Tendo Luv - The Nintendo rap song

There is no way to explain this other than it’s a rap song dedicated to Nintendo.

So.. without further ado, we present to you: “Tendo Luv” by Ffejory Plexco feat. Kip Beats

You gotta love You Tube!

(Thanks for the tip, Rob)

Best Buy is confused about wireless devices

The Microsoft Wireless Headset for Xbox 360 is due to hit store shelves next week. However, Best Buy seems to be very confused about the “wireless” part of this device.

Here is their product specs description:

Digital quality and performance with no wires to hold you back
Removable ear grip provides a comfortable fit in your ear
30′ cord lets you move around freely
Eight hours of battery life allow for long periods of wireless gaming
On, off and mute controls are easily accessible

Screen capture:

Review: Mortal Kombat: Armageddon - Xbox

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Developer: Midway
ESRB: M (Mature) | Game Type: Fighting
iBT Score: 85%

Mortal Kombat Armageddon is the latest offering from the MK series! This will be the last installment on the Xbox platform, and its going out with a bang. This time all fighters will come together to make the biggest MK fight of all.. Armageddon!!

MK:A comes packed with new levels including new 3d renditions of older 2d levels from past MKs. There is an all new Konquest mode, and the all new Motor Kombat, both of which are an incredibly amusing sidetrack from the action. The Krypt also makes a return and has also been reworked offering a ton of new media stuff. There are two never before seen features in any MK game, they are: Kreate a Kharachter(KaK) and Kreate a Fighter(KaF).

The Story
The fury of Mortal Kombat has brought the realms to the brink of total destruction. Every warrior has been summoned to this last epic battle, where survival depends on their ability to… FIGHT!

I’m calling shortest story EVAR!!!!!! ;)

The Controls
MK:A follows in the footsteps of the last few iterations of the series with its control scheme, so you should have no problem at all picking it up. There is no response issues apparent anywhere. Just classic MK.

Graphics & Sound
Mortal Kombat just looks great! Its been polished to the point where you wouldn’t expect anything more from the Xbox. Everything from the weapons, clothing, arenas and even the blood look very clean and crisp. Particle effects add a nice touch to everything. The sound is clean as usual, but is not any major advancement. Although there are many new sound bits in there. The menu screens get an “A” in my book as well.

Lasting Appeal
This Game is buckets of fun! I felt that the last few MK’s were great but a bit overwhelming in all the fighting styles. in MKA you have kept the best of the 2d and 3d games. Two fighting styles per character along with a weapon for each. Air Kombat has been added, reminiscent of MK2+3, and just looks superb and is as equally fun to watch somebody get whipped into the air then bounced off the ground into an air combo. In KaK and KaF you get to design your own charachter and your own fatalities down to the T. These two features alone will keep you occupied for hours on end just trying to recreate your favorite actor, superhero etc.. And finally with 60+ characters to choose from you wont run out of new kombatants to learn!

Motor Kombat is a fun mini-kart racing game that heavily reminds me of the Mario Kart franchise. It’s a rough game in many aspects but is fun and challenging.

In Closing
Mortal Kombat Armageddon brings it. It just brings it, and we at iBloggedThis are very satisfied with how it’s played. Not only that, but the game actually costs $39.99 which makes that THAT much more appealing. However, we do have a few minor downsides. 1) we do sorta miss the old fatalities, maybe they are in there somewhere, but the new KAF system is HOT. 2) I personally miss puzzle fighter, so i’ll have to keep deception laying around! But those aside its a well rounded game that has brought back the feeling that i had while playing MK3 in the arcade.
For $39.99 this game is a must to add to the collection

iBT scores this game 85%

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is available for purchase now.

Amazon screws up for the second time with Wii pre-orders

For the second time in just a few weeks Amazon has put up the Nintendo Wii for pre-order without emailing it’s customers which signed up to be notified first. The first incident which took place on September 15th caused quite a stir on the Amazon community. People who had signed up for the notification where never notified. Instead, the Wii pre-order just showed up on the page and whoever was lucky enough to be reading message boards at that time was able to grab one.

After taking a considerable amount of heat, Amazon went into damage control mode and posted the following statement on their gaming blog:

For a brief period on Friday, we did offer pre-orders for the Wii, however, the rate at which pre-orders came in dramatically outpaced what we had anticipated, so we suspended pre-orders until we are able to get a firmer commitment from Nintendo regarding how many units we’ll have for sale.

Because the pre-order window was so brief, the e-mail many of you signed up for notifying you that pre-orders were available was never triggered to send out. We apologize and have fixed the system to ensure pre-order e-mail notifications are sent in advance.

So everyone who signed up waited for the email to arrive.

Breaking the promise of notifying customers once again, early this morning the Nintendo Wii appeared back on Amazon’s site available for pre-order. Once again, no one got email notified that had been on the list, and once more all the pre-orders were snagged up by people who were lucky enough to find out through message boards and blogs.

The Amazon community is in an uproar with angry messages and posts flying back and forth. For the second time Amazon has managed to anger, disappoint and let down everyone who signed up for to be notified.

What can you do about it? Absolutely nothing. You can try to email them, but more than likely you will just receive a cookie-cutter response back just like this one:

Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com.

In addition to our large selection, one of the benefits we try very
hard to offer our customers is convenience, and we have not met that
standard in this case. Please accept my sincere apologies.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience caused. We hope to see
you soon at Amazon.com.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:

Now, I do realize that this might not be a big deal to some, but I am sure that there are people out there which have not yet gotten their pre-orders in. Maybe they were depending on Amazon to come through with their promise and email them, so at least they would have a chance to place a pre-order.

Is Amazon too big to care if a few thousand people are pissed? Maybe. Regardless, this is awfully poor customer service.

Product Review: Sumo Lounge Omni

Sitting on the couch gaming is not always the most comfortable thing. When gaming, I always feel the need to move around and adjust the seat, which is not something you can really do very easily with a couch. I looked into getting a “gaming chair” in the past, but have always found them to be ridiculously expensive.

Recently, I was lucky enough to get a Sumo Lounge Omni. The Omni is probably different than most chairs that you have sat in. It is basically a huge beanbag or “over sized pillow” that you can easily adjust so you can sit or lay into in pretty much any position which you can imagine.

The Omni is by a company called Sumo Lounge and it’s made from space age rip-proof nylon and is filled with top quality Sumo Beads. The chair weighs in at about 18lbs and it’s 4.5′ x 5.5′. The fact that it’s so lightweight makes it easy to move and adjust.

Setting up the Omni chair in the place and position you want takes mere seconds. Once you sit in it for the first time you will realize why it’s so good. The chair will basically mend around your body, providing your with a very comfortable sitting experience while still being stiff enough so that you don’t feel like you will fall over if you lean on it. Unlike other beanbag chairs, once you get into the Omni it will provide you with good neck, back and arm support.

The Omni can be used for any situation which requires comfortable sitting. If you are going to be playing video games you will probably want to sit upright on it. So just set it up in an upright position which seems comfortable to you, and just lounge yourself in it. If you want to watch a movie this chair will prove to be perfect for your movie experience as well. Lay it flat like a bed and just lay down on it, or just position it so you can just lounge back on it. Either way, it’s going to be comfortable.

Once again the material which the chair is made from is rip-proof and will not damage if liquids are spilled on it.

Verdict:
This is the perfect chair for anyone who wants to be more comfortable while gaming, watching movies or just lounging and hanging out. You can easily move it and adjust it. Just make sure that you have enough room for it. It’s large and comfortable.

The Sumo Lounge Omni is available in 8 colors and it’s for sale now at SumoLounge.com starting at $129.00

MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1 - Random Shutdowns

Apple has released a new SMC firmware update for all MacBooks. This update improves the MacBook’s internal monitoring system and addresses issues with unexpected shutdowns. It’s recommended that all MacBook owners download and install the update, including those that received warranty repair for the random shutdowns.

More details about the update about Apple’s site.

Gears of War has gone gold!

Gears of War as officially gone gold! The game ships of November 7th. Although the official release date is November 12th, you will be able to get your hands on it starting November 8th through smaller retailers. Best Buy & Wal-Mart get it on the 12th.

Here is the brand new content which was released on Xbox Live Market Place. Does not show any game play, but it gets the job done.

Nintendo’s/Sony’s/Capcom’s Oopsy! - Lesson learned: Double check case covers

Here is an important lesson: Check and double check for typos, grammar and that you have the correct domain name on the back of the game’s box cover, before printing it and sending out to retailers.

The back cover of the Nintendo GameCube and Sony PS2 “Killer 7″ game is suppose to point gamers to the game’s website Killer-7.com. However, somehow, someone, seems to have missed the hyphen in the name. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the domain which it now points to is not exactly a family friendly site. (Check at your own risk - NSFW)

Here is the bottom of the Game Cube version of the box cover:

source

[Update]We have verified that the PS2 version of the game points to the same website.

Nintendo DS leads video game industry growth - Nintendo Press Release

Nintendo’s Latest Press Release:

NINTENDO DS LEADS VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY GROWTH
Touch Generations Titles are Expanding Audience to Female and Older Players

REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 13, 2006 – As both an entertainment and a business, Nintendo DS™ today is the powerhouse of the U.S. video game industry, driving nearly all industry revenue growth so far this year. Without this portable system, the video game industry growth overall would be nearly flat when compared with 2005, according to independent sales figures from the NPD Group of Port Washington, N.Y.

Through September’s end, the U.S. industry overall shows revenue growth of 11 percent when compared with the same period in 2005. Nearly all of the growth comes from the portable DS – without it, the industry would report a mere 1.6 percent growth over the past nine months. DS hardware and software units posted a robust gain of 203 percent when compared to the same period in 2005. The news is the same globally: Nintendo recently announced estimated full-year shipments for DS hardware will grow to 20 million units from 17 million units worldwide, while estimated DS software shipments increased to 82 million units from 75 million.

“Numbers dramatically show the value of reaching out to the masses with products that are compelling and comfortable,” says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “And this perfectly sets the stage for our breakthrough Wii console, which appeals to both core players and current non-players with an intuitive control system and a price everyone can afford.”

The NPD numbers also indicate that during September, Nintendo DS lifetime U.S. sales surpassed more than 6.2 million units. That total includes more than 1.4 million units of the new Nintendo DS Lite systems, which launched just 16 weeks ago on June 11. It’s important to note these numbers represent Nintendo DS systems actually purchased by customers, not ones shipped only to stores.

“During a home console generation upgrade, consumer interest in existing consoles tends to drop as anticipation for new consoles increases. Hand-held game hardware and software revenues have kept the industry afloat,” says Billy Pidgeon, Program Manager, Consumer Markets: Gaming at IDC. “Hand-held gaming has spurred real industry growth, and Nintendo’s longstanding leadership in this space continues to drive this market.”

This summer, Nintendo launched its Touch Generations brand to help newcomers to video games identify which nontraditional and pick-up-and-play titles are appropriate for them. The response from consumers has been enthusiastic, as four of the top 10 best-selling Nintendo DS games are Touch Generations titles. Touch Generations games include Brain Age™: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day and the three versions of Nintendogs™. And at the same time, avid players also are fueling growth: the New Super Mario Bros.® title, exclusively for Nintendo DS, is the third best-seller among all video games this year, including console games.

Nintendo’s internal statistics show the Touch Generations brand continues to reach more women and older gamers. Nintendo statistics show a significant percentage of all Touch Generations software buyers are female and are age 25 or older, demonstrating the broad appeal of Nintendo titles like Brain Age and Big Brain Academy™, which provide engaging and entertaining content for baby boomers and seniors alike.

For more information about Nintendo DS, visit www.nintendods.com. For more information about Nintendo’s Touch Generations brand, visit www.touchgenerations.com.

The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems, and upcoming Wii™ console. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.2 billion video games and more than 375 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere.

For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.

Source: Nintendo

As this sales chart shows, Nintendo continues to dominate..

1. Nintendo DS Lite - 403.435 - (6.246.000)
2. PlayStation 2 - 306.517 - (34.612.000)
3. Xbox 360 - 259.458 - (2.672.000)
4. Game Boy Advance - 177.145 - (31.876.000)
5. PlayStation Portable - 153.353 - (5.175.000)
6. GameCube - 42.286 - (11.165.000)
7. Xbox - 6.495 - (14.302.000)

Nintendo Wii Pre-Orders selling out at GameStop & EB Games

Some people started lining up as early as 9PM last night. Accord to reports, the Nintendo Wii per-order turnout has been bigger than that of the Sony PS3. People are reporting crowds of as many as 40-50 people lining up and waiting for GameStop and EB Games to open their doors and announce how many systems they have available for pre-order. Some stores had as little as 8, while others up to 36.

Read more on NeoGAF