Add the Sterns to the great family bands of popular culture. Put us on a flashing marquee like the Osmonds, Jacksons, and von Trapps that came before. With a rotating lineup of three generations, a band dog who curls up next to the drummer, and enough hijinks for a Monkees plot, we've toured across the country from San Francisco to Boston. It doesn't matter to us if our fame is virtual and our fans digital; Rock Band was a hit at our annual Thanksgiving gathering.

Before I left the West Coast, I loaded up a dedicated carry-on with an Xbox 360, Wii, and the full complement of power supplies, video cables, and controllers. I made it through airport security without any problems. (And on the flight home, I wondered how many Rock Band kits the TSA had been screening.)

Like last year, the Wii was still popular. But we mostly stuck with Wii Sports. Even casual gamers have a glut of titles to wade through; we never opened Zack and Wiki and only briefly tried EA Playground and Rayman Rabbids 2.

Instead, Rock Band filled most of our game time. While I thought it'd be fun to try with my family, I never expected it to be "this year's Wii" as my sister said. Disguised as a rhythm game, Rock Band is a sleeper family hit. Every day, we joked about "getting the band back together" before assembling that evening's players.

It seems that Black Friday was very, very, very good to Nintendo, as both the DS Lite and the Wii performed quite impressively in the U.S. over the holiday week.

Nintendo has announced that it sold 653,000 DS Lites over the week of November 18-24, setting a new record for the portable, for Nintendo, and for the entire industry. The number of units moved is record-breaking, exceeding the industry's previous record, also held by Nintendo with the Game Boy Advance's sales during Thanksgiving 2005.

The Wii also performed quite admirably, selling 350,000 units, a number topped only by the console's launch week. No word on how these sales figures compare to Sony or Microsoft's, but it's not like it's a competition or anything, right?

Update: Specified sales figures as pertaining to the U.S., and clarified the record as industry-wide.

Read -- Nintendo Sales Go Through the Roof During Thanksgiving Week [GameDaily]
Read -- Nintendo Has Its Biggest Week Of Sales... Ever [Game|Life]

"Did you bring that Mario game? Your father really wants to try it ... what is that?"

"A plastic drum set, mom," I reply. "We're going to pretend to be rock and roll stars as a family and then I'm going to write about it for work." She stares intrigued for two, maybe three nanoseconds before uttering, "Cool ... How about Wii Bowling? Can we play that?"

Inspired by last year's Nintendo Wii family tests (and just hopeful to get more playtime in), I decided to pack up my copy of Rock Band for Xbox 360 (a daunting task, rest assured) and take it to my parent's house for Thanksgiving.

Aren't you glad you don't have to ford rivers and worry about death-prone oxen to make it home for a turkey feast? Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Joystiq Holidaze: explaining the PS3 SKUs
Joystiq Holidaze: explaining the Xbox 360 SKUs
Reminder: Win a $5K gaming PC from Falcon Northwest
Today's most Olympic video: Mario & Sonic at the Olympics review
X3F Week in Review: November 16, 2007 - November 22, 2007

News
Call of Duty 4 not HD: only 600p, claim pixel counters
Sin & Punishment's Saki cameos in Smash Bros. Brawl
Freeverse discusses porting Marathon 2 to XBLA
Popcap's Bookworm now available on mobile phones
AGEIA to give UT3 modders a physical with PhysX mod kit
Poor sales of Space Giraffe make Jeff Minter sad

Rumors & Speculation
Sony exec flirts with PlayStation phone ... again

Culture & Community
MapleStory holds in-game Black Friday sales
Yahtzee travels to America, visits Valve
1UP talks turkey games
Selfless crazies play Desert Bus for charity

MapleStory is one of those "free" online worlds that earns its keep by charging users for in-game items (the same business model practiced by Habbo Hotel). So it's nice to hear that Nexon, the Korean company behind the MMO, is starting a tradition of offering Black Friday sales on the world's most popular items.

The sales will run from this Friday (you know, Black Friday), through Sunday, but only for short intervals at a time. In addition, special, rare items will be sold each day for one hour only. Check out the entire Black Friday sales schedule after the break. Happy Turkey Day, Maple citizens.

You might think that simply because it's a pumpkin and lettuce playing video games that this would be the near-perfect video game/Thanksgiving hybrid image, but take a look at the game on the table. That's right, Space Turkeys (image credit: m1a9366b). The predominantly-American Joystiq staff will be eating turkey and playing Rock Band strung out on tryptophan tomorrow, but we'll still be posting so keep an eye out on the site. Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Joystiq Holidaze: best of Black Friday
Joystiq Holidaze: The $500 budget
Joystiq Holidaze: the guitar compatibility guide
Reminder: Win a $5K gaming PC from Falcon Northwest
Today's most labyrinthine video: Lord British's house

News
PSN games Everyday Shooter, flOw (and more) on sale for $5
Replacement BioShock Big Daddies now shipping
A new Area 51: BlackSite demo hits Xbox Live
Demand high for DS TV tuner in Japan
Super Mario Galaxy soars with 500k units sold in US first week
Rock the Halo theme free for Guitar Hero III tomorrow
PSN Thursday: Gobble up the content early
Final reminder to get Wii before Black Friday (and holiday season)
Rock Band store accessories and the drum bag
Amazon.com's great Black Friday deals -- including Wii supply
Unreal Tournament 3 on PS3 has gone gold, likely due mid-December
Critics: Hitman film more like Hit-meh
Reminder: Rise of the Video Game starts tonight on Discovery
The Romantics sue over 'virtually indistinguishable' cover in Guitar Hero '80s
'First' Orange Box demo hits 360 tomorrow, Episode Two dedicated

Rumors & Speculation
Just how scarce is Rock Band?

Culture & Community
Tournament.com dies
Rock Band's satiric backlash begins

My family gathers in northern Wisconsin each Thanksgiving; we all fly or drive across the country to reach this rural area away from TV reception and high-speed internet. We've always played games at these gatherings, and for the past three or four years, I've brought videogames. (We have a TV for DVDs and videotapes.)

In previous years, I lugged a GameCube and/or PS2 across two time zones. The most popular games have been unique or competitive titles; favorites have included Bomberman and Katamari Damacy. This year, I brought a Wii, and all the extra controllers I could find -- three Remotes and one Nunchuk.

Our Thanksgiving gathering is smaller than normal; we're missing a collection of cousins that regularly visit. But my parents, sister Alison, her boyfriend Zurich, and I have been playing the Wii, and this post documents our experience.

With Nintendo marketing the Wii to cross demographics outside the realm of the hardcore gamer, it seemed only fair to test out the system at a family friends house after Thanksgiving dinner. Bringing the system over and saying I wanted them to test it out, the most apprehensive person wasn't the adults, but 21 year-old Meredith McSorley saying, "I'm not good at that stuff. I can't do the button things." I informed her this would be different.

Click to enlarge

We've been playing the Lost Planet multiplayer for the past couple of days through an arrangement with Capcom. All Xbox Live users will be able to download the multiplayer-enabled demo today and get some gaming in ... if the tryptophan hasn't incapacitated them.

The demo comes with one map called Pirate Fortress, although if you pre-order the Lost Planet Collector's Edition on "White Friday" (11/24), you'll get a code that allows you to download an additional map called Dilapidation. If you've played the single-player demo, then you've played Pirate Fortress. It's exactly the same level (except you can't go in that sort of warehouse/garage area), with power-ups and additional weapons scattered all over the place. Dilapidation is much more closed in, set in the ruins of a burned out multi-story building with an underwater area (your player is equipped with some kind of fancy futuristic scuba gear that doesn't even release bubbles) and multiple tunnels and dark corners to hide in.

Amazon has a love/hate relationship going with us right now. We hate that they made it so hard to get the Wii, but we love the fact that they put the deal offering an Xbox 360 for $100 up for the democratic vote, and it won hands down. Granted, the competition was a bike, a Barbie doll, and a one year Amazon Prime membership, but who's complaining? A one hundred dollar console is still sweet.

Starting tomorrow at 11AM PST, keep your fingers poised over your keyboard and be ready to swoop in and buy it, even if it means tearing yourself away from Aunt Mary's sweet potato pie. They'll be offering up 1,000 of these suckers, but you must wait until Thursday at 11AM (again, Pacific time, folks) and buy it via the Amazon Customers Vote Page in order to receive the discount, not the regular product page.

Remember that Amazon had the Wii go on sale on Sunday and it sold out in one minute, so make sure you're properly adrenalized before this sale. We recommend doing some strong finger workouts tonight in preparation.