While the national sports retailer won’t be officially announcing the Wii push at their stores until Thursday, some of the chain’s locations started getting their Wii on last weekend.

The Colorado store pictured here received their equipment on Friday, setting up the training area and merchandise that night for a launch Saturday.

Store manager Mike Gabriela told Kotaku today that they trained a number of their employees to explain how the Wii and Wii Fit work, something they’ve also to educated customers about other sports equipment from skis to treadmills.

Gabriela says that the weekend drew crowds around the console set-up and that the store, which sells the console and an eclectic mix of games, saw brisk sales for everything from accessories to copies of Cabela’s Big Game Hunter.

Here’s photographic proof. (Click the thumbs to enlarge.)

Click each image to enlarge, captions on the right

I shot this picture inside the Nintendo World Store. It’s a nice first image, right? But I actually wanted to order these with the museum first. It was right outside the store. Take a look…

Under the rule of the Sanctum, the sky city of Cocoon knew a long and prosperous peace, but the Fal’Cie from the “lowerworld” of Pulse awaken from their slumber and curse humans, turning them into the I’Cie, the magic-wielding servants of the fal-Cie.

Those branded with the mark of a I’Cie have to fulfil their Focus or “face a fate harsher than death itself”.

“After 13 days of fates intertwined, the battle begins,” according to the press release.

“We know that our fans have been eagerly awaiting the next installation of the franchise – FINAL FANTASY XIII will exceed all expectations,” said John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix, Inc. “Coming simultaneously to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for the first time, FINAL FANTASY XIII will be available to all players who are looking for the most immersive gaming experience of 2010.”

As I mentioned when I posted the Final Fantasy XIII video earlier today, Leona Lewis will be providing the theme song for the latest Final Fantasy. “My Hands”, which hits stores in her second album on November 17, was chosen because the developers said they felt it fit the game’s “powerful themes and strong female protagonist”.

The game, which hits in Japan on December 17, will feature a a new “ultimate active time battle system” that allows players to execute numerous commands in a single turn with a multi-slot ATB gauge. Player will be able to choose between inputting individual commands in each slot for consecutive attacks, or expending multiple slots at once to activate more damaging attacks.

The game also adds a new game mechanics called Paradigms, that allow you to assign one of six gameplay roles, like Commando or Medic, to your characters.

A new summon system introduced Gestalt Mode, which allows players and their transformed Eidolons to fight as one through simple button commands.

Are you ready for Final Fantasy XIII? You’ve got four months to prepare… unless you’re importing it.

Do you see it in the picture?

Igromir 2009 [Flickr]

I’m in the middle of going through them all now for a review, but while you wait take a look at how these controllers, microphones and headsets look unboxed.

Included in the box were the throat mic, both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 controllers, a wireless headset for the PS3 and a faceplate for a PlayStation 3 controller.

Boxed

That’s it! People build Gradius ships out of LEGO for the whole month, post them on Flickr, we all applaud and say together “what a brilliant idea this was, thank you”.

Vic Vipers @ Flickr [via Game Informer]

Four of them are “Value Pack” bundles that include the PSP-3000 and accessories for ¥19,800 ($240). colours include Vibrant Blue, Piano Black, Pearl White and Radiant Red.

The other bundle is a Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G dealio with fewer accessories, but it comes with a copy of the game. Yours for ¥18,500 ($224), out on December 10.