Can you top 105 in Archery on expert difficulty? How about 999 on the Table Tennis return challenge? Probably not, but if you've got a bit of free time you might want to check out the official Wii Sports Resort records, as you can never really tell if you're just average at a game or some sort of supernatural freak without official scores to compare yourself to. I personally think I might have a chance at the expert Wakeboarding title, as long as no one has to actually see me doing it to qualify.

Check out a selection of the scores below, or head over to http://www.twingalaxies.com to see how you rank in thousands of other games. Your next obsession could be waiting just around the corner. Next stop, your own hot sauce.

Selected Wii Sports Resort Records and Rankings as of 9/2/09:

Archery (Expert Difficulty)
1. 105 points - Brandon Skar, Snoqualmie, WA
2. 80 points - Nick Manns, Huntington, WV
3. 68 points - Lance Eustache, Arverne, NY

Table Tennis (Return Challenge)
1. 999 - Brandon Skar, Snoqualmie, WA
2. 271 - Marc Cohen, Henderson, NV
3. 204 - Lance Eustache, Arverne, NY

Bowling (100 Pin Game)
1. 2,098 - Marc Cohen, Henderson, NV
2. 1,682 - Julie Mee, Rhyl, United Kingdom
3. 1,182 - Ronald Loch, Garland, TX

Basketball (3 point challenge)
1. 26 - Lance Eustache, Arverne, NY
2. 25 - Brandon Skar, Snoqualmie, WA
3. 24 - Clabe Anglin, Krum, TX

Wakeboarding (Expert Difficulty)
1. 1,581 - Brandon Skar, Snoqualmie, WA
2. 1,266 - Lance Eustache, Arverne, NY
3. 820 - Ginger Stowe, Grand Rapids, MI

I challenge Kotaku's Mike Fahey, Wired's Chris Kohler, and Destructoid's Nick Chester to an arm wrestle. Mike is allowed to substitute for Cresente if he can't make it, but in that case I'm allowed to take my elbow off the table and Brian isn't - Crescente looks like he works out, so I need any advantage I can get.

Obviously Mr. Teasdale has never seen a group shot of the Kotaku crew, or he'd know exactly how relieved he should be that Crecente is attending PAX and not me. Not only am I huge, but I own a copy of "Over The Top" on DVD. Check out his blog post for the rest of the challenges, including a manly hug between rhythm game developers, as well as details on Rock Band 2's new Tour Challenges.

PAX and Tour Challenges [Rock Band Blogs - Thanks Smidget!]

I do love Lost Garden's prototyping challenge, though I will never in my life prototype any game, even simple and super cute ones. However, I always love seeing what other people come up with — it's an interesting exercise in observing the design process with playable prototypes. The latest is a cute idea that takes advantage of 3D engines and real-time shade. The basic idea is that you play a farmer who has to save his haul from the scorching sun:

You play the part of a rugged mushroom rancher who must collect adorable sentient mushrooms living in the shade. All you need to do is run up to a planted mushroom and touch it. It will pop out of the ground and start following you around. Lead it back to the start location and you'll be awarded multiple point based off its size.

Unfortunately, it is a scorchingly hot day. You can meander about the landscape of giant grassy blocks with impunity due to your meglo-awesome wide brimmed hat, but the mushrooms wilt quickly in sunlight. To lead them back successfully, you'll need to keep to the shadows and plot the optimal path home.

There's a lot more in terms of what the game needs to include, and unlike a lot of previous prototyping challenges, Danc is not providing art assets, though he does make some suggestions on what sorts of options people could employ. So, if you're sitting around this month and are itching for a challenge, wander over and check it out.

Shade: A game prototyping challenge [Lost Garden]

It's a job I don't envy — my research this year has partially comprised of looking at translations going the other way (from English to Chinese), and it's been very enlightening to look at the various ways titles get translated. They range from near word-for-word translations to titles that have radically different emphases than their American counterparts. Add to that the job of translating everything inside a work, and that's a lot of acculturalization that needs to be done. What games have done it well? What have really fell on their face? And if you had a chance to rename something - or tweak interior translations - what would it be?

Game Design Challenge: Rename Katamari Damacy [GameCareerGuide]

Tonight Team Kotaku will be taking on Team Gizmodo in a little Halo 3 bloodbath. I say bloodbath because while the Giz folks have been training like Spartan warriors, getting online every night to play as a codified team, I've had trouble getting our team to stay awake long enough to sign in to Live.

Tonight's match-up, which I will be streaming live on Justin.TV, will be a bit more like frat boys rolling a bunch of drunks then an actual fight, with shots being fired from both sides.

Our team will consist of myself, Fahey, Mark and Luke, while Team Giz will be Brian, Jason, Matt and Travis. Feel free to debate here which of our team:

A: Chokes on his own vomit
B: Wets himself
C: Gets an actual kill

That young whippersnapper isn't the first to get such a mark; I had this done in Edinburgh in the year of our Lord 2005, shortly after finishing the game. As far as I know, I was the first bold dumbass to go ahead and do it. I've also attached a photo of my Ico tattoo as well, because ... well how many other people are there with Ico tattoos, I ask you?

Move over X, X, A, B, X, Y, A, B. X, A, L, R, X, Y, A, there's a new button code in town. The DS button code. The folks over at DSButtons.com have come up with their own secret language for DS owners who not only want to let everyone know that they REALLY like their favorite portable, but also want to let any potential fellow DSers know that they are ready for a race or just want to come by and pick their fruit.

Your get your choice of 4 different game buttons plus an "I <3 DS" button. There are currently nine game styles to choose from including: Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart, Big Brain Academy, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing, Tetris, Star Fox Command, Metroid Prime Hunters, Mario Hoops 3 on 3. Shipping is included in the $12 price tag.

So pull out your eighties jacket with the skinny lapels, flip the collar up, pin these puppies on and take your DS to the streets for an all out Mario Kart throwdown with a stranger in front of the local fruiterer. Flynn De Marco

DS Buttons [DSButtons.com]
[via: Wonderland]

Reader Mike is up for a senseless challenge, it appears. After reading Ashcraft's post about the guy who decided to do some 360 standing, he decided to test it out himself. Despite weighing in at 155 pounds he said he had no problem standing atop his 360 to check out the view.

For our next reader challenge we dare you to send us your name, date of birth, social security number and bank account details. Go on, you know you want to. Brian Crecente

Guy Stands on 360 Doesn't Break It, We Gasp [Kotaku]

A writer over on Bona Fide Reviews walks readers through the dangers of making idle claims when you are about to take Fatal1ty head-on in a little Quake 4. John was the first guy picked in a raffle to play against the gamer at CES. Unfortunately, John made the mistake of saying that Fatal1ty wouldn t score a single point against him.

Fatal1ty decided to have some fun and both win the match and prove John right. Final score: -11 to 0. Excellent pwnage.

What s it like to play Fatal1ty? [Bona Fide Reviews]

NinEyez emailed to tell us about an amazing first-person shooter duel he witnessed at CES. Over at the Creative Booth the marketers had set up a Try to Beat Fatal1ty event that was set to run throughout the day. NinEyez hung around for awhile to watch the pro-gamer hand the masses their asses in lopsided fragfests.

The first two bouts he watched ended in scores of roughly 23 to 2. As NinEyez put it, it was like watching a starving dog maul a t-bone. Then the people running the show drew out another contestant (the gamers were all picked randomly) and Nordic walked to the stage. Nordic has placed in the top ten in CPL, so NinEyez stuck around to see how things would shake down.

He describes what he witnessed as one of the most evenly matched shooter show-downs he s ever seen and called it a match of beautiful intensity. Instead of the mayhem, carnage and ultra-fast kills of previous matches, the game turned into a thing of almost pure strategy. The showdown eventually came down to sudden death overtime and Nordic won.

Final score
Nordic: 5
Fatal1ty: 4