Part of the reason I love the Wii (aside from Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) is the way you control games by moving the motion sensor controller. Suddenly Nintendo has leveled the playing field and made video games that everyone can play without memorizing which color button reloads and which one pistol whips. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but simplicity goes a long way when you’re a video game company that wants to sell your product to as many people as possible.

Now, Nintendo has gone and improved the controller with the Wii Motion Plus add-on. which more accurately senses how the arm moves in using the Wiimote. All it takes is plugging a little square device into the bottom of the remote and now your movements register with more precision than before.

The device is set to debut with a new game called Wii Sports Resort, in which players (or, rather, their Miis) go to the beach and have fun… with more precision than ever before!

If the idea of playing frisbee with your dog at the beach doesn’t float your boat, the Wii Motion Plus will certainly help out your Sith-murdering ability with the upcoming Star Wars the Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels game that was a no-brainer from the day the Wii was unveiled.

What do you all think? Are you excited for Wii Motion Plus or would you rather see Nintendo get going on a Wii Hardrive?

I just zomged! Nintendo is partnering with Best Buy for one of the most epic displays of love that a company could have for its customers ever! There are going to be huge prizes for the top four finishers at each tournament venue. 256 people will be allowed in to compete and it is single elimination. This is going to be really interesting because the stakes are so high, yet no one has really had that much time to get used to a character or understand the nuances of the new game. I hope they hold future tournaments after people have really gotten to know the new installment so we can find the true Smash Master. All though I am up farther in the Northwest, I am seriously considering driving to San Francisco to get my Brawl on. If you can’t go and need to be comforted, just read over the Smash Brothers character list and watch some more videos. If you are going, good luck! Check out the details below.

Smash Bros Brawl Tournament Details

Where and when:

Feb. 16
Doors open at 3 p.m.
Orpheum Theater
842 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Feb. 23
Doors open at 2 p.m.
Ten15 Folsom
1015 Folsom St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

March 1
Doors open at 3 p.m.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Olden Hall
100 Institute Road
Worcester, MA 01609

March 8
Doors open at 5 p.m.
Best Buy (NOHO)
622 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

“The grand prize winner will receive a crystal-coated Wii with a design from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a home theater system from Best Buy and a copy of the game. The second-place finisher will receive one Wii system and Wii Remote, one copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a $1,000 Best Buy gift card. The third-place finisher will receive a Wii and Wii Remote, a copy of the game and a $500 Best Buy gift card. The fourth-place finisher will receive a Wii, an extra Wii Remote, a copy of the game and a $250 Best Buy gift card. For more information about the tournaments, visit nintendo.com.”

Some box art images have surfaced for Mario Kart Wii, but we are skeptical. Here is the suspected box art:

Although it looks really cool, this image has been around for a while:

Now do a quick image search for “Wii Wheel” and on the first result page you have this:

So with some clever photoshopping, you can make that box art easy. It is really cool looking box art, and I would be glad if it was, but it looks to be photoshopped (I still could be wrong though :P)

Also, there has been some murmurs that you will be able to use your Miis in game. This could be pretty cool, especially if you were able to attribute stats and what not to each driver. Here is a screen I came across, but I won’t claim this as true yet, but it is fun to speculate!

Update: This list has been confirmed fake. Look back tomorrow for a comprehensive list of characters and other Smash Brothers goodies to drool over!

Update: Here is a video from gametrailers.com for all the people that are claiming fake. At about 00:12 they show the menu in action.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29966.html

This is a leaked screen from the Japanese version with all the characters listed!

Word on the streets of the internet say that Kid Icarus is coming to the Wii and is being developed by Factor 5. The game is supposedly going to be created from the ground up, which means they are actually going to use a new engine and we won’t get stuck with GameCube graphics.

As you can tell, us Wiitards loved the game Kid Icarus (see banner). Its game play is reminiscent of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, but with its vertical level design and the use of going out from one side of the screen and popping out on the other side, at the time, was incredibly innovative. I would love to see Pit enter into the 3D platforming realm because flying and shooting arrows at the same time is awesome. More later if the rumors turn out to be fact!

If anyone needs a refresher on the old Kid Icarus days check out this video and let the nostalgia rain.

The New York Times reported our friend Reggie as saying:

Mr. Fils-Aime said that future DS device will be more tightly integrated with its Wii console. Complete games as well as game samplers will be able to be downloaded into the Wii using its broadband connection, and then transferred wirelessly to the DS.

This is very promising for a few reasons. As talked about since the Gamecube/GBA days, there has been a want to integrate Nintendo’s awesome hand held systems and their consoles but it has never really been taken advantage of save for Crystal Chronicles. What Reggie is saying is far better than just interactivity between the two systems. In addition the Wii will function as a portal to download demos and full games to the DS.

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