Filed under: It’s-a Mario World

As both game character and flagship intellectual property, Mario has long been the focal point of Nintendo’s efforts. Thanks in no small part to creative genius Shiggy Miyamoto, Mario’s adventures have ushered in some of the most pivotal games in the history of electronic entertainment. His moves have established and defined the entire platforming genre, and he almost single-handedly paved the way from 2D to 3D action-adventure games.

To put these landmark achievements into perspective, consider the Wii: This week marks the second birthday of Nintendo’s current money-printing console. To what extent has Mario enriched the platform in the two years it has been sold out available? The increasingly casual (and characteristically generic) orientation of popular first-party titles like Wii Sports and Wii Fit have stolen some of the Nintendo spotlight from under the ’stach of our able plumber, and the marketing appeal of the Wii Remote has powerfully overshadowed the age-old run and jump control mechanic. Does Mario still sell games? Good god, yes. But how much have his games determined the success of the Wii? In this week’s gallery, we examine the significance of Mario’s Wii appearances to date. Enjoy!

It’s-a Mario World is a weekly feature in which the ubiquity of Nintendo’s flagship character is celebrated: We’ll incessantly ruminate about mustache wax, debate the curious whereabouts of the princess and covet the luminous power stars strewn about the galaxy. Check back here every Friday to find out what strange and wonderful thing has got us tipping our caps.

It’s-a Mario World: Two Years on Wii originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Wii Warm Up

Last night, we saw the extremely brief return of the Club Nintendo Super Famicom Classic Controller, which popped up for sale at $70 and promptly disappeared. It’s pretty desirable for something with the exact same button layout as the stock Classic, and no analog sticks.

Don’t take this as a slight, since we adore old systems –this is merely a conversation topic. Is there something about the Super Famicom/SNES controller, or any other pre-N64 controller (we understand that the N64 controller has a unique form factor and button layout), that makes it inherently superior to the Classic in non-nostalgia-related ways? We miss the turbo switches from the TurboPad, but Hori’s finally got a solution for that.

Wii Warm Up: Even more classic originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Fan stuff, Sales

We love a lot of GameCube games. In fact, when Play on Wii was announced, it felt like a dream come true. See, we imagine many GameCube games being retooled for Wii. Now, we’re glad its actually happening for some of those games.

But, not all titles are destined to get that touch of Wii magic. And, what if you never had a chance to try some of them? Well, unless you’ve got a suitcase buried in the back yard, there are a few titles that might be a bit out of reach, according to the list over at Video Game Price Charts.

Of all of them, which would you say is the “must own” title?

[Via digg]

Surprisingly rare and expensive GameCube games originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: News

If you’ve got multiple EA Sports All-Play games, you may have noticed a commonality among the boxarts beyond the normally consistent design scheme: the cover athletes are all grinning. Well, except for this guy. It’s not just because they’ve been paid several thousand dollars to have their photograph taken — the smiles were a corporate mandate, from the mind of Peter Moore!

Moore believed that a smiling athlete on the cover “embodies the experience” of All-Play. He explained to MTV Multiplayer’s Tracey John: “If you played Madden on the Wii and you’re playing with guys with the heads the size of five watermelons, it’s hard not to smile. We wanted to be able to deliver that experience on the packaging.”

Does that mean that playing an EA Sports game on another console is a grueling trial?

Smile! You’re on EA Sports All-Play originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: News, Imports, WiiWare

Warning: you are now entering a Wii Fanboy nostalgia zone; if we get wrapped up in jabbering about our wholesome childhoods over the next 200 words, you’ve been warned. The cause of this trip down memory lane? The announcement that Tomy would be bringing a Pop-Up Pirate game to WiiWare. Yay!

Pop-Up Pirate Wii will emulate the pop-ular children’s board/party game, in which players would hold their breath (that bit is optional, but helps) while inserting plastic swords into a plastic barrel containing a pirate. If you chose the wrong slot, the pirate would spring out, startling everybody. As dull as it sounds now we’ve written it down, it was all the rage back in the ’80s, before those damn computer videogame whatchoomacallits came along and ruined everything.

Like other board games of our childhood that relied on a steady hand (such as Buckaroo and Operation), we’re not yet certain that a videogame version will capture the same ridiculous levels of tension, but still, three cheers for Tomy for at least trying! The chunky, colorful visuals are a great start, in our opinion.

Also on Nintendo of Japan’s WiiWare page: Simple Series Vol. 2 The Number Puzzle Neo. If ever a series was designed especially for WiiWare, the cheap-but-cheerful Simple series would be it. Both of these will launch next Tuesday in Japan for 500 Wii Points each.

[Via Siliconera]

Beloved toy of our youths coming to WiiWare originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Imports, Controller

Update: Wow, that was fast. The controller is sold out. Uh, people must have way more money than we do. Send us one, plz?

If you’re looking for more of an authentic experience when playing those Virtual Console games, then know that Play Asia is now allowing folks to order the Super Famicom Classic Controller. Of course, if you want that authentic experience, you’re going to have to pay for it. The controller is going for a whopping $70 at the site. Frankly, we’d advise tracking down a SNES controller and doing one of those wireless hacks to the thing. It’s got to cost a lot less than seventy freakin’ dollars.

[Thanks, MoFro!]

Super Famicom Classic Controller available at Play Asia [update] originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: News

The NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) recently decided to put all of this generation’s consoles through their paces and see which console reigns supreme in the eco-friendly department. As we’ve heard in the past, the Wii has pretty much dominated all of the competition in each field of study. When looking at power consumption, the Wii only uses 16 watts, compared to the 119 watts of the Xbox 360 and 150 watts of the PS3.

The full NRDC study can be seen here. Warning: it’s pretty much all in pdf format.

See also: Nintendo vs. Greenpeace

[Via Examiner]

NRDC: Wii is greenest console of them all originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: News, Fan stuff, Imports

To promote the release of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes, Capcom is offering an exclusive Tatsunoko vs. Capcom 2009 calendar to retailers. The calendar will feature original artwork on each two-month page, as well as a Shinkiro cover that varies by store. The limited-edition calendars will be handed out with purchased copies of the game starting on the December 11 release date.

The Bic Camera/Sofmap version of the calendar features a group portrait, the Geo version features Ryu and Ken the Eagle, and the Imagine version’s cover features Doronjo and Morrigan. And the exclusive “JC” edition features these preview images printed out and stapled together with some calendar pages from Word.

[Via Famitsu]

Tatsunoko vs. Calendar: Store Promotion of Heroes originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: News

Yes, we posted about this before, but as the giant boulder that is the holiday season ominously thunders towards us, we may as well say it again: GameStop will probably have some major Wii shortages in the near future.

Chief financial officer David Carlson admitted in a conference call that the hardware “may be well out of stock by the holiday season,” echoing another executive’s recent claim that the ‘Stop’s inventory would be empty by the first week of December. He added that both Wii Fit and Guitar Hero: World Tour were “in very, very short supply” and “out of stock in many cases” respectively.

Obviously, plenty of other places sell Wiis, but if a major name like GameStop is running out of the things, you can bet they won’t be alone. Unless you want to end up like Johnny and Orlando up there, get your skates on.

GameStop repeats itself: Wii shortages likely originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: News

It’s not so hard to believe, really. People have been doing it for many years now, since the Tickle Me Elmo dolls became so popular, really. Folks did it the last two years with the Wii and now, with the news that Guitar Hero: World Tour’s full band kit bundle could be kind of scarce during the holidays, folks are taking advantage yet again.

“In order to assess continued demand for the title, we conducted proprietary channel checks both at major online retailers and at bricks-and-mortar retail locations across the country,” said analysts at Cowen and Company, adding: “resellers on Amazon.com are pricing the band kit at close to USD 300, well above the USD 189 list price.” Wow, that’s quite the significant increase. While not as severe as it is on Amazon, eBay users are also selling the full band kit at higher prices than it should.

Remember, holiday shoppers: get out there early and get out there often. If you’re trying to track down one of the full band kits for Guitar Hero: World Tour, then we’d suggest you get on a first name basis with the store managers in your area.

Resellers taking advantage of World Tour shortages originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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