I was looking at some game stats today, and discovered this post about the UK Game Software Charts.  Honestly, it is interesting to see what the British are playing.

Check it out.  Lego Indiana Jones is fourth – I guess it hasn’t caught on yet.

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jun 23, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Leave your packs and bring extra ammo, Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATVI) (http://www.activision.com/) and Treyarch, announced today that they will be taking Call of Duty players deep into the South Pacific and European theaters this fall for Call of Duty: World at War(tm), a gritty fight that will pit players against enemies that know no surrender and show no mercy. Utilizing the Call of Duty 4(r): Modern Warfare engine, Call of Duty: World at War throws out the rulebook of war to transform WWII combat through a new enemy, new tactics and an uncensored experience of the climatic battles that gripped a generation. As U.S. Marines and Russian soldiers, players will employ new features like cooperative gameplay, and weapons such as the flamethrower in the most chaotic and cinematically intense experience to date.

“With Call of Duty: World at War, we’re re-defining what it means to play a WWII game,” said Mark Lamia, Studio Head for Treyarch. “We’re excited to give players a host of new enemies that employ entirely new tactics, as well as new, groundbreaking tools – like co-op and the flamethrower – to succeed in the epic fight.”

Call of Duty: World at War introduces co-operative play, bringing fresh meaning to the “No One Fights Alone” mantra with up to four-players online for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, or two-player local split-screen on consoles. Nintendo Wii will also support a unique co-op mode for two players. For the first time ever players will experience harrowing single-player missions together for greater camaraderie and tactical execution. The co-op campaign allows players to rank up and unlock perks in competitive multiplayer by completing challenges and earning experience points, adding continuous re-playability and team-based gameplay. Whether playing competitively or cooperatively – if players are online with Call of Duty: World at War – they will always gain experience points. Based on a player’s experience rank and rank of the player’s friends, Call of Duty: World at War will scale dynamically to provide a deeper level of challenge.

Call of Duty: World at War is in development for the Xbox 360(r) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION(r)3 computer entertainment system, Nintendo(r) Wii(tm) and Games for Windows(r). The title is scheduled for release this fall and has not yet been rated by the ESRB.

If no one has noticed, or if you haven’t been keeping up with the news, you wouldn’t know that Wii Fit has overcome Rock Band for Wii as the number one seller on Amazon in the video games category.

But that’s not the point of this post.  I found some new accessories for the Wii Fit.

The newest I discovered tonight were the Official Wii Fit Balance Board Sleeve, and the Wii Fit Balance Board Travel Bag, which looks like an over the shoulder daypack-style bag for the Fit.

Here’s the Official Balance Board Sleeve,

and the Balance Board Travel Bag.

Let us know if you purchased one, and if you like it or hate it so we can report!

Laurent Fischer of Nintendo Europe has fired up some new debate about extra storage for Nintendo Wii users struggling with a lack of internal memory and having to use SD memory cards.  Fischer stated that there is nothing as drastic as an external hard drive in the works.

“We definitely detect that [gamers] are serious and we know there is an issue in this, so it’s something that we’re working on,” he told GamesIndustry.biz.

“Definitely there’s no plan to issue hardware – an external hard drive, but we know that we have an issue in that area. It’s very obvious and we’re perfectly aware of it, but there’s nothing we can say beyond this.”

Fischer recently shot his mouth off and got caught after he was quoted saying that only “geeks and otaku” wanted a proper storage solution for Wii. His explanation is this was all just a misunderstanding:

“I really didn’t use that terminology to describe the Nintendo consumer – it was something related basically to myself and to the journalists attending,” Fischer said. “It was a joke I made on myself and somehow it’s been confused and taken out of context to define those consumers.

“I understand I have created a lot of offence with people. And for me it’s very, very important to clarify this – that’s not the kind of thing I’ve been saying in [the way it has been reported.

“Disappointment in the community is something I was really affected by,” he added.

There is a LOT of stuff coming up, Nintendo.  We need to get this solved.  We’re doing just fine with SD cards, but others aren’t going to take this as a fix.

Nintendo’s Public Relations director was quoted as saying this week, in an article at GamePro:

“We recently announced the upcoming release of Mario Super Sluggers. Additionally, we will be announcing several new titles that core gamers will be interested in around the time of E3.

So, what we want to know is what constitutes a “core gamer?”  Are “core gamers” the people who wait in line at 5am to get their console?  Are “core gamers” the people like yours here at WeKnowWii.com, Nintendic, GameDaily, IGN, and others who take some time to inform others as to new games, news, information, and other Wii-related stuff?

What do you think?  Post in the comments, we’d love to hear about it.

Apparently Playboy is trying to outdo the original Wii Fit Girl with their model, Jo Garcia, doing her gyrating and hoola-hooping to Wii Fit games.  Quite frankly, I feel that the original Wii Fit girl had better hip moves.  From the article:

When Wii Fit Girl did her 3 million hits thang, somehow I knew this was coming down the pike. Because Playboy is the home of Jo Garcia, the Cyber Girl of the Year for 2008 and an enthusiastic and knowledgeable gamer herself. And not only does she have noooo problem wearing much less than naughty librarian glasses and panties, Playboy also has muuuuuch better video equipment and editing.

You have to read some of the comments in the Kotaku article – my favorite:
failed. original wii fit girl was hypnotizing.

I guess this goes to show that a lot of industries can get in on the Wii Cash Machine – accessories makers, game makers, and now, porn makers.  Hmmph.  Have you got YOUR Wii Fit yet?
Happy Monday!

In September we will all be looking forward to playing NHL 2K9 Hockey for all platforms, but especially Wii.  NHL 2K9 will be the first hockey release for the Nintendo Wii this year.  We’re stoked over here.

If you’re looking for a Wii Hockey fix, there’s about one whole title you can order.
Try Kidz Sports: Ice Hockey for Wii.  That’s about it for now – hint, hint, developers!

Thanks to Nintendic, we now know that Firaxis is going back on their promise to release Civilization Revolution for Wii.  According to Game Daily, who had an interview with “The Father of PC Gaming,” Sid Meier, Firaxis still gives the Wii some love.  Just not right now.

Game Daily: Why turn your back on the largest installed base on the console landscape today, and not release the “game you always wanted to make” on the Wii? Or are you planning to release the Wii version of Civilization Revolution later after all?

Sid Meier, Director of Creative Development at Firaxis: We’re still in the process of mak:D
ing decisions on that and will keep you posted. We certainly think the Wii is a fantastic system and have no intentions of turning our backs on it!

How does this make all of you feel?  Postyour gripes in the comments.

It appears as if Nintendo isn’t very happy with Nyko right now.  Nyko, the peripheral manufacturer, is being sued by the Nintendo Corporation for its wireless versions of the Nunchuk.  Nintendo stated that Nyko’s Kama Nunchuk “wholly appropriates the novel shape, design, overall appearance and even the color and materials used in the Nintendo Nunchuk controller” in their federal court complaint.

Learn more about this from Bloomberg.

A man named Dylan Romero has beat 127 other competitors in a Wii-mbeldon style Wii Tennis competition in Eugene, OR.  Who even knew that these things existed?  I know that my co-editor has a freaking wicked Wii Tennis backhand shot!

Check out the original article here.

What’s your favorite Wii Sports game?  Post in the comments!

It looks like Mario Kart Wii and Grand Theft Auto IV rocked the markets in May, according to an article from the folks over at Game Daily.  Mario Kart Wii took second place in May for sales, with a total 787,400 units sold, and Wii Fit right behind it, selling 687,700 units in May.

From the article from Game Daily:

Overall, year-to-date industry sales have now reached $6.58 billion, up 32 percent from last year. NPD analyst Anita Frazier noted that this exceeds total 1997 annual revenues, which shows just how far the industry has come in the last 10 years. “The industry is on pace to achieve revenues in the $21-$23B range for 2008,” she said.

Unsurprisingly, the late April release of GTA IV easily carried its momentum into May, as the title racked up another 871.3K in unit sales on Xbox 360 and 442.9K unit sales on PS3. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Wii once again took second place with 787.4K unit sales, followed by the fitness sensation Wii Fit, which sold 687.7K units. It’s worth noting that GTA IV has now generated combined sales of 4.2 million units in the U.S., which has already made it the top selling game of 2008 so far.

Also, the Nintendo line is holding its own against industry competitors Playstation and XBox:

Interestingly, although a number of analysts thought we might finally see the “GTA IV hardware bump” in May, that wasn’t really the case. PS3 sold 208.7K units while Xbox 360 sold just 186.6K units. The Wii easily took top honors again with 675.1K units. The DS put up another 452.6K unit sales, while the PSP sold 182.3K units (down about 10K). This is now the 4th consecutive month that the Wii and NDS have captured the top two spots.

We Love Wii!  Apparently so do a whole bunch of other folks.  Keep it up, Nintendo!

In an article at Spong, Crossbeam Studios’ CEO, Greg Szemiot, says that the studio won’t be making it to the Wii this generation.  Szemiot said, in commentary on the subject, “CSE has had many problems throughout the years. We were naive and perhaps arrogant, ‘riding the wave of publicity,’ as he puts it. We take our projects very seriously but we made many mistakes.  The biggest mistake was not taking the business side seriously for many years. As CEO, the fault lies squarely with me. I put the game ideas first and said ‘I’ll take care of the business stuff later.’ We also then announced projects that were merely ideas or designs at the time.”

The company is experiencing a “slow rebirth”, with various staff members heading back to begin work on a PC project. Szemiot said “It is a small project, and we’re not even going to officially announce any details until the game is at least 50% done.  I just hope it does work out for us on this project so someday we can deliver on our promises for Orb and Thorn.”

Well, good luck Crossbeam Studios, we wish you a steadfast pickup on your business.  It’s not every day, especially in today’s economy, that a CEO will stand up and say “hey, guys, my fault.”

I’ve been reading a lot of posts on various Wii blogs lately about a lack of storage space on the Wii.  PC World just reported news of some hints that reveal that USB devices could be released for Wii that are supposedly going to help alleviatestorage space problems for Wii.  With 512MB of onboard storage, I’m sure we all are wondering what is going on with external storage coming up in future months.

What do you think?  Are you having a problem with storage on your Wii?  We have not experienced any storage problems yet, but it’s coming, I can feel it.  Let us know, post your comment or storage complaint in the comments.

The good folks at Wired just posted a great article about Wii Fit’s supply – and how it is nearly magical to obtain one lately!  Keep an eye out for these if you haven’t gotten yours yet; right now, they’re going like gold, and for good reason.  They’re excellent!  People have their gripes about them – as do the editors here at WeKnowWii.com, but overall, it’s a fun accessory, and the game is a blast.

Get your Wii Fit over at Amazon – if they don’t have it, keep checking!

Slashdot posted some information on a new game that Ubisoft will be releasing – a snowboarding game called “Shaun White’s Snowboarding” that uses the beloved Wii Balance Board and the Wiimote as the control media.

“During Ubidays 2008, Ubisoft revealed that its upcoming snowboarding title, Shaun White Snowboarding, will be coming to Nintendo Wii. More exciting, the publisher revealed that the game will support Nintendo’s Wii Balance Board. Although members of the press were not allowed to play the game at the event, an Ubisoft representative was on hand to demo the setup. The game is played with both the Balance Board and Wii-mote, using the latter to control tricks.”

We’re pretty big fans of the SSX Series of games here at WeKnowWii.com, so you can imagine our excitement!
We haven’t been able to get our hands on Wii Ski yet that also uses the Wii Balance Board, but we’re waiting to rock the slopes in our living room!

Go order Wii Fit and the Balance Board if you haven’t already – it’s even healthy!

Also, check out Wii Ski by Nintendo

In an article at Wired’s Blog, Wii and DS fans are going to be treated to EA Games’ reinvention of the classic SimCity game series with SimCity Creator.

The game, which will hit the DS and Wii on September 22, lets players use the two system’s unorthodox control systems to zone land, place roads, and manage the ongoing welfare of your own customized metropolis.

We’re definitely excited for this!

We Know Wii’s founders have seen the Harmonix hit, “Rock Band,” and are looking at its fun-potential.  Do you own Rock Band?  How many people are in your household that play on a regular basis?

Drop us a line in the comments and document your Rock Band praises or demerits.

Here’s a great Joystiq article on the Wii edition of Rock Band.

Pardon our absenteeism lately, life and freelance work have kept us away from you, and our beloved Wii.

There’s some buzz lately about new games coming out at E3, and one of them is a Wii-centric version of the old favorite F-ZERO.  Nintendic writes:

The F-Zero franchise has never been able to reach the heights of the original Super Nintendo game’s sales despite stellar efforts hitting the Nintendo 64 (F-Zero X), GameCube (the SEGA-developed F-Zero GX) and Game Boy Advance (F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, GP Legend, and the Japan-only Climax). But Nintendo has continued to push the game that pre-dated the WipEout franchise and has out-lasted the Extreme-G series of racers by bringing the SNES and Nintendo 64 games to the Virtual Console over the past year.

Real?  Who knows.  Hopeful?  We are!

(for what it’s worth, Gametrailers.com has some good movie clips of F-ZERO on the Virtual Console.   Good times!

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.