New Zelda commercial with Robin Williams

This is actually a pretty good commercial.  Reminds me of the World of Warcraft commercials with Mr. T and others.  I hope more celebrities with geek cred will be chosen for future commercials.

Zero Punctuation: Nintendo 3DS

Yahtzee is back at it again, this time he targets Nintendo’s newest gimmick game console, the 3DS.

Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. When he isn't talking very fast into a headset mic he also designs freeware adventure games and has a novel coming out soon. His personal site is www.fullyramblomatic.com.

Nintendo Ad Sends Wrong Message

I have to say that I was creeped out a lot when I saw this Wii ad from Nintendo… And I have to give it to who ever created the motivation poster blurb below the ad, as I can’t agree more. This is just another example of the target demographic that Nintendo is after, and sadly that doesn’t include real most gamers.

By the way….. Where’s grandpa’s hand?

Way to go Nintendo!!!

[Gizmodo]

Super Mario Galaxy 2 Trailer

I’m not much of a Nintendo guy, but I have to at least include the newest Mario news. 

Update: For most of their press conference, it seemed Nintendo was content to just plus everything. Wii Fit Plus, Wii Motion Sensor Plus, Wii Sports Resort Plus, and New Super Mario Brothers Wii Plus (not necessarily their real titles) are just the same old things, each with a slight addition. Wii Fit is getting the workout routines it should have had in the first place. The Wiimote is getting a dongle add-on to give it the precise movement detection it should have had in the first place. Wii Sports is getting more games. The new 2D Mario is getting four-player co-op, which is just an extension of what it already has on the DS. I'd like to say I'm non-plussed, but I completely understand why Nintendo does this. They're simply cashing in on what works, much the same way the iterate the DS and people keep buying the plussed versions. You can hardly blame Nintendo.

There were several RPG announcements specifically for the Nintendo DS: Golden Sun DS, a Kingdom Hearts for the DS, and a North American release of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story in which the brothers adventure through the villainous turtles innards. Nintendo insisted the Wii can be hardcore by showing footage from the Wii exclusives Dead Space: Extraction, The Conduit, and Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles.

For the broader audiences, the DSi will be able to upload photos to Facebook. User-created downloadable content is coming to the DSi in Wario Ware: DIY, where you can make your own microgames, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again, where you can make your own Lemmings-style puzzle levels. Women's Murder Club, based on the best-selling mystery writer James Patterson's potboiler, features three female protagonists doing things like a mahjongg minigame. Style Savvy is a virtual boutique game for tween girls. Tween girls -- more specifically their parents' credit cards -- are getting a lot of love at E3 this year.

But the really exciting announcements were for Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M. Based on a trailer with lots of footage of various planets, Galaxy 2 looks like more of the nifty stuff from Galaxy 1. Galaxy Plus, if you will. But the new Metroid looks like a real departure. It's a third-person action game that seems to go deeper in the background of Metroid protagonist Samus Aran. And here's the kicker: the developer is Team Ninja, the folks who made the brutally hardcore Ninja Gaiden series.

[via Fidgit]

The True Cost of Gaming in 2009

I saw this article over at Gizmodo and thought it was pretty interesting.

With the price of Wii Motion Plus bringing the cost of a full Wiimote to a whopping $80, we thought we'd reexamine the true cost of buying a console today. Which is truly the cheapest?

We're going to pretend we're either a family of four or an apartment that wants a system loaded up with four controllers. We'll assume you want to be able to recharge your controllers rather than wasting money on disposable batteries, and we'll pick the model of each console that we'd recommend to a family member asking us for advice. We'll also factor in the cost of 2 games, because nobody buys a console without a game.

So what's the true cost of going out and buying a system today? Let's find out.

Playstation 3
Cost of console: $400 (80GB)
Cost of 3 extra controllers: $43 x 3 = $129
Cost of charging station: $25
Cost of 2 games: $120
Cost of HDMI cable: $3

Total: $677

Wii
Cost of console: $250
Cost of 3 extra controllers: $36 x 3 = $108
Cost of 3 Nunchuks: $18 x 3 = $54
Cost of 4 Wii Motion Pluses: $20 x 4 = $80
Cost of charging station w/ 4 rechargeable batteries: $49
Cost of 2 games: $100
SD card: $12 (8GB)

Total: $653

Xbox 360
Cost of console: $300 (60GB)
Cost of 3 extra controllers: $37 x 3 = $111
Cost of 2 rechargeable batteries: $12 x 2 = $24
Cost of recharging station w/ 2 rechargeable batteries: $30
Cost of 2 games: $120
Cost of Xbox Live membership: $43 (13 months)

Total: $628

As you can see, the prices of all three consoles are incredibly close, and you can obviously fiddle with these configurations to change them. If you only want 2 controllers and are planning to only play Wii Sports, the Wii is still the cheapest, but a fully-loaded Xbox 360 with a year of Live is actually cheaper than the fully-loaded Wii (although it's the only console without WiFi, so add $80 if you really need that). And the PS3 is surprisingly close in price, thanks to its controllers having built-in batteries and its free online service. The Nintendo controller scheme really rockets it up in price, and it's pretty amazing that a Wii with 4 controllers is only $24 less than a PS3 with 4 controllers.

So really, it comes down to what you want in a console. But it's surprising to see that, in real-world prices, all three systems will set you back about the same amount, with the Xbox 360 being the cheapest of them all even when you factor in a monthly fee for online gaming.

Nintendo, Profits better than EVER?!?!?!

Wow, I used to think the glory days of Nintendo were behind them; especially after how sales of the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube went. Apparently folks really want to flap their arms around and look silly because Nintendo has just had their best sales week EVER!! Check it out here. Thanks be to Wired.

Xbox 360 Out Sells Wii During September: World Wonders Why?

In the most shocking news this week, Xbox 360 out sold the Nintendo Wii for the month of September. The 360 moved 527,800 units compared to the Wii bringing in 501,000 for the month. Of course everyones favorite game console the PS3 took a slight dip during the month, only bringing in 119,800 for the month.

No word from Microsoft on why they think their console performed so well this past month, as I'm sure they're stumped too.

Halo 3 Propels Monthly Xbox Sales Above Wii For First [Seeking Alpha via Crunchgear]

Wii Closing In On Xbox 360 Sales

The Nintendo Wii is on the Xbox 360's ass, so far as sales is concerned. The is very impressive considering that the 360 had a year head star on the Wii.

According to VGChartz.com, a new video game comparison site put up a pretty cool comparison graphic (see above). The Xbox 360 comes in at 10.32 million consoles sold, followed by the Wii at 10.10 million, and the PS3 bringing up the rear at 4.11 million.

What I'm curious about is if the price drop of the Xbox 360 along with the release of Halo 3, will give the console a boost in sales that might widen the gap a little. I know that young and old people are buying the Wii, but the real gamers are buying the Xbox 360, and the lack of HD on the Wii cannot be overlooked. I know that most gamers don't care about HD, but to ignore it completely I think will be a mistake on Nintendo's part down the line.

Total world Wii sales close in on Xbox 360 [Reg Hardware via Crunchgear]

Nintendo's WiiWare: Make Games For Us

Nintendo is doing something that I hope that other console creators follow. For the first time game developers big and small will have an opportunity to create games for the Wii.

It isn't clear just how yet, but the ability will be there. And as always, developers will be responsible for securing an ESRB rating for their game.

Read the article after the jump. [Joystiq]

Rumor: Nintendo to Sell Video Games on iTunes for Use on iPhone

Here’s a tasty, if not completely unsourced rumor for the mid-afternoon doldrums. A story on NoHeat says that Nintendo is thinking of releasing some of its video games for the iPhone.

The games would cost $29.00, which is already more expensive than most of the games on the Virtual Console, and would be sold on the iTunes Store. The report brings up how hard it’d be to control the games using the iPhone’s controls. I bring up how stupid that idea sounds.

Read the article after the jump. [NoHeat]

Sony Needs to Drop PS3 Price By $200 or It’s Finished: Bank of America

Sony’s going to have to drop the PS3’s price by $200 this summer if it wants to be a player in this generation. That’s what a Bank of America analyst says, and who am I to argue with BoA? I like how the analyst calls a $50 price drop “meaningless.” Even the rumored $100 price drop wouldn’t do the trick.

The main thorn in Sony's side? If you guessed the Wii......ding!! ding!!! ding!!!!

Game publishers are seen as moving toward the Wii. Oh, and the PS3 has nearly no exclusives anymore, so consumers see little reason to shell out $600 dollars for what they could get elsewhere.

If the PS3 was at the same price point of the Xbox 360, things might be a little different for Sony. Hell I might have bought one!!! I remember what Sony said when asked about their high price point during the launch of the PS3: 'Work harder for a PS3'.

Arrogance will bite you in the ass every time!!!

Read the entire article after the jump. [GamesIndustry.biz]

The Wii is really just a GameCube 1.5

We all know that the Wii is the least powerful of the 'next gen' games systems. But Microsoft's Robbie Bach tears it a new one, by calling it a glorified 'GameCube'.

Says Bach:
"…the video graphics on it aren’t very strong; the box itself is kind of underpowered; it doesn’t play DVDs; there are a lot of down-line components [that] aren’t actually that interesting. … They don’t have the graphics horsepower that even Xbox 1 had. So it makes sort of the comparison set a little bit difficult.”

Wow!!!! That's kinda harsh.
But he may have a point!

Newsweek’s Level Up went to technical experts to discover if what Bach was saying is true. In a nutshell, the Wii essentially is a GameCube with a new controller and improved memory clock speed.

Read the 'Level Up' article for a really, in-depth look at the guts of the Wii after the jump.

Nintendo = Paid!!!!

I know that somebody at Nintendo is getting a raise!!!

Nintendo reported a profit of 77% over last years numbers, due to strong sales from the Wii and the DS. The Wii sold 5.84 million units and is projected to sell 14 million consoles, along with 55 million games next year.

Now that's getting it done!!!

Not bad for the company that everyone thought was dead.

Read the rest after the jump.