peripherals
Prepare For Punch-Out With These Tacky Wii Boxing Gloves
Posted by Luke Plunkett at 8:00 PM on November 20, 2008
Everlast, as you may be aware, are kind of a big deal in the world of boxing goods. They make, among other things, boxing gloves. Gloves like these ones, which are unique amongst their range by being designed less for punching men in the mouth with, and more for helping you swing your Wii Remote around like an idiot. Priced at $US30, they include straps for the peripherals and holes so you can still use the buttons. Hopefully they're not as padded as real ones; we want people punching themselves in the face while regretting their purchase to really learn from the mistake.
A Video Gamer's Substitute for the Heavy Bag and the Ring [NY Times, via Go Nintendo]

...with the Reactor Mini Chair from Ultimate Gaming Chair! The gaming chair manufacturer is delivering its first kid-sized, speaker-stuffed chair in time for the holiday season which just happens to coincide with the release of Sega's Sonic Unleashed. The smaller sized gaming chair is designed for kids ages three to nine years and comes with a full colour image of Sega's enduring mascot Sonic the Hedgehog.
The standard Atari joystick was not designed for comfort. Or for gaming, really, if we are being honest. Retro cool aside, looking at it now it resembles something you would expect to find on a Soyuz mission control console.
If you own both Guitar Hero (III or World Tour) and Rock Band (1 or 2), you'll be both familiar and ultimately sick of the compatibility issues between the two franchises. They will work, they won't work, they might work, they should work; trying to get hard, final word on just which instruments will work with which game has been a messy, convoluted and confusing experience. Until now, that is! The official Guitar Hero community crew have put together an extensive chart, outlining which instruments will work with which game. Bravo. Click through for all four charts for all four platforms.
No press release, no fancy photos, there's been nothing from Nintendo to accompany this product release, but release a new product they have: what you're looking at is the imaginatively-titled "multiplayer control set". Spotted at a US Target by a Go Nintendo reader, it's official Nintendo gear, and includes a Mario Kart wheel, a Wii Remote and a Nunchuk. The damage? $US74.99. Which makes it two cents more expensive than buying the peripherals individually. Go figure.
Nyko Technologies WingT, a wireless classic controller for the Wii, is hitting US stores today.
In May,
The MetalStrike from Genius is a Joystick With Built-In Air Conditioning.
While playing Guitar Hero World Tour for my review of the game I started thinking that maybe the plastic and rubber drum kit was a bit louder that Rock Band 2's. So Adam and I made this short little video showing me playing a chunk of the same song. This isn't scientific at all (You'd need a way to make sure the exact same amount of pressure was exerted with each strike to do that) but if you've been curious about how the two drum kits sound comparatively maybe this will help you out a bit.
Rock Band has been very, very good to Mad Catz so far, and it's only getting better. Complimenting it's excellent line of music peripherals for the Xbox 360 version, the company has just entered into a multi-year licensing agreement agreement with Nintendo to create and distribute peripherals for the Wii version of the game. Two products for Nintendo's console will be introduced in early 2009 - the portable drum kit, and the Wii version of the
As of right now, the only way to import images that one can plaster upon the levels of LittleBigPlanet is courtesy of the PlayStation Eye, EyeToy or "other compatible USB camera." Great for capturing one's nether regions, but less great for transferring one's original artwork and digital photos. Fortunately, that's about it change, according to Media Molecule's Alex Evans and, oddly enough, the developer's Flickr photo stream.
Activision and RedOctane has been working furiously to deal with issues Guitar Hero World Tour players have been having with their over and under-sensitive drum kits, and to that end they've released a Guitar Hero World Tour Drum Tuning Kit, as
Reports are popping up all over the internet regarding sensitivity issues with the new drum controller that comes packaged with Activision's Guitar Hero World Tour. Some complain the drums are too sensitive; others that they aren't sensitive enough, and then there's folks like me whose green one rattles when you hit it, but that will have to be addressed another time. If only there was some sort of drum tuning kit that would allow owners to optimise the drums to their liking. Oh look, an official statement from Activision.
Activision made
Zany frontman Wayne Coyne of commercial alt-rock outfit The Flaming Lips has constructed what may be the world first double-neck, double-function Guitar Hero guitar. It's one half genuine guitar, one quarter Guitar Hero guitar controller and one quarter Korg Kaoscillator, making for a cute little noisemaker that you might just see at an upcoming show.
Reader DarthMetalHope was scanning boards in advance of picking up Guitar Hero: World Tour today, and notices that for those who already have it, some are seeing sensitivity/operability problems with the drum kit. Enough that it's raising a big stink, and Activision has noticed.
Exar
Looking for something to spend lots of money on for the Guitar Hero fan in your life this holiday season? Look no further than the newly announced Premiere Edition Wireless Controller for Guitar Hero from Logitech. Featuring a wooden neck, rosewood fingerboard, metal frets, metal tuning pegs, and the new touch-sensitive neck slider, this is the end-all, be-all of guitar controllers. The buttons even use Logitech's rubber dome keyboard technology for quieter action. All this, and it's wireless. I think I am in love. Is it $US250 worth of love? I suppose I'll find out once temptation hits retail this December. Hit
First it was microphones. Then guitars. Then guitars and drums. Now it seems half the showroom floor of a games store - not to mention your living room - is devoted to piles of the plastic instruments required for today's music games. Which doesn't leave you, or your mother (who has to clean up after you) happy. Same goes for retailers. Speaking with MTV, XS Games have said that, when originally pitching their game Popstar Guitar to retailers, it was intended to come bundled with a guitar controller. But retailers - Wal-Mart in particular - were having none of it, complaining of "the problem of every single publisher coming out with a new, big controller." So X Games released
I've been pretty excited about the Mad Catz Fender Rock Band Bass since it was first announced, though my cultivated distrust of the quality of Mad Catz products made me
The Rage Wireless Guitar Controller for the Wii is being recalled after a fault left one gamer injured.
I got into Ace Combat 6 for the Xbox 360 far too late to get in on the hot, flightstick bundle action, and I've been regretting it for months now, especially considering the prices a used model of the special controller have been going for on eBay. Well