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    Playing Tetris helps with trauma, study says

    January 7, 2009 - 5:26pm


    We've always been big fans of Tetris, to tell the truth, and now it would seem the game has real health benefits. According to a study done in the UK, the game can help those with post-traumatic stress disorder. The study exposed volunteers to disturbing imagery and, for some, allowed them to play the game after. For those that played the game, stress levels reduced and they suffered from fewer flashbacks of the disturbing imagery.So, make more time in your busy life to play some games. It's good for you!

    At home in Monster Hunter G's Kokoto Village

    January 7, 2009 - 4:30pm


    Our first devent look at Monster Hunter G's Wii visuals comes from Famitsu's introduction to Kokoto Village, the main town location in the game. As for those visuals, they fall squarely into the "kinda rough" range, as we'd expect from an unaltered PS2 game.The town features a farm, which provides extra items to players willing to spend the time on upgrades and minigames. It also features various shops including weapon and armor shops. Many of the Famitsu shots show possible armor configurations, against a backdrop of the house containing the item box you can use to store those weapons and armor.

    3 million copies of Wii Fit sold in Japan

    January 7, 2009 - 3:36pm


    The Japanese love themselves some Wii Fit, as the game has managed to sell 3 million copies in just a year of being available over there. Of course, selling 3 million copies of anything is incredibly impressive, but, for Nintendo, it's just another drop in the company's bottomless money well. Must be nice!How many of you ended up snagging a copy of Wii Fit? Does it still get used in the house? Or is it gathering dust in some dark closet somewhere?

    iPhone adventure game 1112 coming to WiiWare?

    January 7, 2009 - 2:41pm

    The developer behind the iPhone adventure game, 1112, recently left a post on NeoGAF explaining that the title has garnered some interest from a friend at "a small Wii/DS company." Alexandre Leboucher, who's responsible for 1112, made the post and said that a friend approached him about bringing the game to Wii. Sounds all well and good, but there's the potential for a slight snag. See, the current cap on WiiWare downloads is 42mb and, well, 1112 weighs in at 128mb on the iPhone. [Via Joystiq]

    Partying, Racing on the MySims agenda

    January 7, 2009 - 1:47pm


    We almost forgot that EA planned to expand its MySims franchise on the Wii and DS, but then we remembered this post, and also that this is EA.MySims Party was last discussed in February, and is exactly what you'd expect: 50-odd waggle-heavy minigames for up to four players. Yes, alright, it's another minigame collection, but at least the MySims games tend to be polished. This Party starts in March, and will be a budget title.Of more interest to us is the newest member of EA's chibi family, MySims Racing. EA has another kart game in the works, and an excellent kart-racing option already exists for Wii owners, but we still liked the look of the car design mode in the trailer (after the break!), and the idea of befriending other MySims to get car blueprints and spare parts is a neat way of tying the franchise together. MySims Racing will also be a cheaper-than-normal title, but there's one possible dealbreaker: no online play.

    MySims Party

    MySims Racing
    [Via press release]

    CES 2009: SanDisk brings the power of the Rock Band 2 logo to a new SD card

    January 7, 2009 - 12:50pm

    SanDisk's new 2GB Rock Band 2 SD card is sure to nab some confused gamers and parents when it comes out this spring. It's got the Rock Band 2 logo on it, you see, and that means it works with Rock Band 2. Also, it's white, so you can tell it's a Wii accessory! And it's only about twice as much as you could pay for a 2GB SD card from reputable brands like ... SanDisk!Compared to some other Wii accessories, this one's not so bad. It actually is a working SD card that is just as usable as any other for Rock Band 2, copying VC and WiiWare games, and saving photos and stuff. It's just that you lose a lot of money when you buy an SD card from the video game aisle -- like, for example, SanDisk's Gaming SD card --instead of the camera accessories aisle.

    Oh snap! Mushroom Men dev has Deadly words

    January 7, 2009 - 11:55am


    In an interview with MTV Multiplayer, Dan Borth, lead developer on Red Fly Studio's Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars, offers his thoughts on the market for "core" Wii games, his own game's chances on a system dominated by Wii Fit and such, and designing a game to be accessible to a wide and varied audience.Oh, and he calls out Deadly Creatures. When asked if he's familiar with Rainbow Studios' critter-based brawler, Borth responded with: "I have heard about Deadly Creatures. I have many opinions on that game, especially how it came into being right after THQ received our pitch document for Mushroom Men. I will let you draw your own conclusions."We can't say if there really was any such malevolent behavior behind the conception of Deadly Creatures, but oh snap just the same. And while we may not have seen a parallel before, now that he mentions it, they're both 3D action/fighting games about small creatures adventuring, unseen, in the human world. But we still think Creatures could turn out awesome.

    Wii Fanboy Review: Sandy Beach

    January 7, 2009 - 11:00am


    While not all of Hudson's WiiWare offerings are necessarily successful in terms of sales or critical response, they've been responsible for some of the best, and best-selling, games on the service. And even when they don't do so well, effort is evident. So why can't Hudson's parent company, Konami, take a lesson from their subsidiary? Since the launch of the service, they've released only two games: Critter Round-Up and this. So they've released, like, one and a quarter games.Sandy Beach is a baffling release -- in that I can't fathom how Konami saw this and decided there was enough game to be worth releasing. It's really two games, but the sum fails to provide enough value for the 500 Wii Point cost.

    Planet Pachinko dropping into WiiWare this Monday

    January 7, 2009 - 10:00am

    Developer Allied Kingdoms has announced that their game Planet Pachinko will be out on WiiWare this Monday. Wait, come back -- it's not a pachinko game. Yes, we thought it was a pachinko game too, as will everyone else browsing through WiiWare games. It's actually a clever-looking platform/shooting game that takes place inside a pachinko machine! Basically, it involves shooting enemies while also staving off falling pachinko balls.The combination of small, enclosed spaces and shmup-like patterns of hundreds of projectiles gives Planet Pachinko a sort of Bangai-O vibe, though that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be as wonderful as Treasure's series. For 500 points, though, it might be worth trying. Now, who else doesn't believe this will actually come out when the developers think it will? Because Nintendo doesn't really go in for that whole "people knowing when they'll be able to buy things from the Wii Shop" business.

    Wii Fit helps amputees adjust in the UK

    January 6, 2009 - 9:20pm


    Despite some saying that Wii Fit is only gathering dust in the closet, UK amputees are using the software and bundled Balance Board to help them with their treatment. This isn't the first we've heard about a Nintendo product helping folks out with their physical therapy, but this is definitely one of the most interesting. Rather than just getting people to be more active by playing Wii Sports or something, the Balance Board and Wii Fit software are helping people adapt to their new prosthetic limbs. From walking to simply leaning, it's helping them adapt to their new, albeit very unfortunate, way of life.