Archive for the ‘Gaming’ Category:
The Top-Selling Nintendo Wii Games of the Year
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So we’ve seen the old out and are busy welcoming the new in; it’s time to take stock, to draw up the lists of who topped what charts for us last year. If you are a fan of Nintendo Wii games, the third most popular videogame sector out there, here’s a chart you might appreciate. Wii Play is a blockbuster by any standard, having sold in excess of two million pieces this year. It couldn’t be as great as it was the previous year, which was about 50% northward of that figure, but it still is showing remarkably lasting appeal. Its popularity is helped along some would say, probably by the free inclusion of an extra Wii controller. The Wii Sports Resort title , like the first Wii Sports, does best with tightly-packed tiny games; with the Motion Plus peripheral attachments, of course, the game had to sell in excess of 2 million.
The Wii Fit is a reason why parents around the world make an exception for this game console, over something like the PS3. The Wii Fit has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide in the two years it has been around. The concept is pretty impressive in its ability to get people actually exercising. How much fun it is to exercise in front of your screen, and watch the character within do exactly as you do, and often instruct you on the your technique? This certainly is one of the best concepts of all Nintendo Wii games around; for an idea that was widely ridiculed when it first came out, they certainly are doing well.
The old Nintendo mainstay, Mario Brothers has made it over to the Wii too, of course – this time, with multiplayer functionality. There are more than one million copies sold of this avatar of Mario; it surpassed all other Wii games to become the best-seller among all other Nintendo Wii games within two weeks of its release. For a game character that is 24 years old, this is quite impressive. The Mario Kart title on the Wii hasn’t let the Mario franchise down. It’s actually sold more than 2 million copies, and it sells for just as much today in retail as it did when it was first released nearly 2 years ago. Now that is saying something.
The Rock Band series for the Wii hits just the right note for the holidays. It has different genres for different tastes; the Lego Rock Band title is for little children, with visuals inspired by the building block classic, the Beatles Rock Band title is for admirers of the Fab four, and focuses exclusively on their hits, and the standard Rock Band 2 is for all headbanging enthusiasts. There is so much that can be done with a game console that allows for natural movement. The Wii is now the top-selling console in the world, ahead of the Xbox or the PS 3, and certainly is Nintendo’s best-selling idea. These Nintendo Wii games have carried the torch for motion sensing console so far; next year can only be better.
 | US $5,000.00 End Date: Friday Mar-19-2010 10:50:56 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $5,000.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $5,000.00 End Date: Sunday Mar-28-2010 11:04:37 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $5,000.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $5,000.00 End Date: Sunday Mar-28-2010 11:40:58 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $5,000.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $5,000.00 End Date: Monday Mar-29-2010 21:10:46 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $5,000.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Pink DS Lite
When the DS Lite first made its debut in the U.S., the only available color was the generic Polar White. This had some gamers grumbling, seeing as when the DS Lite was released into the market in Japan it came in the additional options of Ice Blue and Enamel Navy. Since then, the color scheme has expanded and customers are able to choose models that better suit them.
One of the new colors is Coral Pink. A Coral Pink DS Lite is really just a pink DS Lite rather than coral colored. It’s never been said outright, but it’s pretty obvious that the purpose of the pink DS Lite is to attract female gamers. When you see the DS Lite on TV, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll see commercials with guys crowded around a pink DS Lite and having a blast. It’s more likely to be girls and games like Nintendogs and Cooking Mama.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a pink DS Lite—definitely there are girls and yes, some guys that it will appeal to and it’s just a matter of preference. However, it’s kind of eye-rolling when companies insinuate that all girls will gravitate to “girly” colors and games. Some girls will play Nintendogs on a pink DS Lite, and other girls might play The Legend of Zelda on a black one. Or some girls might play The Legend of Zelda on a pink DS Lite and vice versa. And some guys might play Nintendogs on a black DS Lite, and…you get the idea. The point is that gaming, like many other things in life, isn’t a dichotomy and again like many other things in life, it gets dichotomized.
It’s not that Nintendo should stop marketing the pink DS Lite to girls—it’s that they should market it to everyone. Because as things are now, God forbid you should see a guy going near anything pink. Granted, such stigma has considerably decreased in recent times but it’s still there. A guy being able to wear a pink shirt might pass as metrosexual manliness but it wouldn’t fly as well if he was surrounded by pink and sparkles and domestic activities. In fact, a guy wearing a pink shirt possibly enforces gender dichotomy even more as if to say, a guy is and should be so masculine that even when he wears a pink shirt he maintains that masculinity.
Overanalyzing a piece of machinery? Maybe, but you can’t deny that media is pervasive and its influence goes undetected. In the meantime, the pink DS Lite is available at a store near you or online for discreet purchase.
 | US $299.99 End Date: Monday Mar-15-2010 6:23:28 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $299.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $240.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Saturday Mar-13-2010 19:17:11 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
 | US $209.99 End Date: Saturday Mar-27-2010 22:09:47 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $209.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $209.95 End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 20:14:05 PST Buy It Now for only: US $209.95 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Gameboy Micro Games
First there was Gameboy. Then there was Gameboy Pocket. Then there was Gameboy Color. Then there was Gameboy Advance, which advanced even further with the GameBoy Advance SP and with its final incarnation, the Gameboy Micro. The Gameboy Micro is the smallest version of the Game Boy yet with a length of 4 inches, a width of 2 inches, and a thickness of 0.7 inches. It’s almost like a bar style cell phone. What’s special about the Game Boy Micro, other than its tiny size, is the new backlit screen that improves the graphics of play. The screen is much sharper and adjustable according to preference. The faceplate is also removable and customizable if you want your Game Boy Mircro unit to come in a unique color or a funky design.
However, a major drawback is that it lacks backwards compatibility. The Gameboy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP were able to play old Gameboy and Gameboy Color games, but Gameboy Micro games only consist of the standard Gameboy Advance games. The Gameboy Micro can also use GameBoy Advance Video Paks but these are for watching TV shows and movies rather than gameplay. Incompatibility also extends to Gameboy Advance accessories like chargers, cables, cameras and printers. Inevitably, buying new accessories is a part of buying a new system.
So you might have to buy some more games to play on your Gameboy Micro now that you can’t play any of your old Gameboy games. If you had mostly Game Boy Advance game in your collection anyway, this isn’t too big of a deal. But Nintendo has always been known for the preservation of old titles, so chances are that you were still holding onto them and unfortunately none of them are going to make it into your collection of Gameboy Micro games.
One way to save money is to buy multicart games, which is like having up to a little over a hundred Gameboy Micro games in one, coming with Advance games as well as NES titles. These are more popular internationally, so you can’t find them in the US but you can find a selection online. Considering that buying some Gameboy Micro games would be an average of $30 per game, $70 for 3 Game Boy Advance games and 113 NES games is a killer deal that makes up for the other extra money spent on accommodating your new system.
 | US $249.99 End Date: Tuesday Mar-16-2010 19:34:59 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $249.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $175.00 End Date: Tuesday Mar-30-2010 17:59:59 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $175.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $175.00 End Date: Tuesday Mar-30-2010 18:34:59 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $175.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $152.49 (13 Bids) End Date: Sunday Mar-14-2010 19:06:07 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
