2D BOY made around $100,000 in a week. That’s $50,000 each for writing a blog post about a game they finished a year ago. By letting people pay whatever they wanted. 2D Boy stirred up a lot of discussion (previously) about game piracy when they used online scoreboard data to estimate an 82% piracy rate for their fantastic indie game World of Goo (previously). For World of Goo's first birthday, they decided to try the Radiohead model and let people buy the game for any price they choose. Now they've released extensive data about the results. Short version? "A huge success," even though the most commonly chosen price was only a penny. [more inside]
posted by straight on Oct 20, 2009 - 64 comments

Epic Mickey: a dystopian, steampunk version of the Disney world and characters we all know and love (we love them, right?) from Junction Point Studios. [more inside]
posted by pixlboi on Jul 30, 2009 - 51 comments

At this year's E3, Shigeru Miyamoto told Kotaku (video interview included) and USA Today that the "Kind Code" patent (noticed back in January 2009, and well summarized on Kotaku) will be implemented in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The tentatively named "Demo Mode" was discussed by developers and received early approval from a teacher. With this new, slightly more solid information, feelings are mixed. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Jun 19, 2009 - 59 comments

DrumChuk: "A customizable Ruby-based MIDI drum controller for the Wii remote and nunchuk on OS X." The code, and more about the project, can be found at github.
posted by ocherdraco on Jun 17, 2009 - 8 comments

Wait, what are they talking about? Childish fun with edits and unnecessary censorship at Nintendo's 2009 E3 Media Briefing [SLYT].
posted by Servo5678 on Jun 8, 2009 - 10 comments

Drive a race car, beat someone up, and try on a dress - all from your living room and without any controllers. Microsoft's new "Natal". [video] [more inside]
posted by Defenestrator on Jun 4, 2009 - 84 comments

Muscle March is a game coming out on WiiWare in Japan in the coming weeks. Combining some of the elements of Pose Mii on Wii Play, weightlifting, footba...oh really forget it. No description can adequately prep you for this. [SLYT]
posted by cashman on May 16, 2009 - 52 comments

Reinier van der Ende, an x-ray technician at the largest hospital in the northern part of the Netherlands, decided to combine his work with one of his hobbies and proceeded to x-ray his collection of video game consoles, peripherals and game cartridges. Here are the fruits of his labour. [more inside]
posted by Effigy2000 on May 2, 2009 - 20 comments

World of Goo was released last year on PC and Wii and, despite an 82% piracy rate (previously), still went on to become one of the best selling games of 2008 and win a swag of awards. In a recent blog post (the first of seven) the developer, 2D Boy, has been detailing the early days of development for World of Goo. But just don't read about this proto-Goo... play it! They have made this early version of the game available to download for free. And don't forget that the soundtrack to the completed game is also still free and available for download.
posted by Effigy2000 on Mar 9, 2009 - 65 comments

The Console War Is Officially Over (Via)
posted by Del Far on Feb 18, 2009 - 53 comments

Build your own low-cost Virtual Reality system with only two Wiimotes and a bunch of LEDs. This article on Coding4Fun shows you how. And no, this is not another Johnny Chung Lee post.
posted by namagomi on Feb 18, 2009 - 10 comments

The Mother of all Wii Hacks: Early on in the life of the Wii, hackers discovered a bug in "Zelda: Twilight Princess" and exploited it to create the Twilight Hack. From that came the Homebrew Channel, a software browser, and even DVD capability. [more inside]
posted by Brodiggitty on Oct 31, 2008 - 28 comments

A novel youtube page promoting Nintendo's latest platform game. The page itself adds context as the video progresses.
posted by nthdegx on Oct 8, 2008 - 24 comments

This was not a triumph. I'm making a note here. Epic fail. It's hard to overstate my disappointment. Nintendo. They do what they must at E3 because they can. For the good of all casual gamers except the ones who are hardcore. But there is no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of new games. And the science gets done, and you make some neat pheripheral add-ons for the people who own a Wii.
posted by Effigy2000 on Jul 16, 2008 - 90 comments

Playing Dirty: Greenpeace vs Nintendo, Microsoft, et al. "The Greenpeace scientific report Playing Dirty states that video games consoles have tested positive for hazardous chemicals and materials such as polyvinyl chloride, phthalates, beryllium and bromine." [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin on May 21, 2008 - 31 comments

Nintendo Wee
posted by jonson on Apr 10, 2008 - 51 comments

Easily the most hotly-anticipated game for the Wii (if not ever), Super Smash Bros. Brawl has topped 1 million sales in its first two weeks in Japan (U.S. release date is next month [3/9]). Featuring the addition of celebrated video game characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake to its bloated cast, as well as the ability to record fights, design levels, single-player storylines penned by Kazushige Nojima (Final Fantasy VII), and the first SSB game to feature online play, it's no wonder the game has delivered on the hype and become only the 7th game in acclaimed magazine Famitsu's storied history to receive a perfect 40/40 score. Watch the Japanese intro, spoil the game for yourself by checking out all leaked in-game secrets, or simply learn more about all the details that went into the game with this chat with the head game developer. Finally, if you're hardcore enough to hang with the big boys, head on over to the Smash Boards and find yourself a tournament to participate in.
posted by Christ, what an asshole on Feb 13, 2008 - 39 comments

Yo-Yo Core [more inside]
posted by mnology on Feb 11, 2008 - 12 comments

A presentation at the 24th Annual Chaos Communication Congress convention for hackers in Germany [previously mentioned in MeFi] revealed a proof of concept: the Nintendo Wii's Power PC "Broadway" chip has been completely hacked. (via OMGNintendo)
posted by ShawnStruck on Dec 30, 2007 - 22 comments

Still aren't sure if the Wii is worth the wait in line? That's okay, the Wiimote is all you need for: Low-Cost Multi-point Interactive Whiteboards Using the Wiimote, Tracking Your Fingers with the Wiimote, and the latest: Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the Wii Remote (extremely cool and the easiest to implement). From the maker of the $14 steady-cam [prev. here], Johnny Chung Lee is taking Wiimote hacking to a whole new level, and giving away all necessary software and instructions for free. Wii games are about to get a whole lot cooler. [more inside]
posted by TimeTravelSpeed on Dec 22, 2007 - 46 comments

With the release of Super Mario Galaxy on Wii, now is a perfect time to look back at the History of the Super Mario Brothers.
posted by Effigy2000 on Nov 9, 2007 - 30 comments

Mushroom Singdom! [more inside]
posted by Faux Real on Oct 15, 2007 - 4 comments

Play that funky Wii (MP3), a Vanilla Ice/Nintendo mashup by DJ BC. See also
posted by Mwongozi on Jul 21, 2007 - 12 comments

Hey fatass get off the couch and play some videogames.
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth on Jul 12, 2007 - 50 comments

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has refused to rate Manhunt 2, Rockstar Games' latest controversial offering, effectively banning it from sale in the United Kingdom. This surprising decision comes only weeks before the game's July 10th release date. The last game to be blocked from sale in the UK was the 1997 classic Carmageddon. Appeal remains a possibility for Rockstar, “although it sometimes takes up to two months to get this happening.”
posted by mek on Jun 19, 2007 - 72 comments

What does the Wii's success mean for traditional hard-core gamers? The brother of the Gears of War designer has a few thoughts about the Wii's potential dominance in the coming years. Personally, I agree with his analysis but I think it's a good thing, whereas he's a little concerned.
posted by jragon on Jun 10, 2007 - 84 comments

Obviously, you're not a golfer. So let the WiigoBot do all the hard work.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Apr 24, 2007 - 23 comments

An Open Letter to Devs: "Minigame compilations. How many of these games can we possibly be expected to buy? On my Wii alone, I've already gone through Rayman Raving Rabbids, Super Monkey Ball, Warioware and Sonic, with Mario Party and who knows what else on the horizon. As for the DS, just about every other game I own has some kind of mini-game compilation."
posted by SansPoint on Apr 6, 2007 - 51 comments

Wii + MacBook Pro + Dome - Experiments using the Nintendo Wii as a wireless 3D interface device.
posted by Burhanistan on Apr 4, 2007 - 15 comments

The Wii Loop Machine. Via.
posted by solistrato on Mar 22, 2007 - 28 comments

If you're lucky enough to own the Nintendo Wii and are of the left brain variety, have a look at MiiStation.com, where you can submit a photo and have an artist create your Mii - you know, Mr. Potato Head for the console generation. This is real people (in Japan!) sittin' in front of the tube (probably LCDs or plasmas, maybe even OLEDs?), lookin' at your photos and wavin' that Wii wand.
posted by gen on Feb 6, 2007 - 7 comments

The art of DJing with a Wiimote
posted by empath on Feb 2, 2007 - 39 comments

Wiimote Controlled Murder Robot At first, I was sure this was fake, and one of these guys was going to die horribly. But now I'm not sure. If this isn't fake, it's coooooool. (via Gizmodo)
posted by gummo on Jan 25, 2007 - 28 comments

Wii = "wee." Water-drinking radio contest ends in tragedy. Water intoxication caused the death of this mother. Radio pranks and contests are nothing new. Some have resulted in lawsuits, but I don't recall any resulting in death before.
posted by The Deej on Jan 14, 2007 - 92 comments

The MFF vs The Evil Dead is composed of over 200 audio and video samples taken from the following films: The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness. NO OTHER ELEMENTS WERE USED. (youtube filter) hello negatendo!
posted by boo_radley on Jan 11, 2007 - 24 comments

In the tradition of great cat sites, with a dose of this holiday's hot item, comes WiiKitty! (via Kotaku)
posted by Dr-Baa on Dec 22, 2006 - 15 comments

Forget the fact that the Wii may break your fancy new plasma screen TV or give you 'Wii elbow' - it just looks like bloody good fun to play.
posted by muthecow on Dec 11, 2006 - 57 comments

If you've seen the Japanese safety manual for the Wii, you might have thought it was a bit excessive. But it really isn't, if you consider how many safety warnings they left out. Via core77.
posted by hydrophonic on Dec 6, 2006 - 27 comments

Wii have a problem... documenting in pictorial form the latest trend in gaming violence. Namely, that of damaged electronics due to Wii related activities. Apparently the phenomenon is so wide spread that Nintendo has had to go and make an official safety information guide for playing with the Wiimote.
posted by Effigy2000 on Nov 30, 2006 - 40 comments

"A Console To Make You Wiip: How the Nintendo Wii will get you emotionally invested in video games." Exploring the Wii from the aspect of William James' essay, "What is an emotion?" James contends that all emotions are rooted in one's physical state, e.g. goosebumps when spooked, and blushing while embarassed. Can the overt physicality of playing the Wii make it a more emotional experience?
posted by frecklefaerie on Nov 17, 2006 - 31 comments

On the Eve of the Big Release Just in case you haven't drowned in the flood of stories about the new consoles, Businessweek is offering a few more. For the PS3, we have a summary article giving information on Sony's current situation, along with a 4 (out of 5) star review. In the Wii's corner, we have an interview with two of Nintendo's developers, who discuss the rationale behind the controller redesign, pricing, and keeping their gamers happy. Call it a little light reading before you hit the lines tonight.
posted by PreacherTom on Nov 16, 2006 - 42 comments

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. With just a week to launch, the PS3 and Wii are almost here and there is plenty of help out there if you want to try scoring one on launch day. For the Wii, read up on this guide, or try this one for the ps3. The Wiiseeker and PS3seeker will tell you exactly how many units your closest Target, Walmart, and Gamestop will have ready to sell. Ask MeFi also offers help: 1, 2, 3. And the latest MeFi Project helps those that are sticking it out at Console Camp.
posted by mathowie on Nov 10, 2006 - 85 comments

Pre-ordering the Wii [at everyone's favourite $1.65 billion website]
posted by reklaw on Oct 15, 2006 - 36 comments

Year of the Monkey. In the wake of yesterday's Nintendo Wii release information, take a look back at the birth of the company's flagship characters, Mario and Donkey Kong, who turned 25 last month. Play the classic online or check out the Donkey Kong Board Game while listening to "Kong in Concert."
posted by Otis on Sep 15, 2006 - 17 comments

How the Wii will save the adventure game. Will the innovation of Nintendo's new console be able to turn this ailing genre around? Of course, as Next Generation points out, even consoles that fail can end up winning. Meanwhile, Nintendo faces litigation over the patent for the controller that brought it so much attention. Plus, what to do with your old Gamecube.
posted by magodesky on Aug 7, 2006 - 32 comments

Super Mario Galaxy
posted by reklaw on May 10, 2006 - 59 comments

Fox pussies out. Recently a bill passed in mexico legalizing all drugs under certain specified quantities. The bill was promoted By Vincente Fox's party, and came from his offices. However he decided not to sign it under U.S. pressure.

There go my vacation plans.
posted by Paris Hilton on May 4, 2006 - 57 comments

Introducing Nintendo Wii The revolution is officially the Nintendo Wii: pronounced "we", as in 'to urinate'. If only we weren't coming to the end of april.
posted by 6am on Apr 27, 2006 - 150 comments