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

Riimotes as they're being dubbed, come complete with matching rubber skins that you can remove and swap around (much like the standard Nintendo rubber skins).  They're wireless and near enough exactly like the standard, Nintendo Wiimote.  Buttons are placed identically and the only obvious difference is the battery cover, which is a different shade of colour to the rest of the remote.  Nunchuks are also to become availible in these colours, along with wireless nunchuks (akin to the Nyco wireless offerings) and a retro controller.

We've got pics so far of the Riimote and nunchuk in three colours, but more are promised.  Black and pink are promised to launch on Feb 8th.  We'll test them fully as soon as they arrive and let you know how they work in real time, so watch this space.

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?

. 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.

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.

"I was playing Wii boxing with a friend and noticed how exerting it was," said Justin White, a fourth-year kinesiology student.  "I thought to myself, 'I'm working up a sweat doing this Nintendo thing; I might run with that.' So I put together an outline and the class thought it would be a good project to take on," he said.

White and 27 students tested the impact of playing Wii boxing for 30 minutes against a 30-minute walk in a local park and an equal amount of time doing a boxercise video.  Every student did each activity and their heart rate was measured as well as how hard they thought they had worked out for all three activities. (cont...)

You fly around in 2D space as a small spaceship and other ships come at you.  Shoot them & collect the gems they drop.  That's the simple beauty of Geometry Wars as a concept, like arcade games of old.  Simple and addictive - all about the high score. The ships are all represented as small, geometric shapes such as diamonds, triangles and circles. The music is high energy and repetitive, not that we think you'll notice nor care.  It suits the mood of the game perfectly and should only annoy the most fussy gamer. (cont...)

· 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...)

It's a challenge for sure, but a rewarding one; one that tells you that if you try one more time ... get it just right ... one more time ... push yourself that little bit harder, that elusive gold can be yours. In fact it will be yours.  Just once more.

I feel like I'm 10 and back in the arcades of my youth. Just. One. More. Go!

At least it does if I'm using the Wii Classic Pad option.  With the Wiimote controlling the direction I shoot and the nunchuk where my ship goes, I'm not as sold. But perhaps I just need more time with it. Or I'm just old...

I can only presume those having said such things were at the end of a long day, didn't bother to read the manual and were already on their third Stella of the evening, because in my experience, the control system is fine. The Wiimote on its own is certainly usable, though perhaps not quite as precise as you might like. Add the nunchuk and all is well; NiGHTs being perfectly controllable with the analogue stick, allowing you the freedom to enjoy the world that Segas Sonic team have created for you.

That's not to say getting to grips with how NiGHTs flies is easy; it takes a certain amount of practice to fully master the tricks at your disposal, but rather then being a frustrating attack of control frustration, the finesse is in there for you to find ...

If this anime is your thing, head this way:

http://www.ff12revenantwings.eu.com/

The comment of one gamer we showed the site to was 'Wow ... it really looks a lot like RO (Rangnarok Online).'  Certainly, the style of animation bares some resemblence to the online behemoth of the MMO world, RO.  We also note the chosen spelling of 'magick'.

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!

The first observation worth talking about is the arcade nature of the title, which may be alien to some not raised in the arcade environment, pushing 10p coins into slots.  In short, the game is exactly that - short.  Don't expect a lot of levels that takes you days to complete, the entire game playing field is only three levels long.  Sounds terrible, doesn't it?  But ask any arcade gamer and they'll quickly tell you that in arcade titles, the learning curve within the levels is very stern; there's plenty of variety in tasks to do and different ways that you can go ...