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February marks the start of something new ... and the end of something lovely, too.  Den of Wii as a blog is no more; the force is being shifted into www.DenOfGeek.com, where you can get the Dennis teams views, rants and raves about all the formats of gaming, from the point of view of real gamers.  So we'll still be on hand to tell you the latest Wii news and reviews, etc. You might even discover other stuff that interests you along the way ...

As well as gaming, Den of Geek handles everything that's brilliant in a geeky way.  Cult TV, movies and icons will cram their way through the net onto your screens at home.  Don't click away until you've taken a dekko for yourself!

Thank you to everyone who has ever read, commented on or used our web site here at Den of Wii.  We love you and we'll miss you in this intimate form we've known and loved.  For those of you who would like to trace the work of those involved, you can catch me (Kim Kaze) and the team who contribute over at the Den of Wii Facebook group, which we'll keep running for now so you can comment, throw rotten veg - anything, really.

Once again, thank you all very much for being with us, and we'll see you over at Den of Geek!

-=Kim Kaze=-
Editor, DenOfWii.com

The funny thing about journalism is that half the time, the things people tell you are great and must-haves for your pad at home turn out to be stuff that they personally wouldn't touch with a barge pole.  Why? Because reviews and articles have to be 'fair, balanced and eliminate personal biases where possible'.

The trouble with this method is, you're an ordinary human being and so am I.  Personal biases, if they're established for a good reason, are actually worthy of keeping to a certain extent.  I want to know that despite a game being the best thing in its genre right now for Xbox, the PC has titles which whoop it out of sight and you can actually update the PC graphics card.  I also want to know that a title may be very good, but that something better is coming next week or is even already out right now.  I want that bigger picture, the personal recommendation if you would.  If there's a good reason you don't own the game as a journalist, do I want to own it either?  It might be a great game, but if you're all playing something else and will never touch it ... why should I?

So far, only the hallowed few have been allowed to get their hands on Mario Kart Wii for the purposes of reporting how it plays and what we can expect. Here's what we know so far:

. Up to 12 players online. Big step forward, especially considering the need Wii gaming has to get better online and open the doors to the more mature gamer. We expect these things.

. Online gaming is improved version of Mario Kart DS - you're thrown straight into racing, no waiting to connect. At least that's what we've been informed, I can't wait to test this.

Well, not quite.  At least - not yet.  What has happened is that four schools in the UK have now decided to embark on a lottery funded project to use the Wii as part of their offerings to students doing PE classes.  The logic?  Simply that certain students who would otherwise completely skip the PE class, are now likely to remain and participate.  Team working skill increases have also been reported, as children play together in a fashion that is far more akin to the way they socialise today.

Heart rate monitors were purchased along with a Wii for each school using the scheme. The children invited to participate were those who had often missed PE lessons, aged 14-16.

As expected, there are already nay-sayers decrying the project as no replacement for real sports.  Of course this is true, but we feel that any step towards breaking a sweat on children who otherwise would not participate at all is a good one - especially if team skill improvements are also noticed.

Well ... are they?  Facts may be facts, but it's also about the context of these pieces of data and the way you choose to spin them, too.  The field of play is often a way that facts can sometimes be distorted, but whichever way you do choose to look at it, Ninty has had a fine 2007 and a strong start to 2008 so far.  What they have to say today follows, in bullet form:

· The DS was the best selling hardware of any kind (home console or handheld) in 2007 and now has a UK installed base of over 5 million units.

· The Wii was the best selling home console of 2007 in the UK and now has an installed base of over 2 million units, surpassing the installed base of Microsoft's Xbox 360 which launched one year earlier (cont...)

This morning, a dutiful friend of mine pointed me towards this piece of ... well. You decide for yourself what description best fits this work of journalism about our gaming culture: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/janice_turner/article3211999.ece

Is your Wii and DS no better than 'crack'?  We think there are titles on every format deserving of study, deserving certainly of ridicule perhaps, but no further.  There are books that lead the mind into all sorts of situations, ever so vividly too.  I recall reading books and being totally sucked into their world as a child.  I came out of it a dreamer, a writer and an editor.  Perhaps modern day children will play deeply entrenching games and come out of them games designers, or writers, play writers, editors, directors ... who knows?

Certainly there is a strong case to be made for limiting a young child's access to media machines such as PCs or consoles, but that's been the same since the dawn of anything interesting or addictive for children (TVs, radios, cricket down the common).  Your Wii should no more be unlimited in your child's bedroom than a TV or DVD player ought to be, but that doesn't make it pure evil.  Children need monitoring in every form of life - that's why we call them kids not adults - they aren't ready to make every desicion for their own health yet.  But attacking video games over and over because we didn't grow up with them (my first machine was actually a BBC Micro B at home) seems to me to be unresearched and ignorant.

Someone pass this lady a DS with a copy of Brain Training!

It's news that won't surprise many Futureologists or long-term members of the gaming community, but electronic/video gaming has never been so popular as it is right now - and it's still growing.  The UK interactive entertainment software market hit a new all time high in 2007, according to ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association).

2007 was the biggest year ever for handheld systems with DS software actually ranked at No1 in terms of units sold and Sony's PSP ranked at No5. The entire hand-held sector broke previous records and claimed nearly a third of the entire software units market, up 45%.

The biggest static console format in terms of value generation was the Xbox 360, followed by the PS2, followed by the Wii and lastly PS3. However, in terms of units sold the order changes to PS2 (but No2 overall behind DS), followed by Xbox 360, Wii and PS3.

Nobody can argue that Nintendo's Wii machine has firmly established itself as the leading console going into 2008.  There were more Wiis under trees this year than any other console, the DS being the only Christmas must-have that seemed to rival the Wii (and I don't think Nintendo will see that as a bad thing).

For a machine released with one game and one controller, in one colour variety ... it has to be said.  Not bad, eh?

I won't bore you with the long, drawn out speech concerning how the Wii has ended up in this strong position, it's been well covered and documented in almost every gaming blog and website under the sun.  Today's news of interest however, is that the GAME group are reporting very strong end of year profits and are attributing this largely to the success of the Wii and DS, with a thought also spared for Halo 3's boost to Xbox 360 sales and Sony's price cut to stabalise the poor PS3.

You've heard it all year but now's the testing time.  Is the Wii going to sell well this Christmas?  Our Canadian friends are finding out the answer harshly at the moment, with a report just released stating that the Nintendo Wii is topping the 'sold out at Christmas' charts already.  If you want a Wii, you'd better get your credit card out and go to a site like Ebay, because the shops are sold out almost where ever you go. CBC.ca had this to say ten minutes ago:

'For the second straight year, electronics stores around Metro Vancouver are out of stock of the innovative game system heading into Christmas, said Rick Lee, assistant manager at EB Games in Burnaby.

"They're just the most popular item in the video-game market this year. They're really hard to come by because any time we get them, they just fly right out the door," Lee told CBC News on Wednesday.

Shoppers like Natalie Boucher and her whole family have scoured the Lower Mainland in a last-minute attempt to get their hands on one.

"We've called as far away as Kamloops and Bellingham in the U.S. to try and find one of these Wii's, but so far no luck," Boucher said.'

Everyone's got an opinion on what you should get this Christmas, haven't you noticed?  It's on every single web portal.  What does that tell you?  Gaming is now BIG business, and we're not even just talking now about entertainment industry niches.  We're talking bigger than Hollywood (DVD and cinema sales, essentially) and we're also talking non gamers.  Families and grannies, aunts and uncles, God parents and 'friends of the family'.  Heck, even your ex might show up over the holidays with a DS Lite in his pocket, and why?

Because now games really are for everyone.  As fangirlish as it may sound, we have Nintendo to thank for that. As annoying as it is that they 'forgot' about HD, large hard drives or DVD playing, the truth is that they have opened gaming up into a global book that everyone can read, without feeling 'geeky' or 'childish'.  The niche carved out by the Gameboy has erupted in the form of the popular DS/DS Lite, splattering one in four Japanese so far with its charm.  Owning a DS is like owning a book - nobody is going to diss you for learning how to spell, speak or do maths, are they? Nobody is going to accuse you of being a geek for breaking out into a bit of Trauma Center or Phoenix Wright on a train, because what else is there to do?  Gaming finally makes sense to the non gamer, and soon the very term 'non gamer' may become a thing of the distant past.