On the one hand, Nintendo has stated repeatedly that they would have 4 million Wiis out before the end of the year. Their publicity machine has made an effort to emphasize how many they'll have available in comparison to the competition.

On the other hand, launch shortage seems to be the in thing now. Selling out of all your stock is a sign of success, regardless of how big the original stock actually is. It's pretty certain that Nintendo got more units out there than Sony, or Microsoft at this time last year. But Neither Nintendo or Sony has released hard numbers, so it's hard to say for sure exactly how many anybody has shipped of anything. There's always this to look at though... not sure how accurate it is. But it's interesting. Unfortunately, it seems Nintendo has joined in the same game as all the rest. They may have made more, but they certainly didn't make enough.

Anyway, I would imagine a bit of effort would yield a Wii by Christmas. I have heard that shipments should be arriving fairly frequently. It's sure to be a hot Christmas item, but hopefully supply will catch up to demand... soon?

I assume you meant a Zeke "soon." :)

Oh yeah, God of Thunder. The whole thing's been released as freeware, by the way. I can e-mail the walkthroughs I've found, too. Everyone should try it, seriously.

So, are these Whose Line points, or do I get to cash them in to get a mention in a TJI? That'd be neat.

For some reason, the phrase "smash my Wii" seems to evoke all sorts of fodder for crude jokes. They could've tweaked it a little from "smash my Revolution" to "Wii are the smashers" or something.

I heard from a friend at work that the next batch of Wiis weren't coming until mid-Dec. I have no idea how he knew that or if he's right.

I'd just like to voice my approval of smashmywii and their affiliates. I wish I could've done that, smash a game system right in front of the people who've been waiting in line for hours, if not days. You also have to give them credit for maintaining that original NESs should never be smashed in that fashion.

Well, I think that three weeks between batches isn't too bad. Gotta wonder if they've found any bugs that had to be fixed first.

Hey, Zeke. Just saw this: http://wii.ign.com/articles/747/747353p1.html

Apparently people aren't smashing their Wiis, but the Wiis are smashing lots of other things, like TVs and windows...

Been hearing about these.

I liked the comparison clip -- the one from the bowling alley. :D

Doing a little research for my sister, I've reached the following conclusion as to the best way to obtain a Wii at this point in time.

I don't know how these cycles work in other countries, but here major stores put out ads in paperson Sundays and put out new stock the same day. I have read reports that stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart have been hoarding their stock of Wiis until they reach a certian number, and then advertising them on Sunday.

So check the ads before stores open, then head to the store if they're pimping the Wii. Odds are, you'll be successful.

Amazing what possible problems fly over the heads of engineers these days...:)

I wonder how they're gonna fix this problem? I know that people will always feel the urge to swing those things around like the commercials and printed ads.

"Pimping the Wii." You're really determined to make inappropriate jokes fly into my head, aren't you?

Oo! Good to know. According to the article, Canadian stores should be restocking tomorrow or Friday... of last week. Shoot. Well, I don't think my local stores have got them yet, so I'll keep checking back.

As for smashing stuff with the Wiimote, Penny Arcade has a somewhat different perspective from the WHaP guys (hmm, wonder if that acronym's intentional).

Uh, Z, play in moderation, we'll miss you if you fall into the bottomless gaming pit and forget to update. :)

Ooo, ya think...?

So, has anyone here in the forums fallen victim to Flying Wiimote yet?

Only victim to the addictive gaming it offers.

(the wrist strap is your friend, people)

Um, if the straps are defective, I'd say that they aren't, necessarily. If you have no strap at all, you'd tend to be more careful waving that thing around. Without a strap, you tend to be more cautious and less flamboyant.

(ahem) While it's still up, I invite all of you to witness how Microsoft pwn3d Gamespot's PS3 page.

Sony, I hope your eyes are as wide as your gargantuan, monstrosity of a console.

And Microsoft -- I never thought I'd say this, but you're okay in my book.

Edit: and... it was taken down. Shucks. The Penny Arcade forums have pictures here (first post).

Whoa! That's impressive even for Microsoft -- especially since the browser in that screenshot is Firefox. (It would have been easy enough for them to sneak something into IE.)

I don't know how it's selling, but the PS3 is definitely losing the battle of acclaim. Everyone seems to be dumping on it. VG Cats, for example, is normally an equal-opportunity mocker, but they did a particularly biting PS3 comic. And YAD really ripped Sony a new one on release day; I found it Bryan's best article in ages, though I'm biased.

I'm seriously wondering what these guys are paying their PR departments for. After at least four prior generations, plus the relatively current sales figures of the X-Box 360, both Nintendo and Sony would have a stinkin' idea of how many consoles to make.

In one of the articles it said that PS3's take longer because you can't just crank out Blue-Ray drives. Uh, simple answer there, folks. Build PS3s without them, but make them upgradable later. I have no idea how many Blue-Ray movies there are out there, but it's not that many yet. Even if you can't upgrade them, there are people who don't care about Blue-Ray yet. I know I don't. I'm still waiting for holocubes like in the h2g2 movie. It has to be possible.

I'm here to sing a song on the wonders of the wii. (Also because I'm bored at work too)
Mario Party 8 is totally fantastic! Really good use of the wiimote.... could be better/faster, but a great game. Resident Evil 4 Wii is amazing too. And I keep going back to Wii Sports...
Everyone I've shown the Wii too want's to get one... From 10 year olds, to middle aged women.
I love that console.
In the words of Dukat: Everyday bring new reports of victorys for (The Wii)...it's only a matter of time before the (PS3/360) collapse and join (Nintendo).

Or something like that.

This week is the first time I've been able to really try the Wii. I was at a family reunion this week and one of my cousins brought his system. I really enjoyed playing it, even though it didn't quite live up to my expectations from reading about it (few things do). The remote is a fun way to control games, but using it as a pointer takes some getting used to.

Of course, the only game I played on it was Wii Sports, so I didn't exactly get to see everything the system could do. On top of that, my (younger) siblings seemed to spend all their free time playing it; beating each other up in Wii Sports boxing or making Miis (Miii?) of Naruto or Megaman characters. And that's when they weren't playing our DS or my brother's Gameboy Color or the Gameboy Advance I just bought. So...I guess the moral is: my family likes Nintendo.

Gameboy Color...ah, those were the days...

Of course, I'm hardly one to speak to the point. I still play ORIGINAL Tetris, for goodness sake.

And what's wrong with still playing the original Tetris, pray?

Nothing's wrong, it's just that with no system more advanced than N64 in my possession, my opinions about modern gaming systems is more based on superficial examination than concrete experience.

I was reading a forum - somewhere - the other day. And, funny enough, the major opinions there seemed to be against the Wii. Was quite heated too. I can't just understand it, though. Many of the 360's owners seemed to be happy with their system, while still complementary of the Wii, but many of the PS3 people were almost fanatical about how crap the Wii is and how great the PS3 is going to be 'Next year'. Declaring that the Wii sales to be a 'fad', and that by christmas it will all be over. Also that the Wiimote was silly, and the Wii has no good games on it.
And it just makes me think, do these people deal in real logic?
I never believed the Gamecube would win the 7th war, it didn't have the power, appeal or games to do so. Not saying it was a flop - far from it. It had some amazing games, but against the Xbox and PS2.... well.... it came up short.
But the Wii... It just is amazing.
One guy on the forum (A 360 owner, no less), said about it, that maybe, it didn't have the killer hardcore games yet (I.e Gears of war, Halo?). But, he said he was at a family do, to which someone brough a Wii. And he was amazed at the intrest in it. He said that no other console had ever had so many people crowding around it before - 40 year old women, 10 year old boys, Fathers, Grandparents.... all rushing to have a go.
Yes the Wii can play like a normal console... with normal controls and games, and while it may not be as powerful as the others, I think the PS2 showed that you don't need to be the most powerful, to win.
But the 'ace' that the Wii has, is it's innovation.
I really can't see how it could fail, to be honest. if it kept going like it was now, I'm sure it would be a success, but we all know consoles do get better. The big titles are gonna start coming out. The usual ones and the new hits. But the thing I'm most excited to see, is what Nintendo are going to come up with next. What new idea. What new innovation they are gonna add to the Wii next...
Taking the DS as an example.. when it first was spoken about it sounded silly. Two screens? I must say I thought the idea was a bit stupid. But now I can't think off playing any different way. And it's hugely Sucessful. One of the most sucessful handhelds ever.
And also, there is the prospect to linking the DS to the Wii... meaning you would have not only the Wiimote to control games with movement, but touch screen input and microphone...
Summing up: I really am an all round console guy, have a PS2/Xbox - might even get a 360 soon. But really, how can people fail to be impressed by what Nintendo have achieved so far?

I can't help but smirk at the "just wait until next year! PS3 is going to eat the Revolution for breakfast then!" mentality. I'm quite frankly curious about how many PS3 sales are driven by the desire for Blu-Ray players that can do other stuff, too. After all, I do believe that I've read that backwards compatiblity for the PS3 is actually DECREASING as newer models are chucking expensive hardware necessary for proper compatibility in leiu of software upgrades. "Just wait a few months and we'll get your compatibility back!" seems to be a common statement by Sony.

Of course, just today I was reading about how some common sentiments about the Wiimote either result in games being to easy or too hard.

The Gamecube lost the war because A. no DVD playback B. smaller disks mean less content C. people are fickle. The other day I was reading an article written by a gamer who's getting a little ticked off that so much of the nextgen games are being designed from a "let's focus on high-tech graphics instead of plot and replayability" point of view. That's one reason why the Revolution is winning. After all, it's hardly the highdef king. It's the playability, the fun factor as it were, that wins gaming wars in the end. Consider that I play Tetris and Mario 3, STILL. Why? The fun factor. You can get immersed in it. From what I've heard, the Revolution has a fun factor that PS3 can't hope to have.

Pretty true... Like the resident Evil 4 Wii... Using the wiimote does make it ever so much easier...
Yeah. Nail on the head stuff there. What games do you replay again and again? Ok, things like GTA are gonna be in there somewhere, but mainly it games like Mario Kart, Smash Brothers, Multiplayer sports games... that sort of thing... Why? Because it's fun playing against other people! And something like Wii sports is great for that. It really was a genuis idea giving that game away free. Almost every people I show it to, Gamers and non Gamers alike are amazed by it, and even consider buying a Wii themselves...
To be honest when I think of the DS and the Wii, they just feel fresh to me. Exciting. Not that I don't think the PS3 and 360 haven't got their good/strong points, but, there isn't that much... new about them is there?
God Bless Nintendo.
And, if the mess this one up, I will find Mario and behead him.

http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/...manifesto.html

I can't help but bring up the Gamer's Manifesto again. A good read. I especially point your attention to 2, 3, and 16.

I think the thing with the PS3 can be traced right back to the days of the original PS, of which even I, a technosceptic (once I have any piece of tech/software I usually love it, but initially I almost invariably look askance at it, and umm and ahh and try to poke as many holes as possible, and complain about how it's all too complicated, or they changed things too much, and how it wasn't like this in the old days. And then 6 months later I'll dig it out and love it. The one exception was the KotOR series, which from the word "go" I thought was great. Whew, what a long bracket...), had.

Back then, quite simply, the PSX won hands down. What competition was there? The Dreamcast? Don't make me laugh. The N64? What did it have beyond Goldeneye? Sure, it had Mario; the PSX had Crash Bandicoot, which was new, shiny, and above all, self-mocking. Mario racing? PSX had enough racing to slake anyone's thirst. And it looked better, and used CDs, which was somehow cooler than those naff-looking cartridges. It was the one, and we were fiercely loyal to it. Sony had done right by us, not like the second-rate N64, or the frankly laughable Dreamcast (what happened to that thing?!).

And then there was PS2. And I thought "sod that, I'm not paying £250 bloody quid for that. And the consoles passed me by. It didn't for others though, and sure, Sony had cut a few corners, so what? It was still a decent console, even if most of the really great games were just continuations of PSX games.

And now there's PS£, and it's a double-dealing, dirty-fighting fraud. But it's theirs, and theirs that loyalty, all the way back from then, and the memories.

That's what I think, anyway.

And also, Nintendo games are frankly, bloody annoying. Always have been. Always just too difficult, just beyond the point of being challenging. And repetitive, and tended, at least in the old days (by which I mean, Game Boy/GBC/NES/SNES/N64), to have the most annoying soundtracks possible.

If you want to know what I mean, play Super Mario Land 2. It would drive anyone mad, it really, really would.

Well, I always thought N64 had Mario 64, Goldeneye, Smash Brothers, and Ocarina of Time. At least four killer apps.

People keep bashing game cartridges, and I don't know why.

1. You can save game data right on the thing.
2. More durable than discs. Casual use won't hurt them, an accidental drop won't ruin them.
3. No loading times! Once again, the Gamer's Manifesto.
4. Hacking into them with Game Sharks or whatever is A LOT easier.

As for old school soundtracks: they're awesome. I direct you to Overclocked Remix (ocremix.org).

Bloody funny stuff! I've read the whole site. Thanks for that, I needed something to do for a bit!
But it is all true. Most of the crap in games is just lazyness on the makers part...

Well, no prob.

Yes, but discs are shinier.
Not SML2, to take an example.

And round.

And round, yes. Shiny and round. Round and shiny. Not grey and square.

Could we stop impersonating The Tick please?

No kidding! :) And thanks for the link to that "Manifesto".

No prob.

It's somewhat sad to say, but I seem to have mostly lost my appetite for console gaming of any sort these days. I still give Gran Turismo 4 a whirl now and then, and even more occasionally I shoot stuff up in one of the GTA titles, but that's about it. What I have been playing is Civ 3 with occasional bouts of SimCity 3000 and OpenTTD in between, and hankering mightily for Theme Hospital, which hopefully I will be reunited with before the year is out.

I'd whole-heartedly agree that there's too much emphasis on shinyness these days - I recently bought Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War, which looks superb, and was fun for a little while, but has become just a tad repetitive. Sticking good graphics on top of a fun game is grand (witness Startopia), but almost nobody does, which is... depressing.

Oh, I know how you feel. These days I have the following games on sort of perpetual backburners:

Majora's Mask
Mario Advance 4
Goldeneye
SimTower
King's Quest 8

For me at present it's just Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome, and DEFCON (thermonuclear war, yay!).