I'm actually quite surprised that folks confined to retirement homes and elder care facilities aren't finding the orderly-killing simulation in Manhunt 2 more appealing than Wii bowling. Oh God, I'm so horribly depressed.

There are tons of shots of the (admittedly impressive, yet ultimately disturbing) suit at Fatkraken's LiveJournal. While the creator makes apologies for reusing bits of the also impressive Amaterasu (Okami, y'all) outfit, we're going to need a formal "sorry" for the linked video of shaking god-wolf ass to JT at some anime con. Enjoy your little slice of furry hell, kids!

Thanks, I think, Cheryl. Michael McWhertor

Link, he come to town [LiveJournal]

Wait. PETA? Wii? What the? Oh, here's why...

Since this month marks the one-year anniversary of our undercover investigation into the evil primate experimentation laboratory Covance, and since the demo of the new Zelda features Link rescuing trapped monkeys from cages, we thought we'd mark the occasion with a huge giveaway: One lucky winner gets a free copy of Twilight Princess and a brand-new Wii to play it on.

That's a pretty loose relationship, but who cares? Free monkeys are free monkeys and a free console is a free console. Rules are outlined on the peta2 site, but you'll have to check the site's blog for updates. This might not be a bad thing, as hopefully they'll post pics of PETA soldiers throwing fake blood on Jennifer Lopez in the near future. Michael McWhertor

Monkeys Want You to Win a Free Wii and the New Zelda! [peta2 via GoNintendo]

The full Media Create sales charts have gone live, which includes hardware sales and the top 50 games sold in Japan for the week of December 11th - 17th. First let's take a look at the important hardware sales.

- Nintendo DS - 319,708
- Wii - 108,237
- PlayStation 3 - 70,942
- PSP - 48,962
- PlayStation 2 - 37,730
- Xbox 360 - 17,168

Almost 320,000 Nintendo DS units sold in one week? Amazing. It also appears that Blue Dragon sales are helping the Xbox 360 find its way into more Japanese households (it generally sells somewhere between one- and three-thousand units weekly).

The expanded chart also shows where The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Blue Dragon landed after falling out of the top 30. The former hangs on at spot #33 while Blue Dragon slides down to spot #46.

Despite healthy sales of the PlayStation 3, only two games appear within the top 50, with the newly released Motorstorm checking in at #35 and Ridge Racer 7 barely squeaking in at #49. Michael McWhertor

Zelda, Blue Dragon Fall Off Japanese Sales Charts [Kotaku]

This kicks off Brian Ashcraft's coverage of the Wii Japan Launch. Check back throughout the day for continued updates.

The guy at the front of the line tells me he's been waiting since 6am. It's now somewhere between 3:30 and 4:00 in the afternoon. We're here at Yodobashi Camera in Umeda in Osaka, and he's waiting for the Nintendo Wii.

"What launch title you gonna buy?" I ask him. He's wearing a black puffy coat and a black knit cap.
"Zelda."

There's another thirty or so in line behind him. The First Guy is quick to point out that people didn't start showing up until noon. That's after he had been in line. For six hours. Alone.

"Anything else you're getting?"
"Nope," he tells me. Black stubble covers his hard jaw. "That's it. Just Zelda. You?" Brian Ashcraft

In addition to racking up lots of monies with their profitable Gamecube Turbo, Nintendo is also very proud of themselves for selling over 454,000 copies of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. (I assume this game is very good. Since I don't have a Wii to play my copy on, I wouldn't know, would I?)

Hit the jump for the full back-slapping, rubbing-it-in-my-face press release, while I slink off to hug my unopened Wii-mote, then write an angry letter to Reggie. Michael McWhertor

WII IS A MASSIVE HIT

600,000 First-Week Purchases Attracting Veteran and New Gamers

REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 27, 2006 - Built on a foundation of pure fun, Nintendo's new Wii video game availability. That's a rate of nearly one per second continuously since the Nov. 19 launch. Including just first-party software and accessory sales, Wii instantly has become a $190 million business in the Americas.

During the Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend, there was plenty of conversation across the nation about the high demand for the Wii system, with the acknowledgment that if you see one, you'd better buy it.

"Even with sales already in excess of 600,000 units, demand continues to exceed supply, as it's clear this is one of the 'gotta-have' products for the holiday season," says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "We've shipped retailers several times the amount of hardware the other company was able to deliver for its launch around the same time - and we still sold out. Given the inclusive nature of Wii game play, we're seeing this new form of video gaming is already a huge hit with gamers and newcomers alike. It continues to be a phenomenal launch."

The system also is succeeding in its stated mission of reinvigorating current players, while attracting new ones. Every Wii system includes the five-game Wii Sports software, which is the talk of the Internet, featuring countless reports on how previously devout non-gamers have suddenly been converted via the amazing new way games are experienced using the system's remarkable controller. At the same time, the masterful The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess, a favorite of avid gamers, already has achieved sales of more than 454,000 units in the Americas, representing more than 75 percent of all hardware purchasers.

Licensees, pleased not only with the sales performance of the Wii, but also its creative development capabilities, are publicly sharing their comments:

"Madden NFL 07 is a great example of how the Wii gives players a whole new experience on their favorite games," says EA Studio President Paul Lee. "EA's creative teams are working to build more Wii features into some of our most popular franchises."

"The creativity we've been able to unleash on the Wii system with our game Red Steel has been eye-opening for our development teams," explains Ubisoft President Laurent Detoc. "Having the opportunity to design and develop entirely new game-play experiences using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk is both exciting and rewarding."

Classic games also are proving to be a hit on Wii, which offers downloadable access to 20 years of the best of Nintendo , Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx16 hits via the system's Virtual Console feature.

The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii , Nintendo DS , Game Boy Advance and Nintendo GameCube systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.2 billion video games and more than 387 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.

Remember that Nintendo Twilight Princess event? Well up until today, the press has only been able to talk about their experiences with the first 4 hours of the game, or about half of what we actually played.

The following article will not be for everyone. While my first story focused on the game's control scheme and graphics, this story will be a little more about some features that were previously confidential. I won't be SPOILING plot for anyone, but if you want a completely unadulterated play experience, go hide under a rock for a few weeks and don't hit the jump. To those who love unwrapping gifts a few days early...

Sumo wrestling was my biggest surprise in Twilight Princess. And no, I'm not making this up (that section comes later). Seriously, who would have predicted scrawny teenagish Link wrestling Sumo-style these huge Gorons? I dislike that he takes off his shirt (just doesn't feel like Zelda), but what are you gonna go? The minimal controls allow grabbing (a-button), punching (wiimote) and dodging (errr...maybe d-pad). Unlike the wolf's somewhat stiff, always-getting-me-in-trouble controls, I enjoyed the monodirectional movements in the sumo ring. It made sense, and I can still feel the controller vibrating as I collided with the Gorons.I didn't reach this boss of dungeon 2, which guarantees I will need to buy the game, because this upside-down sumo battle might be the greatest thing ever.

TP's graphics, while not always a technical masterpiece, convey a cinematic feel. It's not something you see much until after the first dungeon, probably because the plot doesn't start out with a great deal of intensity. I hoped that Nintendo would send better horseback riding combat shots, because they capture the in-game cinematic nature better than anything. But the above shots make the point well enough. Know that you will have to fight that guy above, on horseback, on a bridge - in a jousting without a joust matchup. I only mention it because that was my favorite part of the two days of playing at Nintendo by a longshot - a large "oh wow" moment that hints at the depth of gameplay to come.


Crawling through the second dungeon after the horse combat was a bit disappointing to my heart rate. I guess it's a matter of scale. You go from grandiose action, jumping obstacles on horseback while chasing down bad guys in a large environment, to using your brain in a much more confined space. I appreciate the varied flavors of gameplay, but looking back I realize how much Zelda games are changing, and how the dungeons won't get your blood pumping in the same way the outside environment will. Magnetic iron boots are cool, but by design not all that thrilling (though fun). And it's not necessarily that the dungeons are bad, it might be that the epic outside battles are that good. I don't mean any of this in a negative way - I just want to point out that the action and cognitive portions of the game are stretching further apart than they ever have before in the series, and what defines a game as a Zelda title will shift along with it.

Speculation/Potential SPOILER
When shadow/twilight villains are defeated, they open wormholes that can teleport you to other wormholes on the map. What's interesting about these wormholes is that their artistic style in no way matches the rest of TP. While they are black like the Twilight Realm, the edges are purposefully boxy and pixelated - intentionally rendered in a digital motif. Some of us talked about the possibility of a really lame "you're in the matrix" type of twist. Hopefully Link will not wake up, finding he's been used as a battery. Mark Wilson

Knock knock.

I answer the door to my hotel room. Nintendo PR hands me a silver bag labaled "Wii", and it seems to be the perfect sized bag to carry a certain unreleased Nintendo console. No way it could be a Wii...but I'd better check right away.

I slam the door in PR's face and run to unpack my loot onto my bed.

Nope, no Wii. Instead we got a Wii hat, Zelda t-shirt, some snacks and a lot of luxury bath products. We're talking a bath bomb, loofah and special chilled cucumber eye patch thingie. In other words, The Works.

I pretend to be disappointed. Mark Wilson

Nintendo's official Wii site updated at midnight with some new videos including this one showing some more gameplay action for The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess. We also get to see Link transform. Way too smooth for my tastes, I wanted some tearing of flesh and screeching. Brian Crecente

Nintendo's official Wii site updated at midnight with some new videos including this one of the opening for The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess.

Brian Crecente

Sadly, there are no cute Japanese gamer girls giggling and acting coy, it's just a bunch of boring, hairy dudes looking slack jawed and videogenic. I hate guys like this.

There are painfully brief gameplay videos shot over the shoulder Resident Evil 4 style, but no much to see beyond the satisfaction of seeing other people play the Wii. Michael McWhertor

Watch A Variety Of People Experiencing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Everyone is assuming that two days means a ton of hands-on time, and I'm hoping everyone is right. So in order of importance, what do you want to know about the game? And what constitutes a spoiler to you? As far as I'm concerned, any plot twists that happen within the first hour of gameplay are pretty much fair...game.

Just so you know, Nintendo is paying my way - which considering the unspeakables I had to perform on Luigi, is not all that much in return. Mark Wilson

The two day event will include oodels of time with the Wii version of the anticipated game. But two days? Either they're doing something else, or Mark's going to be able to steam through a big chunk of the Wii title.

The wait to get your hands on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is finally over.

Be one of the first to experience Link's most epic adventure ever on the Wii Console.

Come to Nintendo of America and be prepared for an incredible experience.

Redmond, Washington - NOA Headquarters

Tuesday and Wednesday

October 31 and November 1, 2006

Sounds like two days of fun. Brian Crecente

Nintendo's really pushing that Wii version, aren't they? According to Famitsu, Nintendo is only going to offer the Gamecube version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess through online order in Japan, leading Digital Battle to speculate:

The main reason for Nintendo to do this is to avoid both versions of the game in stores at the same time. Because of the Wii launch, they would much rather see the Wii Zelda sell than the GameCube version, and that wouldn't be a guarantee if the two versions are on the same shelf. There is no information on whether this will be the same procedure in Europe and US

Which makes sense. Of course, this is obnoxious for gamers who would prefer to play a Zelda game with a traditional controller, as opposed to all sorts of fanciful swooshing around their living room. Florian Eckhardt

Zelda Twilight Princess GC Version Limited To Online Order In Japan [Digital Battle]

After this year's E3, Shigeru Miyamoto noticed that most people who played Twilight Princess played it by swinging the Wiimote in their right hand. So he made a decision: in the Wii version of the game, Link would be right-handed, although he's traditionally an elfin south paw... a character trait retained on the GameCube version of the game.

This is actually a bit fascinating. Link is left-handed: on the GameCube version, this makes him an enantiomorph. However, then he passes into the Mirror World, which would presumably flip him to being left handed again. However, the Mirror World would seem to be less just a horizontal-planed optical transposition of Hyrule than it's complete opposite. Oddly, even if Link were to remain otherwise normal, he would not be able to breath the air of the Mirror World or digest its food; he'd simply keel over dead seconds after entering.

For more fun with the paradoxes of normal individuals entering mirror worlds, go read Martin Gardner's The Ambidextrous Universe, kids! Florian Eckhardt

Wii version of Twilight Princess completely mirrored to make Link right handed [Wii Source Online]

If and when Zelda marries Link, it's good to know this Japanese clothing store has given the princess her own bridal collection. Though, while probably inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's batshit insane wife Zelda (whose name Miyamoto borrowed) and not the Nintendo game, these outfits don't exactly scream "marry me." Brian Ashcraft

During Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto's trip to France, the famed game designer sat down with Nintendo of Europe to do an interview and drop bombshells. "I would say that we are progressing well with completing it," says Miyamoto. "And one of the most important features is that, because Revolution can run GameCube software, when you play Twilight Princess on Revolution, you can take advantage of the Revolution controller." You know, most would have been happy with "progressing well," but no, Miyamoto just had to tease everyone with the Revolution bit. Suddenly, those endless Twilight Princess delays are all starting to make sense.

More Info Here [Hyrule]

First comes word of Richard Simmons voicing the ambiguously gay Mr . Tingle in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, now the Internet Movie Database is listing 50 Cent taking on the voice work for Epona and Reginald Fils-Aime doing the voice of someone called The Man. No wonder the game has been delayed.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess [IMDb, thanks GameBrink forums for this running joke.]

Richard Simmons as Mr. Tingle? As appropriate as that might be, I sure hope it's some sort of joke. The last thing I want is Link aerobicizing his way through the Twilight Princess.

Richard Simmons = Mr Tingle? [I'm a Human Inbox]