When I was just a little man, Nerf weapons were the coolest toy you could have. I don’t remember ever having a motorized Nerf cannon, but it appears the kids these days aren’t as forgiving.
Hasbro have shown off a new range of Nerf tools of child warfare, including a Wii accessory and the Vulcan EBF-25. The Vulcan doesn’t fire 200 bullets a second, but it can fire 25 darts without reloading, and even comes on a handy tripod for extra accuracy.
It will be available before christmas (of course) for the price of $US40. It does require batteries (6 x D) , but you can bet your life they aren’t included.
For more info, click over to Crave.
If the almighty had played the Wii (as Nintendo would surely like him to do), then his (or hers) Wiimote would be the new Darwin remote. The Motus controller is a Wiimote gone wild, with gyroscopes and accelerometers too make this guy more accurate then the Wii’s infra-red tracker.
At first glance it doesn’t look like much, but will give you the ability to do more, and will also be compatible with the PS3 and your desktop computer. You do pay a premium for the advances, with an estimated street value of $US79 to $US99. Remember, there is no guarantee that it will run with your Wii games.
For more info, click over to DVICE.
Been waiting off on buying a Wii until hackers could exploit it enough to not use a modchip? Your time has now arrived, with some genius’s working out how to crash Zelda and then hack into the system to run exploit code. What’s next? Maybe Linux Wii Edition?
For more info, click over to Engadget.
For the poor people out there who can’t get a Wii, I would like to show you these numbers. Amazon, one of the biggest online retailers in the world, on December the 10th was selling 62.5 items per second. Now compare that to the fact that when Amazon had the Wii in stock it was being shifted at 17 items per second. Lastly, ask yourself why Nintendo haven’t really dropped the price on the Wii yet?
For more info, click over to the Gamasutra Website. Thank you Kotaku for the picture.
Imagine that, a company that actually wants to sell less products. Nintendo have decided to cancel some ads in the U.K, instead filling the spots with DS ads (like that needs help to sell). It has come up after the massive demand for the Wii this Christmas and the inability to meet it in production. Nintendo said they want to “take a responsible stance this Christmas and not fuel demand.” There may be a Wii left on the shelf this Christmas after all (sorry I was being sarcastic).
Check out Engadget for the full article.
Who wants to download brand new full version games, without having to use a PC or wait for Phantom Entertainment to make a comeback? That is where WiiWare comes in, which is basically full game downloads to your Nintendo Wii. Earlier I talked about the games that were coming to it and a bit of info on the system, but now Nintendo has released a few other snip bits that should quench your fanboy thirst.
Each game will have a size limit of 40MB, which will fill its 512 MB of storage pretty damn fast (unless they let you use either a USB HDD or an SD card). Apparently, the devs will release a maximum of 1 game a month, with a max budget of $US100,000. Seems to be a lot like Xbox Arcade and less like a cool new full featured game download service. Guess we will have to wait for the rain of game reviews before we can make any judgement.
For more info, dance over to the Kotaku Blog.
It seems that Nintendo may be getting in trouble with the MP3 playback feature on the Wii. In the upcoming update to the Photo Channel, Nintendo will take away MP3 playback and replaced with it with AAC playback. Apparently there is a licensing fee to off the playback of MP3 files, and that fee is more then the AAC codec. Its funny that Microsoft and Sony are about to add a great amount of useful features to their consoles as Nintendo is taking away.
For more info, click over to the Engadget Blog.
It is apparently a real thing coming to a system which, besides its awesome console sales, is very lacking in the game area. An announcement today at the Nintendo Fall press conference, has given all the children (and adults who won’t admit to it) a great piece of news with Pokemon making an appearance on the Nintendo Wii gaming console. The game will be distributed via the upcoming Wii Ware Service, which is a way to buy games online direct from Nintendo. The game could be titled either Pokemon Farm or Pokemon Ranch, but will give people the ability to grab their Pokemon off their DS system (only Pokemon Pearl and Diamond) and do things with them on their Wii console (not sure not exactly, but it will be fun and/or evil).
Also launching on the Wii Ware service will be games such as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Little King and the Promised Land (can you say longest title ever), Dr. Mario, Mojipittan, Joysound, Bomberman, and Star Soldier R. Each title is expected to set you back around 1,500 Wii points, equating to around $US15, which considering they are around $US60 in store, will be a fantastic deal (depending on the games quality of course). The Japanese launch is set for March, with no announcement for the rest of the world.
For more info, click over to the Kotaku Blog, and the Wired Website.
Rumour has it that those insane Wii hackers have gotten around that incredible security that Nintendo had placed on the D2C series of Wii. Actel have even made a Modchip that gives you the ability to play GameCube games, Wii backups and may even be compatible with the WiiKey.
Currently the Modchip is compatible with around 80% of region protected games, without any problems, but there is an issue. The issue is, that this install isn’t for the light hearted, with micro-soldering of 30 wires to the Wii system board, meaning things are going to be messy (imagine dismantling a bomb, but with more then lives at stake).
The chip will be available very soon and will sell for a price of $US53.
For more info, swim over to the QJ.Net Wii Site.
We all knew it was going to happen soon enough, but what exactly is going to change? Well rumor has it that it is simply a smaller drive size of 40GB instead of the better 80GB. Another rumor says that this could be the model to compete with Xbox 360 and the Wii, aimed at the lower price and may even do away with the Blu-ray. I don’t see this as a reality. Consider the price drops of HDDs that constantly happen, and consider the fact that Sony loves their Blu-ray. There is definitely a new model coming and I will give you an update when I get a rumor that makes sense.
For more rumors, criss cross over to the The Register Website.