Hasta La Gadget!

It’s dangerous to eat dinner alone, here, take this Zelda N64 cake and have some dessert. It not only has Link and Zelda, but it also features an edible console with an equally edible cartridge and gamepad.

This wonderfully-detailed cake was created by Tracey at the Black Cherry Cake Company. It is based on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I’m not even sure where I would start with a cake like this. Which part do you eat first? I’d probably start with Zelda, then eat Link, then some rupees. I would save the N64 and the cartridge for last.

Hit the link to check out more pics. Be sure to stop by Black Cherry’s website for another awesome Nintendo cake.

[via That’s Nerdalicious]

This is the end, Big N fans. Nintendo Power‘s final issue is upon us and in a surprise tip of the hat, the magazine’s staff has decided to pay tribute to the famed cover that started it all. Framed in a similar manner to the inaugural issue from 1988, this last dance with all things officially Nintendo apes the Super Mario Bros. 2 clay-styled setup for a cover story on New Super Mario Bros. U. Look for it to hit newsstands one last time on December 11th, bringing the beloved decades-old publication full circle.

Filed under: Gaming, Nintendo

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Via: Joystiq

Source: Tiny Cartridge

Nintendo quietly announced the Wii Mini recently. The console, which will be available in Canada for $100, supports over 1,000 Wii games, but lacks a host of important features, including backward compatibility with GameCube titles and the ability to connect in any way to the Internet.

Of course, Nintendo has said that the Wii Mini is the perfect value. The console is cheaper than the Wii and is smaller. Plus, it’s the perfect entry point for new gamers who don’t care about the old days and simply want to get their motion gaming on.

But perhaps Nintendo’s view on that is short sighted. One of the best aspects of the Wii is that it supports the company’s Virtual Console, a nostalgic repository filled with titles from its many popular devices. Old school gamers can get everything from the first Super Mario to the finest Legend of Zelda games downloaded directly to their consoles. It’s a wonderful thing.

Wii Mini owners, however, won’t have that option. Instead, they’ll be forced to sift through Wii games in the hopes of finding some gems that can match the classics available in the Virtual Console. Admittedly, there are some Wii titles that will appeal greatly to gamers. But before long, it becomes clear that save for first-party games, there isn’t a whole lot to like in the Wii game library.

“Under the guise of the “nice” company, Nintendo looks to drain every last profit from customers”

The more I look at the Wii Mini, the more I see it as a cheap way for Nintendo to generate some extra cash. After all, it’s undoubtedly cheaper to produce and the lack of Internet connectivity forces would-be Wii customers to the more expensive model. Once again, Nintendo has, under the guise of the “nice” game company that hides under Mario’s hat, looked like a big company looking to drain every last profit out of its customers.

Thankfully, the Wii Mini is only coming to one market for now, so Nintendo shouldn’t be viewed as unfavorably as some might think. However, what if the Wii Mini actually sells relatively well in Canada? Don’t expect it to take too long for Nintendo to bring the underpowered and unnecessary console to the U.S. and U.K. After all, if Nintendo thinks it can make some extra cash, why wouldn’t it?

For seasoned gamers, the Wii Mini looks like yet another example of Nintendo failing to understand the changing market dynamics. Gamers want more Internet functionality, not less. And despite the GameCube’s sub-par performance in the console market, backward compatibility still matters.

Nintendo is simply playing by the wrong rules. When gamers ask for more, Nintendo has been giving them less. And when gamers had hoped for better features, Nintendo has almost always told them that it knows better.

With the Wii, Nintendo seemingly knew better, since the console sold extremely well. But the Wii Mini is a different beast altogether. And despite Nintendo’s best attempts at showing why the Wii Mini is really necessary for customers, the company has failed.

Sorry, but the Wii Mini is one big, bad idea.

Nintendo’s Wii Mini Is One Big, Bad Idea is written by Don Reisinger & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nintendo‘s president has apologized for the poor out-of-box experience new Wii U owners experienced, saying that in his opinion a console should deliver the goods without demanding an update first. “Personally I think that users should be able to use all the functions of a console video game machine as soon as they open the box” Satoru Iwata admitted to IGN. “So I feel very sorry for the fact that purchasers of Wii U have to experience a network update which takes such a long time, and that there are the services which were not available at the hardware’s launch.”

The day-one update was a last minute release to bring features such as backward compatibility with Wii titles to the new console, and took upward of an hour to download and install. Even after that, some users discovered that the new firmware had rendered their Wii U unplayable, the the console bricked before they’d even had a chance to play a single game.

It’s not the first apology that Nintendo execs have had to make around the Wii U. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime had to break the news that the new TVii smart TV service wouldn’t, in fact, be available at launch, as well as answer questions around availability.

Iwata has taken a more active roll in the publicity machine around the Wii U, even donning Mario-style white gloves for an official unboxing ahead of the US release. The hype seems to have helped, with Nintendo claiming 400,000 sales in the US in the first week.

[via Engadget]

Nintendo’s president apologizes for Wii U update nightmare is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nintendo’s Wii U has begun showing up for pre-order customers in the UK, a day ahead of the console’s official release on November 30. Retailer Amazon UK notified some buyers of the new motion-gaming system on Wednesday this week that their Wii U had been dispatched for a November 29 delivery, and sure enough the first boxes hit doorsteps from this morning.

The Wii U has already been on sale in the US for some weeks now, with Nintendo struggling to keep either the Basic or Premium bundles in stock. In fact, over 400,000 units have apparently been sold according to first week US figures, with company execs forced to scramble to deliver new stock in order to meet Black Friday demand.

In Europe, the Wii U has been up for preorder since mid-September, but early availability quickly dwindled as customers got in early. That’s despite the console missing some functionality, at least initially, that US and Japanese users will enjoy: the delayed TVii smart TV system won’t hit Europe until sometime in 2013, whereas it’s expected in early December the the US and Japan.

That hasn’t been the only hiccup along the way. A sizable day-one update to deliver features like backward compatibility with Wii titles left early-adopters waiting an hour or more before they could actually play with their new console, and some unlucky owners found the update actually bricked their Wii U altogether.

Wii U hits UK early is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.