Today’s Amazon Gold Box is loaded up with Wii game deals. Super Paper Mario and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn have already sold out. At least 2 of the 3 “Lightning Deals” left for today hint at being Wii games. The next one will show up at noon Central.

We know the feeling.

Our friends over at Button Mash This have posted some quick videos of a trip to the Nintendo World Store in NYC. As Chelle says, it was “pure fangirl heaven”.

Mario Kart Wii is coming in the second quarter of 2008 (we hope sooner than later in the Spring) - and Sterling McGarvey over at Gamespy.com has provided a good preview post of what we can expect to see from this very anticipated release. Support for 12 players online, a Mario Kart Channel on the Wii, and ridiculously versatile controls are all very positive points as we see it. An excerpt from Sterling’s article over at GameSpy:

There’ll be three new power-ups as well. The POW item looks like the old POW box from the original Mario Bros., and as in that arcade classic it causes havoc on the stage. If you’re in, say, fifth place, the POW will cause every car that’s ahead of you to spin out and lose control. The Lightning Cloud is even more devastating; it’s like a mixture of the Golden Mushroom and “hot potato.” You’ll get huge boosts of speed for a limited time, but as the clock ticks, you run the risk of being hit by lightning, which shrinks your kart. Fortunately (for you, not your fellow racers), you can pass the Lightning Cloud around to other people when you bump into them and leave someone else to deal with the consequences. Finally, there’s the Giant Mushroom, which, just like in New Super Mario Bros., allows you to super-size yourself and leave a trail of turmoil in your wake.

Sign up at to be notified when Mario Kart Wii with the Wii Wheel is available at Amazon.

Wii Sports for Nintendo’s Wii calculates your scores after every game you play - if you rock it and continue to improve your game, you’re rewarded with certain little nuances, like a star-studded bowling ball, a silver tennis racket, or silver gloves.  This WeKnowWii editor loves this game, and I play it a lot.  My bowling score is about 1392 and my golf score is around 1400.

What are you scoring on Wii Sports?

March 25 of this year will bring us the long-awaited Okami Wii by Capcom.  From Nintendic’s website:

In Okami, players assume the role of the wolf-embodied sun god Amaterasu to set the world straight after the legendary monster Orochi has come back to life and turned it into a wasteland. The action-adventure title was originally released for the Sony PlayStation 2 last year to great a great critical reception, so perhaps the firm’s decision to bring it to Wii will be more fruitful.

One of the most exciting things about the new release of Okami Wii is the high-er definition stats - Capcom confirmed this week that Okami Wii will support the 16:9 ratio at 480p for those Okami gamers who love their widescreen Wii gaming.

Interested in learning about the original Okami?  Check out this article at Eurogamer for PS2.

Lifehacker has an interesting article about using your Wii as a digital media center. It describes using the Wii browser and a freeware application called Orb to stream media files to your Wii. Author Adam Pash walks you through the steps to set up Orb on the Wii, with pictures and video. We haven’t yet done anything to extend the functionality on our Wii this way, but this is an interesting thought.

The good folks over at I Can Has Cheezburger just posted this Wii-themed LOLcat!

The 2008 Game Developers Conference is this week, and some big announcements have come out of the Nintendo camp. Namely, when Wii Ware and the Wii Fit will be released in the U.S. Wii Ware, which will allow you to download full Wii games from the Wii Shop channel, debuts its first releases on May 12. The Wii Fit will be out a week later, on May 19.

Keep up to date on upcoming Wii releases with our Release Dates page, which we update weekly.

Today only, Amazon has Trauma Center: New Blood for $29.99. This is $20 off the retail price, and shipping is free.

Trauma Center: New Blood is one of my favorite Wii games. I tend to like the nerdier titles, and not shooter-type games. This game fits the bill. It’s entertaining and does not have a lot of movement on screen (which tends to give me a headache).

The game makes good use of the Wii controllers to manipulate the surgical tools (you will need a nunchuk to play). The storyline can be a bit odd and lengthy, but you can skip past them by pressing the minus (-) button during the heavy dialogue. After you get past the introductory story for each level, the surgeries themselves are fun to complete. With the game’s two-player mode, two people collaborate on the same surgery.

Trauma Center: New Blood is challenging, even in easy mode: right now I’m stuck on a level where I have to complete 3 surgeries in 10 minutes. I’ve found the walkthrough on IGN to be helpful when I get stuck on a level.

I paid full retail price for this game, and feel that I got my money’s worth. At $29.99, it’s an even better deal.

It figures that we’d start telling our friends about this site, then both get taken down by bronchitis and not make any updates for a while. Fortunately, being sick gave us time to check out some new (to us) Wii games. We’ve been playing No More Heroes, Sims 2: Castaway, and EA Playground between naps and trips to the doctor. Now that we’re on the rebound, more regular posting will resume.

This week, Toys “R” Us has the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock with Guitar bundle on sale for $69.99 plus shipping. That’s $20 off the regular retail price. Shipping will run you about $8.

Both Kmart and Sears have Wiis in stock online this morning. These are standalone units at the $249.99 retail price.

Go go go!

The Wiire reports that on a conference call yesterday, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello stated Rock Band is coming for the Wii. No specifics have been released yet, but we’ll post them when we find them.