Rumours are seeping through the highly alert guards of the Internet (who am I kidding, the amount of porn that gets through each day is enough to provide a strong economy for a small country) that Nintendo is developing a wireless nunchuck for the Wii.

Of course, the nunchuck is connected to the Wii-mote by way of a cord, which sometimes comes as a distraction, especially when playing Wii Boxing. If the cord were to be removed, a wireless receiver would be attached to the Wii-mote.

UK gaming site Verdicts are reporting that an “unconfirmed source has revealed” that Nintendo are “currently” working on a wireless nunchuck for Wii. So, don’t put too much basis on anything Verdicts has to say… yet. That said, the idea that Nintendo may be developing a wireless nunchuck is not entirely farfetched, Nintendo have led the way with wireless controllers (Wavebird, Wii-mote) before, so seeing a wireless nunchuck sometime in the future would not be a surprise.

But would a wireless nunchuck really be a good thing? Aside from the obvious freedom of movement provided by two wireless controllers, there are many other factors at play. Looking at how much the Wii-mote retails for in Australia ($60) right now, another wireless, motion-sensing controller may force Nintendo to raise the price of the nunchuck from $30 to $50 - 60.

Then the argument on battery life will rear its ugly head. Right now the nunchuck is running on the two AA batteries found in the Wii-mote, however if the cord were to be removed, the wireless nunchuck would need it’s own batteries. Another transfusion your wallet doesn’t need. And then there’s the occasion of lawsuits due to consumers complaining, “the wireless nunchuck is a danger to my children’s health, it took out his eye” or some such shit.

Nintendo has made no official comment on the development of a wireless nunchuck, the idea that such a project has been proposed, or whether a Nintendo temp had a little too much brandy and thought the idea of a wireless nunchuck being created would be funnier then “eating mushrooms while watching Cheech and Chong.”

Personally I would wait until final pricing is announced before buying a wireless nunchuck, to see just exactly how much more of my money Nintendo is getting. Right now the cord is a minor annoyance, but not anything worth shelling out $50 or more for. That’s if this rumour even comes to fruition.

Would anyone else buy a wireless nunchuck?

- Aaron Kleemann.

“Daddy, daddy, is it here?”
“Yes son, it is. Came this morning.”
“Oh Richard, I’m so glad you bought a Wii for Christmas. What a lovely gift for the kids.”
“Quick Daddy, open it! Open it!”
“Ok buddy, calm down. Here I go…”

Internet auction site eBay has been selling thousands of Wii’s, PS3’s and Xbox 360’s over the past few weeks and months. A few requirements of being able to sell one of the prized possessions are that the seller must have a high positive rating, and include a photo of the receipt with the console. eBay don’t want anyone to become ripped off, of course.

So is this being ripped off? A seller on eBay has listed his “Nintendo Wii Box” for sale, and at the end of the sale, had attracted a final bid of US $247 (ironically, $3 cheaper then the RRP of the Wii in USA). The catch is that the seller was not misleading at all, offering this statement at the top of the page:

“You are bidding on a New Nintendo Wii Box. It has been opened only once and is great condition. It is just the box with nothing else added. It’s a great buy for those who are interested. New Nintendo Wii Box, the title says it all. Once again, it is just the box. Good luck and good bidding.”

Presumably he opened his box to take his Wii out. The sale attracted 6 bidders, with a total of 20 bids. Bids rose from US $20 to US $247 in 3 hours. The winning bidder has been an eBay member since 2004, and bought numerous items, so he knows his way around. The seller did have a picture of the receipt and console, so he met the requirements:

Was that enough to trick the customers? Was he even trying to trick the customers, or just having a laugh, seeing what he could get? Unlike the case earlier this year when a Xbox 360 box was sold for a high price over eBay, when the customer thought he was buying a 360 (fine print at the bottom of the page revealed it was just the box), the seller was not deceptive in any way. His statement is clear, and easy to read. So technically, the buyer would have to pay the full amount. God knows he doesn’t want to pay $247 for cardboard; he may take legal action.

Amazingly, the same seller offered a second “Nintendo Wii Box” for sale, and portrayed it in exactly the same way. However, this time it only fetched 1 bid, at US $15. In fact, the winning bidder left this comment on his rating page: “Very honest and nice guy… excellent seller very good communication.”

Ah, the perils of the internet.

- Aaron Kleemann.

Yes, the holiday of eggnog and The Panel’s Christmas Wrap is upon us.

Whether Christmas represents another wretched visit from your crack-smoking Aunt, an excuse to have another turkey leg (“Well, it is Christmas…”), a great time with friends and family or simply a shitload of presents, the team at Blogger Within would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

We’d like to thank everyone for supporting us through the year, and we hope to see you all again in 2007 - where we’ll try to limit Aaron to one Nintendo-related story per week.

- Blogger Within Staff

I don’t know about you, but I hate it when promises are broken. A promise to buy my favourite cereal and then not picking it up, trivial as it may be, still pisses me off. Wikipedia defines a promise as “a psychological contract indicating a transaction between two persons whereby the first person undertakes in the future to render some service or gift to the second person or devotes something valuable now and here to his use.” Whatever you call it, if a promise isn’t kept I call it being screwed over.

We’re all aware of Nintendo’s amazing quality of first party titles, and the way that only they can produce titles that will have all gamers agreeing in unison of their eminence. Now CVG are reporting “reliable sources close to Nintendo have told CVG” that Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for Wii, as well as The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for DS, will not be reaching store shelves until Q4 2007 - which at the earliest would be October 2007, latest December 2007.

We’d all rather have an excellent game then a rushed title (Madden 06 or Perfect Dark Zero for 360, anyone?), but I for one am getting mighty sick of Nintendo promising one thing and doing another. Twilight Princess was to be a Gamecube title, but was pushed so far back it launched for Wii, the same for Super Paper Mario.

We all remember the Gamecube’s lack of titles across its lifespan. If this were to happen for Wii, Nintendo would be making a grave mistake. They know the effect a lack of quality titles, first party or third, had on their purple box, and would have on Wii. To tell the truth, Nintendo cannot allow this to happen. Period. It would be the end of Wii’s chances of winning this generation.

So hopefully, this comes to fruition. In an interview with Newsweek’s gaming columnist N’Gai Croal (got to make sure I spell that right) in October, Reggie promised that Wii will get an influx of quality titles, enough to satisfy gamers through 2007.

Reggie – “The third example I would give you is Mario Galaxy, another from-the-ground-up Wii game that we are strategically timing the launch to make sure that we continue driving momentum through 2007. So N’Gai, how do I answer the question, “Will there be no drought,” and “How will we make sure that there are fantastic titles for Wii?” The answer is Zelda, Metroid and Mario. Which is a pretty darn good lineup.”

N’Gai – “So are you willing to make a “Read my lips” pledge right here?”

Reggie – “I thought I just did.”

There you have it folks. Now taking a look at Nintendo Europe’s (DS and Wii) launch titles for Q1 2007 will show us that neither Metroid Prime 3: Corruption or Super Mario Galaxy are to be found. Granted, not many people expected either games to launch that early, but at least we can cross off 3 months of the year.

9 months left Nintendo. Don’t screw us over.

- Aaron Kleemann.

Have you ever found yourself at the end of the line of some horrible customer service? Your electrician says he’ll be down Monday, he doesn’t show – you feel like cutting his throat. Hair dryer breaks down 2 days after you bought it, but the store has a no refund policy. Blockbuster won’t let those overdue rates slide when you want to rent Britney and Kevin: Chaotic.

For Pat Dori, enough was enough. After buying a laptop from Dell, it broke down. Pat was understandably aggravated. He called Dell, but found no answer. So Pat called again. And again. The hours passed, and then days. Days turned into weeks, before weeks found himself giving birth to months. 5 months in fact. Yes, 19 phone calls and 5 months later, Mr Dori still had no answer.

Who the hell is running Dell these days? 5 months, 19 phone calls and you can’t get a response? No call back, no email, not even a “I’m sorry but Dell would rather be finding new ways to screw our consumers over then attend to your calls.”

Having received more abuse then a controller at a Super Smash Brothers tournament, Pat decided he wanted to get even. Not the crazy even – throwing his burning laptop through their offices, or kidnapping the CEO’s wife, oh no, Pat was taking the smart option.

He decided to sue Dell for failing to adequately address the problem.

At first, it does seem ludicrous. Sure, we can all see Pat is in the right, but how was he going to prove that to a judge, pitched against Dell’s high priced lawyers? By bending the rules. When one is being sued, one receives court papers, telling them why they are being sued and when to appear at the courthouse.

Herein lies the beauty of Pat’s plan. He didn’t send the papers to Dell’s headquarters in Texas, he delivered them to a Dell shopping kiosk at his local mall, most probably to some attendant who thought nothing of it and threw the papers out before even reading them.

Of course, nobody from Dell turned up on the date, so Pat won a default $3000 judgement. He also obtained a ruling allowing bailiffs to close the kiosk and seize items if his $3000 was not paid. Finally, Dell got wind of Pat Dori and settled the case out of court for undisclosed terms (ie: paid Pat a lot of money to shut up).

Mr Dori thinks “any regular person can do this,” as long as “you have the law on your side.” For anyone wanting to do their own ‘Dori’, Pat offers this advice. “Get their money first,” which will invariably be followed by “getting their attention.”

Nicely played Mr Dori.

- Aaron Kleemann

Not just because the game is a crime against video game quality (that’s bound to get some responses), but if Germany has anything to say about it, every time you turn on Halo and kill AI, you’re committing a crime. Every time a publisher inserts a knife into a video game, he’s committing a crime. Every time Activision sells a copy of Call of Duty they’re sentencing themselves to jail time.

This is all coming from (surprise surprise) a recent shooting spree an 18yr-old male underwent in West Germany, killing himself and injuring numerous people. It’s been reported that the young man was a big fan of Counter-Strike, and racked up many hours playing the online game.

So, naturally, politicians have given a knee-jerk reaction. Legislation drafted by two state governments in Bavaria and Lower Saxony details that “developers, distributors and players of video games whose goal is to inflict ‘cruel violence on humans or human-looking characters’ to a fine and a maximum of one year in jail.”

Yes, jail.

“So, what you in for?”
“I killed my gardener with a pneumatic drill. Shoved it right through his eye.”
“How about you?”
“Oh I spent 10 minutes or so playing Half Life.”
“Jesus man, you’re sick.”

Before this law comes into effect, it first must pass legislation and become certified. Naturally, I don’t think anyone expects this law to pass, as it would mean the 2million strong German online gaming community need to be locked up.

Head of the Deutsche E-Sport Bund, Frank Sliwka, (which coordinates online gaming competition) had this to say in reaction to the legislation. “Now we are being labelled as a breeding ground for unstable, dysfunctional and violent youngsters.”

Let’s get serious for a moment. When an individual commits a violent crime, the general consensus is to blame everyone except the individual himself if it’s related to video games. Parents, lawyers (I use the term loosely) and communities all want something to blame. “If Johnny hadn’t of played Resident Evil then this tragedy wouldn’t have occurred.” Gamers around the world all know this is pathetic. We’re not recluses, who dwell in our dank basements plotting the deaths of our local schoolteacher. We’re normal people, we have loving relationships, friends, family, girlfriends/boyfriends - we enjoy life.

Now I’m not saying every gamer is perfect, because they’re not. There is bound to be a few people that are recluses, who do plot their enemies’ deaths. But this is not reserved for video gamers is it? What about bakers, carpenters, authors, doctors, sports stars or your next-door neighbour – you think video gamers are a select bunch of psychopaths?

Millions of people play video games, violent or not, everyday. The majority of us don’t feel like taking our virtual (I stress the word virtual) weapons out on the public. And if you do? To put it bluntly, you need psychiatric help.

Video games don’t kill people. People kill people.

- Aaron Kleemann.

There appears to be a growing trend of console to handheld ports, specifically with the introduction of the PSP. With some added technological prowess backing Sony’s first handheld, it seems developers are becoming more keen in porting games that were originally created for consoles onto the handheld platform.

While it’s all well and good that these games are being offered to a wider audience, is it really worthwhile? Do these straight-up ports actually work?

While playing through GUN Showdown on the PSP, I began questioning whether it really is suitable for such a game to be thrown onto the PSP. It’s essentially the same as its 2005 console brothers, except with some added mini games and a new wireless multiplayer mode. Neither additions are really significant, offering little more than an hour or two of additional gameplay worth.

What’s interesting is that the developer’s really have to fight with handheld hardware in order to get a console game to run half-decently on the platform. While the graphical power is now, there’s always the issues of controls. Unfortunately, this is what continuously bugs the console-to-handheld ports, as games that are originally created for use with two analog sticks simply don’t work effectively using one.

Or two, if you use the PSP’s face buttons as a substitute to the right analog stick. Seriously, though, it’s pretty obvious that such limiting face buttons are in no way a replacement for an intuitive analog stick.

Take GUN Showdown, for example, which sees you using the left stick for movement and the PSP’s face buttons for moving your view. It’s clunky, ineffective and often frustrating - especially when you’re being blasted by enemies, but completely unable to target them quick enough to take them down before suffering too much damage.

While it’s obvious that not all genres will see such a control problem arising when porting onto a portable platform (racing games come to mind), it’s certainly questioning when developers expect players to battle with clunky controls and still come away satisfied.

GUN experienced disappointing sales when it was ported to the Xbox 360, partly due to the developer’s pure laziness in not bothering to update the visuals to a suitable next-generation level, as well as the fact that most people interested in the game had already played it on the PS2 or Xbox. There’s more of a chance in people having not experienced it when changing to a completely different platform style (console-to-portable), but I still can’t see GUN Showdown experiencing any success at the cash registers at all.

I guess the moral of the story that needs to be learnt by developers is this: if the game doesn’t control well, and is likely to have gamers throwing it down due to pure frustration due to ineffective controls, the likelihood of the game seeing great popularity is fairly limited. Only port to portable platforms if the genre fits on it: a shooter that needs two analog sticks to play clearly doesn’t belong on a portable platform like the PSP.

- Cain Dornan