nintendo

The Score

The Great Wii Fit-Off: Gamer vs. Trainer

In the challenge of the century, PopSci pits a videogame-phobic sportswriter against a professional trainer. Whose Mii will reign supreme?

I’m not much of a “gamer”. (In fact, I’m not even entirely sure that’s the preferred nomenclature to describe one skilled at Halo and aroused by watching Grand Theft Auto.) The only video game system I’ve ever owned is the original Nintendo which still sits proudly attached to my television with a quarter holding RBI Baseball in place (undefeated through much of college). But, I do cover sports and its broadly defined intersection with technology, so when Nintendo began advertising Wii Fit, I felt obliged to turn off Tecmo Bowl and see just what the past twenty years has done to 64-bit technology and what it meant to the world of fitness.

There have been 786 reviews of the Wii and Wii Fit by men and women far more qualified than myself to compare its gaming merits to Dance Dance Revolution (never played), Guitar Hero (dabbled once in Best Buy) and the best of PS2 (never touched it). PopSci’s own gaming guru gave an excellent review of the system. But Wii Fit, and to a degree the Wii, isn’t only intended for Donkey Kong prodigies.

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Virtual Pole Dancing Coming to the Nintendo Wii?

If the top name in home pole-dancing equipment has anything to say about it, absolutely!

There must be a God after all. Peekaboo Entertainment—creators of the Carmen-Electra-endorsed "Electra-Pole" home pole dancing kit—is reportedly planning to take their expertise to the Nintendo Wii. Adding another interesting dimension to the Wii's role as a fitness machine, the proposed pole dancing title could further ensure that men spend all day playing, or now watching, video games.

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Steven Spielberg: From Blockbusters to Block Busters

A Q&A with the Hollywood legend and self-proclaimed Wii-addict on bringing his cinematic flair to videogames

In a career that spans the heartrending drama of Schindlers List, the popcorn thrills of Indiana Jones and the flat-out cartoon silliness of Animaniacs, Steven Spielberg has demonstrated a unique cross-generational ability to capture our imaginations and manipulate our emotions. Now hes applying these talents to a new medium, developing a series of innovative videogames in collaboration with Electronic Arts.

The first, Boom Blox (released last month), embraces his fun-for-the-whole-family side. This action-puzzle game challenges players to destroy structures made of building blocks, using the Nintendo Wii remote control to hurl onscreen objects with a flick of the wrist.

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Playing Around

Guinness Got Game

The first gamer’s edition of the ultimate record book

Used to be, when I answered my phone at work, I didn't know what to expect. A college frat boy wanting to build the world's largest beer bong. Ashrita Furman, a guy from Brooklyn planning to break the marathon unicycle-riding record for the greater glory of his spiritual leader, Sri Chinmoy. A woman who had toilet-trained her chameleon. I was the associate American editor for the Guinness Book of World Records, and point man in the U.S. for would-be record-breakers.

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Wii Ski

Skiing and Wii's Balance Board prove a perfect match

This seems like an absolute natural: Namco Bandai just announced that it will deliver a game for Nintendos Wii called We Ski this spring. More importantly, the game will work with the Wii Balance Board—their forthcoming fitness-focused accessory—and should be the first such game developed outside Nintendo.

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Dancing a Song With the Full-Body Wiimote Music Controller Suit

An electronic musician’s brilliant wearable hack uses eight Nintendo Wii controllers to create and manipulate sound in real time

Soon after the Nintendo Wiis release, hackers immediately began uncovering ways to use its unique motion-sensing controller to interface with other things—PCs, musical instruments, you name it. But Tom Tlalim, an Israeli-born composer who now lives in the Netherlands, may have outdone them all: His full-body, eight-piece suit of Wiimotes interfaces fully with custom software to turn his entire body into an electronic instrument that responds to his every motion. In his suit, Tlalim doesnt play songs. He dances them.

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Wii Broke It

Our first Wii didn't survive being cracked open for a photo shoot, so we went ahead and finished the job. See our full disassembly photos

Wiitopsy_ss_15It is with a heavy heart that we bring you this special weekend report. When PopSci's Wii arrived last week, it didn't spend too much time in the box. Ripped open without any hesitation, our little Wii gave us a long Friday's worth of furious Wii Sports and Excite Truck action at PopSci HQ.

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POPSCI'S 21ST ANNUAL BEST OF WHAT'S NEW


Every year, PopSci honors the top 100 innovations in categories such as consumer products, medical tech and engineering.

Learn more and submit your product or technology today at popsci.com/enter.

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