Mario Kart Wii Message Board

The Wii Mini is coming to the U.S. this holiday season, Nintendo announced today. The redesigned system will be bundled with Mario Kart Wii for $100, and is expected to arrive by mid-November.

Nintendo announced the Wii Mini in November 2012 before launching it as a Canada-exclusive that December. The micro-console doesn't include Internet connectivity, limiting players to single and local multiplayer games. Nintendo sold 35,700 units in Canada across its first two months on store shelves before bringing the system to the UK in March. Though the Wii has been discontinued in Japan, Nintendo announced in October that the traditional Wi-Fi-enabled Wii system will remain on store shelves in America.

#sony Above is the real deal. That's faux Sony exec and PlayStation spokesman Kevin Butler. Actor Jerry Lambert portrays the character in the long running series of PlayStation commercials. Rather portrayed as Sony is suing him over a commercial that featured the Wii. More »

#legal Sony is suing Jerry Lambert, the actor who plays Kevin Butler for "creating confusion" and "causing damage" to its company. Kevin Butler is a fictional PlayStation exec who appears in a series of popular commercials. Last month, however, Lambert appeared in a Bridgestone tire commercial that featured the Nintendo Wii. More »

Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS marks the (you guessed it) seventh entry in the Mario Kart series, which has been providing gamers with kart-racing goodness for nearly two decades now. In celebration, IGN Nintendo has decided to hand out seven awards in honor of the plumber's latest racer (check out our review of Mario Kart 7 if you haven't already). We're honoring the best items, tracks, multiplayer, single-player and more, as well as the very best in show...

"Racing fans start your engines, because Nintendo is releasing the ultimate Mario Kart Wii bundle this year," Nintendo's press release reads. Of course this bundle - featuring a black Wii, black Wii Wheel, and a copy of Mario Kart Wii - looks an awful lot like the existing Mario Kart Wii bundle. So what makes this bundle "the ultimate" one? Simple. It's got the "newly-configured" Wii console, of course!

"This new Wii bundle not only offers great value to fans, but introduces a Wii console with a slightly altered configuration, which now stands horizontally, rather than vertically." For those of you just joining us, this new configuration doesn't just limit your console feng shui options; the new console is no longer compatible with GameCube games or accessories. This announcement is UK only for now, but just like the New Super Mario Bros. Wii bundle that introduced the new configuration last month, it looks like Nintendo is systematically gutting GameCube support from its Wii lineup.

Alongside this morning's shocking announcement that Nintendo would drop the price of its 3DS handheld system a massive $80 just six months after its release, Nintendo also released its fiscal first quarter earnings, and the news is more than a little grim.

Low 3DS sales have put Nintendo in the red for the quarter.

Overall sales were down 50% from the same period in 2010, with a total earning of ¥93 billion ($1.2B). That led to an overall operating loss of ¥38 billion ($489M) for the company. In addition, Nintendo revised its overall profit projection for fiscal 2012 by a hefty margin, projecting a profit of ¥20 billion ($257M). That marks an 82% drop from the ¥110 billion ($1.41B) it had previously projected.

Nintendo has cited a number of factors in explaining the income drop, including stronger-than-expected yen appreciation and its upcoming sales outlook for the holiday season. Above all else though, it appears the far slower-than-expected sales of the 3DS were heavily to blame. The system has only sold 710,000 units thus far, and only 4.53 million pieces of 3DS software have sold at retail.

To compare, other DS systems sold a collective 1.44 million units during the same period, while the Wii, which recently saw its own price drop and bundle adjustment (to include Mario Kart Wii) sold 1.56 million units.

#goingnowhere Nearly two years ago Bigben Interactive teased us with the Cyberbike, a full-sized stationary bicycle that acts as a game controller for your Nintendo Wii. Now that the Wii has dropped in price to $150 and a new console is on the way, the Cyberbike finally hits North America for $199.99. More »

Nintendo's new Mario Kart Wii pack is coming to Europe on May 20, at a "reduced trade price" around £129/€150.

The budget "Nintendo Selects" line will launch in Europe the same day, featuring a slightly different lineup from the American version: Wii Sports, Animal Crossing: City Folk (under the overlong European title Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City), Mario Strikers Charged, and WarioWare Smooth Moves. Mario Super Sluggers isn't part of the series because it was never released in Europe!

UPDATE Part Deux: We can officially nix the "rumor" part of this article. Nintendo has announced that as of May 15th, the Wii system bundle will drop to $149.99 at all major retailers. Additionally, Wii Sports is officially out of the bundle, replaced by Mario Kart Wii and the Wii Steering Wheel. An elaborate mock-up of what the package may look like in real life can be seen directly to the right of this paragraph that you are reading.

Additionally, Nintendo confirmed the legitimacy of the Wii Select line of newly budget-priced titles. The lineup officially includes Animal Crossing: City Folk, Mario Super Sluggers, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Wii Sports. Evidently, we'll have to wait a little longer for Super Smash Bros. Brawl to drop in price.

UPDATE: One, Nintendo has since told us they won't comment. No real surprise there.

Two, Nintendo World Report apparently has box art for these "Wii Select" games. They look legit!

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With the exception of the original PlayStation, I've been a fairly notorious early adopter of new console technologies. I'm guessing if you're reading a website like Giant Bomb, one so thoroughly dedicated to the gaming enthusiasts of the world, you probably don't spend a lot of time waiting around to buy your console of choice, either. That said, there are many people who wait years after a system's release to get on board. One need only look at the absurd number of PlayStation 2 systems that sold well after the PlayStation 3's debut for prime evidence.

 Wii Sports: Now in purchasable box! Of course, one thing that always helps grease the late adopter's wheels a bit is a price drop, and ever since Nintendo's new console announcement came rumbling into legitimacy, people have been bandying about various rumors of a new $149 price for the now suddenly old-feeling system.

Kotaku took the story a step further last night, citing retail sources that proclaimed that, along with the system's slashed price, a new line of "Wii Select" titles would also be dropped to a price point of $19.99. Along the lines of Sony's "Greatest Hits" and Microsoft's "Platinum Hits" collections--not to mention Nintendo's old "Player's Choice" line--the Select line would be made up of particularly noteworthy titles from the console's lifespan. Kotaku states the new line will debut in May, with the initial title run consisting of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Super Sluggers, and Wii Sports.

Hold on, let me record scratch this story to a halt for a moment. Wii Sports? You mean the game that's been packed in with Wii consoles since jump street? Yes, apparently Nintendo plans to take that seminal sports waggler and put it on store shelves all by its lonesome. Replacing Wii Sports in the console package would be Mario Kart Wii. While that might seem odd, think of it this way: If you're a consumer and you want a Wii now, in 2011, what are you more likely to pick up alongside your console for an extra 20 bucks? Mario Kart? Or that Wii Sports game every other Wii owner on the planet currently owns? Right.

For its part, Nintendo isn't currently talking on the subject, possibly in the hopes of keeping some minuscule modicum of info from their upcoming E3 2011 press conference something even vaguely resembling a secret. We've contacted them for more details and will update if we hear anything. At the rate things are popping out ahead of the show, they may have to resort to putting Miyamoto in a Link costume and forcing him to perform a Zelda-themed musical number. Maybe something like this, only sexier?

#deals Yesterday, Kotaku reported that Nintendo would launch a newly branded budget line of Wii software in May, re-releases of games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess at just $19.99 USD. Today, we have box art of the new "Nintendo Selects" line. More »

April – 1st Tournament Drive through the gates in GCN Waluigi Stadium! Get the crowd going by pulling off some wild tricks! This tournament ends 4/9 Thanks to QuickFingers for the heads up!

#clips Every time I think I would really enjoy spending some quality time in Japan, I see something like this, and then I just don't know. More »

Some wily vandal in Portland, Oregon has painted Mario Kart symbols into the pavement there on one of the city's bike lanes. You can see them in action in this video (also embedded after the break). Unfortunately, the bananas, star and speed arrows don't actually confer the same powers they do in the game, but we did smirk to see that all of the bikers do faithfully avoid the banana peel, and hit the rest of the symbols head on.

You can even wring some unintentional hilarity from the dry-as-a-Dry Bones explanation of what each powerup does by the KATU anchor. That's right, Carl Click! You might have read that script just fine, but admit it: You don't know a Red Shell from a Blooper.

Mario Kart Wii lets you match up in 12-player races against drivers the world over. Now, you can show off your racing skills in a Nintendo-sponsored worldwide competition! Our newest contest runs from 1 August until 10 August. Now’s the time to get online and show you’re the best! Here are the details for the contest: Race a [...]

When we saw CTA Digital's Inflatable Racing Kart for Wii, we had only one question about the device -- and it's one that, we suspect, many of you also had in mind, if secretly: Is it possible for an adult to sit in it? The promotional video after the break answers that tacit question in the affirmative.

CTA Digital has unveiled one of its largest Wii accessories yet: a $40 inflatable kart with an attached steering wheel controller, into which you can insert the Wiimote to play Mario Kart Wii and other racing games.

Our first impulse is to make fun of this unnecessary accessory (an "unnecessory," if you will), but two things give us pause: CTA is using the item's marketing to publicize Kids are Heroes, an organization that encourages community involvement among kids -- even going so far as to use Ricky Springer, who races real karts to raise money and awareness for Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorder, as a spokesman. Unlike other plastic Wii accessories, there is no doubt in our minds that if our six-year-old selves had seen an inflatable car you could use as a game controller, we would have freaked out.

#piracy Oh yes, this is another post about piracy and video games. These men, photographed this month, are members of the Swedish Embarked Military Force on board the warship HMS Carlskrona. They hunt Somali pirates on the high seas. They also play Mario Kart Wii. Good prep for nabbing pirates? (AP Photo/Tim Freccia) More »

#clips The puck just dropped in Chicago, with the Blackhawks seeking to ice a 4-0 sweep in the NHL's Western Conference finals. Chicago sports a formidable 7-1 playoff road record, partly because they keep it loose with Mario Kart Wii. More »

#cheating The more people play Mario Kart online with their friends, the less often they cheat — at least under their own name. That's the finding of an expert on the psychology of games and the group tracking online Mario Kart. More »

#screengrab Mario's moved to SoCal and upgraded his wheels. BMW with vanity plate spied on the 405 in L.A., as seen on The Tanooki. More »

#idoru In late March, images surfaced of former Mario Kart Wii pitch girl and bikini model Aki Hoshino. She looked dangerously thin. And now, she's back with a book about having the "ideal body". More »