Gamertell

Holy Guacamole - we all knew that Nintendo’s newest first party offering, Wii Sports Resort, was going to do well. But 500,000 copies in eight days? Especially when the game in question is really an excuse to launch the Wii Motion Plus add-on? Wow. According to 1Up, the figures translate to about one copy sold every 1.5 seconds. Wow again.

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Hello, Nintendo Wii, meet the global recession. Gaming retail giant GameStop will be offering a free game with every new Wii purchase - and they’re even offering (gasp!) good Wii titles. It seems that Wii sales have been slowing lately (at least, compared to the insane rate they’ve been flying off the shelves since November 2006). This is a ploy - and arguably, a very good one - to boost those numbers.

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Everyone anticipating being able to suit up as a Big Daddy in BioShock 2: it looks like your second descent into Rapture is going to happen a bit later than expected. The game, which was slated for a release in fall 2009, has just slipped to “fiscal year 2010”, presumably in the first quarter of the calendar year.

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After a few rather anemic updates, this week’s Nintendo downloadable games are robust, meaty and… extremely eclectic. We’re looking at plenty of action titles (not the least of which is the Genesis’ Secret Command) and Konami’s own awesome-looking Ant Nation. If you’re into “Brain games”, DSiWare’s got Brain Challenge for 800 points, which sounds like a fairly full-featured game for the price. Finally, I’m quite intrigued by the premise of Bit Boy, though it’s still a “download at your own risk” proposition. Nintendo adds to it’s virtual game stores each Monday at 9 AM Pacific, and Wii points may be purchased at a rate of $1=100.

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Can you say, “the dog days of summer”? This Nintendo download update is certainly on the sedate side, with 2 water-based titles on WiiWare (including a fishing game!) and Sudoku (yes, Sudoku!) on DSiWare. I’m interested in the sole VC release, Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa, and potentially Silver Star Reversi on WiiWare, but if you’re still not satisfied, hell, Natsume does make a mean fishing game. Nintendo adds to it’s virtual game stores each Monday at 9 AM Pacific, and Wii points may be purchased at a rate of $1=100.

Nintendo’s Descriptions:

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Remember that moldy stereotype that gamers are all overweight, couch-crusty adolescents? Well, we actually have financial proof that it’s not the case anymore (not that it ever was) - in a recent story at 1Up, it was revealed that the new genre of fitness games has created an incredible $2 billion in revenue. The report originally comes from the Games for Health Project, and the figure was generated in just 18 months. Holy guacamole.

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Today was not a good day to be a celebrity - not long after it was confirmed that actress/advocate Farrah Fawcett had died, the shocking news came that Michael Jackson (the “King of Pop”) had died suddenly. He was 50.

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Is there anything better than free games? I mean, it’s a rhetorical question, but when you have good, free flash games that you can play in a browser, it’s hard to complain. Today, GameFly (the generally excellent game rental service) launched Ponged, which offers “over 500” games, all free to play in any flash-capable browser, all of which were reportedly selected by “hardcore gamers”. According to Joystiq, everything should work just perfectly in browser windows on your Wii or PS3, and there’s even a quick-conceal “boss button” so those who game at work can easily avoid getting caught.

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This one came out of nowhere - ZeniMax, the parent company of Fallout 3 and Oblivion developer Bethesda, has just announced its acquisition of id Software (best known for the Doom and Quake franchises). According to a report at Gamasutra, Bethesda will publish all of id’s currently unsigned projects (EA already has the upcoming Rage), and the move is being seen as the company really stepping up it’s publishing side.

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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was, by most accounts, a completely awesome game. Released on the DS last March, critics loved the gritty, comical portable version of everyone’s favorite open world series, though it didn’t sell well - at all. According to 1Up, Rockstar will release the title on PSP this fall, in hopes of boosting sales on the presumably slightly older-skewing handheld.

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