The Wiikend is here

[ijdgaf]

On the one hand, Nintendo has stated repeatedly that they would have 4 million Wiis out before the end of the year. Their publicity machine has made an effort to emphasize how many they'll have available in comparison to the competition.

On the other hand, launch shortage seems to be the in thing now. Selling out of all your stock is a sign of success, regardless of how big the original stock actually is. It's pretty certain that Nintendo got more units out there than Sony, or Microsoft at this time last year. But Neither Nintendo or Sony has released hard numbers, so it's hard to say for sure exactly how many anybody has shipped of anything. There's always this to look at though... not sure how accurate it is. But it's interesting. Unfortunately, it seems Nintendo has joined in the same game as all the rest. They may have made more, but they certainly didn't make enough.

Anyway, I would imagine a bit of effort would yield a Wii by Christmas. I have heard that shipments should be arriving fairly frequently. It's sure to be a hot Christmas item, but hopefully supply will catch up to demand... soon?

[Nate the Great]

I assume you meant a Zeke "soon."

Oh yeah, God of Thunder. The whole thing's been released as freeware, by the way. I can e-mail the walkthroughs I've found, too. Everyone should try it, seriously.

So, are these Whose Line points, or do I get to cash them in to get a mention in a TJI? That'd be neat.

For some reason, the phrase "smash my Wii" seems to evoke all sorts of fodder for crude jokes. They could've tweaked it a little from "smash my Revolution" to "Wii are the smashers" or something.

[Derek]

I heard from a friend at work that the next batch of Wiis weren't coming until mid-Dec. I have no idea how he knew that or if he's right.

[Nate the Great]

I'd just like to voice my approval of smashmywii and their affiliates. I wish I could've done that, smash a game system right in front of the people who've been waiting in line for hours, if not days. You also have to give them credit for maintaining that original NESs should never be smashed in that fashion.

Well, I think that three weeks between batches isn't too bad. Gotta wonder if they've found any bugs that had to be fixed first.

[Derek]

Hey, Zeke. Just saw this: http://wii.ign.com/articles/747/747353p1.html

[evay]

Apparently people aren't smashing their Wiis, but the Wiis are smashing lots of other things, like TVs and windows...

[mudshark]

Originally Posted by evay

Apparently people aren't smashing their Wiis, but the Wiis are smashing lots of other things, like TVs and windows...

Been hearing about these.

I liked the comparison clip -- the one from the bowling alley.

[ijdgaf]

Doing a little research for my sister, I've reached the following conclusion as to the best way to obtain a Wii at this point in time.

I don't know how these cycles work in other countries, but here major stores put out ads in paperson Sundays and put out new stock the same day. I have read reports that stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart have been hoarding their stock of Wiis until they reach a certian number, and then advertising them on Sunday.

So check the ads before stores open, then head to the store if they're pimping the Wii. Odds are, you'll be successful.

[Nate the Great]

Amazing what possible problems fly over the heads of engineers these days...

I wonder how they're gonna fix this problem? I know that people will always feel the urge to swing those things around like the commercials and printed ads.

"Pimping the Wii." You're really determined to make inappropriate jokes fly into my head, aren't you?

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Derek

Hey, Zeke. Just saw this: http://wii.ign.com/articles/747/747353p1.html

Oo! Good to know. According to the article, Canadian stores should be restocking tomorrow or Friday... of last week. Shoot. Well, I don't think my local stores have got them yet, so I'll keep checking back.

As for smashing stuff with the Wiimote, Penny Arcade has a somewhat different perspective from the WHaP guys (hmm, wonder if that acronym's intentional).

[Nate the Great]

Uh, Z, play in moderation, we'll miss you if you fall into the bottomless gaming pit and forget to update.

[mudshark]

Originally Posted by Zeke

...the WHaP guys (hmm, wonder if that acronym's intentional).

Ooo, ya think...?

[Nate the Great]

So, has anyone here in the forums fallen victim to Flying Wiimote yet?

[ijdgaf]

Only victim to the addictive gaming it offers.

(the wrist strap is your friend, people)

[Nate the Great]

Um, if the straps are defective, I'd say that they aren't, necessarily. If you have no strap at all, you'd tend to be more careful waving that thing around. Without a strap, you tend to be more cautious and less flamboyant.

[ijdgaf]

(ahem) While it's still up, I invite all of you to witness how Microsoft pwn3d Gamespot's PS3 page.

Sony, I hope your eyes are as wide as your gargantuan, monstrosity of a console.

And Microsoft -- I never thought I'd say this, but you're okay in my book.

Edit: and... it was taken down. Shucks. The Penny Arcade forums have pictures here (first post).

[Zeke]

Whoa! That's impressive even for Microsoft -- especially since the browser in that screenshot is Firefox. (It would have been easy enough for them to sneak something into IE.)

I don't know how it's selling, but the PS3 is definitely losing the battle of acclaim. Everyone seems to be dumping on it. VG Cats, for example, is normally an equal-opportunity mocker, but they did a particularly biting PS3 comic. And YAD really ripped Sony a new one on release day; I found it Bryan's best article in ages, though I'm biased.

[Nate the Great]

I'm seriously wondering what these guys are paying their PR departments for. After at least four prior generations, plus the relatively current sales figures of the X-Box 360, both Nintendo and Sony would have a stinkin' idea of how many consoles to make.

In one of the articles it said that PS3's take longer because you can't just crank out Blue-Ray drives. Uh, simple answer there, folks. Build PS3s without them, but make them upgradable later. I have no idea how many Blue-Ray movies there are out there, but it's not that many yet. Even if you can't upgrade them, there are people who don't care about Blue-Ray yet. I know I don't. I'm still waiting for holocubes like in the h2g2 movie. It has to be possible.

[Burt]

I'm here to sing a song on the wonders of the wii. (Also because I'm bored at work too)
Mario Party 8 is totally fantastic! Really good use of the wiimote.... could be better/faster, but a great game. Resident Evil 4 Wii is amazing too. And I keep going back to Wii Sports...
Everyone I've shown the Wii too want's to get one... From 10 year olds, to middle aged women.
I love that console.
In the words of Dukat: Everyday bring new reports of victorys for (The Wii)...it's only a matter of time before the (PS3/360) collapse and join (Nintendo).

Or something like that.

[Tate]

This week is the first time I've been able to really try the Wii. I was at a family reunion this week and one of my cousins brought his system. I really enjoyed playing it, even though it didn't quite live up to my expectations from reading about it (few things do). The remote is a fun way to control games, but using it as a pointer takes some getting used to.

Of course, the only game I played on it was Wii Sports, so I didn't exactly get to see everything the system could do. On top of that, my (younger) siblings seemed to spend all their free time playing it; beating each other up in Wii Sports boxing or making Miis (Miii?) of Naruto or Megaman characters. And that's when they weren't playing our DS or my brother's Gameboy Color or the Gameboy Advance I just bought. So...I guess the moral is: my family likes Nintendo.