Wii turns from Japan to Woolworths

ONCE AGAIN it's been an interesting week for all gamers, regardless of your platform of choice.

Wii
The Nintendo Wii had the most eventful week with the launch of the Wii in its native territory of Japan, coming quickly after news that NOA had sold over 600,000 consoles in the US.

Head over to Kotaku if you wish to see the Japanese launch described in minute detail. 1up also have the usual montage of launch queues, noting that the length of the queues were considerably larger than that of the Gamecube in 2001, and of the recent launch of the PS3.

The software lineup for the launch was considerably better than that of the US. Eleven extra titles were released, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, Wii Play, and Super Swing Golf, the most notable. Even the virtual console had extra games, including Super Castlevania IV, Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Gunstar Heroes, all considerable titles. Presumably these will be made available in the US soon.

In the UK we hear that Woolies now has some Wii in stock. Expect your pre-order to turn up within a week.

Another interesting note of mention comes from our friend Seth Fogie over at informit, who performed the original break-down of the Wii's components.

Seth has managed to replace the internal Wifi antennas with a third party external antenna. He didn't manage to push the wireless signal performance envelope too much, but it's a fun project to check out none the less.

PS3
Sony shipment figures once again took an analytical battering, this time from the Electronic Arts CEO, Larry Probst. Speaking at the Reuters Media Summit, Probst said that EA assumed the shipment figure would be lower than the 400,000 unit target set by Sony. However, he said, "Where they ended up was a bit of a surprise." Unofficial estimates of the console's shipment figures put the total at around 200,000 units shipped.

He continued by speaking up Nintendo's offering, "Clearly the Nintendo Wii had a spectacular holiday," and went on, noting that sales of the new console exceeded EA's expectations.

Sony also had an executive re-shuffle during the week, which ensured plenty of PS4 rumours among the press. Sony responded by stating that the shuffle would not affect any future console launches.

Xbox 360
We've had chance to play with Viva Pinata for a good week now, courtesy of Microsoft.

It's a lovingly presented game, which concentrates on the rearing of larger-than-life Pinata animals that require a large amount of care and attention.

On first glance at the images on the back of the box, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a simple game aimed at kids. But we can assure you it's far from easy, and will keep the discernible gamer busy for some time.

We can't help thinking that the game's Pinata animals, upgrades and features all come a bit too quick - a lot happens within the first hour or two of play, and even for an experienced gamer it tends to overwhelm somewhat.

The less experienced player, at which the game is also targeted, may be put off by the immediate deluge and the ensuing complexity. The constant mass of alerts and text-heavy helpers aren't too fondly received either.

'Romancing' your pets allows reproduction of the Pinatas. A mini-game and a quick dance animation later, you'll receive a new mini-Pinata who will grow to full size in little time. The mini-game seems a little out of place, taking the form of a small maze with a few obstacles, and could probably have been left out - although it may appeal to the younger audience.

An 8/10 from us. It's still a challenging, fun game, despite our concentration on the negative points, and certainly enough to keep any adult busy for several weeks - but the pace may be too much for the younger gamer.

In other 360 news, the recent update to fix the problems with 1080p output on VGA, have been met with mixed reaction.

It seems the fix hasn't actually fixed anything, and people are still reporting the same, or similar, problems with tearing and saturated colours. At least the Xbox doesn't force you to downscale to 480p on older HDTVs, unlike the PS3 which still hasn't had its problems resolved.

Our Xbox 360's dvd-drive has started to sound like it's about to take off whenever we feed it a disc, a widely reported problem with the drives. Putting the console on an odd 45 degree angle seems to help, but it's hardly the most elegant of solutions.

If you're in the US don't forget that Halo 3 beta sign-ups begin today, over at Halo 3. Lucky buggers.

Before we go, you might wish to check out this new power supply from Philips. The Philips 5-in-1 Universal Game Charger allows you to charge 4 Nintendohandhelds (DS, DS Lite, GBA, and GBA Micro) as well as the PSP. Quite handy. µ

See also
PS3, Xbox receive batterings
Xbox 360 mugs punters
Hot 360 titles and PS3 problems exposed
Playstation 3 dissected and analysed