Nintendo touts U.S. retail milestone for its controversial controller-bundled title, which has been a fixture in NPD’s top 10 since its release in 2007.

Since it was released in the U.S. in February 2007, Wii Play has been a fixture on the NPD Group’s top 10 charts. Officially classified as “software,” the minigame collection continues to be wildly popular because it is bundled with the Wii Remote. The internally developed title–which received tepid reviews–is also severely discounted, costing just $10 more than the Wii Remote’s $39.99 a la carte price.

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Ahh, another glorious Friday. This Friday is extra special since it is my birthday. Thank you. So, what shall we talk about on this birthday Friday? How about the one thing that we all love. The reason we care about the Wii: Games. So far during its lifespan the Wii has delivered a few great games, a handful of pretty good games and an exorbitant amount of party games and kids games. Gamers all around the world have made a call for Nintendo to do work and come out with games not strictly aimed at kids. Luckily, it seems that Nintendo is heeding the call and is about to deliver.

The Wii needs to stay away from these two!

As you all know I have passion for Tenchu: Shadow Assassins. Not only for the fact that it looks like it’s an amazing title and will be ridiculously fun, but mostly for what it represents. It is the first hardcore Wii title that actually looks great and is an exclusive title. That is a major thing for us Wii lovers. Sure, we’ve had ports of great titles, Resident Evil 4 being the best. We’ve also gotten pretty good multi-platform titles, Call of Duty: World at War and Medal of Honor come to mind. But, we’ve not yet gotten a truly exclusive title that looks great while also being a game geared towards core gamers who want violence on their screens. We’ve been begging for a game that lets us do things other than waggle and can unleash the manic child within, but it needs to be great.

Time to game EXTREME!

Tenchu is the first title of the year to satisfy these hungers, but it’s certainly not going to be the last. Deadly Creatures is a game that is uniquely different. It places you in the crawlers of a couple of arachnids, a scorpion and tarantula. We are also getting House of the Dead: Overkill, which is actually being billed as the hardcore game we’ve been waiting for. I can hardly wait to blow zombie apart limb by limb. We should also not forget that Mad World is also right around the corner. The Running Man meets Sin City ultra-violent game will perhaps be the most artistic game on the Wii to date.

Mad World looks mad good.

So, what exactly does Ninty need to work on here? It all sounds good, right? Yes, it certainly does. But please, Do Work and continue delivering these titles to us. Our friends over at Wiiblog reported Hudson’s new FPS being developed for WiiWare and that’s an amazing first step. I just hope Nintendo can see that the market is there for core games. There is no need to abandon the games you’ve been making, just simply try a little more. Branch out Nintendo, plenty of adults own your systems and want blood and profanity in their games. We know that Rockstar is making a Grand Theft Auto for the DS, I implore you to bring one to the Wii. I cannot think of anything better. Don’t be afraid to make games for the adult market, because we are primed and ready for them. If you make them, we will buy.

Check out the source of this item Do Work Friday Episode 5

TOKYO (AFP) — Nintendo’s Wii outsold rival Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) three-fold in Japan last year, helping the country’s multi-billion dollar video game market to notch up its best ever year, a survey showed Monday.

Nintendo sold about 3.63 million Wii consoles in its home market in 2007 while Sony sold 1.21 million PS3s, according to magazine publisher Enterbrain.

The Wii also trounced the PS3 more than three-fold in the key year-end sales period between November 25 and December 30, selling 774,123 Wii consoles against Sony’s sales of 232,421 PS3s, the survey showed.

Nintendo won back its lead after the two rivals briefly traded places in November, when the PS3 outsold the Wii in Japan for the first time, helped by a price cut and a stronger line-up of games, according to Enterbrain.

Sony’s game unit said Monday that it had sold 1.2 million PS3s in North America during the holiday shopping period after a hefty price cut.

“The PlayStation brand ended the year in a very strong position and clearly indicates more positive momentum going into 2008,” Jack Tretton, head of Sony Computer Entertainment in the US, said in a statement.

Analysts said that although PS3 sales appear to be improving after a tough first year, in terms of sales it is still far behind the Wii.

“Consumers both in Japan and overseas are still attracted by the Wii, which remains a fresh concept,” said Hiroshi Kamide, a game analyst at KBC Securities.

The Wii also retains a three-fold sales advantage over the PS3 in North America, where Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is also posing competition for Sony, he said.

Sony “either has to slash the price further or increase the number of games available, which is something software makers are reluctant to do” because there are too few owners in the US to make it worthwhile, he added.

Microsoft sold 257,841 Xbox 360s last year in Japan, continuing to struggle on its rivals’ home turf two years after the console’s launch, the survey showed.

Japan’s total computer game market was worth a record 687.7 billion yen (6.37 billion dollars) in 2007, up 9.9 percent from the previous year, Enterbrain said.

The market was buoyed by robust sales of Nintendo’s DS and the Lite version handheld consoles, which have sold a total of just over 21 million units since the initial launch three years ago, it added.

Software sales were also strong, with games for Nintendo consoles making up four of the five top-selling games, the survey showed.

Which of the new Wii games should you be buying?

Video game playing was revolutionized by the launch of the Nintendo Wii a couple of years ago. The Wii promotes real active participation for gamers at home for the first time, and it is up to you to read up on the Wii game reviews, so that you can choose which games are going to be best for you.

What makes the Wii different from other consoles is the sheer physical movements required to play a lot of the games. You have to stand up and move around to play the skiing, boxing, golfing, and numerous other sports games. This not only makes it a great way to play games, but it also helps you lose weight and improve fitness. This is a very useful feature in today’s world, especially when you consider the problems that many people have with their weight.

As more games are released it can become a guessing game to choose a game that you will really like. This makes it worthwhile to take the time to check out a few Wii game reviews. There are plenty of websites online where you will be able to do this. Not only will you be kept informed on the latest games, you will also learn what is coming onto the market soon.

Due to the Wii being such a popular games console, there are hundreds of sites where you can get information. You can also get some great deals if you use shop and compare websites. Not just for games but for consoles as well.

There are websites which are specifically geared towards Wii game reviews. There are sites that give you information on cheats and tricks for games you are playing. Here just a few sites that you could go to:

amazon.com
keepgaming.com
play.com

There are lots of website forums and gaming sites where you can get loads of information. It’s worth doing your research first because you don’t want to get stuck with a game that you don’t like, that’s not mentioning the money you will save.

Nintendo Wii game reviews are a great method of staying up to date with the latest developments and player views on how good or bad any particular game is. Because the Wii is not as old as many of its competitors, there is a lot of scope for additional peripherals. For the present the Wii is head and shoulders above anything else, purely because it gets people moving, and because the movements actually are fun.

So start the habit of looking at Wii game reviews, because it will take out a lot of the hit and miss factor when it comes to spending your hard earned cash.

Source: General