The Tendo Project – Daily Nintendo News

Back in the long-ago days of the 2010 holiday season, it looked like THQ had a hit on its hands with its out-of-left-field uDraw Game Tablet, a slate-like controller that used a stylus to let players draw on the TV. The company sold 1.7 million of them to Wii owners by early 2011, beating expectations and leading some to speculate that the uDraw might be the biggest game control revolution this side of the Kinect.

Buoyed by the initial success, THQ quickly cranked out uDraw tablets for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and got to work licensing new compatible software from big, family-friendly brands like Kung Fu Panda, Spongebob Squarepants, and Disney Princesses. But that expansion now looks like a colossal mistake, as excess uDraw inventory was a major factor in the huge financial loss reported for the company's recent 2011 holiday quarter.

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Back in the long-ago days of the 2010 holiday season, it looked like THQ had a hit on its hands with its out-of-left-field uDraw Game Tablet, a slate-like controller that used a stylus to let players draw on the TV. The company sold 1.7 million of them to Wii owners by early 2011, beating expectations and leading some to speculate that the uDraw might be the biggest game control revolution this side of the Kinect.

Buoyed by the initial success, THQ quickly cranked out uDraw tablets for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and got to work licensing new compatible software from big, family-friendly brands like Kung Fu Panda, Spongebob Squarepants, and Disney Princesses. But that expansion now looks like a colossal mistake, as excess uDraw inventory was a major factor in the huge financial loss reported for the company's recent 2011 holiday quarter.

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The rise of purely digital online game sales has changed the industry in a number of ways, but the most important change might be the introduction of games as impulse buys. Anyone with a credit card tied to their Steam account knows how scarily easy it is to, with just a few clicks, dump more money than you intended on a whole passel of games that seem vaguely intriguing. You might not have read any reviews, or even heard anything about the game outside of the Steam description, but when it's so cheap and the purchase process is so seamless, your consumptive id can often act before your conscious brain even has a chance to question whether you really want the game you're buying.

Digital stores on platforms from Sony, Microsoft, Apple, and Google have similar setups to encourage this kind of impulse purchase—enter your credit card once, then buy with a few clicks forevermore. Nintendo is the lone holdout, as it often is with online features, refusing to store credit card information for users with a Wii or 3DS. But that might change in the next console generation, with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announcing today that the Wii U will use near-field communication technology "as a means of making micropayments."

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Readers were asking about the existence of triggers on Razer's Project Fiona, so here is a picture of the back of the hardware. See? Triggers!

We were at CES this week, and here are some of the stories we brought back. If Nintendo is going to launch the Wii U in 2012, the company doesn't have much time to give us some actual details about the hardware and the games we can expect. On the other hand, that's probably what E3 is for. Come inside and check out the biggest gaming stories of the week, and to see what we thought of the Fiona itself.

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It's a little unnerving to be sitting in a room with four Nintendo representatives looking at you, along with one of the most mysterious upcoming pieces of hardware in the business. There were multiple Wii U consoles in the room, each one complete with the innovative controller that looks like the love child of a standard gaming peripheral and an iPad. I was told that Nintendo wouldn't be showing me anything new at CES; all the game demos I would be playing were already shown at E3.

I could ask questions, of course, but I quickly realized doing so would be a waste of time.

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Here is the best thing about Mario Kart 7: This time, Nintendo didn't screw it up.

When you think of Nintendo's hit products, you don't necessarily think of the Mario Kart racing games (specifically) as a dominant part of the 3DS maker's business. But the series is colossal. Mario Kart Wii has outsold every other standalone game on the home system, moving a staggering 28 million copies. That's one game for every three Wii consoles.

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The accepted wisdom states that the 3DS is doomed to fail, a victim of both Nintendo's hubris and the increasing importance of gaming on smartphones. The problem with accepted wisdom is that it's so often wrong. Despite soft sales on the Nintendo Wii and a slow start with the 3DS, this could be still be a successful holiday season for the gaming giant.

This Christmas is, to put it bluntly, make or break time for the 3DS, and Nintendo is coming out swinging.

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Have you ever played a game that took forever to come out, only to find yourself wondering, "What the hell were they doing for all this time, anyway?"

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is not one of those games. It has taken Nintendo five years to release a game in this series developed exclusively for Wii, and it delivers in every way possible, including some you wouldn't necessarily expect. The visual design and music are gorgeous, the gameplay varied and well paced, the script humorous. And there's a lot of it. As of this writing I've lost 30 hours to Skyward Sword and I still have more to do. (Wired.com writer John Mix Meyer has put in 40 hours and he's just about finished, but not quite.)

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House of the Dead Overkill was released for the Nintendo Wii two years ago, and it remains one of our favorite games for the system, although it's tragically overlooked. Thankfully, we're drawing close to Halloween and Sega has updated the graphics for the PlayStation 3, added some bonus content, and re-released the game with support for the PlayStation Move.

So what's new? First, the game looks much better, and there are two brand-new levels and more collectibles to find throughout the levels. The Move is a great fit for this sort of lightgun game, and the wonderfully profane writing and grindhouse-style jokes remain. This is a game that delights in its "Mature" rating, and doesn't pull any of its goofy punches in the name of good taste.

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Kinect Sports Season 2 for the Xbox 360 is exactly what you'd expect: more sports, voice commands, some neat multiplayer options, and that's pretty much it. Older gamers or people looking for a deep experience are going to be let down; this is aimed at younger gamers, casual gamers, and people looking for a fun activity at parties using their Kinect. The game is able to provide these things with few problems.

The games offer differing amounts of control, and while playing Tennis or Baseball it's mostly a matter of timing. In Skiing, you simply lean left and right, and jump to get air off the ramps. Darts requires a steady hand as you aim, pull back, and throw. Each game is easy to pick up and play, but precision and control are the trade-offs; once you learn the movements for each game, that's pretty much it. The fun comes in comparing your scores with the other players in the room, setting up competitive matches both online or off, or even sending challenges to those on your friends list so they can compete with your best scores asynchronously. It's an addictive touch that goes a long way towards keeping your interest in the game.

I played online with another reviewer, and we had a wonderful time with the trash talking, and the game throws a huge amount of goofy music at you while you play. It's like a celebration of one-hit wonders, which goes a long way to maintain the game's fun and goofy feel. It goes out of its way to be inviting and friendly, and the voice commands used to scoot around the menus work well and are a fun parlor trick to show people who've never seen the Kinect.

The $50 asking price seems steep for a game with so many familiar concepts, even with the high level of polish given to the experience. If you have kids or frequent family gatherings, you're going to enjoy this. If not, think of it as a weekend rental. This isn't a bad game by any stretch, but we need to move past the Wii Sports model for these games if motion control is hoping to stay around for the long haul.

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