I found a few titles on sale during my hunt for a new game.

• Crash of the Titans – $22.05
• Petz Dogz 2 – $16.16
• Battalion Wars 2 – $27.19
• Mario Party 8 – $39.99

I wrapped up and sold off a few games, and now I’m itching to pick up a new one. What are you playing these days?

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”.

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 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.

We’ve added a big page of release dates for Wii games to the site, with extensive lists of games coming out in the coming months for United States players. Check it out and let us know which games you’re excited about.

IGN reports that Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution for the Wii has been put on indefinite hiatus. According to a forum post, Firaxis Games does not have the manpower to put out four versions of the game (for PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and Wii), so they are dropping the Wii version.

This is a shame. Civilization 2 is one of my favorite PC games, and I’d love a game for the Wii like this one, where strategy is a bigger focus that shooting or jumping.

It’s party time and you picked up some extra Wiimotes for the shindig. How do you connect them to your system? Easy.

1. Turn on your Wii.
2. While you’re on the home screen, press any button on the remote. Did the four lights on your remote blink blue? If so, your remote is not synced with the system.
3. Press the 1 + 2 buttons at the same time. If you’ve synced before, this should solve your problem.
4. Lights still blinking blue? Open the small panel on the front of the Wii console near the power button.
5. Press the small red button inside the panel.
6. Open the battery panel on your remote.
7. Press the small red button inside the battery panel.
8. Only one light should be illuminated on your Wii remote. If not, repeat steps 5 and 7 until only one light remains.

Source: How to Sync a Wii Remote Controller

Have a question that we might know how to answer? Let us know.

One of this week’s new releases for the Wii is Endless Ocean: Dive, Discover, Dream. It promises to be a “vast undersea adventure”, according to Nintendo’s press release:

It’s like a virtual scuba vacation in the tropics that includes interaction with hundreds of different animal species, relaxing swims through brilliant coral reefs and exploratory dives on wrecks of ships and warplanes.

Judging by videos by players on YouTube, this looks like a relaxed game, with nice graphics and beautiful music. It likely won’t offend anyone in your family, and you might learn a thing or two about undersea life.

Through Saturday, you can buy two Wii games for $30 at BestBuy.com. The games are regularly priced at $19.99, saving you $10. The are eleven titles to choose from, including Mercury Meltdown Revolution, which I enjoy and recommend, especially at this price point.

Wal-Mart has the Nintendo Wii Customer Choice Bundle available for pre-order starting at $677.38 (plus tax and shipping), guaranteeing it will ship on or before January 25. The bundle includes the console, an extra nunchuk and remote, another accessory of your choice, Mario Party 8, and six games of your choice from their list. If you choose six of the pricier games, this deal could work out well.

If you’re patiently waiting for a standalone console, I’d recommend signing up for the SMS and e-mail alerts at WiiAlerts.com. We found our Wii as a result of a text message from them.

The big news in the Wii world today is that the highly-anticipated Super Smash Bros. Brawl game release has been delayed until March 9th. On the game’s official site, the developers ask for your patience during the extended wait:

I deeply apologize to the people who have looked forward to playing the game for so long and ask that you hold on just a little longer. Thank you for your patience.

Hopefully good things will come to those who wait.