“I have an idea for an Infendo post you should do…” — Sean Malstrom

And so began this simple post on an extraordinary idea. Perhaps a bit crazy too, but then again all disruptive technologies are labeled as such before they’re accepted en masse.

The idea? That the Balance Board packaged with Wii Fit isn’t an accessory at all. It’s a console, just the like Wii or even the PlayStation 3.

You were wondering when Nintendo would update the Wii? Unveil a Wii 2? Good news: The Wii Balance Board is it.

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I’ve sat back down and replayed through the series to deliver what I believe to be the top ten greatest Zelda games. As a huge Zelda fan, I have loved every single title Nintendo has feed us, (minus the CD-I titles) but there are some that are just built better than others. Click over to find out if your favorite made it towards the top. (Note: This list does not include spin-offs such as the Four Swords series, etc.)

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Now that we’ve had some time to digest his latest adventure, the Infendo offices have been buzzing with debate. It spilled over into last week’s edition of Infendo Radio and has since been the subject of countless e-mails from listeners, readers and tipsters all week long:

Which Mario games stand the test of time? Which are the cream?

We’ve set some parameters for debate, and the qualifying criteria for a “Mario game” were fairly rigid during the development of this list. We avoided including entries from the countless Mario spin-off franchises, such as Mario Kart and Mario Party, with one obvious and deserving exception. We are referring to proper Mario platformers.

After all, this is serious business. Place your bets, friends.

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Nintendo and its approach to online gaming has been pretty perplexing to guys like us, huh? Friend Codes head us off at every pass like some small town sheriff drunk with power; servers groan and creak when we attempt to Brawl with friends and strangers alike; and don’t get us started on trying to chat in-game, right?

Most of us are optimists, I’d like to think, and deep down we give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt. Soon, we say, soon they’ll get it right and we’ll be seamlessly battling it out online tossing taunts at friends while the latest Wii Connect 24 update downloads in the background, complete with an “adults only” Friend Code nullifier that essentially makes the annoying online gatekeeper a thing of the past.

But I’m not an optimist. I don’t believe any of that. Two different things happened this week that lead me to believe none of it will ever happen. This has been Nintendo’s plan all along. The ironic thing about it all? It’s going to work. (more…)

I know what you’re saying. “All of Mario’s power-ups are necessary and awesome, and there’s no way you could possibly whittle away such goodness to come up with a top 10 Mario power-ups list.”

To which I would reply nay, you are incorrect — there are certainly many, many useless and easily forgettable power-ups, and truly there are ten amazing ones that deserve a list.

That list, my friends, is as follows — from least amazing to most amazing: (more…)

I had a fascinating conversation with my philosophy professor Thursday.

She is always a treat to speak to, and this day was no different. Yet as interesting as discussing the finer points of philosophy can be, it will always be usurped by the mid-evening need for pizza and french fries. My mind’s thirst for intellectual nourishment slowly lost ground to the growling demands of my vacant stomach, and in accordance with my physiological needs, I trudged across campus to the university dining hall.

While my dinners are usually a solo affair, I was pleasantly surprised to find a few friends and acquaintances had also just answered their bellies’ call to action. We gathered at a dimly lit corner table and, as always, began discussing the most indispensable component of college life:

Video games.

As is perhaps the case in most college dining halls, paramount early in our discussions were comments easily summarized as “Call of Duty 4 split-screen this, Halo 3 online that.” But later, between insightful quips about the industry, specific consoles and gaming trends, our conversation shifted into a discussion of the best games of the last few years. And as I listened to grandiose proclamations about the greatness of Heavenly Sword and Assassin’s Creed, I recalled my earlier philosophical discussion and made a profound realization:

They were wrong. Indubitably, irrefutably, unquestionably wrong.

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Industry analysis and corporate hyperbole aside, there is something to be said for logic.

Nothing deductive or philosophical, either. Just simple, basic logic. The kind of stuff kids learn between finger-painting and cookie breaks in first grade. Logic as it operates in the minds of seven-year-old boys; back then, we weren’t exactly sure what impact “cooties” would have on our health and well-being, but our instincts told us - animalistic survival tactics, perhaps? - they were something to be avoided.

Cooties are bad. Girls carry cooties. Therefore, girls are stupid, gross and to be avoided at all costs.

I suppose one could even call it common-sensical. It just makes sense, and it would stand to reason that similar logic should be at work when major third-party video game publishers decide which platform to support with their best development teams. They watch as Nintendo’s Wii outsells both Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 on a monthly basis, and as logic provides, they put their most capable teams on quality Wii software to make a profit, develop and sustain consumer loyalty and, ultimately, develop a healthy portfolio for the market’s hottest platform.

Only they don’t.

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While plodding past towering white curtains and glaring at dangling chandeliers of Mii characters, something finally snapped inside of Jem Alexander. As the Joystiq writer emerged from the ivory-coated Nintendo booth at Leipzig last August, the frustration boiled over.

“While Microsoft and Sony both held press conferences during the Leipzig Games Convention, Nintendo decided to take a more personal approach and conducted three booth tours,” said Alexander. “After all, telling an entire audience that they’ve been dumped should be done face to face, right? The booth tour served as a way to let us know that, no, we’re no longer needed and, yes, we’ve been traded in for a different audience.”

Five months later, Alexander’s comments are representative of an even more widespread opinion. Similar complaints have been spreading like an infection throughout the gaming community and are coming from both consumers and developers alike. An increasing number of so-called “hardcore” gamers are losing patience with Nintendo, its supposed “revolution” and the software supporting it.

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OPINION — It’s officially time for 3d party developers to put up or shut up.

The act of complaining about developing games for a Nintendo console and turning a profit against the big bad Ninty and its cadre of 1rst party behemoths has officially been exposed as the pathetic, cry baby act that it is. (more…)

For more than a decade, it has been common knowledge within the gaming populace that third-parties struggle to sell their games on Nintendo consoles. For one reason or another, the Nintendo audience generally doesn’t respond to mass sellers like Tony Hawk, Need For Speed or Call of Duty.

This tradition hasn’t changed much on Wii. Madden sales have bombed two years in a row, and even the impressive, Wii-focused Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 has been received with minimal fanfare.

But it has finally happened. A mainstream game published by a third party company has achieved massive success on Wii. RedOctane’s Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has sold 1.1 million copies in America alone since launching on October 28.

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Generating a list like this one is tough because I believe the best Wii games in the coming year will be the ones we can’t fully imagine yet. This isn’t to take away from the DS, or any lists compiled by other people, not in the slightest; it’s actually meant as a testament to the game-changing role the Wii is playing, and will play, in video game culture.

In that vein, we’ll approach this list conventionally, using readily available information from Infendo, mainstream news sources and my own jaded pro-Nintendo intuition. Will all of these titles be gamebreakers? Probably not. Some may not break 250,000 copies sold, an utter failure in this age of video game sodas, $200 million marketing blitzes and premium priced collector’s editions. But that’s not the point. The point is that some of these titles, while not system sellers in their own right, could be the catalyst that a cautious developer needs to make a commitment to the Wii. Oh, and a ton of money too.

From least to most important, the list goes something like this… (more…)

Mario is smiling even more than usual these days. Lately, he and Link have likely been kicking back with Samus, enjoying a few Shroom Shakes and for the first time in more than a decade, sitting on top of their industry. Wii has become a cultural phenomenon, outselling what the Xbox 360 has sold worldwide in less than half the time and leaving 2007 to be remembered as the beginning of a new era of dominance for Nintendo. The reason for the resurgence is simple: Wii has played host to some groundbreaking, spectacular and absurdly fun games this year. Infendo presents the ten best Wii games of 2007. (more…)

It’s that time of year again. As the year wraps up it’s time to look back on what DS titles you might of missed this past year. 2007 was a huge year for the DS which really proved that 3rd parties can create some high quality titles that can even stand up to Nintendo software. So as prices drop and deals are struck we give you the top 10 DS titles of 2007.

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Infendo writer Derek has a chip on his shoulder this evening in this open letter to Sierra. The subject? Ghostbusters, what else?

You think I’m lying, but the swollen red hand-print across my face says otherwise. I’m also having a hard time chewing with that side of my mouth now, so my food is only being half-processed before I swallow, which I’m sure will cause a whole new slate of problems. (more…)

Since the beginning of Sony’s now-fading dominance of the video game industry more than a decade ago, third-party publishers have consistently treated Nintendo consoles as Hyrulians do the scorching sands of the Gerudo Desert.

They avoid them altogether.

This unfortunate trend began with the Nintendo 64, when a series of controversial decisions made by Nintendo prompted many developers to shift support to competing consoles. For the first time since the emergence of the home console business, a Nintendo platform was not the dominate one, and the inevitable exodus of third-parties led to devastating consequences for Nintendo.

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