Need some help rounding out your classic Nintendo collection?

Old NES somewhere in the basement... CHECK. Purchased every Classic Console game on the Nintendo Wii... CHECK. But do you have a cool universal TV remote that looks just like a NES controller? No? ThinkGeek.com does and it's ready for immediate delivery via winged turtle shell.



This NES style remote controls most TVs allowing critical gaming functions like power on/off, changing the channel and even volume adjustment. Now you can amaze your friends by pretending to play classic NES games while watching old Thundercats re-runs.

These controllers are limited editions from Japan. Once they are gone, they are gone.

The Nintendo Controller Universal Remote works with the following brands of TVs:

• Sony
• Panasonic
• Sharp
• Sylvania
• Sanyo
• Aiwa
• Hitachi
• Philips
• NEC
• JVC
• Toshiba
• Mitsubishi
• Fujitsu

By the way, this remote does not control cable boxes, DVD players or anything else. Strictly TV sets. Also the Nintendo Controller Universal Remote may not work if your TV is super ancient.

You can pick up the Nintendo Controller Universal Remote for $12.99 from ThinkGeek.com.


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Labels: games, review

Like to smack penguins with baseball bats? Yes? Then here's a nice Christmas morning treat for the whole family. MethodShop has a series of Yeti winter games for your entertainment.

If you aren't yet familiar with Yeti Sports, then prepare yourself for one of the most humorous and addictive games on the Internet. Below you will find several variations of the Yeti game Pingu-Throw as well as some newer Yeti offerings. One of the more violent variants of Pingu-Throw, named "Bloody", features decapitation, spikes, a big spiky club and mines.

Should your Yeti catch the penguin at the right moment and angle, you might just hit one out of the park, or arctic continent. Good luck and Merry Christmas.

Yeti Games

• Yeti Pingu-Throw
• Yeti Pingu-Throw (Bloody)
• Yeti Pingu-Throw (Long Shot)
• Yeti Orca Slap
• Yeti Seal Bounce

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Labels: games, holiday

Microsoft is reporting that sales for its much hyped game, Halo 3, generated $170 million during the first 20 hours of its release. Not only does this top the $125 million sales record set by Halo 2, but it also surpasses the opening-day US box office record of $59.8 million set by Sony's "Spider-Man 3" in May. In fact, Halo 3 made more money in 24 hours than Spider-Man 3 made during its three-day opening-weekend ($151 million).

So far, more than 1 million players have logged on the play the networked Xbox Live version of Halo 3.

The game is expected to give a huge boost to the Xbox 360. Lately, the runaway success of the Nintendo Wii has been a thorn in the side of both Microsoft and Sony.

You can read our review of Halo 3 here.

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Labels: games

The 3rd and final edition in the Halo video game trilogy got released Monday night at midnight. Microsoft expects to sell an estimated 4 million copies of Halo 3 (read MethodShop.com review) in the U.S. during the next 30 days according to Gamesindustry.biz. Think 4 million seems a lot for a video game? Keep in mind that "Halo" (2001) and "Halo 2" (2004) sold 14.5 million copies worldwide.

But because there is so much anticipation and hype around Halo 3, corporate employers and school systems are fearing that their staff and students will spontaneously be calling in sick this week.



Here are a couple quotes I found on USA Today.com:

"I've already talked to my teachers and got my assignments for Tuesday. I don't plan on going to class," says Dane Mitchell, 20, a Cincinnati State and Community College sophomore. "I'm going to pick up the game at midnight from GameStop, go to a friend's house, and play it for 36 hours," he says.

Like Mitchell, Neil Godwin, 21, of Milford, Ohio, reserved his copy more than a year ago. He's taking a vacation day Tuesday from his job as a Kroger computer help desk analyst to play Halo 3 all day with his brother.

Corporate sponsors are also helping fuel the hype around Halo 3. Even if the last video game you played was Pong in the 1980's, Microsoft still wants you to know about Halo 3. Everyone from Burger King, NASCAR, Pontiac and even Mountain Dew have promotional deals with Microsoft for Halo 3 that rival such theatrical franchises as Harry Potter. Last night I even saw a 'limited edition' Halo 3 Mountain Dew 12-pack labeled as "Game Fuel." I guess there's probably enough sugar and caffeine in a 12-pack of Mountain Dew to even keep a Polar Bear up all night.



Beyond the corporate sponsors, promotional advertising blitz and the Internet buzz, Halo 3 is special to gamers because it's the final chapter in the Halo series. It's the last time fans will get to see their beloved Master Chief in action. Halo 3 is equivalent of how important "Return of the Jedi" or "The Return of the King" was Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fans. It's the end of a saga.




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Labels: games

Yesterday, the NPD Group released video game hardware sales data for April. Nintendo's Wii and DS consoles were again the big winners, as both platforms dominated all competitors. This marks the 4th month in a row that Nintendo has nabbed the top spots with its respective systems on the hardware sales charts.

The Nintendo DS was the overall best-selling system of April with approximately 471,000 units sold -- more than twice that of the Sony PSP, which only managed to sell 182,000 units.


Despite being in limited supply, the Nintendo Wii was the best-selling console for the month. More than 360,000 new consumers purchased Nintendo's home console in April. The second best-selling home system was the Sony PlayStation 2 with 193,000 units sold. Microsoft's Xbox 360 managed 174,000 units sold and Sony convinced only 82,000 people to purchase a PlayStation 3 for the month, lower than all analyst estimates.

Nintendo was also the #1 software publisher for the month, releasing the top 4 best-selling games -- Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl for DS, and Super Paper Mario and Wii Play for Wii. The Pokemon titles sold a combined 1.7 million games in about a week.

According to VG Chartz, the Nintendo Wii has sold 2.5m consoles in Japan, 2.8m in the US and 1.79m in the rest of the world since its official launch late last year.

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Labels: games

Tired of the boring movie trivia slide shows that theaters play before the movie? How about an interactive game that the entire theater can play at the same time?

MSNBC.com has this live video game experience called NewsBreaker Live that has entire theaters acting like Human Joysticks.

NewsBreaker Live is modeled after the classic video games like BrickBreaker and Arkanoid. The game combines live msnbc.com RSS newsfeeds, the movement of the audience as a human joystick, and the big screen as a game board. Groundbreaking motion-sensor technology dubbed "CrowdGaming" tracks the entire audience’s collective movement (watch video clip). Audience members control the game by moving in sync to smash up msnbc.com’s colorful brick spectrum of news with a bouncing ball and paddle.



As far as I know, this is the first in-theater, audience participatory video game. And honestly, I think it's pretty cool. Way better than being forced to stare at slides of movie trivia and ads for local used car dealerships. You can play an online version of NewsBreaker Live at newsbreakergame.com.

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Labels: games

One of the new features of the Nintendo Wii, is the ability to create avatars (a virtual representation of a person) using the platform's "Mii Channel." The avatars can be used in various Nintendo games and even shared with other players. But creative Nintendo Wii users aren't just creating Miis of themselves. They've started making avatars that resemble famous people. Wii users have dubbed the celebrity avatars "CelebriMiis."

Many Mii creators share their CelebriMii techniques online so others can duplicate the effect and use their avatars in games and Mii parades.

The image below is Hiro Nakamura from the NBC TV series Heroes.



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If you grew up during the 1980's, then perhaps you might remember playing an 8-bit shooter called Duck Hunt. Released for the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) in 1985, Duck Hunt was one of the first games to use the "NES Zapper" or light gun.

At the time, my little brother and I didn't care how the gun worked, we just didn't want the dog to laugh at us. Sometimes we would hold the light gun against the glass of the TV and try to cheat. 20 years later I'm more interested in learning how the game worked than preventing the dog from laughing at me.

So how does the light gun work? How exactly does Duck Hunt know what you were pointing at when you pull the trigger? According to an article on The Straight Dope, the gun isn't shooting the TV, it's the other way around. When you pull the light gun trigger, the entire screen blackens briefly and a white duck flashes on the screen where the duck(s) are located. If the photo sensor in the light gun detects a quick flash from dark to light, then you have a dead duck (and a non-laughing dog). Basically the TV shoots a light pulse and the "gun detects it, not the other way around."

Finding a working NES, light gun and original Duck Hunt cartridge can be a little tricky and require some time searching around on eBay. If you're looking for a quick fix, you can play an online Shockwave version of Duck Hunt here. You'll have to settle for a mouse instead of a light gun, but you'll probably have fun anyway.

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Labels: games

Click and hold the red square.

Now, move it so that you neither touch the walls nor get hit by any of the blue blocks.

If you make it to 18 seconds, you're a pimp!

Labels: games

As a GameFly member, you can rent as many games as you want and play them as long as you want for only $21.95 per month.

Check out 2 games at a time. When you're done, send your games back to us and the next picks will automatically be sent to you.

Over 4,000 Titles
They have the best selection of video games for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii, GameCube, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance. Open 24 hours every day, their rental library of over 4,000 titles makes renting hard-to-find classics and hot new releases as simple as a few clicks of your mouse.

Pre-Paid Postage and Shipping
Pre-paid postage on all rentals is included with your membership. To make it easy for your lazy ass.

Keep It
Their "Keep It" feature allows you to buy the games you rent if you love them. With this option, you can try before you buy any game. Original game manuals and cases are included and shipped to you with no shipping or handling fees, as long as you are a renting member.

Membership Cost
For one flat monthly fee of $21.95 (plus any applicable tax), GameFly lets you rent 2 games at a time, with free shipping, no due dates and no late fees. There are no additional charges. You can also cancel anytime.

About GameFly
Founded in 2002, Los Angeles-based GameFly is the world's leading online video game rental service, delivering the best selection and availability. GameFly also offers hundreds of high quality, pre-played video games for sale at competitive prices.

Labels: games

Feel like climbing inside a Viper and fraking a Cylon? According to a Sierra Online press release, this fall you'll get your chance.

Looking to capitalize on the series' current popularity, NBC Universal and Sierra Online (Space Quest, King's Quest, Homeworld) are developing a mini Battlestar Galactica high-definition video game that will be available this fall as a digital download.

The Battlestar Galactica mini game is just a way to wet fans appetites. NBC U is talking to several publishers about making a full size Battlestar game for consoles that would be much broader in scope and encompass the show's political, military and religious themes. But console games take two or three years to develop.

"The show is really hot right now and the fans want content so we had a lot of discussion to figure out something we could do this year," said Universal interactive licensing VP Bill Kispert.

Sierra's Battlestar game will focus on spaceship fighting, allowing fans to play as either humans or Cylons in missions culled from the series. There will also be an extensive multi-player combat element.

Kispert also said that Sierra Online has spent time on the show's set in Vancouver to incorporate elements from the show into the new game, including everything from actual ships to the computer monitors aboard the Galactica. The game will feature sound effects from the show, including weapons firing, and Kispert said they're talking about incorporating radio chatter from the show that could feature cast voices.

Because it's online, Sierra may also offer downloadable updates to keep the game fresh after it's released.

"Battlestar Galactica" game will be distributed via the Xbox Live Arcade service to download to Xbox 360, as well as for PCs.

Unfortunately, it looks like PlayStation and Macintosh users are being left out on this release. Hopefully that will change before the fall.

For more information about the Battlestar Galactica mini game, visit the official web site at http://www.BSGarcade.com

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Labels: games, nbc

You might remember hearing about a wave of wounded people when the Nintendo Wii first came out last November. A combination of physically unfit Wii owners and a weak Wiimote strap was causing people to accidentally do things like punch their dogs or dislocate knees. Well apparently everyone’s wounds have healed and they’re starting to experiment with their new gaming systems.

One ambitious Wii owner even decided to make his own steering wheel and upload a picture of it to GoNintendo.com. The official Wii steering wheel is included with most racing games like GT Pro Series and Monster 4X4: World Circuit; but why pay extra for a game bundled with a wheel when you can just make your own?


While this particular DIY wheel leaves a lot to be desired (especially when it comes to style points), I'll give this lumpy homemade masterpiece an A+ for effort.

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Labels: games, wii