I never know quite what to where to these types of events. Sure, there will be some important people there, but it's also a party, and there will be video games. I suppose a good suggestion would be to wear something "business casual," but baby, I don't do business casual. I'm either all business all the time, or wearing my sandals. Since I have a fear of over-dressing, I decided to rock the cargo shorts and plain gray shirt.

I got there a little early and luckily witnessed what was perhaps the highlight of the night. A giant-size Pickachu mascot getting stuck trying to get out of the elevator.

Now, the invitation noted that "A-List" celebrities would be attending this particular party. I spent a lot of time on my way there thinking about who could possibly show up. I mean, who the hell would be attending this? Martha Stewart? Reggie? P fucking Diddy?

Nope. In fact only three celebrities were scheduled to show up, and only two managed to make it.

Kyle Massey of Cory in the House and Mark-Paul Gosselaar from Saved By The Bell. I was told Russell Simmons was supposed to show up as well. But I didn't see him.

Ok, I don't know who or what Cory In The House is, but Mark-Paul fucking Gosselaar? Are you kidding me? I almost fainted as I saw him walk through the door. I consider Saved By The Bell to be among the best television shows ever made. My entire childhood life was defined by that show. He wasn't there promoting a game or anything, just hanging out with his son playing some video games. He's a real cool guy (like you didn't know that already!) and he even let me interview him about his gaming habits for awhile casually by the bar. I'll be posting it soon.

I got a chance to get some hands-on time with upcoming Wii games. Mushroom Men and Rock Revolution in particular. Impressions of those will be going up soon, too. Check out the gallery of the night's affairs below.

Sightseeing in Liberty City [Matthew Johnston @ Flickr]

This Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and noon to 2 p.m. Mario (not that creepy Denver Mario, the real deal) will be at the Sheraton Hotel, 811 7th Avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets, helping New Yorkers into cabs and dropping some cash to help pay for their rides in the city.

I hear that this won't be the only city that Mario is handing out rides in. More details to come.

Also, as I reported last week, tonight is the launch party for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII at the Sony Metreon Center in San Francisco. The event goes from 6pm - 9pm and space is limited to 200 people.

And if that's not enough for you, our own Crecente will be attending and telling you all about his adventures at the Tecmo event in New York. Launch events, ho!

Mr. Simmons will be fake-rocking onstage with the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II alongside one of five expert-level plastic guitar shredders.

From Xbox.com:

Gene Simmons of the legendary rock band KISS, along with five of the top Guitar Hero II gamers in the country, will rock out in a Guitar Hero II JamFest. The player with the best song—and highest score on the Xbox Live Leaderboard—will play the signature KISS song "Strutter," one of the popular game's classic rock tracks, with Simmons.

Looking at the five Guitar Heroes and Heroines makes me think Gene is seriously going to push to get either Kelly Law-Yone or Felicia Williams to rock out with him. It's just a gut feeling.

The whens and wheres are at the official announcement. Michael McWhertor

Guitar Heroes to Take on Gene Simmons [Xbox.com]

Anyone interested in possibly netting some swag, getting their hands on the Pokemon-esque DS game and hanging with the Nintendo World Store crew should hit up the party between 11 AM and 4 PM. Michael McWhertor

Nintendo World Store

A momentous occasion in the life of any child: Getting a Club Nintendo membership card. The Japan-only club lets folks accumulate points and then trade them in for exclusive goodies. He's excited as he's all about Mario — Even though I'm trying to steer him towards Sony and Microsoft. And the shirt? Picked that up at the Nintendo World Store in New York City. Brian Ashcraft

To all of you who came to the party, thanks for coming and we hope you had a great time and lots of booze. To those of you couldn't make it, hopefully you can catch us when the newly formed Incredible Kotaku Seven in One Roadshow with Traveling Bestiary and Carnival Sideshow comes through your town. Flynn De Marco

[photo courtesy Niznoz'z Flickr gallery]

For those coming to our Barcade dealio, heads up. Here are the straight-from-Japan prizes I picked up. Got a lucky 13 number of game-related stuff. I don't know how we're going to do it: If this will be a lot, individual prizes or what. I am sure turning you all on each other will be involved.

Rather than going to Den-Den Town, you should know that these were purchased at the 7-11 a short five-minute walk from my house. Not sure if that makes them more cool or less, but take it for what it's worth.

Oh, the misses was worried that nobody would want these goodies. That true? Brian Ashcraft

Prizes For You Kids [Kotaku]

Don't forget that Funde Razor is 8 p.m. tonight at Brooklyn's fabulous Barcade.

Where else are you going to have a chance to drink, play classic arcade games, rock out with Guitar Hero on a big screen and raise money for sick children?

So get on over there, Kotaku needs a presence. I want to hear about all of the rowdiness and Kotaku chanting that went on from Joel when I talk to him tomorrow. Brian Crecente

Funde Razor

The new York event will take place at the Toys R Us in Times Square, while the LA event will happen at the GameStop in Universal CityWalk. Both midnight events will feature live music and entertainment, games, "special guests from Nintendo" and a countdown to the sale of the first Wii.

"Who'll be the first person to line up?" asks George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "Will it be a Zelda fan in New York or a soccer mom in Los Angeles? We're going to make sure these events help everyone feed off one another's energy and enthusiasm."

"Toys "R" Us Times Square will be the first store in the United States where customers can both experience, and purchase Wii, Nintendo's new revolution in gaming," says Ron Boire, President, Toys "R" Us, U.S. "As a family oriented store, we are thrilled with the potential of the Wii system to bring parents and kids closer together. There is no better place to launch this truly innovative gaming console than The World's Greatest Toy Store."

"Just like our retail outlets, Wii has something for every kind of gamer," says Steve Morgan, President, GameStop Corp. "As the world's largest video game and entertainment software retailer, we're ready to kick off the celebration at midnight on Nov. 19th, and help show the world a new way to play."

Sounds like there's going to be a lot of cold people in a few weeks. I'm still waiting to hear what Sony is planing for the launch of the Playstation 3. Brian Crecente

NINTENDO HOSTS CROSS-COUNTRY LAUNCH EVENTS TO SATISFY CONSUMER DEMAND FOR WII

Thousands of Video Game Fans Expected at Toys "R" Us Times Square in New York and GameStop in Los Angeles

REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 2, 2006 - With just 17 days until the worldwide launch of the Wii game console in the Americas, Nintendo is throwing big bashes to celebrate the momentous occasion. From New York to Los Angeles and untold places in between, shoppers won't have to wait long to be the first to buy Nintendo's revolutionary new Wii video game console when it goes on sale at the stroke of midnight the morning of Sunday, Nov. 19. However, video game fans will have to get in line fast, as demand is high for this season's hot holiday product.

Toys "R" Us Times Square in Manhattan and GameStop at Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles will host official Nintendo midnight launch events to satiate rabid fans who can't wait to get their hands on Wii. The events will feature live music and entertainment, fun, games, special guests from Nintendo - and a countdown to the moment that will change the way video games are played forever. Other retailers nationwide are expected to hold their own midnight launch events, so consumers should check with their local retail stores that sell video games.

"Who'll be the first person to line up?" asks George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "Will it be a Zelda fan in New York or a soccer mom in Los Angeles? We're going to make sure these events help everyone feed off one another's energy and enthusiasm."

"Toys "R" Us Times Square will be the first store in the United States where customers can both experience, and purchase Wii, Nintendo's new revolution in gaming," says Ron Boire, President, Toys "R" Us, U.S. "As a family oriented store, we are thrilled with the potential of the Wii system to bring parents and kids closer together. There is no better place to launch this truly innovative gaming console than The World's Greatest Toy Store."

"Just like our retail outlets, Wii has something for every kind of gamer," says Steve Morgan, President, GameStop Corp. "As the world's largest video game and entertainment software retailer, we're ready to kick off the celebration at midnight on Nov. 19th, and help show the world a new way to play."

Wii launches Nov. 19 in the Americas at an MSRP of $249.99. Its unequaled Wii Remote lets players control the action on their TV screens through the motion of the controller itself. It's designed for young and old, novices and experts. For more information about Wii, visit www.wii.com.

The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Nintendo DS , Game Boy Advance and Nintendo GameCube systems, and upcoming Wii console. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.2 billion video games and more than 375 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario , Donkey Kong , Metroid , Zelda and Pok mon . A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company's Web site at www.nintendo.com.

The store will have a dozen Wii kiosks up and running with a bunch of games playable including Wii Sports and Excite Truck. To kick-off the launching of the kiosks, the store will be throwing a party from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. All Nintendo says about the party is that they will be giving away some "great prizes." Could one of them be a Wii? Brian Crecente [Thanks Matthew]

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told ABC News that he would be on hand in New York to personally hand-out the first Wiis in the U.S.

"Those consumers, the core gamer, are very important to us," Reggie said. "And you know what? I'll be at a store in the New York area, where they will camp out and I will be handing out some Wiis that very first minute that we're available for purchase."

While Gamespot guesses that the store he will be hanging at will be the Nintendo World Store in Rockefeller Plaza (they say Times Square for some reason), I suspect it will be the Toys R Us in Times Square. I seem to recall hearing either a rumor or fact that the Toys R Us would be the site of the official Wii launch party in the U.S. Of course, I've also heard rumors that the PS3's launch will occur there and I can't image Toys R Us will be home to both. Brian Crecente

Reggie to Sell First US Wii [Gamespot]

Ooh, they're throwing around a Mario ball. I just caught it from Robert Summa, who's sitting like three rows back. I threw it behind me, fire and forget style, sure hope I didn't break anyone's laptop.

We're sitting ina studio filled with tall-backed white chairs facing a faux brickwall and a huge digital screen showing a window's view of downtown NYC and the World Trade Center site. There are two Wii sitting on what looks like black pedestals on the stage. There's also a big long white couch and other fake living room furniture. The word Wii is being projected onto the wall above a smaller flat panel.

There's a huge area to the right of the stage filled with a bunch of Wii and flat panels, used for gameplay.

Ah Perrin is on the stage introducing the event. She just mentioned the Tokyo announcment, which she said went very well.

"Today we are going to share many of the exciting details of the Wii."

She said the NYT story was just the "tip of the iceberg" Presentation is expected to be about an hour, followed by an afternoon of gaming.

Reggie just took the stage.

"Welcome to a significant day. Not only for Nintendo and the Wii but the future of the video gaming industry."

"We will reveal all of the information about the Wii: Day, price, titles."

"Our strategy is based on one core belief, the next step in gaming is bring gaming back to the masses."

"Appealing to core gamers as well as broadening the audience for gaming."

Hit the jump for more. Brian Crecente

Reggie is walking through Nintendo's history of innovation.

First, he says, was the DS. Next was the Touch Generation of games.

He says Touch Generation games are different than most, rather than taking you away from your life it looks to connect you more to it.

"DS supplements your life."

Now he's talking about New Super Mario Bros. That game represents about 35 percent of all first part games sold. Touch Generation games, combined, make up 39 percent of all DS sales.

"Third important moment in our list of new products came with the debut of the Nintendo WiFi Connection."

"Fourth, about this time last year, the unveiling of the Wii."

"The fifth step is today."

On to the hard news.

Wii goes on sale Nov. 19, that means worldwide debut happens right here in the U.S.

That day, it will be available at more than 25,000 retails stores for $249.99.

"One price, one configuration, one color."

OOOh, that's a dig at Msoft and Sony, I believe.

He says the shipment goal worldwide is 4 million by the end of the year.

The "Americas will receive the largest share of that number."

He says the flow will be even, to minimize shortages.

Inside the box, you will get the console hardware, cables, the sensor bar, all of the accoutrements to get started, one Wii remote and one nunchuk controller. No mention of any included games.

Ah, he's just announced that Wii Bowling will be part of Wii Sports.

Eric is showing off Wii Sports Bowling.

You hold the Wii close to your chest, swing your arm back and then forward, just like real bowling.

By twisting the control in the swing down you can put a spin on the ball.

The game supports up to four players in a game.

Wii sports will also have boxing. So that's Wii Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Bowling and Boxing.

Bummer, no Duck Hunt.

Ahhh, now Reggie is saying that the game disc will be included in the console pack.

This is the first console pack since the SNES, he says.

OK, now he's talking about the launch titles.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Excite Truck and Wii Sports are the first party titles, he says, all available on launch day.

Reggie's singing the praises of the Zelda game, he says it's the "best gotta have it title since the days of the NES and Super NES." Wow, high praise.

At the event in Tokyo there were 104 titles showcased. Wow.

Activision will have five here. Atari, Atlus, Electronic Arts, Konami, Midway, Sega, SNK, THQ, Ubisoft and Vivendi all have games here today. Sounds like I'm in for some fun.

Publishers and developers are on hand to talk to the media as well. Reggie is showing off some choice quotes about the Wii from people like Larry Probst from EA and Robert Kotick from Activision.

About 30 Wii games will be available this year, with about half of them available at launch. Wii games will be $49.99, for first party stuff.

Fifth bit of innovation is called Wii Channels.That's the official name for the Virtual Console and he's about to dish the details.

Reggie says they needed to come up with a sort of Touch Generations for the Wii.

They're showing the GUI now. Looks kinda cool. It shows the weather in a box, a box with a ton of little avatar faces,

Initially there will be 12 Wii channels.

The first channel lets you play a Wii game or one of 530 GameCube discs. Next is the Wii shopping channel where you can buy old games to play on the console.

At least three games will be online on launch day. By the end of the year there will be at least 30 legacy titles. Beginning in January that will grow 10 a month through the year. Price will be 500 Wii Points (or $5) for NES, 800 for SNES and 1,000 for N64.

You can buy a 2,000 Wii Points card at a store for $20. They will also be selling a Wii classic controller for playing the games.

Once a game is downloaded it shows up as a channel in the menu.

Bill Trinen is taking the stage to showing a weird Touch Generationish channel.

One is called the Mii channel. A Mii is a digital 3D avatar of whoever, including yourself.

You can create a Mii by finding a look-a-like or start from scratch. Bill is showing us how to do this, by creating a Mii Samuel L. Jackson. Oooooh, maybe he's in the mother-fucking building.

First you pick a head, then eyebrows, then the eyes, then the nose, the mouth and accessories. You basically scroll through pages of choices which can be tweaked.

Save and quit and enter the name and you're done. He just pops up on the screen. The Mii's sorta roam around on the screen.

Next you can transfer your Mii's to your Wii Remote and take them with you.

You can take them to a friend's house and let them populate your friend's Wii. You can also let them populate your Wii games. So you can put the little Mii's in your game like Wii Tennis. Kinda cool.

Now they're showing us the photo channel. The menu shows eight images at a time, in two rows of four images. You can scroll through them like a slot machine. The front of the Wii has a SD reader and once you pop in the card it quickly pulls up the images.

You can also zoom out to see all of the images in a bunch of super tiny thumbnails.

Now they're showing us a bunch of images from working at Nintendo. Very silly.

You can also view movies and alter them instantly with little fun games. Like turning it into a moving puzzle.

Reggie is back on the stage to talk about some other Wii Channels that will launch with the Wii.

There will be a news channel and the weather channel, as I mentioned earlier.

There's also a message board where users can send messages or photos to other Wii owners or to a PC or Cell phone. You can also send messages to other members of the family on a calendar like feature.

Now he's talking about Always-On 24 and how you can get updates while you sleep.

Oh, there's also an Internet channel. You will have to buy the Opera Browser separately, though he didn't mention a price.

Wii Channel system is available instantly, since the console remains on all of the time, so no boot-up.

The concept is that people will get used to using the console daily and often and begin to become gamers because it's so accessible.

"We our intent on changing the way players connect to their games and the way any TV owner can connect to their system."

To summarize:
Revolutionary Play
Best of the past
Biggest Launch library in history
Wii Channels
Affordable Price.

Now into Q&A time.

Q: How much are additional remotes.
A: Wii Remote is $39.99. Nunchuck attachment is $19.99.

Q: Can the Wii hold the images or does it stay on the SD.
A: The majority is for SD.

Q: What's up with Zelda for GameCube.
A: It launches Dec 11

Q: When are you specifying which are launch day and which are launch window.
A: We are going to leave that for third-party, but about half will be launch day.

Q: Cost of connecting to the Internet?
A: There is no cost through our system. You need an Internet Connection at your home. If you have a wireless router you are set to go. Or you can connect through a wire.

Q: Why charge Wii Points.
A: We think Wii Points is the most straight forward way for consumers.

Q: What about third Party game prices.
A: We encourage our third-party partners to price their games at a competitive price.

Q: 4 million world wide.
A: by Dec. 31

Q: How many will support wide-screen and how would you compare graphical power.
A: Most if not all are wide screen. In terms of graphical power, we have a different paradigm for what turns on the consumer.

Q: Integration between DS and the Wii
A: We are not announcing any details, but in the future you will hear much more details.

Q: There were rumblings about Metroid Prime as a launch title, any more details.
A: Metroid Prime is going to be a 2007 title.

Q: How will Wii points be converted for other countries?
A: 2000 Wii points will be about $24 Canadian. Similar strategy in Mexico and other markets.

Q: In-Gaming advertising and branded channels.
A: In terms of in-game advertising in terms of first-party it is something we are looking at. But our strategy is different. We see in game branding as a way of making the game more real, as opposed to a revenue stream.

Right now we don't have plans for branded channels, but that's right now. Who's to say what the future will bring.

And that's it for the Q&A. Time to play some games.

To celebrate the Halloween launch of FFXII in America, New York City (yes, New York fuckin' City) has declared October 11th as "Final Fantasy XII Gamer's Day." Playable English versions will be on display at New York's DigitalLife's Gaming Pavilion. Taking a page from the Japanese PR handbook, there will also be hosting a costume contest. Cosplaying at a FF event? Didn't see that one coming. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [College Gamer]

I had actually planned this vacation at the beginning of the year, and it just so happens that Nintendo decided to throw a major press conference there while I was in town.
So check in Thursday morning for the news on the Nintendo Wii. There's a meet and greet starting at 8:30 a.m. EST and then the press conference gets underway at 9 a.m. or so. Press conferences are never exactly on time so give or take a half hour on those times.

According to the press release from 10 a.m. on we'll be playing Wii games.

While there's no official word on what will be announced, I expect both the price and date will be unveiled at the event. I also suspect they might let us know some other stuff, be it more details on the Virtual Console, a new game announcement or maybe some other surprise.

You know Nintendo, they are always full of suprises.

After my day with the big N I'll be spending the rest of the week in the Big Apple with my wife and son vacating.

See you guys Thursday or, if not, next week. Brian Crecente

The Nintendo event in New York City with Reggie Fils-Aime is just two weeks away and my Wii-spidey senses are tingling. Unable to sit still in my seat, I harassed one of the Nintendo PR guys I know for more details. All he could tell me is that there will be Wii games there to play as well as "Wii announcements."

Me: "So Wii announcements or BIG announcements?"
Me: "lol"
Me: "See what I did there?"
Nintendo: "Wii"
Nintendo: "Yeah I see"

The man's a rock, a ROCK. It's gotta be the price and date right? What else could it be? Brian Crecente

Nintendo is hosting a little media get together on Sept. 14 in New York City that will be hosted by NoA pres Reggie Fils-Aime. It sounds like there may be some news announced, as opposed to what happened at Leipzig today.

There will also be six hours of gameplay time. And it just so happens I had already planned a vacation with the family to New York that week, so I'm all over it. Brian Crecente

Jim's question and initial, exploratory findings after the jump. Joel Johnson

Jim writes:

Hello Gawker demi-god of Games and Gadgets, I have a favor to ask— I was wondering if something could be posted on Gizmodo or Kotaku to tap the collective knowledge of the readers on where in the bi-state area (ny, nj) a gamer might purchase import games.

Trawling the various sites online is both tedious and pricey, especially if you want to receive anything in less than 3-4 weeks. Ebay is a gamble for import games, usually taking at least as long with only slighly better prices, and sometimes hidden costs of sellers mandating $5+ shipping insurance and sometimes never sending anything.

Anyway, assistance is much appreciated.

Because I'm a lazy hag and hadn't posted this yet, Jim wrote back after a couple of days:

Since trying to send this the first time, I took a ride into China Town NYC and have some results of my own to share: 15 Elizabeth street, the Elizabeth St. Center. and 28 Elizabeth St, J&L Game Traders. Both have very limitted selection, maybe 15+ titles, but they seemed to be some of the more popular games. $50+ for all games. J&L also offered to order items, but at those prices, if they are going to order you're better off paying for 2-3 days shipping online, or waiting for longer shipping and getting it cheaper.

I know there have been oodles of pictures posted from Nintendo World Store, and yet I'm still posting mine. Go figure. On the jump you'll find pictures of Nintendo cards, pins, hats, controllers and even the menu from the GBA Bar.