I played 22 Wii games for fun in 2008 and finished five of them.

As I did last year, I’ve compiled a list of the games that I played for fun in 2008. One list per major gaming platform.

(Check out the rest of my 2008 Gaming Playlists for other platforms, updated daily until New Year’s.)

Today’s entry is all about the DS, a system I got a lot of use out of this year, surprisingly mostly with third-party games, not Nintendo stuff.

What did I play? And which five games did I finish?

Take a look below: Read more…

Ambitious 25-year-old amateur developer Robert Pelloni has had his frustration with Nintendo widely publicized over the last few days.

The man, who claims to have spent over 15,000 hours making a 16-bit-style top-down role-playing game, has locked himself in his room in a 100-day protest. He hopes to publicize Nintendo’s apparent disinterest in selling him an official DS development kit. He needs the kit to finish the game and sell it officially.

As a result, development on his creation, “Bob’s Game” is stalled. A webcam now chronicles his voluntary confinement. His website begs for action from Nintendo, calling out Nintendo of America president, Reggie Fils-Aime, by name.

Compounding Pelloni’s problem may be his timing. Read more…

Yesterday, I received a press release from Nintendo hyping the creation of a Nintendo mini-store in the Toys R Us located in the heart of Times Square. Some said this store was only for the lazy. It’s a mere two blocks from the Nintendo world, after all.

I thought: this store might be for me – because I can practically see it out of my office window.

At lunchtime today, I decided to journey to the store to see what it was all about. I also hoped to do it quickly. And obtain a ham sandwich.

My 41-minute Adventure To The Nintendo Mini-Store

12:12 With snow falling outside I stand up from my desk, look out the window down at the Toys R Us on Times Square and decide to begin my journey. Read more…

I like game designer Jeremiah Slaczka. I like his team’s games (”Drawn to Life,” “Lock’s Quest.”)

And I believe he’s an honest man.

But I’ve never had such a hard time believing a game developer’s hype as I did last week when I talked to him about his team’s latest project in the making, “Scribblenauts.”

He wanted me to believe that the team that’s working on this game at 5th Cell is really making a game that will render any object you write down on your DS touch screen, and that each object will be usable in the game world.

We were doing the interview on the phone. I asked him to load the spreadsheet he has that lists every object planned for the game.

I started looking around my office and naming stuff, trying to stump him: Read more…

Forget for a second that Rockstar Games released the almost-AO-rated game “Manhunt 2” on the Wii last year. (It didn’t sell well anyway).

Rockstar owner Take Two hasn’t really put much of its edgy content on the Wii. The 2007 and 2008 hits “BioShock” and “Grand Theft Auto IV,” for example, both came out for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 — but not the Wii.

Never fear, Wii owners. Take Two’s CEO said during a financial earnings call today that he now wants to make sure that all the company’slabels — Rockstar included, it seems — figure out how to back the Wii. Read more…

People are never satisfied. They always want to know what’s next. Even analysts.

On a financial call disclosing Take-Two Interactive’s fiscal year results, an analyst asked about what’s further in the future for the publisher, including “Grand Theft Auto” showing up in 2010.

“[As for] GTA in 2010 — it’s just way too early to talk about [with it still] at full price at retail,” said Take-Two CEO Ben Feder in response. “We’re not saying no, it’s just way to early to be talking 2010, especially ‘GTA’ in 2010.”

Does anyone expect a new “GTA” in 2010?

Nintendo has released a long list of games slated for the Wii and DS for the first three months of 2009. And I’ve annotated it, hopefully in a manner that’s helpful to you.

How do we feel about this line-up?

Which games are you most excited about?

Mine are “Madworld,” “Zubo,” “Retro Game Challenge,” “Henry Hatsworth,” and “GTA: Chinatown Wars.” You?

Wii Q1 2009 Line-Up

Activision
Monsters vs. Aliens March 24 [Uh-oh The world's self-proclaimed biggest "pure-play" publisher has one game for the world's most popular gaming console in the first quarter of 2009.]

Crave Entertainment
Monster Pals March [No offense to Crave, but it's a bit unsettling that Capcom wasn't listed here. Could they have no games for the Wii for the winter?]
Solitaire & Mahjong February
Puzzle Challenges and More! February
Crayola Colorful World March Read more…

[Update: Aspyr contacted us with some clarifications on the Wi-Fi use in "Treasure Troves." The most notable change is in how the game works DS-to-DS.]

Konami was onto something when they allowed Wi-Fi spots to produce unique soldiers to be used in the PSP game “Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.”

The technique hasn’t been used in other portable games, but Aspyr is taking the concept in some interesting new directions with the tentatively titled “Treasure Troves” on DS.

The closet comparison is “Animal Crossing” but “Treasure Troves” is so early in development that it’s hard to say much about the gameplay yet. What Aspyr told us about the Wi-Fi capabilities of the game, however, is much more interesting.

“Treasure Troves” uses the DS’s Wi-Fi to continually scout Wi-Fi hot spots around you. Each spot produces a unique item. Anyone who passes that Wi-Fi location would receive that same item in “Treasure Troves.” But having to open and close your DS all day could become tiresome eventually, right?

You don’t have to do that. “Treasure Troves” can detect surrounding Wi-Fi while the DS is closed. Toss the DS in your backpack, run around all day and later, turn on “Treasure Troves” and examine the items it picked up.

This even works DS-to-DS. Each DS has an item available nowhere else. You can trade these items to users, or simply pick them up at random while walking around. The other person doesn’t even need to have a copy of “Treasure Troves” for them to produce a unique item, but they do need to be using the DS and using the Wi-Fi features of the device in some capacity.

More time is needed before we see the game parts of “Treasure Troves,” but if Aspyr puts the same amount of care into that as they have the Wi-Fi options, they’re off to a good start.

The “Skate” team knows they have a good thing going with their control scheme. It’s not changing much in “Skate 2.”

But like many developers, they don’t like playing with the same mechanic over and over. Gamers have already fallen in love with “Skate”’s approach, though, so there’s a problem.

At last week’s press event for “Skae 2,” the series’ associate producer of environments Shaun Laker told me several times that EA has no plans to mess with the fundamentals of the “Skate” controls for the sequel, but they have found a way to play around with tradition: other versions of “Skate.”

“Maybe that’s a chance for us to try new things,” he said. “We don’t want to mess with the audience that is [playing] ‘Skate’, right? But then we get games like ‘Skate’ for the DS. You can do those new things, you can take those risks. I don’t want to say risks — but educated guesses. [laughs]”

That’s right, DS owners. You’re the guinea pigs.

“Skate 2″ arrives on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on January 20.

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Sure, all the major console games have come out, but holiday travelers still need something to play. Check out this week’s box art reviews, where we judge games by their covers, featuring newly released portable titles…

“Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War” (PSP)
What the Box Tells Us: A sword and a pick axe protrude out of a stone. A labyrinth, a castle and some mountains are shown in the background.
Pros: It looks like you’ll be making labyrinth-laden dungeons with that sword and pick axe in hand. And calling it “The Hidden War” makes sense; if there’s a war going on, I don’t see it.
Cons: The box art designers have also hidden the excitement that this game may hold.
Love It or Leave It: Leave it. Read more…

America’s video game ratings board and the country’s most prominent seller of used games say that this week’s “Animal Crossing” N-word incident doesn’t expose a weakness in the ratings accuracy of used games.

Earlier this week we broke the news that copies of “Animal Crossing: Wild World” sent to reporters included a player-added racial slur. In what appeared to be meant in a hip-hop sense, rather than a term of offense, a character had been set up to greet the player with the word “N—a.”

Nintendo quickly apologized and called for a return of the games, but the incident indicated a possible vulnerability in the ratings on used games.

“Animal Crossing” is rated E for everyone. And while the box does indicate that the “Game Experience May Change During Online Play,” nothing on the box indicates that someone obtaining a used game might be exposed to some non-E-rated content.

I contacted the Entertainment Software Ratings Board and GameStop, which includes sales of used games as a significant part of its business, to get their thoughts on this apparent loophole. Read more…

When Stephen opened up the copy of “Animal Crossing: Wild World” that Nintendo send him to demonstrate the ability to transfer items to “Animal Crossing: City Folk,” he didn’t expect one of the town’s inhabitants to drop a racial slur.

Nintendo had since released an official statement about the incident.

“Previously played copies of the 2005 DS game ‘Animal Crossing: Wild World’ were sent to 14 members of the media to demonstrate the ability of players to transfer items to the new ‘Animal Crossing: City Folk’ for Wii.’ We regret that an offensive phrase was included without our knowledge via a wireless function that allows user-generated catchphrases to spread virally from one game to the next. This version is limited to 14 copies created for media review purposes only and is not available at retailers. We sincerely apologize for the incident and are working with media who received the game cards to return them to Nintendo immediately.”

Considering how much effort Nintendo has put into protecting its users from offensive content via Friend Codes and the like, this accident is a bit humorous. Have you encountered anything like it in your own “Animal Crossing” adventures?