The Who to Have Super Bowl S-Mashup in the Rock Band Music Store

Well folks, it's Super Bowl Sunday, and while I normally don't follow sports, this story flows over well enough into video games that I felt it was relevant.

As we all should know, The Who is preforming live at the Super Bowl Halftime show this year. Harmonix is getting in on the deal by releasing a specially recorded version of the performance The Who plan to play, and they're releasing it directly after the Super Bowl!

They have announced on the official forums that it will be available for 160 MS Points on the Xbox 360, and $1.99 on the Wii... The PS3 version is said to be "coming soon" which I'm guessing is going to be the standard Thursday update for PSN.

This is rather surprising that they're releasing it on Sunday. Besides the 20 free DLC songs, which didn't really have a definitive release date, this is a first for Harmonix, and it'll be interesting to see if they do any more of this kind of thing in the future.

Nyko offers a better Wiimote

1Up provides an interesting article on Nyko's Wiimote knock off, which undercuts the Nintendo Wiimote enough to get Nintendo's attention in the future.

Nyko will offer the featured Wiimote by March, for about the same price of $40 as Nintendo's Wiimote. The surprising part, is that Nyko's Wiimote will have Motion Plus built in.

Wii Motion Plus is an additional $20 for EACH Wiimote, in itself another source of income for Nintendo. The fact that Nyko does not sell this Motion Plus integrated Wiimote for $60 might pressure Nintendo, especially since Nintendo Wii is slowly becoming a "party console" in the gamers mind as opposed to the primary console of use.

Which means no owner of a Nintendo Wii will be satisfied with just one Wiimote (no console is ever satisfactory with one controller), and Motion Plus is going to become necessary for most games in the future. Unless you prefer to be unable to do certain moves and pretend developers won't be pressured by Nintendo to use this feature.

The fact that Nyko flaunts Wii Motion Plus integrated, and with no additional cost will undermine Nintendo's Wiimote. So Nintendo will be forced to either try to prevent the release of Nyko's product or be forced to price the bundled Wiimote with Motion Plus for the current price of the Wiimote alone.

All that being said, wait till March if you desire another Wiimote. It will save you money, and save you from having a slightly larger plastic stick.

TGS 09: Wii Price Drop confirmed and New Super Mario Bros. Wii gets a date

This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone whose been following the leaked retail ads around the web but the Wii price drop is now official. Starting this Sunday, September 27th the Wii will cost you 199.99 in stores. It makes total sense and one can only hope that this means Wii HD isn't that far way. Dare I put my foot down and say an announcement in 2010 with a 2011 release? Who knows but just thought I'd let you know incase you were finally thinking about getting a Wii this holiday.

Lets not forget though that the New Super Mario Brothers Wii is also coming soon. November 15th is the date so mark your calendars and get ready to once again enter the mushroom kingdom.

*New* Super Mario Wii coming this year

It's a nice!

Get ready this November for the New Super Mario Brothers, the first game I played on my Nintendo DS was pretty awesome. It's a welcomed addition to the Nintendo Wii library i'm sure, and having a 4 player gameplay option will certainly make this an enjoyable party game. I mean really, WHO DOESN'T KNOW WHO MARIO IS!

I find this interesting in the article:

If Nintendo stays true to their track record of releasing their main titles in November, then we can expect to see this game likely release on or around November 15th. -Matt Furtado

That's quite a claim to make that i'm sure most people could agree with, especially since it is around my birthday. If Nintendo made a bundle with their console and this game, I'd be very tempted to get it.

Wii Shure Shot Rifle

The Magnavox Odyssey gun still looks better from years ago, this is a nicely designed Wii accessory but they really should have colored it instead of staying Wii White. XD

No More Heroes coming to Xbox?

Desperate Struggle to be finale for Wii

The Developer CEO of No More Heroes has signaled it's departure from the Nintendo Wii and has expressed interest in going beyond the limits of the Wiimote to the Xbox and Natal.

Natal has been a controversy for the revolution in motion controller technology it could represent but also for how it could lose its appeal quick, and be a big flop for the Xbox 360. So it doesn't hurt when a franchise exclusive to the Wii will stand behind the technology. You can't blame the open window Natal appears to offer for the motion driven gameplay in the No More Heroes series.

If they are moving away from being an exclusive Wii title to go to Xbox, I bet Grasshopper wouldn't look towards the PS3 with the complexity issues for developing with the PS3 and its motion controller being as limited as the Wiimote.

So Natal has another positive on it's side in that it is attracting developers, and if Grasshopper decides to go, Xbox users get an exclusive title from the franchise.

We'll see what they decide. I for one don't show much interest in the game...yet. Lets hope moving to the 360 gives it a chance to change it's look a little, the graphics don't appeal to me much.

Wii Price Drop?

LINK

"Wii supply has finally exceeded demand, so we expect hardware sales to show year-over-year decreases for the first half of 2009," predicts Pachter, continuing, "In order to hit its full-year Wii shipment forecast, we expect Nintendo to cut the price of the Wii before [the] holiday, likely to $199.99." -Michael Pachter

Smart move in my opinion. But it's too late for me. This year at E3 I learned the differences between the systems, and even though I want a PS3 like I never did before, it's different with Nintendo. Nintendo showed some good games, but i'm starting to notice how when they announced the new Dead Space game I was envious, then realized most games have to be butchered to get on the Wii. And I realize, Nintendo doesn't allow alot of creativity with their 1999 graphics and soon-to-be obsolete motion technology. I'm done with Nintendo, I'm even junking my DS on ebay because of the gameplay being short lived. 

Also, Sony and Microsoft have alot more to offer. Nintendo is really becoming the console for little kids, and as much as I love my NES. They aren't what they used to be. 

A mistake Nintendo must avoid

Link

Nintendo simply says they are unconcerned with the competition in motion technology from Sony and Microsoft. This may cause them problems. 

It's one thing for them to wave off challenges to their gaming empire, but it's another thing to act as though they arrived in the technology first. Sony, and to a larger extent Microsoft, are catching up in motion technology. Despite being a bit of a fanboy, Microsoft really has the world abuzz about Natal. Simply because you need nothing to use it, Rob's post about it being on Jummy Fallon adds to the hype.

Nintendo should worry about their technology such as Wii Fit and the Wiimote since Microsoft is especially aiming to make "physical" motion peripherals a thing of the past. Nintendo would like to avoid looking like it follows the crowd, it's avoided following the crowd for a very long time. But it just might have to if they want the Wii to succeed.

Currently the Wii balanced itself at E3 by offering long awaited sequels to their Famous titles and extended game libraries like Dead Space. But at the same time they were overshadowed by Sonys more recognized, polished, artistic, and awaited sequels and new projects. Nintendo has a casual gaming style, which can't fight Sony.

And Natal from Microsoft beat their Wiimotes into novelties from the views of gamers. Lets hope Nintendo does not sit and proudly name off their past achievements, and decides to play ball with what the other two have to offer.

E3 2009: 'Scratch: The Ultimate DJ' Impressions

So, after Ed said just how horrible DJ Hero looks, I'd like to bring up another DJ simulator game that will be coming out soon that was also shown at E3, entitled "Scratch: The Ultimate DJ".

Unlike how DJ Hero is loosely based off of the Guitar Hero name, and has the same sort of structure as it, Scratch is a totally unique IP, and looks like the method of control is a lot smoother. I have to admite, though, that when I first saw their turntable controller I was a bit underwhelmed. However, since then, I got to see a gameplay demo, and all of that changed!

This game looks to not only have a smooth flowing control layout, but also a lot of originality in mixing and re-mixing the tracks. You have five different buttons on the controller, which are used much like guitar hero at first, to simply follow the song's beats. but there's a certain amount of originality at some points, where you can use the buttons to make different sort of sound effects. You also have a fader switch, and a record wheel. You can control the intensity, the speed, or the craziness of all of these effects using the record part of the controller, pretty much doing actual re-mixing, simply, and easily.

The game is looking great, not to mention the amazing tracklist that they've announced so far. Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Mixmaster Mike, Gorillaz, 2Pac, and tons more.

I kind of feel like this game is taking a different approach than DJ Hero, and a much more exciting and creative one, and it'll definitely be on my radar in the months leading up to it's release. Scratch: The Ultimate DJ is due out September 30, 2009 for Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii.

E3 2009: Ed's Thoughts on Day 2

Reuploaded due to technical issues, Ed's thoughts on Sony and Nintendo.

Biggest Flop at E3: Wii Vitality Sensor

When Nintendo brought out the Wii Vitality Sensor, I recognized it in an instant because I had one on my finger during a trip to the hospital. And I thought to myself, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. In the bad way. 

What the heck was the President of Nintendo thinking?! If this device sells even one of these i'll be surprised. But lets consider an honest possibility. Perhaps they will make games where they try to scare you enough to make your blood pressure go over a limit and you lose. Or maybe they'll make future shooters where your heartbeat will be heard by nearby enemies the more your real heartbeat gets higher. That would be cool and demonstrate a new way to control the Zen of gaming. 

But none of this will work because I gotta wonder if people could play any games with the vitality sensor on one of your hands. No, the answer is no. So all they have is casual games focused on the ability of the vitality sensor to sense your heartbeat. Seriously, who cares about their heartbeat when they're going to raise their blood pressure playing video games. Could people with high blood pressure benefit from this? No, if they want to play games anytime during the month. 

So what is the point of the Vitality Sensor, theres no fun game for it. It's data, and god know's people hate looking at graphs during the Nintendo Conference. If anything the only good use it has the vitality sensor will tell you when your sooo bored of your Nintendo Wii; so basically this peripheral is basically a hardcore gamer test. When you see your heartbeat is flatlined when wearing that thing, you know its a sign the Wii has lost everything, especially with Microsoft topping its Wiimote with Natal.