01. / 00. [PS3] NieR Replicant (Square Enix) – 60.000 / NEW
02. / 01. [WII] New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo) – 29.000 / 3.715.000 (-10%)
03. / 00. [PSP] Tokyo Mono Harashi: Karasu no Mori Gakuen Kitan (Atlus Co.) – 22.000 / NEW
04. / 02. [NDS] Friend Collection (Nintendo) – 20.000 / 3.131.000 (-4%)
05. / 00. [PSP] Ys: Oath of Felghana (Falcom) – 16.000 / NEW
06. / 03. [PSP] Pro Baseball Spirits 2010 (Konami) – 16.000 / 118.000 (-23%)
07. / 09. [WII] Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) – 15.000 / 1.848.000 (+2%)
08. / 15. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) – 14.000 / 2.711.000
09. / 00. [PS3] The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Game of the Year Edition (Bethesda Softworks) – 12.000 / NEW
10. / 06. [NDS] Pokemon Ranger: Tracks of Light (Pokemon Co.) – 12.000 / 409.000 (-25%)
11. / 00. [360] NieR Gestalt (Square Enix)
12. / 04. [PS3] Pro Baseball Spirits 2010 (Konami)
13. / 11. [PSP] Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP the Best Reprint) (Capcom)
14. / 05. [PS3] Fist of the North Star: Warriors (Koei)
15. / 00. [360] Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi Extra (5pb.)
16. / 13. [WII] Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo)
17. / 00. [WII] One Piece: Unlimited Cruise 2 – Awakening of the Hero (Everyone’s Recommendation Selection) (Namco Bandai)
18. / 10. [PS3] Yakuza 4: Heir to the Legend (Sega)
19. / 00. [360] The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Game of the Year Edition (Bethesda Softworks)
20. / 12. [NDS] Etrian Odyssey III: Caller of the Starry Seas (Atlus Co.)
21. / 24. [NDS] The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Nintendo)
22. / 16. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
23. / 14. [PS2] Pro Baseball Spirits 2010 (Konami)
24. / 18. [NDS] Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (Ultimate Hits) (Square Enix)
25. / 00. [PSP] Himawari: Pebble in the Sky Portable (Kadokawa Shoten)
26. / 00. [PSP] Knights in the Nightmare (Sting)
27. / 00. [NDS] Naruto Shippuden: Ninjutsu Zenkai! Cha-Crash! (Takara Tomy)
28. / 26. [NDS] Crayon Shin-Chan: Obaka Daininden – Susume! Kasukabe Ninja Tai! (Namco Bandai)
29. / 07. [PS3] No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise (Marvelous Entertainment)
30. / 27. [NDS] Pokemon Heart Gold / Soul Silver (Pokemon Co.)

If you’re like me and you picked up Monster Hunter Tri last week, chances are you’re also like me and haven’t been able to put it down since. I am, in fact, playing it at this very moment (anyone wanna hop online with me?) and have been letting it take up far too much of my precious free time. That being the case, what better way to celebrate the launch than to have it be our next game for game night!?
Therefore, this week’s game night will be on Friday at 7PM CST (8PM EST, 5PM PST) and will work just a little differently than most.
Being as Monster Hunter is a game that is only playable by 4 people at a time online, we’ll have to divide up into teams (if we get enough players, that is!). We’ll have team leaders, one of them being myself, and (permitting they have the game) other staff members will be other team leaders. If none of them have the game, I’ll call upon some people on the night of the game night to take over.
Every few quest victories/failures, we’ll switch groups so everyone gets a chance to play with everyone else, and we’ll just keep repeating that until we get bored!
If you have any questions/comments, feel free to ask away! Otherwise, just let me know via e-mail, the comments, or the forum if you plan on playing!
The Wiimote is very recognizable thanks to its similarities with a TV remote. But you may be surprised to hear about one particular prototype Nintendo had created prior to finally settling on the final design. A new book called Nintendo Magic: Winning The Video Game Wars details the prototype, noting that it “had a large star-shaped button in the center, surrounded by three smaller buttons, and used internal accelerometers that let the player control by tilting it forward, backwards, left, or tight.”
The big news, however, is that the controller was met with a great deal of opposition. Developers at Nintendo felt that it would not work very well established franchises such as Zelda and Mario. As we know now, the idea was eventually shot down.
You can read additional details about how the controller would have worked below and we’ve also included a picture of it in this post as well.
“Development on the new [Wii] controller was in full swing by the middle of 2004. With Iwata focusing on the DS, Miyamoto acted in his place on the project. Takeda’s engineering team searched for sensors that would enable intuitive game control, which Miyamoto’s people used to implement the actual controller.
At first, they started just as Iwata had suggested – by aiming for a simple, TV remote-like controller. But as they did the work of testing the controller prototypes that included new sensors, the form factors began to take an unexpected direction.
‘No one liked that one,’ recalls Miyamoto with a rueful grin, of a large, disc-shaped example. It had a large star-shaped button in the center, surrounded by three smaller buttons, and used internal accelerometers that let the player control by tilting it forward, backwards, left, or tight. The prototype was orange, and its bizarre appearance earned it the nickname ‘cheddar cheese’ from the development team.
It was admittedly simple and easy to understand, but was also far too garish. Miyamoto’s team met with around 40 game developers within Nintendo bimonthly to hear their opinions. This iteration of the controller was met with opposition — they complained it was totally unsuited to traditional games like Mario and Zelda.”