As Destructoid lurks closer to celebrating its *TWO YEAR* anniversary (this March) I’d like to introduce a new column called Destructoid Rewind: A retrospective of the top stories from this week in 2007. I find it fascinating to look at the things our community cared about last year, as newcomers to Destructoid might care to take a peek at our thoughtful and sometimes raunchy editorial skeleton closet. In January 2006 there was no Destructoid — I was too busy watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force or something.

Nerdcore aside (Will CTZ ever live that down?) our flashback top 10 features a frightening homage to Zelda on the CD-i and Sympathy for the Warcraft Addict starring Tyra Banks as the witless village wench — an interesting inclusing in light of the recent Fox witch hunt against Mass Effect. I’m curious what buzz game can be blamed for the evils of the world.

Original post by mrdestructoid@gmail.com (Destructoid.com)

Besides the fact that we know a portable version of Guitar Hero will be making its way to the Nintendo DS, we really know little else. Red Octane’s Charles Huang had insinuated that the game might take advantage of a peripheral, but clearly that’s not necessary for a portable Guitar Hero experience.

Some new information has come to light, and unfortunately, it may just be the game’s name. Trademork.com has uncovered a Activision’s trademark filing for “Guitar Hero On Tour,” which really could be anything. But given this French Web site’s listing of Guitar Hero: On Tour for release on the Nintendo DS later this year (via GoNintendo), we’re just putting two and two together.

Games like Elite Beat Agents and even Daigasso! Band Brothers have proven that decent (if not great) rhythm games could be successful on the DS.

Original post by mrdestructoid@gmail.com (Destructoid.com)

If it was ‘82, your girlfriend would do these guys with extreme prejudice.

Guitar Hero III owners can nowdownload three classic rock songs from some legendary bands. Foreigner’s “Jukebox Hero”, Boston’s “Peace of Mind”, and Journey’s “Any Way You Want It” join the stable of songs available for the game.

Now that Guitar Hero III has Journey, let’s get some Journey action on Rock Band, pretty please? Some of us want to sing along with golden tones of Steve Perry blasting from our speakers. I would cry sweet vodka tears if only “Don’t Stop Believing” was available for purchase.

And what’s with the real deal Foreigner song “Jukebox Hero” when Rock Band only gets a cover of the ultra classic tune? Wait… what in the bloody hell am I talking about? Who cares about Foreigner?

Original post by Paul

Not yet, at least. We hear so much about how the Nintendo Wii’s wand wiggling could benefit a player’s physical fitness, but a new study says that it may not benefit us as much as we originally thought.
Dalhousie University student Justin White decided to test the Wii’s fitness ability against other activities, and he found that it might not be the best choice for cardiovascular exercise.

Thirty minutes of Wii Sports‘ boxing was compared to 30 minutes of walking and a 30-minute session of a boxercise video. Several students were tested, and heart rates were monitored.
While Wii boxing did more for the cardiovascular system than walking, it couldn’t match the boxercise session. They advise looking past the Wii for a good workout, though they did say that the Wii could be a good starting point for those looking to lose weight.

Original post by mrdestructoid@gmail.com (Destructoid.com)

There are a lot of games to play on the Wii. The “N” Project (thenproject.com) suggest a list of ten games we believe merit a closer look.

1) Super Mario Galaxy

2) Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

3) Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

4) Geometry Wars Galaxies

5) Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

6) Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barboros’ Treasure

7) Manhunt 2

Trama Center: New Blood

9) Raymond Raving Rabbids 2

10) Boogie

Baroque may be the first Wii game that sparks my interest deeply enough to power on my Wii and play for more than twenty minutes at a time, and for the console that rules the fine art of casual gaming, that’s saying something. The game’s art design alone has been enough to make any mention of it rise above the pack, and an art book is something which I would quite willingly fork over my yen for.

The book goes on sale in Japan on March 13th and weighs in at 40 pages, although no price has been confirmed yet. Play-Asia should have it for sale as soon as it pops up, so keep an eye there if you crave a new tome for the art & anime shelf. As an aside, the translated Famitsu page about the book is titled “The world of time before the large heat wave.

Original post by mrdestructoid@gmail.com (Destructoid.com)

The Wii is a marvelous device. Even though it’s constantly under fire by many in the gaming community that consider themselves “too hardcore” to bother themselves with “underpowered hardware,” it doesn’t seem to matter. Even I’ve been surprised by it all. I always expected the Wii to take a second-place spot behind the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 — on paper, it just seems so underwhelming. Is Nintendo the least bit fazed by this? Not at all.

Nintendo continues to laugh all the way to the bank as Wii shortages continued through yet a second Christmas season, and there’s still proof that people just can’t seem to get enough of what critics compare to discount-bin hardware with yesterday’s technology. Still, it marches on, oblivious to the criticism… and why wouldn’t it?

The control scheme may be starkly different, but the Wii isn’t exactly forging new territory on the hardware front.

Original post by mrdestructoid@gmail.com (Destructoid.com)

In a sense, I guess everyone does win in December. But the releases sent to us by Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft on December’s NPD data all seem to point to their victories over something, and mostly over each other.
Nintendo proudly proclaims that their Wii and DS ended up being the No. 2 and No. 1 best selling systems in the US for 2007. The DS won, moving 8.5 million units last year; almost half of those were sold in November and December. The Wii sold 6.3 million in 2007, and even with shortages, they still moved 2.3 million in the holiday season. Super Mario Galaxy managed to sell about the same amount (2.5 million) in the same time frame!
Microsoft shamelessly announces that they lead the industry in their release. They actually do when it comes to dollars spent in 2007, with $4.8 billion spent on Xbox 360 this year.

Original post by mrdestructoid@gmail.com (Destructoid.com)

As you all know by now, Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been delayed yet again by about a month in Japan and the USA. As far as the European release goes, we’ve never been given a street date but it seemed quite likely we wouldn’t be seeing hide nor hair of the bloody thing until Summer. Now that there are delays in the countries that Nintendo cares about, we in Europe wonder if we will be affected at all.

Well, Nintendo UK won’t tell us. In fact, when asked about how the recent delays will affect a European release, Nintendo UK would only say that “no European date has ever been announced for Smash Bros.” Well gee, thanks for that, makes us feel special.
Nintendo’s persisting treatment of Europe as if it were a second class citizen has almost become a self-parody.

Original post by mrdestructoid@gmail.com (Destructoid.com)

Category: Wii Xbox 360 Playstation 3 | Leave a Comment
Everyone remember about a month ago when Nintendo announced their “Everyone’s Nintendo Channel”? It featured videos, interviews, and — seemingly most importantly — DS demos for wireless download. Yeah? Fantastic. Most people, on hearing about “Everyone’s Nintendo Channel” remarked that it was a fairly neat idea, and that it had potential, that being of full DS title downloads.

Those keen eyed oracles of inevitable development are soon to be rewarded with a round of watercooler gloatery, thanks to Reggie Fils-Aime. The New York Times reports the Nintendo exec of stating full DS title download via the Wii is soon to come and further makes mention of a “new DS device” saying specifically, “Mr. Fils-Amie said that future DS device will be more tightly integrated with its Wii console. Complete games as well as game samplers will be able to be downloaded into the Wii using its broadband connection, and then transferred.

Original post by mrdestructoid@gmail.com (Destructoid.com)