Wait, did the announcer say "the 2004 games in Torino?"

Yes, yes he did. I imagine he meant Athens, seeing as the games in Torino were in 2006 and were what's commonly known as the "Winter Olympics."

jmb8504

"ohhhh...get in there...get in there"

Muthafodder

@taduman: Lolz, casual games jokes/attempts at insults against gamers never get old, good one. Why does your kind try to set things straight by attacking Nintendo instead? I have just a much right to show they're wrong, since they honestly are :o)

Agnates

@Agnates: Nintendo thanks you for your loyalty O_o

Seriously, don't try to defend Nintendo. They don't need you to *set things straight* on the internets.

BTW, have fun with WiiMusic.

taduman

It would have been more entertaining to see them pose with Frosted Flakes boxes so the media could have a cow about it.

I actually expected them to do a little worse than they did. Athletes are 'too cool' to play video games.

BigDragon

Since when was the 2004 games in Torino? Was Ice Soccer invented that year and the world failed to notice? Because if Ice Soccer does exist, that would be awesome.

CarbonFalcon

All I could think about while watching was how badly I wanted to choke that announcer. Geez.

Sheetman

@Agnates: They're obviously not doing the right moves to please everyone, because I'm not pleased with them. :p

kojirodensetsu

Also what's with people bashing how wrong their fitness age or whatever is? It's clearly an advertisement, they could have faked it to show whatever age they wanted and yet they chose that. It's not real, they chose that for whatever marketing reasons they wanted, like maybe making people who buy it not feel bad when they see they're far above what was shown or simply as humour for people who do know how it works already and expected something like 18 for their age results.

Agnates

Is this Nintendo's response to the Playboy WiiFit videos?

Not impressive.

taduman

@knownspace:

Hope Solo is soccer hot, but Heather Mitts is *hot* hot.

Franklin Comes Alive!

The two things I took from this is that Nintendo desparately needs to find better voice actors and Heather Mitts is still gorgeous.

Congratulations on the gold medal!

lojer

That apartment/set looks like crackheads had their way with it.

heretrix

@Killer_WaLrUs: Eh, they said it's coming, not that it's coming tommorow, if it's too early to show screens or footage why should they? So that morons can bash the Wii based on unfinished products?

Nintendo's not letting anybody sane down, they're still creating their core franschises people have loved through the years, creating the occasional new IP, doing GREAT licencing deals like with Fatal Frame 4 AND attracting a great amount of third party exclusive games. They're doing all the right moves to please EVERYONE this time.

The fact there are far more casual games doesn't mean crap, they obviously need far less resources so you can make 100 of those in the time it takes to make a single Zelda title. And hey, it brings in the money so by all means go ahead and have those, it's not like I have to buy them, I'll stick to the games I'm actually interested in, of which many, MANY are coming as discussed in various recent Wii topics.

Agnates

No Hope Solo? Meh.

knownspace

Fit indeed :D

Arnold Rimmer's Garden Strimmer

Damn, I couldn't stand that announcer - I'd rather shoot myself or rip my ears off than listen to that guy.

thespyderboy

I made it 4 minutes in, I think I deserve a medal.

Wolfers

That's the thing about soccer players. They're all so fat and lazy.

They're not fit athletes like in baseball. You know, like three times Mr. Universe Babe Ruth.

Yonderboy

I bet they can do better after some practice than someone who isn't fit though.

BrotherNick

Meh, I knew it was off because it said my Wii Fit age was dead accurate. I'm the most out of shape guy I know.

Lazlo

No wonder everyone stops using the bathroom scale simulator after a week. It lies to you and makes you feel bad about yourself even if you are in perfect shape.

Wii fit is almost as misleading as Cammie Dunaway.

sarcasmOD

I know that Nintendo wants to shown that they can create games for everyone, but they've really let the hardcore Nintendo fans down. Yes, Animal Crossing on the Wii is nice, but what about another Pikmin game, which was said to be in the works, footage or screens. I think Mad World will do the Wii fans justice but right now, its got to be extremely cold and lonely over there.

Killer_WaLrUs

well that was boring

chaos_isnt_here

that was embarrassing. The announcer sounded like one of those announcers from saturday morning kids gameshows from the early 90's/

Scott3D

Because famous (or semi famous) people are never used by any HARDCORE games company to promote their products, that only proves they're CASUAL CRAP. Or not. Definitely not.

Agnates

Busy atheltes proving that the Wii is for the extremely casual player... Quit the gimmicks nintendo and come up with something worthwhile!!!

iam.gmo

@BrotherNick: And sadly, I'm also setting up turrents on TF2.

...but on the 360. I know...I know. But I'm not a PC gamer.

Chromeo

@Datheron:
No new IPs yet, I was talking of "recent" Nintendo, they did create new IPs last gen (Pikmin, Animal Crossing) so why would anyone think they suddenly stop that because we haven't seen them yet? Also, you mean Sony and Microsoft don't rely on their proven IPs? Sony have been practically showing Killzone 2 since the PS3 was released and we've yet to play it, while Microsoft are where they are pretty much thanks to their Halo series. So what's wrong with Nintendo relying on the likes of Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart, Fire Emblem, Metroid and Smash Bros?

As for good third party games on the Wii, try No More Heroes, Zack & Wiki, Sonic & the Secret Rings, Resident Evil 4, Boom Blox, Lost Winds, Chocobo's Dungeon (one of the recent good games since you asked), Strong Bad, and for upcoming games the likes of Fatal Frame, Sky Crawlers, Swords & Soldiers, Mad World, Cursed Mountain, House of the Dead, Crystal Bearers, Tales of Symphonia and many others, mostly exclusives. Games of every genre for every audience.

For sports games try the likes of PES 08 and the new Madden 09. They're getting great reviews but every idiotic fanboy of system (x) will just say "it's last gen with waggle" instead of acknowledge how good games they are objectively.

Agnates

I don't get it, they are soccer players, not gymnasts. Why would you expect soccer players to have amazing balance, no matter how good at soccer they are? Maybe if all they did was bicycle kicks all the time... :) So I don't think Wii Fit has any problems there, since your Wii Fit age is solely based on your balance ability.

Dreamwriter

@Chromeo: Same arguments, kinda boring. If you have a wii and you like to play hardcore games, you probably should consider a 2nd console or computer. I would say the good games that come out 3-4 times a year for the wii is enough for me to justify my purchase. I don't play too much anymore, sniping people up in tf2 pc.

BrotherNick

@Agnates: It's really nice to see you take Nintendo promotion onto kotaku, Cammie. How's that snowboarding injury?

sarcasmOD

$100000000 says O'Reilly hasn't used that Wii she won for more than an hour tops.

Kenny

First, we'll see the comments attacking the Wiifit for being too casual, and reminding us that their Wii has been collecting dust for months now.

Then, we'll see the comments lambasting those people, laughing at their dissapproval of the Wii, talking about how THEY enjoy the Wii, and that it's great they're targeting a new market, and Nintendo is making ubermoneyz anyways, so those other people's opinions are moot.

And then I post a comment that tries to bridge the gap between the disenfranchised "core" gamer, and the Nintendo loyalist gamer, and get assaulted by both.

Chromeo

@Agnates: Eh, what kind of new IP's has Nintendo released this generation beyond the uber-casual Wii-* games? How many great 3rd party games have they had, exclusive or otherwise, compared to the 360/PS3? Do they even have any interesting sports titles which aren't last-gen ports w/ waggle or heavily casualized?

The Wii has great games, sure, but the vast majority of them are - like the N64 and Gamecube beforehand - from Nintendo and it seems like the majority of the success in sales and awareness are also Nintendo games (deserved or otherwise). It's just disappointing; what was the last good game on the Wii? Smash?

Datheron

most annoying announcer ever.

Shockadin

@LittleBigPlaneteer:

Yes I realize that's sort of what Hockey is, but Ice Soccer would be even cooler

LittleBigPlaneteer

@CarbonFalcon:

Ice Soccer would be pretty awesome though

LittleBigPlaneteer

@iam.gmo:

My god you're trolling hard today. Don't tire yourself out too much, I'm sure there will be some other Wii-related posts later in the day.

@sarcasmOD:

"just because people have a complaint against the company you support does not automatically make every single one of those complaints invalid."

I agree very much with that sentiment, but when people complain with the usual "Wii is for casuals", "motion controls are a gimmick", "teh grafix suxorz" arguments one can't help but to ridicule them and put them in their place.

NeoAkira

@sarcasmOD: That's true, but if criticism is so definitive as in "Wii isn't for hardcore gamers" or "Nintendo has abandoned hardcore gamers" then I think, as a hardcore gamer, I have the right to state the opposite just as definitively if I feel it is the case... I've yet to buy the likes of Metroid Prime 3 even, but I've still been happy with Resident Evil 4, Battalion Wars 2 and even Call of Duty 3 (which was pretty decent and "waggle" did make a difference) for that sort of FPS-ish gameplay for example. How does enjoying all this somehow mean I'm a casual whore who doesn't own a real system... That's the attitude I dislike and it's presented in every Nintendo thread, even if not directly stated every single time.

Agnates

Lame vid.The announcer is SO annoying.

WEGGLES90

@Agnates: I haven't played 09, but Madden 08 on the Wii was pretty legit to me, and yes there are some good 3rd party games. However, many people who are an active part of the gaming industry whether they are producers or consumers are not happy with the direction Nintendo is taking when it comes to their games. I'm glad you are enjoying your Wii, you are having fun with the least expensive system and that's great value. However, just because people have a complaint against the company you support does not automatically make every single one of those complaints invalid.

sarcasmOD

@Agnates: A tip from an ex Nintendo fanboy: stop defending what you just can't. Nintendo has really dropped the ball when it comes to appealing to their hardcore fanbase that has sticked with them since 1985. Nintendo has some good original exlcusive third party games like Z&W and No More Heroes but both of those games bombed horribly in sales. No, RE4 doesn't quite count.
Yes here comes The Conduit (pretty generic by PS3/360 standards though and I dont mean graphics) and Madworld but those are only promises still. But only TWO hardcore games too look forward on Wii this year? Wait a minute, that's zero since they are coming in 2009!

In PS3 this year I want, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Motorstorm 2, Ratchet and Clank QFB, Pixel Junk Eden, Wipeout HD and Disgea 3. These are only the PS3 exclusives that are to be released in the remainder of this year, Im not even adding there the multiplatforms.

The Wii for this year has what? Wii Music? A watered down CoD5, an inferioor Dead Rising? Hell, there has to be SOMETHING wrong with my Wii when the game Im looking most forward to is a game my 20 year old NES could play (Megaman 9) and its not even exclusive (ill buy it on Wii since my PS3 wont take my mexican Visa still).

Alex_Mexico

@Datheron: Yes, they have created those, like I said, such games take much less resources than a new Zelda or similar quality game, thus we'll see more of them. I thought you were discussing "core" games thus I said "no new IPs yet" but I guess you don't just care for "core" if you mention the likes of Viva Pinata. I also thought you separated the mention of first and third party games for different points but now you compare a list of third party games for BOTH the PS3 AND the 360 together saying they match Nintendo's first party offerings for the Wii alone (which is highly questionable anyway). If your points aren't consistent, nobody will be able to discuss anything with you I'm afraid. Sorry there's no basketball game on the Wii yet but hey, that doesn't make it a worse or less of a "core" system.

Agnates

and it thought this was a piss take. cant believe that this is ment to endorse wiifit

DaveStampeed

@Agnates: Well, they have created their new IP's this gen - Wii Sports and WiiMusic, apparently. You also forgot to mention Resistance, Uncharted, Motorstorm, LBP on the Sony side, and Viva Pinata, Gears of War, Mass Effect on Microsoft's. Not to mention all the fun titles on XBLA and PSN.

For 3rd party stuff, that's a plentifully small list for almost two years of lifespan - almost single-handedly matched by Nintendo's own releases.

As for sports, I was actually expecting you to list Shawn White Snowboarding, but I think *all* I see that's interesting on the Wii is Madden, and as far as I can tell it still uses the PS2-esque engine (does this year's version have all the Madden XX Edition features the next-gen versions have?) One sport I *am* more familiar with is basketball, and I know for a fact that it basically doesn't exist on the Wii, unless you count what EA is doing with their "let's have them flick a remote for shooting, flick it for passing, flick it for moving, flick it for WIN!" Live on the Wii thing "existence".

Look, I'm not saying the Wii is a bad machine or that there aren't any good 3rd party/sports titles on it, but it's obvious that all the developers save Nintendo themselves are spending more time and effort on the 360/PS3, and Nintendo is increasingly splitting off resources for stuff like Wii Sports 2 and WiiMusic, which leaves less for the likes of Zelda and Mario, as well as the creation of more new IP's. The pattern is eerily similar to the past two Nintendo consoles, except that this time they're selling a lot more and there's a bunch of minigame crap that's clogging up the numbers.

Datheron

All I have to say is that the BMI is bullcrap.

-Bass4TheFace-

@Alex_Mexico: Does it matter if they bomb in sales if more such games keep being created? It certainly didn't make Sega rethink Mad World or EA rethink Cursed Mountain. Almost anything will bomb in sales if you compare it to the likes of Wii Sports or Wii Fit anyway, that's the point of the casual games, that they reach a wider audience. All that matters is if the core games can make a profit and it seems many companies think they can considering the large amount of such announced games.

Why doesn't Resident Evil 4 count? Because it's a port? That should only mean it sells even less considering a hefty portion of the market had already experienced it, but it didn't. So in what kind of warped thinking does it "not count" since it was the only non Nintendo "core" game which was actually advertised heavily?

Mad World and the MANY other core games coming (and I didn't even mention The Conduit in my various listings since it doesn't look special but hey, Resistance is just as generic) are as much "only a promise" as any upcoming 360 or PS3 game so uh, whatever? Also, COD3 got great reviews on the Wii thanks to the better controls so I don't see why you'd be so confident that COD5 is going to suck on the Wii.

I guess, like I've mentioned before, it's clear every fanboy of another system or whatever just calls almost every single wii game "last gen with waggle" and dismisses it just like that. That doesn't quite count, to paraphrase you.

As for release dates, I haven't researched to be able to respond to that all, I care is that there's a large amount of games coming, whether they come this year or next makes little difference to me, I've yet to buy all the already released good Wii games. And heck, I'd think the Wii got several good games this year already, you don't get good releases every month. It's not like all the Sony fanboys used to dismiss Killzone 2 or Little Big Planet just because they kept being shown at every year's gaming events so many times, without a trace of an imminent release until recently.

Just out of curiosity though, what's a place that lists release dates for all the upcoming games we know of?

Agnates

@Agnates: Hm, I was saying a lot, so you may be confused w/ what I was trying to compare.

- I was going w/ your "games for everybody" motif, so Viva Pinata's perfectly fine in my world, along w/ Boom Blox and Pixeljunk Monsters.
- I said specifically of no new IP's this gen. from Nintendo outside of the Wii * stuff - that is, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Music, Wii Fit. Obviously the implication is that they're not up to the likes of the list above; w/ the exception of WiiMusic, they're all mini-game collections of one form or another.
- I meant that Wii's collection of "good" first party games matches entirely their "good" third party lineup. Again, this is a pattern followed from the last two Nintendo generations, which saw Nintendo-branded products do great, often at the expense of third party software. Note that not all those high-quality 3rd party games did well in sales either.
- Comparing MS/Sony 1st party to Nintendo 1st party makes sense, and at least Sony can match Nintendo in terms of game output in quality and quantity. I particularly like how innovative Sony's PSN games have been so far.
- On the same note, I meant to compare 3rd party games on the PS3 or the 360 to that of the Wii. You've listed seven "good" 3rd party games on the Wii to try, and I'm saying a similar list on either platform from 3rd parties is more impressive.

I don't really care whether the system is a "core" system or not. I care about Nintendo being innovative with their games, good support for the Wiimote beyond gimmicks (look at how Zelda, Mario, Smash, and Mario Kart all played well with a traditional controller), great 3rd party support beyond mini-game collections, and big budget titles with high production values appearing on the system. So far I've found most of the games on the system very shallow.

Datheron

The best comment about Wii Fit is by a fitness trainer from an article linked here on Kotaku back in June:

"Why purchase a $90 game to run when you can do it for free?"

Source: [kotaku.com]

Captiosus

And to everyone who's been arguing with me, note I never tried to claim the Wii is a better choice than any other system, only arguing against people who claim it's not a good choice or that it only has casual games and other such claims... So I don't see why people keep going "but this 360 game is better than that Wii game" if I happen to make a list of widely accepted as "good" games (how good exactly is subjective) only to prove there's more than "casual" games on the Wii or similar...

Agnates

@Datheron:
- Ok
- Ok? that's what I said, no new IPs other than Wii Fit etc yet.
- Wii Fit and the other new Ips aren't up to par with what list? The third party games of both PS3 and 360 put together that you listed? Hardly a fair comparison.
- Okay, so, the good first party wii games match the good third party wii games, is that meant to be a negative point?
- Sales, eh, I think they sold enough to make more and more companies annoucne new IPs all over the place
- Ok, Sony can match the 1st party games of Nintendo. Subjective but, okay, let's say it can. How does that make the Wii worse?
- I think if your list of both PS3 and 360 games beating my examples of Wii games is highly subjective. I'm sure at least some people enjoy Resi 4 more than GoW for example. It was hailed as the best game of its time by many publications after all. Gears of War on the other hand is a great third person shooter. Cool, but I wouldn't say you can confidently claim it "beats" Wii's line up.

For your last paragraph, since you don't care about "core" or "not core" I'd say Nintendo have been pretty innovative with their new IPs, while offering good showings of their old IPs. All the games you list as "working well with classic pad" are games that pretty much "worked well with Wii pad" so I fail to see a problem. You do say you don't want gimicky use, shoehorning more motion controls to such games would have been gimmicky and I'm glad they didn't do it.

Again the third party support thing, lol. One minute you say ok it has good third party games but on 360 are more impressive, the next minute you go back to claiming all third parties do is mini games. Be consistent please.

It took the PS3 ages to get going, only becoming worthy once the likes of GTA IV (which isn't even exclusive) and MGS4 were released. For WIi perhaps it takes a little longer to better establish itself since it has been misunderstood by both players and developers but things are shaping up and there are many more upcoming titles that aren't mini games and cover every genre. Do we have to start listing again and start saying what's more impressive or whatever based on personal tastes and bias?

Agnates

Oh another recycle... I guess I'll point you to my previous responses then.

Agnates

@Agnates: Oh geez.

Let's step back from the fanboy talking points for a moment. If you haven't noticed already I don't talk like one of them, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't either.

Not all my points were meant to paint the Wii in a bad light; I recognize that it has the Nintendo brand going for it, and I readily concede that it has a number of quality titles. What I was pointing out was simply stuff like how Wii's motion control has largely not been used by Nintendo themselves outside of minigames, that third parties seem largely content w/ cranking out more minigames for the system (by "being more impressive", I simply meant the sheer number of "good" games released by 3rd parties), that we haven't seen - yet - the new IP's the likes of LittleBigPlanet and Uncharted and Mass Effect on the Wii.

Dump all the petty little points about exclusivity (if you have the system, isn't all you care about the games you get to play on said system?) and "core gamers" (who may very well enjoy a round of Mario Party). The overriding issue is that the system's software (quality and sales) is Nintendo-dominated, that there's a lot of 3rd party crappy minigames on the system, and that the Wiimote hasn't made any huge leaps in control besides letting grandmas bowl. These points don't even contradict anything you or I have said; they just sum up the problem w/ the Wii and why, in my case, we have one that hasn't even been turned on in 2 months.

Datheron

Wii fit is just a gimmik to hit the casuals at the right spot and no its not a real excercise program. This article proves that 100%.

fenderfuel08

Err, Nintendo - the 2004 Olympic Games one of these ladies were competing in were in Athens, not Torino. That would have been Winter Games then...

El-Suave

That's not a workout!

This music video is a workout!

+ Watch video

Orionsaint

Maybe people will finally start to realize the Wii fit is not exactly the go to source for measuring your physical health. As others have said, it's a fun gimmick. It's not science. Don't mix the two. Although Nintendo is doing a good job rolling in cash by giving the public that perception.

SG_Mahonay

They'll start to realise because of an advertisement of the product? Again, try and consider that a) these chicks didn't really play all the mini games, only what was needed for the advertisement, and they never got an age result, aside from what the marketing wanted you to see as their age result, for their own reasons. How a staged advertisement proves anything at all and in fact something negative about the product it advertises, is beyond me, ha...

[wiinintendo.net]

Agnates

I always wondered what a Japanese TV show would look like in English, now I know!

for those who have never seen any Japanese TV 95% meet this checklist

*Quasi celebrities doing ordinary everyday things, usually very badly

*Complete up and down lifelong biography about these quasi celebrity because, yes, we have never really heard of them, and don't care

*Cheezeball announcer reiterating everything you can see on the screen anyway, and therefore adds nothing to the show.

*Picture in picture Ad Infinitum

*Writing on the screen in big pink letters, when nothing important has been said such as "UH-OH!" The only hing that was missing were a bunch of hearts

Product placement so thinly veiled (if at all) that you wonder if you are watching a talk show or a 60 minute commercial

*Quasi celebrities winning actual prizes, instead of giving a donation to charity (how can an athlete AND model not afford $250 if she wants a WII so bad?)

The only thing it is missing is at the end everybody gets to eat a lot of food and then the announcer details what it is, where to buy i, how much it costs and when the restaurant is open.

and the ya go 95% of tv in Japan, the rest is news, baseball and kids stuff. unless you can afford a dish.

kenesu96

I'm surprised I'm the first to bring up how old this video is. I'm pretty sure they showed this on the Nintendo Channel on the Wii (split into a few parts) within the first 2 weeks of Wii Fit's launch. And even then, I wouldn't have thought it was noteworthy. My reaction was mostly "Oh, another part of the surprisingly multi-pronged promotion of Wii Fit. And (no surprise), they're not great at it, since it requires a specific type of balance that's not already intuitively possessed by anyone."
So yeah, how is this current or even newsworthy at all?

nworobes

This announcer was 10x more irritating for the Mario Kart Wii videos on the Wii's Nintendo Channel. All I can say is, "I'm glad that NoA's ignorance can only stretch so far and that this man was cast not as a video game dub voice actor but instead as a PR announcer." Can you imagine if this man were to helm the voice of Mario?

"Mario says 'Awaaaaaa!' as he falls down the chute and into a black hole!"

I just know he'd do it in 3rd person, too.

ryohazuki

i watched them both. damn what a boring friday.

mortalot