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Nintendo's least popular Amiibo toys won't be around long, but Mario will
You know those cute Amiibo NFC-enabled toys/collectibles/game accessories that Nintendo debuted this year? They aren't going anywhere for a while. Well, some of them won't, at least -- and so far, that includes Mario and Link, according to Wired. The outfit says that it intends to have certain characters always available, but wouldn't spill any other details regarding which of the mini-statues would make that cut. We imagine it's pretty likely that those pictured above will likely survive time and again. However, a company rep did explain why Marth, Wii Fit Trainer and Villager have been so scarce: Nintendo deliberately didn't produce many to start and they've since been discontinued. "We will aim for certain Amiibo to always be available. These will be for our most popular characters like Mario and Link. Due to shelf space constraints, other figures likely will not return to the market once they have sold through their initial shipment."
Wii Fit U hits retail January 10th, still won't work unless you use it
Come January 10th, Nintendo's tardy Wii Fit U will hit store shelves at a handful of price points and configurations -- all with the intent of making both you and your wallet lighter. If you missed out on last generation's fitness-game craze, a bundle with the software, a Wii Balance Board and Fit Meter fitness tracker will cost you $90. Just need the new game and a Fit Meter? That'll set you back $50, while individual Fit Meters go for $20 each. Luckily, if your pocketbook is already thin, The Big N is still running its trial-to-full-game-conversion promo if you download Wii Fit U from the eShop and sync a Fit Meter. That $30 discount only lasts through January though, so running to the store might be a good idea.
Appeals court upholds Nintendo victory over IA Labs in patent lawsuit
Companies that prevail in patent lawsuits can't relax until the inevitable appeal is over -- just ask Motorola. Nintendo, however, can take a momentary break. A US Court of Appeals just upheld the company's win over IA Labs, declaring that the Wii Balance Board doesn't infringe on an IA Labs patent. While the ruling isn't all that vital when the accessory is now a rarity at best, it puts IA Labs on the hook for Nintendo's $236,000 attorney bill. It also sends a warning to other companies plotting similar legal assaults, although we'd still expect lawsuits when other patent holders are hitting paydirt.
Nintendo aims to flog 18 million 3DS, up to 10.5 million home consoles this fiscal year
All eyes are on Nintendo, now that it has revealed losses of $460 million. Buried in all of the financial paperwork were the revelations that it sells the 3DS at a loss, its plans for digital distribution and its projected sales figures for this year. It aims to flog 18.5 million 3DS handhelds and 10.5 million Wii consoles by March 31st 2013. But wait, what about the Wii U? That figure actually encompasses both old and new hardware, so it is either hoping for a sharp fall in Wii sales or a tough opening for the new baby. It's a bold pair of figures that relies upon how well New Super Mario Bros 2, Animal Crossing and the new hardware capture the public's imagination in a time when people are tightening their belts (especially if they've been using Wii Fit).
Nintendo says it refuses to 'succumb to patent trolls' as it wins Maryland case
Nintendo issued a fairly terse press release earlier today, announcing that it has prevailed in a US patent lawsuit for the "third consecutive time this year." That particular case concerned Nintendo's Wii Balance Board accessory and Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus software, which a company called IA Labs said infringed on one of its patents (No. 7,121,982); a claim that was dismissed by the Maryland District Court judge in the case. IA Labs was also more or less dismissed as a company by Nintendo's senior vice president of legal and general counsel Rick Flamm, who said that "we vigorously defend patent lawsuits when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party's patent," and that "we refuse to succumb to patent trolls." The company's full statement can be found after the break.
Wii Fit balance board hack takes a virtual Segway ride around Google's mapped world (video)
You can do a lot in seven hours -- fly coast-to-coast, slow-cook a pot roast, create a Google Maps-navigating, Wii Fit-controlled virtual Segway. Wait, what? Yes, that Nintendo-branded, dust-collecting relic of holidays past has been given a new lease on life thanks to an intrepid troop of Ivy-educated geeks, and a seven-hour hackathon. The marathon modding session, held by Stanford University's SVI Hackspace, banded together a like-minded set of overachieving modders to produce a balance board-guided Street View romp through Google Maps. The students' hack connects the Wii Fit board to OS X via the Osculator app, with a Node.js server processing the data and Socket.io handling board-to-browser communication. A Google Earth plug-in and pre-rendered Segway were all that was left to complete this foot-mapped joy ride through our digitized world. Video demo awaits you after the break.
Students use Wii Balance Board for kids' physical therapy system (video)
Nintendo's kid-tested, researcher-approved Wii Balance Board has struck at the heart of the medical supply industry yet again -- this time, the Bluetooth-connected scale is being used to help physically challenged children at Shriners Hospital in Houston. Seniors at Rice University hand-machined a set of force-sensitive parallel bars and programmed a monster-shooting game called Equilibrium to get kids excited about improving their walking gait, where they can play and score points with each proper step they take. The game automatically ratchets up the difficulty as patients improve, and handrails will play a part too, with a custom three-axis sensor box able to detect how much patients rely on the parallel bars (and dock points accordingly) in an effort to improve their posture. Yep, that sounds just a wee bit more useful than the Balance Board lie detector or the Wii Fit Roomba. Video after the break.
Wii Balance Board-controlled robot a hit with toddlers in Ithaca (video)
How could we resist a story involving robot-powered babies? The Ithaca College Tots on Bots project aims to mobilize infants with physical disabilities by setting them atop a "mobile robot" equipped with a Wii Balance Board to let the young operator steer by leaning -- which, it turns out, works pretty well. Additionally, the vehicle uses sonar to avoid nasty crashes and a remote control that an adult can use to take control. Further study has to be made before any long term developmental benefits can be ascertained, but in the meantime it does look like a lot of fun. See it in action after the break.
Two universities adopt Wii Fit to monitor football concussions
As it turns out, there are quite a few uses for a $100 off-the-shelf computerized scale, above and beyond getting fit -- Nintendo's Wii Balance Board is now providing a mechanism by which college football teams at Ohio State University and the University of Maryland can cheaply determine whether players are suffering from concussions. Taking the place of force plate machines that can cost tens of thousands of dollars, the white plastic boards measure students' balance (using yoga poses) and coordination (in Table Tilt) before a game, to provide a frame of reference against which trainers can measure whether athletes are fit to keep playing. Though some scholars found Wii Fit didn't stack up favorably against the expensive force plates, the universities trialing the system called it "pretty decent," so the question is whether Nintendo's peripheral offers a reasonable enough benchmark for the price. We suppose the American Heart Association liked it well enough.
Navy Surgeon General eyes Wii Fit, Dance Dance Revolution for boot camp
We understand that Wii Fit has dubious health benefits at best (whatever CTA Digital might say top the contrary), but apparently word hasn't reached the Navy's top brass. According to the Navy Times, recruits need more work than ever before to get into fighting shape, "given that many young people prefer computers and video games" to sports and physical activity. The solution, says Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Adam Robinson, is to use break in would-be sailers slowly, introducing "the equivalents of Nintendo's Wii Fit or Konami's Dance Dance Revolution" in basic training. This sounds rather silly to us, but what do we know? We're lovers, not fighters.
Nintendo Wii gets American Heart Association's stamp of approval
When we heard that Nintendo and the American Heart Association would be making an announcement today, we (and most everyone else) assumed that it would have something to do with Nintendo's forthcoming Vitality Sensor. As it turns out, however, it's something altogether more surprising -- the AHA has announced that it's actually putting its stamp of approval on the Wii itself (as well as Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort). That's obviously a first for a video game console, and fairly unprecedented for the AHA -- as ABC News points out, the association hasn't seen fit to put its seal on other "active" things like baseball bats. It apparently had some small incentive to do so in this case, however, as the organization says it will be receiving a cool $1.5 million from Nintendo over three years as a result of the partnership. Head on past the break to see the AHA president explain the arrangement. [Thanks, Katie]
Wii Fit push up bars make sense, but this one isn't worth dollars
Push-up bars for the Wii Balance Board? Now that sounds like a fantastic idea -- just the thing broad-shouldered individuals need to play Wii Fit without backstrain. Too bad this particular set of bars isn't worth the plastic it's printed from. The latest and greatest from the minds in the chintzy plastic peripheral industry, the $25 CTA Digital Wii Push Up Bar is held in place by only your weight and a few foam strips without reinforcement of any kind, meaning it could detach itself with any significant exertion. The only good that comes out of all this is an embarrassing video demonstration after the break, which features a pair of smiling humans pretending to have fun with the contraption. QVC, eat your heart out.
Wii Fit found to have 'little effect' on family fitness level, boredom seems to be the main culprit
In a new study conducted by Scott Owens out of the University of Mississippi, the Wii Fit was loaned to eight families and the usage and fitness impact was tracked over time -- three months before they got the Wii, and three months after. The verdict? "No significant changes" in family fitness from the Wii. Interestingly, over the period of three months the daily Wii Fit usage declined a staggering 82 percent, from 22 minutes a day for the first half of the time all the way down to an average of four minutes a day for the last six weeks. The biggest winners here were the children, who did display some "significant" increases in the specific area of aerobic fitness, but we get the feeling that with a bit more stick-to-itiveness the whole family might've been able to raise its game here. Or maybe Nintendo could invest in making some more motion-controlled games that don't become repetitive and shallow after two playthroughs.
British NHS lauds Wii Fit Plus for flabby bum-busting potential
You know, we've been pretty skeptical about the whole "fit" part of the "Wii Fit" phenomenon, and for good reason: as studies have shown, the health benefits of gaming, whether you're sitting, standing, or faux-bowling, are minimal at best. Still, for a number of consumers at home and abroad, the game conjures up notions of leading an active lifestyle. So perhaps it is no surprise, as the Telegraph reports, that Britain's National Health Service is using it to promote its Change4Life initiative -- even going so far as to allow the company to append the Change4Life logo on its upcoming Wii Fit Plus release. And how about those who cry foul -- specifically, those who point out that the deal includes Nintendo shelling out money to help promote the NHS-funded program. See how one might get the idea that this is a "pay to play" affair? To the government's credit, it does stress that it's endorsing an exercise, not a video game system. "Active video games, where kids need to jump up and down or dance about as part of the game, are a great way to get kids moving," a spokesperson said. Rob Saunders, the British spokesman for Nintendo, had this to say: "If you are worried about your bingo wings or your flabby bum, the game will give you specific exercises to target those areas." Bingo wings? Flabby bums? Why didn't you say so in the first place?[Via Yahoo]
Wii Balance Board Power Up Charging Stand from Mad Catz just dares you to revert to AAs
There's just something so defiant about this "Power Up" charging stand from Mad Catz -- it seems specifically designed to take up as much cubic footage as possible, and even the name is domineering. The stand is bizarrely formed in the likeness of a miniature Wii Balance Board, with a replacement battery pack included in the kit with contact charging points to take out all the exertion of flipping the B-Board and swapping out batteries. A foot pedal release mechanism pops the Balance Board out of the stand, and there are a couple of free-spirited USB ports on the thing for charging up whatever other awkwardly-shaped gadgetry you might have around the house.[Via Unplggd]
Nintendo moves 15 million Wii Fit units in a year, 4 remain in use
Oh c'mon, just admit it -- you rationalized that Wii Fit purchase like so: "Oh, I can't afford this, but it's totally something to make me exercise! So, I'll buy it!" Fast forward two months later, and you're struggling to find space to hide the case. All kidding aside (sort of...), you can't deny the facts, and the facts are that the Big N managed to ship 15 million Wii Fits units in just 13 months. For comparison, it took right around 2.5 years to move 50 million Wii units, so it seems this here title is well on its way to hitting the same milestone in around the same amount of time. Unfortunately, you can't lose weight by simply handing over wads of cash to Satoru Iwata -- feel free to try, though.
Segway rolls its way into Nintendo's Wii Fit Plus
The Wii Fit Plus game may not be bringing any new hardware with it, but it looks like there's a few surprises in the game itself, not the least of which a new Segway mini-game that's been developed in partnership with Segway itself. As you can no doubt guess, that'll make use of the Wii Balance Board and Wii Remote to simulate what it's like to ride on a Segway, with none of the embarrassment or potential pitfalls associated with actually riding one in public. Amazingly, however, they look to have passed up the opportunity for a Segway Polo game and instead opted for a simple balloon-popping game that also involves a "mole-like creature."
EA SPORTS Active for Wii in stores now, taunting us with its toned abs
Well, we have to admit a certain principled aversion to any console game that involves jumping, the flailing of the arms, cardio-whatever... anything, really, that Richard Simmons might approve of. It's bad enough that we're being asked to turn in our traditional controllers in for a balance board, but are we really supposed to believe that Electronic Arts -- the company that single-handedly ruined our health during the 1980s as we stayed up for weeks at a time on the quest to save Skara Brae -- could, or should, present the world with a "personal trainer in a box?" Well, if you're one of those people, you'll be happy to know that EA SPORTS Active for Wii is now available in retail stores Stateside, with worldwide release slated for May 22. Video after the break.
Weight Fat Checker makes no bones about what it's here to do
Sure, this device is borrowing not a little from the look, feel and color scheme of the Wii Fit, but the Weight Fat Checker is a little more direct in its naming schemes. A handheld body fat meter unearthed somewhere in Japan, we don't know anything about its pricing or availability, but we assume we'll never probably seen one in the flesh. Regardless, we're pretty sure it'd make a fine gift for anyone you want to cross of your faves list a.s.a.p.[Via Joystiq]
Fitness guru prepares to launch Wii Fit class-action suit, radio show
Well, this was probably bound to happen. A fitness "expert" named Michael Torchia says he's now preparing a class-action suit against NIntendo which will apparently seek to remove its Wii Fit from the shelves unless they add warnings to the product. The offense? Torchia claims that the Wii Fit actually contributes to obesity, essentially because it claims to be something that it's really not -- namely, a fitness tool -- and discourages people from doing more traditional exercise. He also, however, seems to be concerned that the Wii Fit is dangerous -- mostly because it doesn't stress warming up enough, and users can do the exercises wrong, straining or injuring themselves. Now, we're not going to delve into the validity of his claims (though, how do you explain this dude? Just saying), but we should note that Torchia is apparently getting ready to launch his airwave-rocking AM radio show, "Shape Up, America," and we figure he's looking to drum up some buzz for himself, so we'll be watching to see if he ever actually brings his suit against old Mario and Sons. Step on.[Via Joystiq]
