Wii remote = lightsaber

I thought the Force Unleashed game was gonna be a 360 thing but perhaps there's some Wii love as well.

August sales numbers

It looks like the August sales numbers are out for the U.S. While there aren't any surprises as far as hardware goes (Wii sold 400,000+ and DS sold 380,000+), I was pretty surprised to see that Metroid Prime 3 sold 220,000 copies in the four days it was available in August. From IGN's article, MP2 didn't reach that level until it had been on the market for two weeks. I wonder how much of that has to do with MP3 being a good game and how much of it reflects the strong need for a good hardcore game on the Wii? Either way, more sales means more Metroid in the future, which is always a good thing.

Metroid 3 Graphics Comparison

Gamespot has this feature up comparing the graphics of MP 2 to MP 3. Pretty interesting. I know that the Wii isn't a graphics powerhouse, but I've been disappointed that developers don't even seem to be trying to make the games look nicer. Just one more thing to enjoy when I finally start playing this one. For those of you who have played it, are the updated graphics noticeable, or do they even matter?

Metroid 3 & Bioshock

So I've been playing a lot of both of these lately and it got me thinking about linearity in games. Both are fairly linear stories with a few optional side quests here and there. One thing about Bioshock that gives it more variety though, is the endless stream of weapons and plasmids. I get to decide just how I want to kill the crazy denizens of Rapture. Should I freeze them, put a few bullets in them and watch them shatter (one of my favorites) or set them on fire, or just shoot 'em? An important question, for sure. :) But Metroid just gives me a few options to dispatch foes.
I guess I don't really have any conclusion here, I just thought it was interesting...

Kotaku pointed out this post at gunslot.com (go figure) where someone lists the top 25 games (or 29, including ties) worldwide by sales, but doesn't include packaged games such as Wii Sports or the original Super Mario Bros. It's interesting, though not too surprising, to note that 17 of the titles were created by Nintendo. Lots of Mario and Pokemon, but where's the Zelda?

16-player online Mario Kart for the Wii

This sounds pretty freaking awesome! Looks like it's money-printing time. (Too bad I couldn't get blogger to animate the gif!)

Green, Blue, RED...AAAAHHH!

I can't think of a game that I've played recently that has had as much staying power as this curious little thing. I mean, it's basically Bejeweled with some ogres and swords thrown in right? Right, but that combination gives you a reason to play the same puzzles over and over. It's more satisfying to match four skulls in a row when it does massive damage to some brute that was selling your people into slavery. That's much better than some vague concept of 1000 points or a super double bonus or something. Plus there's the inexplicable pull of wanting to level up your character. Although I'm a couple levels ahead of my wife after the long weekend, I doubt it will last long. She's just as addicted as I am.
So if you don't have this game, get it. It's been my go-to DS game for months.