Microsoft and Sony should take note. Not only is the graphically challenged Wii kicking their butt in sales, but they are apparently kicking their butt in customer service as well. The story goes that a guy was plaing his Wii that is 2 years old, and was getting some graphics artifacts on RE4 and GH:WT. He called customer service, and even though he thought his system was out of warranty, it was not (which makes me wonder what the Wii warranty is). So he was emailed a label, and shipped his Wii out for repairs XBOX 360 style. When his system was returned, a note was inside saying that they could not duplicate the problem, but they suspected the motherboard and replaced it. Nice. But what makes this story special is that they also sent him brand new replacement copies of the two games that he was having issues with. Now that is what I call customer service!

Some stories are almost to bizarre to believe, like the one about the thief who demanded the “least expensive XBOX” at gunpoint. This is a bloodcurdling tale of a Mom who took a prompt from her kids’ Wii a little bit too literally. Someone (and I dare say not a friend) told this lady that she needed to put her credit card in when prompted by her Wii. Now if someone told me this, I would take it to mean that I needed to enter the number, but I digress. So this lady ended up inserting (physically) 3 credit cards into the disc slot of the Wii, which consequently caused problems. Moral of the story, keep that woman away from videogames. She might kill someone next.

Naah, or course not. But they probably should have taken a bit of a closer look at the 14 used copies of Animal Crossing: Wild World (for DS) that they sent to the press. They sent these games out to demonstrate the user asset sharing abilities between WW and Wii’s Animal Crossing: City Folk.

The problem was that MTV Multiplayer noticed that one of the characters from WW–named Baarbara, was greeting the press players by saying, “Love you long time”, and “How are you ‘N-word’?”

Now, it must be noted that Animal Crossing: WW allows you to customize the greetings and share those greetings virally online in your saved city, but you would think Nintendo, or any company for that matter–would kind of go through the used games with a feature like this in order to weed out the questionable content. Nintendo, of course, sent out the requisite “We’re sorry” corporate letters to all involved. Maybe someone was just a little too excited after listening to the new ‘Lil Wayne cd….

Holy smokes! 800,000 units in one week? That’s ridiculous! Now if they could only make some games. Picture shamelessly stolen from Gizmodo, which is where the full article can be found.

OK. I know that there is a fair amount of hatred among hardcore gamers, and most of it is understandable. However, those of us who consider ourselves “old-school” gamers should love the Wii, thanks to the Homebrew Channel. **Gamer Husbands does not advocate hacks of any system or software. Over at Gizmodo they have a nice tutorial on how to play classic games on your Wii console. Get ready to break out the old NES games!

OK, since there is next to nothing in the Wii forum, I thought I would post a review of the latest “game” that I picked up for Wii. Wii Fit is still moderately scarce despite it’s $89.99 price tag.

Graphics: Typical Wii/GameCube graphics. That being said, what else does anyone expect from a Wii? 1080p? Not in this lifetime. My fat little Mii is my onscreen representation. 3 out of 5 (can’t get any higher with Wii graphics)

Initial Setup: The game starts off with a basic setup routine on entering your name, picking your Mii, entering your height and birthday. After that it tests your body balance, while explaining to you the downfalls of bad body balance (which make complete sense). Finally, it gives you your BMI (obese) and weight, subsequently calculating your Wii Fit Age (mine was 35 amazingly, and I am 35). You can enter a weight loss goal, but it will not let you exceed 22 lbs (my personal goal is 30). 4 out of 5

Game Play: There are four main areas in the program: Yoga, Strength Excercises, Aerobics, and Balance Games. The Yoga area consists of a few Yoga poses that are designed to stretch you and work on balance. The Strength Exercises are things like push ups, which also track your balance. Aerobics starts out with a fun little step aerobics game that kind of makes you think of DDR. The most fun area by far is the Balance Games. Be aware though that fun DOES NOT translate into EASY. These games are very tricky, because you need to keep your body equally balanced side to side and front to back to get good ratings. Once game puts you in goal on the soccer pitch. By leaning left or right, you block free kicks. Seemingly simple, but you need to have excellent body control to do well at this game…..and then the AI characters intermittently start throwing shoes and animals in with the soccer balls. The ski slalom game is fun, but tough, as well as the ski jump. Each of the activity areas have hidden content that is unlocked as you put time into the game. In each task that you complete, you are graded on a star system relating either to skill or balance. Also, the time that you take in the activity is entered into your “Bank”. As you get more skill and log more time, you can unlock content in one of the game areas. 4.5 out of 5

Overall Impression: I know that most of the GHR crew deplores the Wii, and most of it is justified. However, Wii Fit is a worthwhile offering on the lowly console, and has a wide appeal (especially if you are wide). The graphics aren’t superb, but this is a fun, yet rewarding experience. Time will tell if it helps me achieve my weight loss goal. Of course, staying away from ice cream will help that too.

Overall Grade: 4 out of 5

Tired of just looking at strippers and wishing you could virtually pole dance yourself? Well Nintendo is bringing that fantasy to reality. They’ve confirmed that a Wii Poledancing game is in the works. For more info swing over and click this link.

So whose gonna pass on Wii Fit and save up their dollar bills for this one?