack has some good and some pointless things. The screen protectors are an absolute boon and really do a good job of protecting the screen from unintended scratches and dust, as well as feeling better to stab (there's more material to push against, rather than straight onto the DS's thin screen). The game cases and the headphones are rather gimmicky though, but some people might use them, if only for the headphones' iPod-esque fashonista looks
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Comment by Campbell
on P-Plater Deaths: Are the laws to blame?
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Curfews, passenger limits, and even vehicle restrictions (in my opinion) are not the solution.