58 posts from June 2008

I was going to write more about my experiences with Wii Fit than I have done.  I was going to use Wii Fit everyday.  Oh well... I was also meant to give it back after a week, er...

Anyway, a fellow VOX blogger by the name of Lilapumpa asked me about Nintendo's fan-tabulous fitness fing thing so I thought - hey, why don't I get my arse in gear (along with my legs and arms) and get on that board with my N95!

Here's a video I uploaded earlier... BTW - there's a bunch more of them but I'm out and about and using 3's Mobile Broadband... It's great and everything but I know better than to upload relatively huge files on that!

My nephew roped in his sister earlier in his quest for Super Smash Bros Brawl.  My niece rings me up to find out the latest on "the situation".  Apparently he was too busy to enquire himself - but he rang later for another update!  This kid REALLY wants Super smash Bros, it's unreal!

Well I got him up to speed and he wanted to know how long GAME are going to take.  Who knows?  Probably two or three days, depends - I tells him.  By the end of the week?  Yeah, by the end of the week.

To be honest I've no idea, they haven't sent a dispatch email, only an email acknowledgeing my order.  On their site they say (IIRC) 2 days by Royal Mail post.  Royal Mail can be a law unto themselves but they get there in the end (usually).  Who knows?

And because I have no idea I've not cancelled my order with Choices.  Don't know what I'm going to do with two copies as I fell out of love with the Super Smash Bros a long, long time ago (quite possibly around the time my nephews could beat me at it)!

Oh, and he was in town earlier and saw Gamestation (now owned by GAME) selling it for £37.  Eeek!  Had Toys R Us actually made a big deal out of their £29-something offer (ie actually advertised it) they'd have been out of stock today!  And I'd have had a very happy nephew and he'd have had a less stressed uncle..

Just called my local store - they have Super Smash Bros Brawl in stock.  Yey!  They're now charging about £6 ($12) more for it.  Boo!   Apparently the price they were selling it at was a promotion that's (obviously) just ended.  Asked the nice lady if there was anything she could do but she said no.  Ahhh man!

Even though it's my nephew that's paying for the game and he really, really wants it, I'm not picking it up for him at that price.  An extra £6 is a huge amount of money for a 12-year-old.

Oh well, GAME have it in stock, have free delivery and there's a £5 off voucher code doing the rounds online. So £29.99 delivered and hopefully available by Wednesday.  He's gonna kill me as he can't wait another two days but hopefully he'll learn that it's money well spent, er, saved.

Damn it would've been nice if we'd known about Toys R Us's limited time offer at the right time.  And damn it would've been nice if they could've made an exception - a sell is a sell, what difference does it matter if it were today instead of yesterday?

Now to cancel the order with those muppets at Choices...

One much-in-demand Nintendo game that I did have luck in getting (and getting quick) was Mario Kart Wii.  Been after it for a while but everywhere's been out of stock or the price has been inflated.  Well I managed to get hold of a (fairly) reasonable price from GAME (with a lil' thanks to a discount code).  It took a few days to arrive but that's better than a few seasons (read my last post!)

I've got my Wii hooked up to my new HDTV (I use the term "new" loosely - it's either graded or a refurb but who cares, it looks good... well, when displaying a decent source!)

Now, of course any techie/game enthusiast will tell you that a Wii isn't really HD and graphics-wise it's not much more than a slightly souped up Gamecube.  They're right of course - but even at 480p (aka EDTV) via component cable Mario Kart looks stunning.  Okay, it's nowhere near the quality of what my PC looks like running 1376x768 at 1080i which is utterly amazing (I've ditched my monitor - my PC is now solely hooked up to the TV!) but it's good enough for me and a huge improvement on before.

On a side note, the TV is now much higher up and further away from the sofa - this makes Wii Fit a helluva lot more useful and less straining!  The distance from the sofa does have its downsides - I have to strain to see text when surfing (I think I just need new glasses!)

My nephew is unhappy, very unhappy.  He's wanted the Wii game 'Super Smash Bros Brawl' for a long, long time.  It's now out and he hasn't got a copy.  The thing is, he should have a copy - his uncle (moi) pre-ordered the bloody game back in January 2007.  Yes, I did say 2007 and yes, this is two thousand and eight!

So, why did I pre-order the game so far in advance and who's this wonderful retailer that can't even manage to ship the game on the day of release?

I got as far as typing this when my nephew called me up and asked what the latest was on 'the situation'... he really, really, really (I could go on and on until I run the word into the ground, really!) wants this game and wants it NOW!

Where was I?  Ah yes, my ridiculously far ahead pre-order!  I had no idea at the time that the game was that far off from being released but I don't blame the retailer for that aspect as nobody could've guessed it'd take quite this long to actually come out.  And the retailer?  Choices UK (aka Choices Direct).  Incidentally, as I'm typing this, their website isn't working.  That's possibly not a good sign considering the company's business situation in the last year...

Nephew's just called me up again - he's checked Gamestracker and has found a wealth of games retailer with stock.  Toys R Us have it online for the rather reasonable sum of £28.72!  Bargain.  Let's hope their local 'big box' has them as he can't possible wait for delivery if he doesn't have to!

I did ring Choices on Friday to enquire why I hadn't received a dispatch email and why their site said they were still awaiting stock.  The lady on the phone was very apologetic and explained that as they'd been bought by a new company they were shifting stock from one warehouse to another.  She seemed genuine enough at the time but now I'm not so sure.  There was no mention on their site about any possible disruption to orders and no emails received warning customers about any delay.  To me that seems like a company that doesn't care about customer service.  And they've got a bloody premium rate number for all enquiries... argh!

If I manage to grab one from Toys R Us, I'll be cancelling that Choices order ASAP and won't be using or recommending them ever again.

BTW, the game has been out in the US for months.  My nephew wanted me to pick it up whilst on my pilgrimmage to Nintendo World New York.  I explained why it wouldn't be a good idea even with the FreeLoader (a special disc to circumvent the region lock out) and lo and behold, Nintendo this week did indeed stop this from working (if one wants to keep their Wii up-to-date).

What happens when you hum "Danny Boy"/"Londonderry Air" badly into a mobile phone running an app called 'midomi'?  This is what happens...

Despite my atrocious humming it got it right!

Ne-Yo Danny Boy...

Using the English filter removes the suggestion of Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girls - which is rather odd.

I can imagine having lots of fun with this new toy as it can be a very useful tool for when accurate and hilarious when not!  Well, maybe not 'hilarious' but, perhaps, mildly amusing...  There's a lot more to it than music recognition, with a full website and community to boot.

I found it via Darla Mack's blog and she writes more about it there.  An interesting Wikipedia entry here and Midomi's homepage here.