What can you do with a Wii Remote?

My friend Kathy (late of The Fangirl Adventures) got me hooked on videos from TED.com. For those of you who may not be familiar with it, here's a brief write-up from the site:

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference, held in Long Beach, now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

TED.com has a ton of videos on their site; all available for download in MP4/AVI format, streaming at their site or for embedding on your own site (as is the case here).

The video selection below is from the February 2008 conference. Johnny Lee, formerly a student at Carnegie Mellon now at Microsoft Applied Sciences, demos a couple of his cool mods to the Wii Remote (or as I call it - the Wiimote).



To learn more about these mods, you can find out more at Johnny's dedicated page.

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Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine for Wii/DS - When Will It be Out?

A nice surprise that I received in my inbox was a short message from the Wife. While receiving messages from her are always a treat, this one was especially nice since it had a URL for the aforementioned Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine for the Wii. A press release from the developers (Destineer Studios) and its synication partners (United Media) was sent out in early March of this year and somehow I missed it. This is nothing new for long-time readers but this game should have been on my Pop Culture radar as it would definitely be something that I would be interested in picking up being a big fan of the Cooking Mama series.

Although, after viewing the trailer and doing some quick research, I do have a few doubts about the actual viability of the game. First, the release date was supposed to be this summer, which ends in less than one week for those of you who use the Mayan Calendar. Second, the trailer has zero demo screens or even game play screen shots - not a good sign for a game to be released in less than six months. Third, the trailer used the old Wii box design - another knock on the possible timeliness of the release. And more important, the site hasn't been updated since the press release.

Individually, these factors might not seem too bad but all together, it spells not only a slight delay but a very lengthy one. As everyone kows, nothing kills the gamer buzz on a game if the developers fail to deliver on the expected release date and that even includes the non-hardcore Wii gamers. Unless the game blatantly rips off the Cooking Mama gaming engine or goes for the $19.99 el cheapo route, I would be more than surprised if the game is actually released prior to Christmas 2008.

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Wii Fit packaging released

I don't know why but I am looking forward to Wii Fit. It might be because of how innovative the controls will be or that it's more like Wii Sports but May 21st doesn't seem like it'll be here fast enough. To help sate my impulsiveness, the good folks at Amazon have many images; two of which are of the game packaging - the front shown above. Amazon also are taking pre-orders if that's your thing. So, do me a solid and get one for yourself.

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Wii Sports Cheat - Blue Practice Court

Here's another time where I'm providing "fresh" commentary to a stale item. In case you don't read the Wii Sports cheat sheets, here's a way to play a doubles set on the blue practice court:

After selecting the Miis that you will be playing as, hold down the 2 button as you click the A button to pass through the Movement Warning screen (image is shown below).

Continue to hold the 2 button down after the screen fades to black. The next screen you should see is the opening of the match with your selected Miis on the blue practice court. You'll still hear the crowd oohs and ahhs and the game will still play the same but a new court is a great change of pace or those who are somewhat burned out by the standard WTA-like arena.

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