The new black remote controller will be available with a black Wii MotionPlus add-on for $50. The black nunchuk will sell separately for $20.

"The Wii Remote revolutionized not only how people play games, but also who plays them," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "The new color lets people customize their setup, and the controllers make great stocking stuffers for players of any age."

What Is It?
Based on the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the Wii version of the game will give players total control of their racket thanks to MotionPlus and blend pick-up-and-play with deep control and tactics.

What We Saw
I played several matches with and without Wii Motion Plus.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is finished, but the Motion Plus device was a prototype, I was told.

What Needs Improvement?
MotionPlus: Snapping the MotionPlus add-on to the remote certainly made Grand Slam Tennis harder, but maybe not for the right reasons. Instead of auto-selecting whether you were using a backhand or forehand, the game knew which you were going to use, and that worked great. But the game is also suppose to use the more refine motion detection to determine where your shot is headed and that seemed off. The developer I spoke to implied that such issues could be fixed when the retail version of MotionPlus hits. I guess we'll have to wait to see.

Serves: The serve didn't always work like it was supposed to, MotionPlus or no MotionPlus. On a few occasions the game didn't notice my throwing the ball into the air, or thought I had when I hadn't yet made the motion.

What Should Stay The Same?
Rally and Returns: Once the ball is on the court, Grand Slam Tennis quickly becomes a tight, strategy-packed and, mostly importantly, fun game of virtual tennis. Players can use the A and B buttons to deliver lobs or drops, and can manually move around the court with the D-pad or thumbstick to crowd the net or back-up for a hard return.

Graphics: It's hard to tell, with the likes of McEnroe and Sampras, whether the game sports big-headed characters or not, but either way their cartoonish noggens are a perfect fit for the game.

Sound: The remote will, I'm told, eventually make little sounds at key moments including McEnroe's famous "You cannot be serious" recorded by the man himself specifically for the game.

Final Thoughts
Grand Slam Tennis does all of the right things to push the already popular of virtual Wii tennis into the realm of lasting fun. The addition of different types of hits, ability to twist the racket and move yourself around, all add to the game's nuance, giving it a much needed level of sports strategy.

I actually got so into the game at the EAE3 event that I missed two appointments. But that could just be my competitive nature.

To use the charging system you just slap your remote onto the open cradle and it lights up and starts charging. I'm not sure, but this may be the first charging system that supports charging without having to remove your jacket or Wii Motion Plus add-on.

I haven't had a ton of time with it, but so far I'm fairly impressed. The kit comes with two sets of rechargeable batteries, a power plug and the stand. The station lights up to let you know if it's charging your remotes or if they are already charged.

The kit, available later this month, will sell for $50 a pop.

But Nintendo's first MotionPlus-supporting game, Wii Sports Resort, won't hit stores until a month and a half later for $50 for the game and add-on. So what's a gamer to do in the meantime.

As of now there are three third-party games coming out prior to the release of Wii Sports Resort that will support MotionPlus.

Sega's Virtua Tennis 2009 hits on May 19, Electronic Arts' Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 hits on June 16 and EA's Grand Slam Tennis hits on June 18.

Nintendo reconfirmed that Wii Sports Resort will still be the first title they make to support the add-on controller. And what about a new Wii Remote with MotionPlus built in?

"We have no plans for that at this time," Nintendo a rep tells us.

Rob Morris' Wii hack for his guitar gets quite a bit of play in Marros' Boston band Vivian Darkbloom, the Globe reports. Morris uses a remote, with the help of a laptop, to alter the pitch of his sound and add echo by tilting the guitar around.

Here's how he did it:

1. Attach the remote to the guitar Duct tape works. Velcro is a little fancier. Morris says the important thing is to make sure it doesn't fall off in the middle of a performance.

2. Make the Wiimote and computer talk Morris runs "Bluetooth Setup Assistant" on his Mac to synch up the Wiimote to the computer.

3. Get the right software Morris uses the Max/MSP multimedia suite to translate the controller's motions into any guitar effect he wants. Besides pitch and echo, he likes the "granular synthesis" effect, which can create blips and beeps that sound like old video games.

4. Convert to audio Plug the guitar and laptop into a PreSonus Firebox, which converts the computer signals into audio signals and spits them out through a guitar cable.

5. Turn it up Plug the guitar cable from the Firebox into your amplifier, and you're ready to rock.

His guitar's got game

From the looks of it, the remote-sized 3-in-1 wireless keyboard remote functions as your standard Blu-ray disc remote, with a slide-out keyboard complete with tiny dual-analog sticks to help move yourself about. As a person who currently uses a wired USB keyboard for PlayStation Home and has lost his Blu-ray remote, this seems like a lovely solution, especially at only $28. And just look at the product reviews!

Works great and very cheaper.Once I was landing this website , I didn't want to get down ! I wish I can carry all products in breast and take them home!

I dare you to find a more glowing recommendation than that.

PS3 3in1 Wireless keyboard controller remote [Success HK - Thanks Wraggy!]

Nintendo also asked for an increase in their gyroscope shipments in preparation for the release of the Wii Motion Plus controller add-on, Digitimes reports. Nintendo pre-paid for part of the order as they prepare for strong growth, according to Digitimes sources.

It looks like Nintendo doesn't see the economy encroaching on their gaming successes anytime soon.

Nintendo increases orders to InvenSense [Digitimes]

The guys over at Hardcode TV hacked a remote control truck to work with first a Wii remote, then a Nunchuk, then a Balance Board and finally the touch screen of an iPhone.

All of the controllers seemed to work relatively well, though my favorite was the Wii Remote, which was set up to control the truck the same way you control the virtual vehicles in Excite Truck.

Wii Balance Board Hack [Balance Board Blog]

The thing when I demoed Wii Sport Resort I noticed that the controller was longer now and asked Nintendo if the charger would still work. Ask Nyko was their reply, so I did.

Unfortunately, it won't work, at least not while the Wii Motion Plus device is attached. The Nyko guys told me they were already looking at ways to solve the problem. They added that they believe the Wii Motion Plus attachment doesn't contain batteries, meaning it likely draws power from the Remote, which would likely reduce the battery life for the controller.

Bad news all around.

Lets get to what everyone is thinking first: No the Wii version of Samba de Amigo shown this week did not have Maraca-shaped Wii remotes. But that doesn't mean they aren't coming.

In fact a rep told us that they are looking into a "Maraca sleeve" for the remote and even spoken with some manufacturers about it.

In the game, for those of you not familiar, you take on one of several colorful characters dancing and playing the maracas to music. The rhythm game is played by shaking the remote and nunchuk in time to the music while making sure they are in one of three positions: above your head, at your waist or held pointing down.

The game starts by having players calibrate the two controllers by holding them in the different positions. And play seemed to be pretty responsive, though the game did fail to recognize the correct position a couple of times.

There will be both single player and multiplayer and the developers told me that the game will also allow you to post your high scores to an online leader board.

The game looks like the sort of pick-up-and-play fun that will end up being a huge hit with the Wii's casual gamers and could also strike a chord with Nintendo's more hardcore fans.

I have no idea how it feels, but Nyko's Perfect Shot for the Wii remote certainly looks kick ass. My only issue is that I tend to forget about controllers that I have tucked away in elaborate cases, like the one still sitting dormant in my Guitar Hero controller.

Wired's GeekDad teamed up with the blog-free GeekMom to get their equally blog-free GeekChildren a Wii this Christmas. But once they set things and started playing one of the remotes went all funky.

GeekDad, living up to his name, tried to fix the remote himself. He put in new batteries, tried re-syncing all of the remotes, tried resetting the remotes. None of that worked, so he called Nintendo's call support. After checking out the Wii Sensor the friendly Nintendo lady went into Angry-Dad-With-A-Broken-TV mode:

Friendly Nintendo Help Desk Lady: "Okay - I want you to take the remote, button side down and smack it into the palm of your hand two or three times."

Russ: "You've got to be kidding"

Friendly Nintendo Help Desk Lady: "No sir, do it hard enough that I can hear it across the phone line but not hard enough to damage the remote"

Russ: "You're sure?"

Friendly Nintendo Help Desk Lady: "Yes, sir."

The thing is, it worked. See, this just shows you that if all else fails try violence.

Crazy (real-life) Wii Remote tech-support call.. [GeekDad]

The only catch is that the mod only works with 3rd or 4th gen iPods. But that's all right. It was all downhill after generation three when build materials became cheaper, and buttons transformed into a "click wheel."

NES Controller iPod Remote [via playgadgets]

I've been intrigued by Nyko's various charge stations since they were announced at CES earlier this year. The idea of a device that both organizes and charges your next-gen console controllers seems like a great idea, and for the most part it is.

Nyko recently sent me their charge station for the Wii remote and I suspect it is probably the best of the bunch, not because of design issues with the others, but the problems it happens to fix with the Wii's Remote.

The kit doesn't just come with the stand to charge and display two of your remotes, it also comes with replacement battery covers which have rubberized backings, making it harder for them to slip from your hand. It also includes two rechargeable battery packs for the remotes.

Once you upgrade the remotes with kit you're left with controllers worthy of a next-gen system. The recharger station also works quite well, giving your remotes a full charge in a relatively short time. The only complaint I have is that those of us who have multiple systems might find it hard to figure out where to plug the thing in, since it requires a AC plug rather than a USB port. Brian Crecente

Wii Fanboy has a picture up of some pretty damn cool looking Wii remotes hand-painted by one of their readers. It looks like the reader just took the thing apart painted it and then put it back together. If I had any, and I mean any, artistic talent I'd be all over this. But alas, I don't. Brian Crecente

Pair of peripheral paint jobs pleases [Wii Fanboy]

It looks like Guitar Hero 3 for the 360, PS3 and Wii will indeed be hitting this fall, unfortunately the Wii version will be using the same guitar-shaped controller you've grown used to.

In an interview with IGN, RedOctan's co-founder and president Kai Huang said that the development team is exploring innovative ways to use the Wii remote, but that the basic controller will be the guitar.

"We are really excited about the Wii game because there are so many options for the Wii remote. However, you will play the game with a guitar peripheral and it will be similar to a guitar you've seen in the past."

He also confirmed that Guitar Hero III on Wii contains features included in other versions of the upcoming game - such as online play and downloadable music.

That's too bad. By the time this one hits I think just about everyone will have played the game. A new type of control would have been kinda neat. Brian Crecente

Guitar Hero III Wii using Guitar Controller [IGN]