Wii related information (wiinformation) now belongs in the We ♥ Wii group! Join up!

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Elebits is coming soon!

IGN Elebits Review

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Sorry for the long time away Wii fans, it's been a busy week getting the wii and spending every waking moment playing :) I have some more updates on the way but for now how about a juicy bit of maybe that I just spotted - my wii is blinking blue (downloading something) and wii.nintendo.com is down. Are we seeing another console update in progess?

[Update: wii.nintendo.com is back in new form and it's HOT!]

[Update2: Oops, that blinking didn't mean something was downloading, it meant I had a new message waiting from a wii friend!]

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Wii.com has the first US wii-mercials (ha.) up on the site. This one is an extended version, essentially combining the other four. There seem to be subtle nintendo-isms embedded in these commercials and I've found three... The triforce on the road sign after the first house, the fireflower artwork in the third house and the mushrooms on the ground at the beginning of the fourth house. I think there's probably another one at the second house and possibly at the end. Can you spot them? Here's the video:

US Wiimercial #1

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A quick update this morning as we countdown the last couple days to Wii launch - some new Wii experience videos are up on wii.com. Two Excite Truck experience videos, plus new fishing and "protect the carriage" videos for Twilight Princess!

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Ann has a couple really great clips from G4TV's segment on Zelda games through the ages. Check it out, it's definitely worth your time for the nostalgia!

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Here in the US the Entertainment Software Rating Board rates video games based on their content and then publishers include little ESRB rating stickers on the game packaging to better inform consumers about the content they're buying. The ESRB makes their ratings public after they make a decision which is usually moot because developers are already talking about their games before the ESRB rates them. Not so in the case of Wii Virtual Console titles - Nintendo is going back and getting ratings for all these rereleased games (the ESRB was only created in 1994) and so we get a sneak peak of what virtual console games may come! In the past two days the ESRB has released TWO batches of VC games that have all been rated "E for Everyone." Expect to see them on a Wii near you soonish! Here they are:

Duck Hunt
Hogan's Alley
Kid Icarus
Kirby's Adventure
Pilot Wings
Pro Wrestling
Punch-Out
Wild Gunman
Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Kirby's Super Star
Mario Kart 64
Starfox 64
Super Metroid
Kirby's Dream Land 3
The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Excitebike
Ice Climber
Dr. Mario
Mario Brothers
Ice Hockey
Soccer

Excited for anything in particular?

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There are a couple Wii titles that made their way in to E3 that haven't been mentioned since... E3, really. Some legacy text mentions them on the wii.com site and their previous locations at wii.nintendo.com no longer exist. Does anyone have any idea what happened to these games? Here's a list of games I've found little mention of after E3:

Early Wii Music Screen

Disaster Day of Crisis

Disaster Day of Crisis Art

Google Cache

Project HAMMER

Early Project Hammer Screen

Old URL

A little bit of new info about Wii Play came out in the last day as well which would have been on my list (well, at least the improved duck hunt would have). I'm not including Mario Galaxy since we've seen a little bit of it since then and I don't really think Nintendo could ditch that game :P Any other games that both Nintendo and I seem to have forgotten about?

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What? An entire weekend has gone by and not a single new piece of content on wii.com? The friendly staffers at NOA are slackers! Well, without another little bit of news to procrastinate on I'll have to discuss Wii launch titles. Here are a couple titles that I'm looking forward to:

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Riding Across Hyrule Field

I've posted amazing gameplay footage before and I'm not pretending that this isn't my most anticipated launch title of the bunch. It's the quintessential use for the wiimote that I've always wanted - swinging the controller and having Link swing along with you. Basically, I'm stoked.

Wii Sports

Tennis on Wii Sports

I'm including Wii Sports not because I think I'm going to love it but because every single Wii owner in the US is going to have it. For whatever reason, I'll probably want to get to know the controller before I start playing Twilight Princess and I think Wii Sports will probably be where I start (as well as making my Mii and customizing just about every preference I can get my hands on). Beyond that most zero-day gamers probably won't touch Wii Sports but I think it's a fantastic starting point for those people that aren't fanatical about the Wii (or video games in general).

Red Steel

Red Steel Screenshot

Red Steel is my nostalgia choice (besides the virtual console whose sole aim is nostalgia). I'm not the biggest fan of 1st person shooters but everytime I see footage from Red Steel I'm reminded of playing Goldeneye on the N64 which was a fantastic game. Even without multiplayer the reply value was huge. Unfortunately, Goldeneye has not been announced as a virtual console title yet nor do virtual console titles support the wiimote :( saddness. So Red Steel is my one hope to play a Goldeneye-esqe game with the wiimote. Here's to hoping!

There you have it, my most anticipated launch games. I'm going to investigate all of them as the week progresses because there are some games that I really don't know anything about at the moment (like Elebits) that some people are raving about. Keep your Vox open...

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I'm working on a rundown of Wii launch games at the moment but I wanted to take a minute and share some AWESOME new videos of LZ:TP that showed up on wii.com yesterday (it appears that wii.com is getting new content every day which will surely make for some great posts leading up to the 19th!).

Here's the intro video and a misc gameplay video:

Twilight Princess Intro Movie

Twilight Princess Gameplay

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