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The world of Shigeru Miyamoto’s Super Mario Bros is so familiar to most longtime gamers that few question its logic: Blocks floating in mid-air, fireballs that survive underwater, flying raccoon costumes. But revisiting the world of Mario with a new development team for New Super Mario Bros Wii, Miyamoto says he was prompted to take another look at the surrealism of the world he’s created. “This time around, there were lots of discussions about judging …

EA Montreal General Manager Alain Tascan has told us that EA Montreal — as part of the EA Games label — is to refocus the studio on "action titles and HD-quality products" compared to its recent history of Wii titles such as Boogie Superstar and Skate It.

It’s more evidence of the restructuring plan EA announced with its recent decision to make 1500 layoffs and purchase of Playfish.

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Remember the 99 lives trick in New Super Mario Bros. for DS? Apparently a similar exploit can be found in its Wii sibling. The glitch basically gives the player(s) infinite coins, which then gives an endless amount of lives.

Continue reading to watch the video demonstrating the glitch.

Kotaku is reporting that three of the most desired games for the Wii’s Virtual Console are about to make an appearance. This Monday, expect to see Super Mario Kart (SNES) on the service for 800 points. The other two titles, Super Smash Bros. and Pilotwings, will be released on the Virtual Console “sometime this holiday season.” Don’t take my word for it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the former of the two came out on the Monday before Christmas.

Is this beginning of a slew of most-requested games to be released on the Virtual Console? Many fans, including myself, feel that Earthbound is long overdue for an appearance. Maybe Nintendo is finally starting to pay attention to its fans.

I hope this doesn’t count as spoilers.

This week, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles came out for the Wii, and I figured a good way of marking the occasion would be to post the ending of one of the games from which it draws, Resident Evil 2.

But, it occurs to me that some peoples’ first experience with the story of the game might be through Darkside. So if you’re such a person and don’t want the RE2 sequence spoiled, then I wouldn’t watch these.

On the other hand, if you know it or just don’t care, go right ahead. In the case of the former, it might even be fun to compare. First up, we join Claire Redfield…

More after the cut.

Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment has focused heavily on Wii and PSP releases in 2009, but the company has found a considerable difference in its success on the two platforms: nearly all of its PSP games this year were profitable, while the opposite was true for Wii. According to data presented in a company earnings conference and reported by Siliconera, four out of the company’s five PSP releases in the first fiscal half proved to be …

This week’s edition of Critical Reception examines online reaction to Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a multiplayer platformer that reviews describe as “a game that offers something for every kind of gamer, without compromise.” New Super Mario Bros. Wii currently earns a score of 87 out of 100 at Metacritic.com. 1UP.com’s Jeremy Parish gives the game a grade of A+. “New Super Mario Bros. Wii is precisely the game that, back in 1991, I …

You probably already know that Borderlands for the Xbox 360 worked its way up to third place in software sales for October. But what you don’t know is that if you combine the game’s October sales across PC, PS3, and 360 versions, it turns out Borderlands actually sold 545,000 units. That’s more than Uncharted 2 or Wii Fit Plus.

“We are extremely excited about the reception that Borderlands has earned and I am personally very proud of the incredible team here at Gearbox for having created video games’ first great shooter-looter,” said Gearbox President Randy Pitchford.

“I want to thank all of the fans of the game who have bought in with us and I want to thank publishing partner 2k Games for taking a big bet on such an ambitious game and standing by the team here at Gearbox Software as Borderlands grew into a very special game – so bold and rare and fun in its style and design.”

The team isn’t taking a break from development, though. A DLC pack entitled The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is arriving on the PSN and XBLA on November 24, with more to follow.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii hits stores today, and it will probably be on of the biggest games of the year. (Little Tommy and Little Susie shouldn’t be playing Modern Warfare 2!) To celebrate the launch of this latest Mario game, Nintendo invited its fans to the Nintendo World Store in New York yesterday. In addition to being able to buy the game a whole day early, fans could participate in a Mario tournament, get their picture taken in Mario garb, play the older games in the series, and meet Gary and Alison from Nintendo Week.

It was basically madness. I strolled in, along with my younger brother (who desperately wanted to meet the Nintendo Week hosts… it’d be like me wanting to meet Brock Lesnar or Lionel Messi), and found the Nintendo World Store swarming with children. You immediately realized that yeah, for all of the money games like Modern Warfare 2 or Assassin’s Creed II make, Nintendo’s audience is completely different. That’s not exactly breaking news, no.

Unfortunately for the Nintendo faithful, New York was being battered by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, so it was windy, rainy, and gray all day long. That made standing in line to buy the game much more of a hassle, and meant that I was juggling my camera, an extra lens, and an umbrella while trying to avoid running into anybody while taking photos.

The line to buy the game was quite long, stretching about halfway down the block. I waited, like an everyman, and was out there for around 20 minutes. Keep in mind that I find the idea of waiting in line for a video game to be ludicrous, but you sometimes have to make exceptions.

That’s about it. It was a fun little afternoon, only hindered by the fact that it was something like 98-degrees Fahrenheit upstairs (where the tournament took place). I also ran into E-Rock from the Opie and Anthony Show, which was pretty great in its own right.

I’ll have my thoughts on the game itself in the coming days.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the first 2D console Mario game in 18 years, will be released this Sunday (or Saturday, if you go to the Nintendo World Store). And no, I’m not counting Yoshi’s Island, which is a fine game, but one I consider more a “Yoshi” game.

In any case, I figured the best way to celebrate with a Week-Ending Game Ending would be to look back to the last 2D console Mario game, Super Mario World. But I figured everyone’s probably seen that, numerous times even.

So to spice things up a little, here’s the final battle and ending from the Game Boy Advance version, Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World:

How many differences can you spot?

And, that’s not all! In addition, we’ve got the scene (albeit from a non-English copy) which occurs after you complete the Special World and everything changes to a Fall/Halloween motif, something exclusive to the GBA version.

Check it out after the cut.

October 2009 marks another down month for the U.S. video game industry, according to retail tracking firm, NPD, with sales down 19% to $1.07 billion year on year. Thus, the month saw another disappointing slump for game retail, even as Nintendo Wii retook the top hardware spot from Sony’s PlayStation 3, following the Wii’s price drop. Notably, with hardware prices lower on all console platforms, volume is not making up for the decrease in cost. …

A new study by the University of Wisconsin La Crosse Exercise and Health Program on the health benefits of playing Wii Fit has produced shocking results: standing on a plastic board and tilting your body will not make you fit. And what’s worse, no amount of flashy marketing or pictures of people doing yoga will improve Wii Fit’s chances of actually making you exercise.

The problem, says Dr. John Porcari, is that the exercises in Wii Fit aren’t nearly as strenuous as the ones you’d do on your own. “Step aerobics is a very good workout,” he said, “but you typically step up onto a 6-inch high bench. In Wii Fit you step up onto the 1- or 1.5-inch balance pad so you’re burning far fewer calories than you would in an actual step aerobics class.”

Read on for Porcari’s conclusion and his Wii-based alternative to Wii Fit.

The American Council on Exercise (ACE), a leading fitness authority and training organization, has released the results of a study that tested the effectiveness of Nintendo’s exercise tool and balance trainer Wii Fit. The study, conducted in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin La Crosse Exercise and Health Program, found that Wii Fit produced “underwhelming results,” in terms of exercise intensity. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin tested the Free Run, Island Run, Free Step, …

[We round up the top console digital download news of the last week from sister console digital download site GamerBytes, including brand-new game announcements and scoops from the world of Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare, PSP Minis and DSiWare.] This week on GamerBytes we broke a whole lot of news – a new Duke Nukem game is being developed for the Xbox Live Arcade, and Phoenix Wright might be coming to the Wii, according …

PSP was the bestselling hardware platform in Japan during the week ended November 1.

Including first day sales of PSPgo, which launched in the country on the final day of Media Create’s weekly tracking period, PSP hardware sales topped 64,000 units.

Nintendo’s DSi remained the most popular individual system, ahead of PS3, while Wii slipped to fifth place thanks to PSPgo’s debut.

Weekly hardware sales (previous week):

DSi – 37,517 (42,199)
PS3 – 36,061 (29,977)
PSP – 34,911 (32,865)

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