Nintendo Blog

Nintendo has let the excitement over the Wii heat up to an extroadinary degree using viral marketing as the fuel.

When Nintendo of America announced an advertising blitz, to the tune of 200 million dollars, many thought the Wii viral marketing pot had boiled, and that traditional marketing would dominate.

Nintendo again suprised the masses by releasing and featuring the first of the Wii adverts on YouTube. The video, which you can find here, has one week later, topped one million views.

One million views. Even the largest company would be happy with an additional 1,000,000 advert views, without spending a cent on bandwidth.

Ahah! The rascals that brought us SmashmyiPod.com have moved onto an entertaining new low. Smashing a Wii!

Direct link to video

Check out the official Smash My Wii website.

How unlucky can one get? Well one of the members of SomethingAwful.com had an experience that most will only have nightmares about. His friend was using the Wiimote correctly, with the safety strap attaching the Wiimtoe securely to his wrist.

During a frantic game of Wii Sports, the Wiimote left the friend’s hand, the wrist strap broke and a delightful series of cracks appeared in the 60-inch rear projection television.

Read the SomethingAwful thread

The Wii is stylish. Extremely stylish. It really is the size of three DVD cases and is exceptionally quiet. It is bright white, yet doesn’t fingerprint or scratch easily.

The vaguely SD memory card shape is consistent throughout the design of the Wii, with input slots aslo carrying the distinctive shape. The GameCube inputs are well hidden, but easily accessible.

Yes we are in love. But even the most avid reviewers can agree, Nintendo should be congratulated on designing a usable and sexy console.

‘CoD3 does what is expected, in many ways. It delivers the CoD experience with the next-generation console touch. The improvements are minor; the campaign is tough and entertaining while being based on actual events of the war.‘

Check out the reasonably nice things Gamezone had to say about Call of Duty 3

GameSpot has continued their Wii review streak with a close up look at Rayman Raving Rabbids!

‘Rabbids; lots of quirky, off-beat minigames make good use of the controls; more rabbids; plenty of legitimately funny humor; so many, many rabbids.‘

GameSpot likes Rayman Raving Rabbids, and loves Rabbids.

‘Call of Duty 3’s action is fast-paced and the sound effects and music are some of the best in any game this year. However, a complete lack of multiplayer really hurts the game’s value when compared to other versions, or other first-person shooters in general. The basic controls are good, but the Wii just isn’t designed for games that require so many different inputs. It’s hard to shake the feeling that the game would have played better had it been designed for the Wii from the ground up, but for anyone who considers themselves a fan of the series and doesn’t mind learning a vastly different control scheme, Call of Duty 3 is worth a look.’

Read the Call of Duty3 Wii Review from GameSpot

Or not…

GameDaily has an interesting new article up, explaining in deatil why they believe that the Nintendo Wii will not rock the world.

‘…this editorial is about is dispelling the notion that the Wii will mark Nintendo’s return to the top of the home console world. Nintendo is trying to reach the great, untapped masses with their system, similar to what they’ve started to achieve with the DS. However, we believe that the system will ultimately end up in third place in terms of global market share, echoing the sentiment of numerous analysts.‘

Read the article

GameSpot is another major gaming website that took great delight in tearing apart Red Steel.
‘Clunky sword-fighting sequences slapped into the middle of all the shooting; inane story chock-full of painful dialogue and voice acting; numerous noticeable bugs and glitches.‘

Read the GameSpot Review

Red Steel looks like a worthy game to keep your Wii warm this holiday season, but it only half succeeds: The game itself is entertaining, but ultimately forgettable. You see, Red Steel slices its creativity off at the controls. Once you get over the novelty of cappin’ fools with a plastic remote, you’re left with just an average shooter that does absolutely nothing you haven’t seen (or shot) a million times before.

Oh noes. Oh dear! We had our fingers crossed over Red Steel, the Wii first person shooter promised so much, but e3 negativity was rampant. We won’t pass judgement until we play, but for those who are carefully selecting which Wii titles to buy at launch, this article may change minds.

Read the review