Nintendo unleashes Wii Menu 3.4, updates ToS and removes save files [Wii Fanboy]

Anime Expo 2007 [i360 via Go Nintendo]

Twilight Hack [WiiBrew via Maxconsole]

The process is far from simple as once you modify a save game it requires it be to signed with 3 keys. Here's some info from Bushing.

"Once the Wii decrypts the save game, it checks its signature. Every Wii has its own private key which is used to sign save games, and when you save a game, the Wii actually saves three bits of data:

* The encrypted save game
* The signature for the save game (using your console's private key)
* A copy of your console's public key, signed by Nintendo."

Of course, the end user wouldn't have to go through this process unless they were wanting to inject their own code into the save game, but that shouldn't be necessary...

Camy Hero Pack Product Page [Camy International]

It's because of gamers that games have come as far as they have... it's not Nintendo's intent to alienate those people... We think we can involve everyone — people who played games in the past because the approach is so new, and people who were never gamers.

Alienate Gamers [Infendo]

Virginia high school student Andrew sends us what could be best described as a Nintendo marketer's wet dream. He writes:

Last Friday, for my gym class's Physical Fitness Final Exam, my teacher brought in 3 Wiis and an Xbox, all hooked up to LCD projectors projected on the walls of the gym. For 2 hours we had tournaments on 2 of the Wiis in Wii Sports, Wii Play, Excite Truck, and Wario Ware while others played Twilight Princess on another and DDR on the xbox. We were also given the option of playing basketball but all 20 people in my class were more interested in Wii.

Amazon.com's Deal of the Day is often pretty crappy, but today they're actually listing something worth having for all you Gamecube owners. Today's special is the GC version of The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess for a mere $32.99. It's available with their free Super Saver Shipping if you don't mind waiting a couple of extra days, which, if you've waited this long to get it, probably isn't an issue. Flynn De Marco

Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess [Amazon.com]

OH COME ON. These Twilight Princess Wii-mote add-ons aren't even trying. For US $29.99, you'd think that they could make something that wasn't so rotten. Can you imagine sitting in your house, gaming with these things? Or worse yet, the individuals who have already purchased these? *Shudder* Brian Ashcraft

Bad Zelda Peripherals [FRY'S via Fashionfunky]

A few weeks ago, Stephen Munn over at Aeropause reported that Nintendo was replacing Twilight Princess discs (Wii version) that had been affected by the "Cannon Room Glitch." Stephen unfortunately got caught in this trap and dutifully returned his disc to Nintendo for replacement. Well, the new disc came back and Stephen says that once again all is well in Hyrule.

Starting the new Zelda disc the first time brings a message, "Initiating System Update." On confirmation, it does a very quick update (apparently from the disc), and then brings you back to the Wii Menu... Upon opening the game, Shad is in the room. Speaking to him makes him leave.

The problem with this bug was that the character of Shad was nowhere to be found in the room to talk to after saving and shutting off the console in the Big Cannon Room. If you talked to Midna and tried to warp out of the room, she would tell you you couldn't because "That guy is watching us." Searching for Shad in the room came up with nothing despite what some forums would have you believe about him being "invisible", thus making it impossible to leave the room.

So, if you were a victim of this unfortunate incident and were unsure about sending your disc back, you can rest assured that the new replacement will fix the issue. There is no word yet on whether this will also fix the Eldin Bridge glitch that was also present on some versions. Flynn De Marco

NOA replaces my Zelda disc, and then some. [Aeropause]

Despite repeated warnings and articles about it all over the internet and certain forums, Stephen Munn over at Aeropause got caught in the dreaded Twilight Princess Cannon Room Bug. Now, I am not dogging him for this, because I did exactly the same thing back in December and ended up having to repeat three dungeons.

As he was researching an answer to the issue (which until now didn't exist) he came across a random posting on the official Nintendo forums claiming that Nintendo was replacing the glitchy discs. Not only that, but if you are stuck at that particular point in the game, the new disc will resolve the issue.

So, Stephen did a little investigating and after an email exchange, got a Nintendo rep on the phone that confirmed the replacement policy. The rep went on to explain to him exactly how the exchange works:

Write a letter explaining how I encountered the issue, along with my name, address, and daytime telephone number, and mail it along with just the game disc (no case) to the following address:

NINTENDO OF AMERICA
ATTN: CS ADMIN
4900 150TH AVE NE
REDMOND WA 98052-5171

A big shout out to Stephen for following this lead to it's conclusion so we can all get our buggy discs replaced. I'll be sending mine out tomorrow, anyone else going to take advantage of this? Flynn De Marco

Nintendo replacing buggy Zelda discs [Aeropause]

Hot on the heels of the Twilight Princess' 1 million sales news, comes Nintendo's honors at the recent AIAS awards at DICE. Nintendo received nineteen nominations in eleven different categories eventually going home with five awards. The list of honors are as follows...

• Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Wii Sports
• Outstanding Achievement in Story and Character Development: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
• Outstanding Achievement in Game-Play Engineering: Wii Sports
• Outstanding Achievement in Game Design: Wii Sports
• Hand-Held Game of the Year: Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day

Brain Age got best hand-held game of the year? Really? I shake my head in wonderment.
God, I hated that game. Flynn De Marco

In a press release from Nintendo, comes the news that the Wii version of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has just marked one million sales. Note that we are talking units sold, games in the hands of gamers, not units shipped, as some companies like to wave around like it means something. According to the release, Twilight Princess has now garnered the coveted position of "the fastest-selling launch title for any new video game system since Super Mario 64 for Nintendo 64 some 10 years ago." pretty impressive considering this isn't even including the Gamecube version sales.

Just goes to show you what the power of a really strong 21 year old franchise can do. Go team Zelda! Flynn De Marco

So, the honeymoon's over and the novelty's worn off by now. A good chunk of us got our Wiis and have played Wii Sports, Twilight Princess or Wario Ware: Smooth Moves into the ground. As Greg Howson at Guardian's Gamesblog points out:

I appreciate there is always a post launch lull, but I'm struggling to get too excited about the Wii at the moment. The terrible Call of Duty 3 makes me fear for future Wii conversions of multi format games, while the Virtual Console downloads are technically flawed and far too familiar.

Do know what he means. I will occasionally play a pick-up round of Wii Tennis with Mrs. Bashcraft, but that's about it at the moment. (McWhertor, on the other hand, spent yesterday playing Wario Ware: Smooth Moves alone. Yes, ALONE.) So it's poll time! And for the really chatty-types, clack away in the comments section:

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Playing With Your Wii? [Guardian, Image From Infendo]

With the exception of a few titles, almost everything this week is is something that's already out on other systems. Not really much in the way of new stuff besides Elebits, although I'm hot to try out Super Swing Golf.

Super Swing Golf (Wii)
Watch Kasumi and her boobs play golf!

Elebits
Wreck everything in pursuit of cute little blobby things!

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (PC)
Rainbow Six action now for the PC!

Metal Slug Anthology (PSP)
The full collection of the arcade classic title lands on the PSP.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy (DS)
The popular manga and anime series gets it's first DS game.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (GC)
Zelda fans who couldn't get a Wii, rejoice!

Star Trek: Legacy (Xbox 360)
Experience the entire history of Star Trek all in one game!

The Shield (PS2)
Michael Chiklis in polygons!

Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (PS3)
More World War II simulation from Aspyr.

Flynn De Marco

Everyone's favorite lippy Microsoft blogger Ozymandias files his Wii impressions. In a nutshell, here's what he has to say:

• "The controller works well — but for some genres. As I've said before, first person shooters and 'point to aim' just isn't this console's strength. It works, but there's a lag."
• "One feature I found super-compelling was the ability to create a mini-avatar, or 'Mii.' This is genius. I personally had way too much fun creating my little guy."
• "The online service isn't there yet — but to be fair, it also wasn't promised at launch as did Sony. Nintendo is still insisting on using Friend Codes (or Wii number) to identify yourself on the system. This sort of sucks. While they took some good leaps ahead of all of the competition in personalization with the Mii concept, this is a definite throwback."
• "Graphically the Wii won't blow your socks off. Even Zelda, probably one of the best looking Wii games, only ranges from 'ok' to 'very good' in my opinion. (Yes, I have the component cables.) My hope is that there will be enough games that don't need high-end graphics to enable the Wii to survive past the first couple of years."
• Zelda does start slow — fair warning. You have to spend literally two hours before it actually kicks in while they run you through what feels like a too long controller training level. I'll also add that the new controls don't add anything to the Zelda experience — frankly, they were tacked on to help sell Wiis. However, they also don't negatively impact the game experience so it's a bit of a wash.

Agree? Disagree? Discuss. We're all ears. Brian Ashcraft

Wii Impressions [Ozymandias]

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