The Nintendo Wii is a great console. It's family friendly, fun and allows you to customize your characters, called Miis, used in many of the games.

The "Mii" is a brilliant concept. Instead of being some generic character in a game, you can be yourself. You can also make a celebrity look alike Mii. That way the next time you are playing Baseball on Wii Sports, you might end up with a celebrity Mii on your team like Oprah, Borat (pictured below), Charlie Brown (pictured on right) or even Dwight Schrute from the American TV show The Office.

This tutorial will guide you through making a Mii and sharing it on the Internet as well as give you plenty of celebrity Mii ideas.

Tutorial: How to Make and Share Celebrity Miis for the Nintendo Wii





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Yesterday, the NPD Group released video game hardware sales data for April. Nintendo's Wii and DS consoles were again the big winners, as both platforms dominated all competitors. This marks the 4th month in a row that Nintendo has nabbed the top spots with its respective systems on the hardware sales charts.

The Nintendo DS was the overall best-selling system of April with approximately 471,000 units sold -- more than twice that of the Sony PSP, which only managed to sell 182,000 units.


Despite being in limited supply, the Nintendo Wii was the best-selling console for the month. More than 360,000 new consumers purchased Nintendo's home console in April. The second best-selling home system was the Sony PlayStation 2 with 193,000 units sold. Microsoft's Xbox 360 managed 174,000 units sold and Sony convinced only 82,000 people to purchase a PlayStation 3 for the month, lower than all analyst estimates.

Nintendo was also the #1 software publisher for the month, releasing the top 4 best-selling games -- Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl for DS, and Super Paper Mario and Wii Play for Wii. The Pokemon titles sold a combined 1.7 million games in about a week.

According to VG Chartz, the Nintendo Wii has sold 2.5m consoles in Japan, 2.8m in the US and 1.79m in the rest of the world since its official launch late last year.

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One of the new features of the Nintendo Wii, is the ability to create avatars (a virtual representation of a person) using the platform's "Mii Channel." The avatars can be used in various Nintendo games and even shared with other players. But creative Nintendo Wii users aren't just creating Miis of themselves. They've started making avatars that resemble famous people. Wii users have dubbed the celebrity avatars "CelebriMiis."

Many Mii creators share their CelebriMii techniques online so others can duplicate the effect and use their avatars in games and Mii parades.

The image below is Hiro Nakamura from the NBC TV series Heroes.



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Is a weak arm or physical stamina keeping you from taking your Nintendo Wii gaming experience to the next level? Perhaps you should look into getting the Nintendo Wii Nunchuck Controller. This accessory adds even more innovation to the next generation of gaming and does it all with less physical movement.

Contoured to perfectly fit a players hand, the Nunchuck controller builds on the simplicity of the Nintendo Wii Remote controller. The Nunchuck contains the same motion-sensing technology enabled in the Wii Remote but also includes an analog stick to help assist in character movement. This analog stick can be a godsend if you feel like physical motion is keeping you from your optimum gaming performance (see video called Crazy Girl on Wii).



Many games will allow you to control your character's movement with the Nunchuck in your left hand, while your right hand is free to execute the action movements with the Wii Remote. For example, the Nunchuck comes in extremely handy for games like Wii Boxing. You can use the Nunchuck to hit with your off or weaker hand, while you use the Wii remote to punch and jab with your primary hand. Hardcore gamers may even want to use two Nunchuck controllers to gain a competitive edge.



Rather use the Nunchuck in your right hand? No problem. Because the Wii Remote and Nunchuck controllers are only relatively dependent on each other, players are free to hold them in whichever hand is most comfortable. The ambidextrous nature of the Wii controllers grants accessibility seldom seen in previous game controllers.

Also, the Nunchuck controller doesn't need its own power - it plugs into the Wii Remote controller when it's in use. So there's no worry about charging up or expensive batteries.

Adding a Nunchuck to your Nintendo Wii system will definitely help you open the doors to the next level of gaming. Just be careful you don't accidentally smack your wife or punch your dog while using your Wii controllers like these guys.

Review: Nintendo Wii Nunchuck Controller


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