Hasta La Gadget!

Hard to believe, but if Super Mario Bros. was a person, it would be able to legally rent a car. Now, as anyone who has ever played the various iterations of Super Mario Kart can tell you, such a scenario would be an insurance nightmare of the first degree, but the point is, it’s a pretty important milestone for the portly little plumber who has brought the video gaming public so much joy over the years.

Nintendo is celebrating the event with a terrific 25 Years of Super Mario Bros. site and a red limit-edition Wii, set to be released in the States next month. We thought we’d pay tribute in our own way, by taking a look at how Mario Mario has evolved over the quarter-century.

This isn’t a complete catalog of every appearance–he’s appeared in more than 200 games overall–it’s more of a highlight reel. You can pick the soundtrack. Might we suggest this?

Nintendo will be releasing its Wii Remote Plus controller stateside on November 7, either on its own for $39, or as part of a Red Super Mario Bros-themed console bundle for $199.

Nintendo’s once-red-hot Wii has had trouble keeping up its sales performance. While new controllers including Playstation’s Move and Xbox Kinect are matching much of its motion-capture novelty using different technologies, Remote Plus, price-cutting and Mario nostalgia are Nintendo’s best offers to gamers old and new this holiday season.

Wii Remote Plus combines the original Wii remote and the add-on MotionPlus accessory into a single unit. The MotionPlus gyroscope was released last year with Wii Sports Resort; it adds ability to capture more complex movements and has quickly become necessary for full functionality on most new games. Unfortunately, the extra piece is a touch awkward and managing it can be a pain — especially if, like me, you bought a rechargeable battery accessory that can’t be used with it attached.

The Remote Plus is packed with the Red Wii Bundle, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Nintendo classic Super Mario Bros. It also includes a red Wii Console and Nunchuck controller, Sports Resort and the multiplayer 2-D platformer New Super Mario Brothers Wii, not to be confused with the 3-D Super Mario Galaxy series. It’s a price match with current Wii bundles that don’t include the Mario game and offer the WiiMote and MotionPlus control as separate pieces.

Nintendo’s also offering a red anniversary bundle of its DSi XL handheld with the Mario Kart DS racing game for $179.99.

Nintendo Announces Red-Hot Bundles, New Wii Remote Plus Controller [Nintendo Press Release]

See Also:

• Nintendo Wii Gains Netflix Streaming
• Home-Made Ghostbusters Proton Pack for Nintendo Wii
• Nintendo's No-Transfer Policy Could Burn Wii's Biggest Fans …
• Dragon Training Demystified on the Nintendo Wii
• New 'Nintendo DSi' Can Download Games, Take Pics, Play Music …
• Nintendo Entering E-Books Market With DSi XL
• From E3: Microsoft Gives us a Reason to Kinect
• Microsoft Prices Kinect at $150, or $300 With New 4-GB Xbox 360 …
• Why PlayStation Move Could Give '3-D Games' a Whole New Meaning …
• PlayStation 'Move' Controller is Like a Smartphone Inside

Is 3D gaming on the verge of completely revolutionizing your world? If you’re a hardcore PlayStation fan, you might believe the answer to that question is “yes.” However, given the recent DisplaySearch findings on 3DTV adoption, we’re thinking more of you fall in with the leanings of Microsoft’s Phil Spencer, who is making it clear that he isn’t pushing the technology at this point:

For better or for worse, people just don’t really have TVs in their house right now that are going to do 3D in a way that’s going to work… As a corporate mandate, I don’t need to sell you a new TV, that’s not part of my business model. Other companies maybe have that part of their business model. I don’t.

“Other companies,” eh? Yeah, we think you can figure out who he’s talking about there. Phil isn’t just dishing up the Haterade, though, throwing props to Nintendo: “I like the 3DS, you don’t have to wear the glasses.”

Microsoft’s Phil Spencer rains on Sony’s 3D parade, thinks 3DS has potential originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo fans can all breathe a collective sigh of relief this week. Thanks to a new app, Wii owners will never have to deal with another disc for all of their Netflix streaming needs. The plucky little console is getting a new Netflix channel, which lets Wii owners streaming Watch Instantly videos directly to their TV sets through the console.

The announcement comes shortly after the introduction of a similar application for Sony’s PlayStation 3. An update to the Xbox 360 Netflix app is set to arrive later this fall. No word yet on when I’ll be able to watch movies on my Super Nintendo–I’ve been waiting for a special occasion to break out my special edition of The Wizard.

The Wii version, in the meantime, is free for Netflix subscribers.

It’s not just the PS3 that will be doing its Netflix streaming disc-free from today: the Wii is joining in the fun as well! Americans and Canadians alike will be able to download and install Netflix from the Wii Shop Channel, provided they’ve signed up for a subscription of $8.99 (C$7.99 in Canada) or above. Notably, over three million Wii consoles are said to have been hooked up with Netflix since the service launched back in April, and this step should make that number grow even larger. Only question is what we’re all going to do with those three million redundant discs now. We can’t turn them all into coasters, any ideas?

Continue reading Netflix on Wii drops the clunky disc requirement, starts streaming through Wii Menu

Netflix on Wii drops the clunky disc requirement, starts streaming through Wii Menu originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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