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After months of financial statement teases and the initial reveal in an issue of Game Informer, Activision has officially released the first details of Guitar Hero 4, now known as Guitar Hero: World Tour. The game will be available this Fall on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. The same development teams that created Guitar Hero III are back on board with the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions being developed by Neversoft, while Vicarious Visions is creating the Wii version and Budcat is bringing it to the PS2.

Guitar Hero: World Tour looks to be the beginning of a completely era for the Guitar Hero series. As was revealed by Game Informer, World Tour will feature a drumkit and microphone along with the Music Studio track editor and an eight-player Battle of the Bands mode. Any song created in the Music Studio can be shared with other gamers through the game’s online database GHTunes.

Other gameplay options will include a four-player “full band” mode (that can be played both online and locally) and singleplayer Career mode that can be played with any instrument. ..

Activision is saying that World Tour will feature the largest number of tracks in a music game ever. As of now, four bands have been confirmed to have a place in World Tour: Van Halen, Linkin Park, The Eagles and Sublime. And all of the songs will be master tracks; there will be no covers on Guitar Hero: World Tour. The game will also offer “significantly more localized downloadable music than ever before on all of the next-generation consoles.” So while it’s vaguely worded, it sounds like downloadable tracks are coming to the Wii as well as the PS3 and Xbox 360.

The Wii Fit, which comes complete with its own special balance board, is one of the new fitness computer games from the Nintendo stable, which already includes virtual games such as tennis, boxing and bowling…

Sophie, a publicist, shows me the new hardware for Wii Fit at her office in Soho. On the floor in front of a giant TV is a pressure-sensitive balance board about the size of weighing scales. In fact, what the new Wii does is to weigh you straight away. Along with your height and age, the computer then works out your body mass index. Mine is 29.36, somewhere between Medically Obese and About To Drop Dead. “It’s not 100 per cent accurate,” Sophie says, tactfully. “Muscle weighs more than fat.” “Thanks,” I say. “I can see why you’re in PR.”

[Youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=t3pfQdADxEs[/youtube]

Next, after some rudimentary balance exercises in which I am revealed to be fundamentally lopsided, the machine computes my “Wii age”. It is 65 (my actual age is 43). “Oh dear,” says Sophie. I have to choose a “Mii”, an icon to represent myself on screen. I go for a perky little chap with a side part and pot belly. He introduces himself. In Japanese. The English language version is not available yet, but if its success over there is anything to go by – more than a million copies of the game sold in just over a month – this game won’t be sitting on shop shelves for long.

I select an on-screen tutor, wondering if it’s morally or legally OK to lust after a computer-generated fitness instructor. She greets me with what I take to be a provocative pose. “She’s saying, ‘Hello, you fat bastard’,” the photographer says.

We know that Wii Fit is due out in America on May 19th, but today, Nintendo of America announced that it will be selling Wii Fit with the balance board for $89.99.

The game features over 40 yoga, aerobics, strength training and balance activities. The hope is to “provides consumers with a fun, easy and affordable way to incorporate exercise into their daily routines.” While it won’t make you fit and lose lots of weight, it’s better to do this than sit on a couch.

I’m sure we’ll start seeing studies of people losing weight on Wii Fit, but don’t be hooked into buying any books about it.

If you are in New York, you’ll get a special treat if you buy it from the Nintendo World Store. From April 18-20, the first 1,000 customers who place a $5 deposit for Wii Fit will receive a limited edition Wii Fit t-shirt featuring the image and reproduced autograph of Mr. Miyamoto.

EDIT: Oops. Sorry everyone. Wife double-posted this story. Yup, we’re getting one of these for sure. Guess that means I have to exercise more now, eh?

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the wife has already let me know that we’re getting one.

Wii Fit has already made waves in Japan, selling more than 1.4 million copies since December, and Nintendo of America has finally announced how much it will cost us to get in shape when the game finally hits North America on May 19. The Wii Fit package, which includes both the game and the wireless balance board, will sell for $89.99.

The title features more than 40 different games and activities, in areas such as yoga, strength training, and aerobics. Nintendo also announced that the first thousand people who pre-order the game from the Nintendo World Store in New York City will receive limited-edition t-shirts featuring everyone’s favorite tea-table up-ender, Shigeru Miyamoto.

While the game will be priced slightly higher than the $75 it was originally sold for in Japan, it is probably due to the sturdier version Nintendo had to make for bigger folks on this side of the Pacific.

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FOX6 shows us how patients recovering from spinal injuries are getting help from the Nintendo Wii. Doctors have found that using the video game system helps patients recover more quickly.

During the 2008 Game Developers Conference this week in San Francisco, Nintendo has announced that May 19th will be the launch date for the much anticipated Wii Fit. It’s done really well in Japan so far (over 1.4 million units sold so far!), and it would seem that “exergaming” has become more popular than some would have thought. No price has been announced yet, but I’m sure we can count on Nintendo to keep it affordable. GameSpot obtained a copy and posted their findings after lengthy testing. It looks great, I can’t wait to get one!

(H/T: GeekSugar)

Anyone who thought video games were a waste of time have probably been surprised about Nintendo’s latest and greatest, the Wii. It gets people active by using their arms and motions to simulate sports such as tennis, baseball, even bowling. But it doesn’t stop there! A new useful application is emerging: surgical training.

Resident surgeons were found to perform better on simulated operations after playing a bit of Wii than those who opted out of the fun. How much better? They scored nearly 50 percent higher on tool control and performance.

Of course, not all games are going to improve coordination. Games that require subtle movements and precision are obviously better than those that require you to swing a bat. But this approach could be a very valuable medical training tool for countries which can’t afford higher-end solutions. They are developing special software for the console, which costs only $250, that could hone surgical skills even more. Imagine bringing home your own copy of “Surgery 101″ in the future!

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It’s 2006 all over again.

Sources tell me that Best Buy is sitting on a stockpile of Wii which they plan to unleash on the line-waiting masses in the coming weeks. I assume this will be done as some sort of weekend event advertised in their weekly circular. Now the real question is how many of the people willing to sit on cold asphalt overnight will be doing it for themselves and how many will be doing it to turn around and sell the console on eBay.

I’m not sure which I would prefer: Best Buy selling the system as they show up, or selling them in one big weekend blow-out.

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Next time you go and see a Physical Therapist, they might send you home with a prescription to play your Nintendo Wii. A rehab hospital in Alberta, Canada is using the Wii as a way to rebuild muscles in patients.

Franklin Perry used the Wii to regain his strength after suffering a stroke.

The hospital has been using the Wii for about four months to help people like Perry that have suffered a stroke or traumatic brain injuries. Part of the three hours of daily therapy is a 30 minutes per day on the Wii.

“This is more fun. It makes it more exciting. It gets me to work harder,” said Perry, who has a fierce video game rivalry with his teenage nephew.

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Wii Fit is a hit in Japan selling over 250,000 in it’s first week. Wii Fit is the balance board where players can actually work on their balance and use games to lose weight.

No date yet though on when Wii Fit is coming to North America.

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