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Amazon: Tuesday Gold Box is all Wii deals [Update]


Update: The All Wii Gold Box event is now over.

We don't mean to alarm you at such an early hour but ... Amazon is holding an All Wii Gold Box event today, March 31. Beginning at 3 a.m. EDT (12 a.m. PDT), Amazon will offer savings on six different Nintendo Wii titles. Time sensitive promotions (a.k.a. Lightning Deals) begin at 9 a.m. EDT (6 a.m. PDT).

Today's Gold Box Deal: Wii Music, priced at $29.98 (40% Off) and the downloadable PC game, Airport Mania: First Flight for 98 cents.

Amazon has updated the Gold Box page with the following hints for today's Lightning Deals (and we take a wild stab in the dark at what it could be):

Continued →

Wii Music disc to include licensed songs, Nintendo 'not really thinking' about DLC

wii music
Speaking at the Nintendo's 2008 E3 developer roundtable, Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed that the Wii Music "game" disc will contain 50 songs, featuring a variety of of public domain songs, as well as licensed music. As for DLC? Nintendo is "not really thinking" about digital song distribution, instead focusing on using WiiConnect24 to share music videos.

Gallery: Wii Music

Nintendo details Wii Music


Among the cavalcade of announcements from Nintendo this week comes details surrounding what appears to be a full fledged game based on the Wii's conductor demo shown during last year's E3. The game, tentatively titled Wii Music, was first brought to our attention earlier in an interview earlier this year, and will allow players to control a group of musicians in both single and multiplayer modes supporting up to four players.

Interestingly, while the E3 tech demo was based solely around the concept of conducting the orchestra using the Wii remote as a baton, this improved take on the concept will allow players to directly control of up to six band members using both motions and button presses, with Wii Music offing an impressive selection of 40 different types of instruments with which to outfit your band, leading us to believe that the game will support a wide array of music styles, though no details along this line have been announced. Wii Music is expected to ship in Japan sometime next year, however it's anyone's guess when the game will make the rounds to either North America or Europe.

Conjecture Countdown: 6 days to go


Even with a diminished E3, there's no controlling the wave of rumors that hit the Internet every year before the show. Why fight it? From now until E3 hits, we'll be posting one piece of wild speculation every day. Some may be patently ridiculous, and others just might turn out to be true. Even some of the ridiculous ones might turn out to be true! Rest assured, everything will be totally made-up and unfounded. Except, of course, when we speak about all the ass Reggie is going to kick. That part? Totally true.

Rumor: It's not just Super Smash Bros. Brawl -- none of the Nintendo-developed or published games will be playable, except for a 30 second demo of Wii Music.

Wii Warm Up: Music or health?

Nintendo has promised at least two more casual, practical titles to come for the Wii in the near future: the Wii Health Pack and Wii Music. These, along with Wii Sports and Wii Play, form the Wii Series, a set of simple games designed to get people playing together and enjoying the motion-sensitive controls. As serious fanboys, however, we're pretty sure you don't need to be convinced that the Wii is awesome. Still, we've got to admit we're curious -- if you had to pick one, which would it be? Are you more interested in exercising with your Wii, or in doing a little conducting?

Greek interview reveals new Wii games: Music, Health Pack


Greece is not usually known as a hub of video game information, but an interview with George Katrinakis (Altavista translation of relevant page), CEO of Greek Nintendo distributor Nortec Multimedia, reveals some interesting information about two previously unknown Wii games.

In the four page interview with Greek news site Contra.gr, Katrinakis talks about Wii Music, a game that sounds remarkably similar to the conductor demo shown at last year's E3. In addition to the general Wii-remote-as-conductor's-baton control shown at the demo, Katrinakis reveals that Wii Music players will be able to take control of specific musicians and send saved compositions to other Wii users.

Katrinakis goes on to describe Health Pack, a Wii game that will lead the player in various exercises. Sounds kind of basic, until Katrinakis adds that the game will collect biometric data and send it to local hospitals (contracted by Nintendo) through a Wii channel. According to Katrinakis, this data will be processed by the hospital and sent back as a home check up a few hours later. No word on how the data will be collected or processed, but the idea sounds ambitious if nothing else.

It should be noted that this information comes from a rough translation, and that the information is coming not from Nintendo but from a Greek distributor who might be in a position to know about future releases. Still, if the interview is to be believed, we can expect both these titles by the end of the year.

[Update: Eurogamer is quoting the author of this Contra.gr article, Pavlos Papapavlou, as saying the games described by Mr. Katrinakis were "what he wants to see in the library of Wii. This is not a revelation, this is an estimation." A clarifying note on the site itself gives the same impression.

We don't buy it. Both the machine and human translations we used in compiling this post made it abundantly clear through context that these were games Katrinakis believed were being planned for release by the end of the year (here's another human translation that seems perfectly clear to us). We suspect Katrinakis realized that he revealed some information he wasn't supposed to and is now backpedaling from his on-the-record statements. We've contacted Nintendo of America for an official comment, and will keep you updated with anything we hear.]

[Big thanks to John for the tip and translation help!]

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