Wii

I Need More Mario Baseball

February 11, 2019 Editorials

There are two things I love in life that when mixed are the perfect combination, and that is Mario and America’s greatest pastime. Sure, realistic games like MLB The Show are fun, but it’s way more entertaining to play against friends with a roster filled with Mario and his pals and enemies. I’m sorry, it just is. Mario Superstar Baseball is a game that I am always down to play. I still have my Gamecube (the Gamecube Mario ball is better than the Wii’s) and will take on anyone who is foolish enough to challenge me to a game of five innings. We’re turning off power-ups though; power-ups are a total scrub move. What makes the game so fun is the fact that you can pick a new team every time, and each player is unique and skilled in their particular area. You could go for a team filled with…

Rumor: Nintendo Switch “Mini” set for 2019 Release

February 6, 2019 News

The Nintendo Switch is a smashing success. With millions of consoles having sold worldwide, Nintendo has put a truly historical gaming machine on the market. That being said, it would appear that the company is far from done iterating on the console. The Nintendo Switch went on sale back in March 2017. A hybrid console, the Switch is uniquely designed to be played from the couch as well as on the go. Just as with the Wii and WiiU, the Switch has been experiencing incredible hardware sales. As of the end of 2018, over an estimated 32 million consoles have been sold worldwide. As well as the console is selling, Nintendo is potentially now looking to buff things up even further. As reported by Japanese news outlet Nikkei, a smaller version of the Switch is potentially being targeted for a 2019 release at a lower price point. The console will…

Prediction: VR is a Hop, Skip, and a Killer App Away From Changing the Game

January 31, 2019 Uncategorized

Throughout the history of gaming, there have been a select few technological turning points that changed the direction of video games forever. You could say they include: the introduction of arcades, the arrival of home consoles (and subsequently, the death of arcades), and the leap from 2D to 3D graphics. These advances changed the landscape of games and decided the next playing field that they would exist on. After 3D graphics, though, what is leap is left? Have they all been leapt over, or is there yet another one that will change the direction of gaming like its predecessors before? Well, to better understand the scope of things thus far, we can divide advances in gaming technology into two categories: revolutionary and refining. “Revolutionary” includes the aforementioned leaps that we just talked about; the ones that introduce a whole new level of play. “Refining” refers to the steps taken along…

I Miss the Mii Channel

June 12, 2023 Editorials

There was something magical about creating your Mii. Picking out your hair, eyes, height weight, favorite color, it was all such a mystical experience. Soon, my Mii wasn’t enough. I had to have more. My brothers and I would binge-create Mii’s until our Mii Channel was full of a Mii mob. We would create Mii’s modeled after family, friends, and even characters from tv and movies. The Mii addiction was all too real. We needed help. Creating Mii’s was always entertaining. If you were bored, try creating some of the most absurd Mii’s as possible. It was such a creative, refreshing idea. The fun thing with a horde of Mii’s in your plaza was that they would pop up in your games. If you were playing Wii Sports, your created Mii’s would become your teammates or audience, and it was cool to see which ones made the cut. Taking on…

Don’t Lose ‘Wii Sports’

January 31, 2019 Editorials

The other day my mind was racing, and somehow took me back to the days when I first owned the Nintendo Wii. It was a system sought after by so many, sold out practically everywhere since Nintendo didn’t meet supply with the insane demand for the console. The Wii was revolutionary, and I was ecstatic when my parents surprised me with one after dinner on a random evening. Naturally, the first game everyone came across on the Wii was Wii Sports, which came with the system and still holds up. Then I caught myself thinking – what if I lost this game over time? You can’t buy the single game by itself. If I lost the game, I would be without Wii Sports for the rest of my life. Wii Sports was an incredible way to show off the Wii’s motion controls for the first time. There were many different sports to…

No Plans yet for a Nintendo Switch Successor, but What About a New Switch?

January 26, 2019 Opinionated News

Nintendo and their consoles have seen a rollercoaster of success over the years, but they are very pleased in recent times, throwing their plumber’s cap in the air at the surging success of their Switch console. They have seemed to have found a happy medium where they can sell a console with the popularity of the Wii, but with the focus being on traditional first-party games, in the spirit of the Wii U. As reported and translated by Nintendo Everything, there are no plans for a price cut or successor to the Nintendo Switch, as stated by Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa through The Sankei News. Furukawa references the Switch’s great sales numbers and their lofty target of selling 20 million units this fiscal year. In short, they have no plans on stopping the Switch train anytime soon. But if there is potentially a new Switch version on the horizon, that train…

End of an Era: Wii Shop Channel Shutting Down Within Days

November 4, 2023 News

The Wii Shop Channel has been live for nearly 12 years. Despite the smashing success of the Wii and the continued achievements of the Wii U, it is now the era of the Switch. With the Nintendo Switch having topped the hardware sales charts for 2018, it seems few fans are complaining. That being said, it’s still the end of an era. Now Nintendo fans are about to experience the brunt end of that loss. After nearly a solid dozen years of selling WiiWare and virtual console games, the Wii Shop Channel is now planning to shut down on Jan. 30, 2019. Many of the games offered within the service were never given a physical copy release or shifted to newer Nintendo consoles. Beyond that, Nintendo reportedly plans to eventually cease providing the ability to redownload previous purchases from the now fading channel. Consequently, many of these wonderful games will…