No joke: I'm pretty jazzed about both Wii Fit U and Wii Sports Club

I have a feeling I'm in the extreme minority in saying the following, but I'm going to say it anyway: yesterday's out-of-nowhere Wii Fit U Direct broadcast has me feeling pretty jazzed.

Now, I'm one of those weirdos who've been interested in Wii Fit U, which will hit the eShop on Nov. 1 and store shelves on Dec. 13, since it was first announced--due mainly to the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed both the original Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus--so I guess it shouldn't be too surprising to hear that I'm looking forward to owning the Wii U iteration, too.



As for why I'm "jazzed" about it, though: that can be pinned on the fact that I completely forgot--until watching the aforementioned Wii Fit U Direct, of course--that this version will make use of a special Wii Fit-branded pedometer that will track and display all sorts of important information (from steps taken and calories burned to time, temperature and even elevation).

Oh, and it features a pixelized representation of your Mii. Which I think is kind of cool.



As excited as I am about the possibility of having a pixelated Mii strapped to my hip all day, every day, I'm far more excited at this point about the Wii U game that was revealed at the tail end of this latest Nintendo Direct: Wii Sports Club.

I know a lot of folks likely yawned when they heard that an updated version of the mini-game collection that made the Wii a worldwide phenomenon would hit the Wii U eShop in early November, but I wasn't one of them.



Why? Because I absolutely loved the bowling and, especially, the tennis games that were included in the original Wii Sports. In fact, my only quibble with the title was that it didn't allow players to compete against others on line. Wii Sports Club fixes that issue and also introduces Miiverse functionality and a few other bells and whistles.

The question I'm asking myself (over and over and over again) as a result of all of the above: when am I finally going to pick up a Wii U so I can play both of these games?



Sadly, I think that's not going to happen until Christmas, at the earliest. I'll tell you what, though--whenever I do bring home a Wii U, I'll be bringing home copies of Wii Fit U and Wii Sports Club along with it (or I'll be buying them off of the eShop as soon as the system's hooked up--should Wii Sports Club not receive a boxed release).

How about you? Are any of you thrilled--or at least mildly interested--in either Wii Fit U or Wii Sports Club?

The world's greatest tennis player is now promoting Wii Sports

No, I'm not talking about Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or even Serena Williams. I'm talking about the peerless--and often ponytailed--winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, Steffi Graf.

Admittedly, the blond, leggy German stopped playing the sport more than a decade ago, but I'm a firm believer that if she re-entered the pro game today she'd quickly return to the top of the rankings--despite being 42.


Stefanie Graf on WhoSay

That's all well and good, but you'd probably like to know how Graf is, as this post's headline suggests, promoting Wii Sports, right? Well, she's doing so in a series of TV ads--including the one above--that will be aired inter- nationally (which I'm guessing means throughout Europe and not in the US), according to a recent post on her official website.

Although I think it's a pretty by-the-numbers Wii commercial, I can't help but like the smile and wink the mother of two--and wife of Andre Agassi--aims at viewers in the ad's waning seconds.

Mental image of the day: Jake Gyllenhaal + Whitney Houston + Wii Sports

Who would have thought that Jake Gyllenhaal and I would have so much in common? I mean, according to showbizspy.com, the hunky actor likes to play Wii Sports while listening to Whitney Houston, and so do I.

OK, so that's not true. I much prefer to play Wii Sports while listening to Robin and Róisín Murphy, thank you very much!

(Via showbizspy.com by way of dlisted.com)

Nintendo of America finally lets the (red) cat out of the bag

Although we've known for some time now that Nintendo's European and Japanese arms are going to release red DSi XLs and Wiis in their respective regions the next few weeks, we haven't heard a peep from the company's North American arm.

Until today, that is.

Yes, the red DSi XL and Wii systems you've been salivating over--don't try to deny it--since you saw this post will hit store shelves in the States on Nov. 7.

Strangely, the bundles that will be offered to North American gamers are going differ from those being offered to their European and Japanese brothers and sisters. The DSi XL bundle, for instance, will include a red DSi XL, a copy of Mario Kart DS and a trio of DSiWare titles (Brain Age Express: Math, Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters and a Photo Clock app) for $179.99. The Wii bundle, on the other hand, will include a red Wii (along with a red Wii Remote Plus and nunchuck attachment) and copies of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Sports for $199.



Unfortunately, it seems the North American Wii bundle won't include the special anniversary edition of Super Mario Bros. that will be pre-installed onto the systems that will hit the streets in Japan on Nov. 11. Nor will it include Donkey Kong: Original Edition (whatever that means), which will be preloaded onto the systems sold in Europe starting on Oct. 29.

Also, at this point it seems that the awesome Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary DSi system mentioned in this post will remain a Japan-only release, as neither Nintendo of America nor Nintendo of Europe mentioned it in their respective announcements.

(Via siliconera.com)