Lately I’ve been checking out some of the “Recommended” blogs that Google Reader offers based on your RSS feeds, and one that I’ve started following as a result is called “Blag Hag”.
Yesterday she posted about bringing her Nintendo Wii to a party, but leaving behind the sensor bar that the Wiimote game controllers need to interact with the console. You should read her post to discover how she came up with a very creative workaround.
Looks like it’s Fun And Games Day here at BKO today.
Let’s get the important stuff out of the way first: how long would YOU last chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor? My score is 54 seconds, but I think I would have scored better if I had learned a few choke holds in my younger days.
Here’s a must-have toy: an RC race car that has a wireless camera built into the windshield so that you can experience the first-hand point-of-view of the car via a par of VR goggles. Here’s the demo video to show you what the experience is like:
Even though DVD sales have levelled off, it doesn’t look like the format is in any danger of dying out too soon. Nevertheless, this seemed like a clever niche product that should attract some people: full-length movies on a USB flash drive. The original “Ghostbusters” movie will be the first traditional Hollywood film released on USB flash media, according to this tech news website. Granted, “Ghostbusters” isn’t exactly a hot new release, but it was definitely a huge film in its day and has a lot of residual popularity. There are probably a gazillion similar older titles that could find some new sales by being marketed on USB sticks. The viewer can copy the film to their computer’s hard drive, but there’s DRM built into this (of course) that requires you to have the stick plugged in when you want to watch it. I can see this being very popular with business travelers who like to watch movies on their laptops while flying. And there’s also enough room left on the stick to load up some music, photos or other files, so it’s a bit more versatile than a pre-recorded DVD. The only thing that doesn’t work is the price point: £29.99 in the UK, which is well over $60. It needs to price out around $10, because these days you can buy a blank USB flash drive for about ten bucks and load your own movies and such, and it’s easy to find older movies in DVD bargain bins for $9.99.
Everybody seems to agree that the thing that separates the Wii video game console from the rest of the consoles on the market is the motion-sensitive game controller that makes you feel like you’re part of the game. We have been known to work up a bit of a sweat around here getting a little too intense swinging the remote when playing Wii baseball, and I swear I strained my wrist playing Wii bowling. But the haptic controller is sheer genius — the accelerometer in the iPhone is also turning into a platform for making fun games for that device as well. So why not extend the idea and make motion-controlled TV remotes? Instead of pressing the channel button, you just flick your wrist to flip through the 500 channels on your cable system, raise or lower volume, and so on. Sadly, this isn’t a real product yet, just a concept project from a company that has a whole bunch of cool ideas for digital media interaction.
What’s that you say? You don’t really want to play a video game about Alaskan crab fishermen?
Well, maybe you’ll appreciate this: a forthcoming video game for the Nintendo Wii and DS based on Iron Chef America!
Unlike yesterday’s video game mention, this one is 100% for real and on the way to an electronics store near you. There’s not a ton of information in this brief game site news piece, but my guess is that the game is heavily based on the very popular “Cooking Mama” series for Wii and DS, where you have to chop, slice, grate, fry, and get your dish on the plate before time runs out. Except it will feature Mario (Batali, not THAT Mario), Bobby, Morimoto, and the voice of Alton Brown.
We have “Cooking Mama” for both the Wii and the DS, and it’s a great concept for the Wii. It’s a little less challenging on the DS, because the motion is pretty much always the same. Charlotte likes to play the game, and the TV tie-in is very smart (although I personally would prefer a game based on the original Japanese show), so this one is likely to find its way to our house, too.
Now, somebody needs to come up with a “MythBusters” game (explosives sold separately) and a “Dirty Jobs” game and all my TV show game needs would be complete. (On second thought, the “Dirty Jobs” game would probably involve something very gross, so maybe ixnay on that one)
Back in February, I wrote about buying a Dance Dance Revolution game for Charlotte. All three of us actually had quite a good time playing with it for a while. In fact, as it turns out, I am pretty good (which surprised me as much as anybody) and hold the family high score record.
As with most toys, Charlotte’s interest in the game faded after a bit, but sometime back in the summer Bridget surprised us all one day when she brought home a Nintendo Wii. They’re still quite hard to come by, but she had found a Game Stop store that was a little out of the way, and got the manager to keep her posted on when he had some in stock. Well, it was a HUGE hit. The Wii Sports title is nothing short of totally brilliant, and if it were the only game that they ever made for the Wii, it would still be worth buying one. The three of us bowl, box and play baseball and tennis against each other all the time.
It will be interesting to see if over time any other killer games really do emerge for the Wii platform. I’ve looked at most of the titles that are available now, and I don’t see a single one that would be as much fun for the three of us as the sports game (well, okay, we also bought Wii Games, which is a similar title with things like pool and trap shooting, but it’s a weak sequel).
And I think this one will be the next killer game: DDR for Wii
I know that as soon as I read that it was available, it immediately went to the top of my list for Charlotte’s Christmas gifts. It’s going to be a Boogie Christmas at The (Real) Big Red House.
All of us at The (Real) Big Red House have been jonesin’ for a Nintendo Wii pretty badly, but the very tight availability of the consoles earlier in the year sent us in a slightly different direction — we each got a Nintendo DS Lite. Bridget got hers first as her birthday present, but before long the three of us were squabbling over whose turn it was to use it, so we bought one for Charlotte for her birthday in May. I then demanded one for myself as a Fathers’ Day gift, because I didn’t want to have to wait until August to get one.
So now that there’s no squabbling over who gets to use the console, instead we squabble over who gets to use which game cartridge. This little accessory solves some of that, plus opens up the possibilities of playing many different games (I will let you use your imagination as to wha tI’m talking about). When we’re not squabbling, though, we are having a ball. Unlike with the PS2 that sits forlorn and unloved in our family room, Charlotte can actually manage the simpler controls and has discovered that she likes to play video games. And we have had a ton of fun playing some multiplayer games together: part of our Fourth of July experience this year was all sitting together in the family room playing MarioKart.
The DS units have built-in wireless networking, you see, and can be used in ad-hoc mode to create a network between players within close physical range of one another. They can also connect to WiFi networks and connect to other players via the Internet. And, if you’ve got the web browser cartridge, you can use the DS as a portable web access device. I haven’t been able to get any of our DSes connected to our home wireless network yet, but that seems to be due to some quirk with our Linksys wireless router not liking any client that isn’t another piece of Linksys gear. But it hasn’t really been all that important yet, since we’re able to connect to one another.
Via Engadget, I read this AP story yesterday about a pilot program at Safeco Field in Seattle, where you can use your DS to connect to an interactive service offered by the ballpark. It lets you order food and drinks, watch video of the game in progress, play trivia games, and so on. It costs $5 to use the service, but considering how many different ways sporting events find to separate you from huge wads of cash, that seems pretty small. Personally, I think it’s probably worth the $5 to eliminate the hassle of buying food and drinks from the concession stands, regardless of whatever else it lets you do. (The photo above comes from a Flickr user who brought his DS to a game and tried it out.)
I know that some Mutual Friends of Torrez have had success web browsing with their DSes, so I look forward to trying that out sometime. If I could carry around my DS instead of a laptop, that would be pretty cool. And I suppose I could always duct tape my cellphone to my DS for a sort of homemade iPhone, but I might not have to for long. I read last week that there’s a video camera coming out for the DS soon, and the thing already has both a microphone and speakers, so it’s only a matter of time before someone gins up an IP videophone that uses Skype or some other Internet telephony service.
Comments:
We used my friends’ set at a Mariners Game and it was fun…in fact, I enjoyed it more than the game.
Posted by Karan [URL] on 07/10/07
Wired game column editor Chris Kohler had this interesting op-ed on Monday. He was writing in response to an interview in USA Today with another videogame industry journalist, wherein the journalist said he thought that the huge success of the Nintendo Wii was a “bubble” that could “burst any day”.
Kohler disagrees (as do most analysts), and offers up some thoughts on the four core segments of the videogame market — who they are, how they influence the game manufacturers, and how likely they are to be affected by a “bubble burst”. I thought it was very insightful. The editorial format more or less forces him to skip on fleshing out the ideas, but that’s why so many journalists write books based on their articles, isn’t it? I’d be very interested to see him expand on the typology of gamers and their relationships to the products themselves.
According to a video gamer website, Activision may be coming out with a Dancing With The Stars game for the Wii later this year.
So much for “Strawberry Shortcake Dance Dance Revolution”, it’s time to get ready to rumba!
I want the one that comes with Cheryl Burke included, please.
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