I paid a visit to EB today to see if my pre-order of Phoenix Wright: Justice for All was in. The Manager saw me come in and said “Did you ever get a Wii?” “No.” I replied, thinking she was just making conversation. “Oh, because we just got a bunch in.”
“No shit.” I said, looking over the counter. Sure enough, there were 4 Wii boxes sitting on the floor. I immediately bought one, as well as Warioware: Smooth Moves, Zelda Twilight Princess and Rayman Raving Rabbids. When I got back to work, I told my project lead and he and 2 others went out and bought the remaining 3 systems twenty minutes later. So yeah… these things are still pretty hard to get.

I played around two hours of Warioware this evening. I’ve played every Warioware Nintendo has released, and they’ve all been pretty good, although very short. This looks to be no exception. I’m fairly sure I could have finished the game tonight, but my feet were getting pretty sore from standing infront of the TV for so long, so I turned it off for the night.

Games in the Warioware series are basically a collection of mini-games, tied together loosely by having stages themed by various characters who live in the same city. Dribble and Spitz, a taxi-driving dog & cat team have a stage set up around a taxi-cab, for example. Each mini-game requires you to hold the Wiimote in a different fashion. One game might have you hold the Wiimote like a broom, and then give you a game where you have to sweep a bunch of leaves. Another game might have you hold it like a handlebar, and make you pump up a balloon with a bicycle pump. The best part is the little introduction they give you to explain each new Wiimote grip. An announcer with an extremely mellow voice gives a funny little “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy”-style speech before they throw you into the game. I’ll try to finish it up tomorrow and then start unlocking the mini-games I missed.

I’m also looking forward to downloading some of the Virtual Console games. Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past is coming out this week, and that’s an amazing game. There’s also a few others released in the past that I’d like to get, like Gunstar Heroes and R-Type III.

I also picked up the Silversun Pickups CD “Canvas” based on the strength of the single “Lazy Eye” that The Edge is currently playing to death. I’ve heard SSPU compared to the Smashing Pumpkins, and they kiiiind of do sound like them (mostly stuff from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness) but the vocalist reminds me of Kevin Kane from Ginger/Grapes of Wrath. I guess that’s not a bad thing, but it’s a bit weird to be thinking of a band I haven’t heard of in almost 10 years.

The CD isn’t that great, but it should give me something to listen to until the new Bloc Party CD comes out in a couple of weeks. I heard another track off it today, and it should be a very strong album. “Hunting for Witches” is absolutely fantastic.

Track of the Day: Compliments – Bloc Party

What’s all this? It appears suspicious.

I am right to be suspicious. This appears to be the World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Collector’s Edition. How did it get in my house? Puzzling…

So, I finally got my hands on a Playstation 3. Well, a working PS3. I bought one the Friday before Christmas, but the video DAC was fried, so I had to return it. Best Buy finally got another shipment in, so I went tonight and exchanged my busted one for a nice new one. Everything’s hooked up and working fine. I got to play a little Resistance, which lives up to the excellent standards that Insomniac games has set, and I checked out the BluRay version of Talladega Nights. I have the DVD version as well, so I did some comparisons, and was pretty amazed how much more detail there is in the BluRay.
With the PS3, I have 2/3rds of the Next Generation trifecta. The Nintendo Wii continues to elude me, even as more and more pictures of people gathering in parties having a good time with it surface to taunt me! Now that Christmas is over, it should be a lot easier for people to pick up these systems. The next problem is finding something to play on them. There’s quite a drought until March or so. Although… there is an expansion for this little MMORPG coming out this month – perhaps you’ve heard of it?

Track of the day: Show me what you Got – Jay Z