The Elite is out and seems readily available

Happy Elite release day! This is a fairly odd happening in the world of gaming: an updated console coming out around a year and a half after the first version. All consoles go through revisions, but hardware with more storage and added connection options? I'm not sure if that's ever happened before. I showed up at a local big box retailer, picked up the system, noticed no one else in line, and went on my merry way.

Reports coming in from readers indicate that this is how it is throughout most of the United States, although a few of you did have to check more than one store to find a unit. We called around Boston and NYC, and retailers all had plenty of units in those cities, too. Indy, Chicago, and San Diego also seem well stocked. Demand, in other words, is light, but that's not too surprising given that this is a hardware spec bump and not really a new console per se.

Still, I felt all giddy with my new system once I got home. It's fun unboxing a system for the first time. I don't care if this is just more storage and an HDMI port. New hardware is fun.

The black is nice, and while I knew it was going to be matte... it still looks odd to me. I'm so used to the white 360. The black controller is dead sexy though.

So did you pick yours up? Did you have to wait in line? Have you seen one in person and find it attractive/ugly? This is a pretty low-key launch, but there have to be one or two stories out there from the masses more exciting than "walked in, bought, went home."

Virtual Console Releases

This week’s Nintendo Wii virtual console update brings us two all-time classic games and a “Who?” game.

* Castlevania® (NES®, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
* The Legend of the Mystical Ninja™ (Super NES®, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
* Shockman (TurboGrafx16, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)

The original Castlevania was a great game for it’s time (even though I feel Castlevania III was the best NES Castlevania). It was such a ground breaking game because at the time, most platformers were cartoony and kiddie. I’m not saying Castlevania was full of blood and gore, but it had more of an “adult” theme to it. Mystical Ninja was a pretty good game too, not a great game, but a good game nonetheless. It had a Link to the Past feeling to it and was released early on in the SNES’s life. As for Shockman….who?

WII-KLY UPDATE: THREE NEW CLASSIC GAMES ANNOUNCED FOR WII SHOP CHANNEL

April 30, 2007

Vampires and ninjas and Shockmen, oh my! This week the Wii Shop Channel takes a trip into the world of ghoulish creatures, mystical curses and professorial abductions. See if you can remember which of these games sparked the whip-carrying craze of the late-’80s! For the best retro gaming around, it’s time to pay a visit to the red-hot Wii™ video game system’s Wii Shop Channel.

The three new classic games go live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Nintendo adds new games to the channel every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

Castlevania® (NES®, 1 player, 500 Wii Points): Step into the shadows of the deadliest dwelling on Earth. You’ve arrived at Castlevania, and you’re here on business: to destroy the curse of the Evil Count, once and for all. Make your way through six monstrous floors filled with bats, ghosts, zombies and every kind of ghoulish creature you can imagine. Use the legendary whip Vampire Killer and a host of deadly weapons to battle your way to Dracula’s chamber and the ultimate duel of good vs. evil.

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja™ (Super NES®, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points): In The Legend of The Mystical Ninja, take control of Kid Ying and Dr. Yang in an action adventure through feudal Japan. A curse has stricken the village of Horo-Horo, and its beloved princess has vanished. Together Kid Ying, a daring young mystical ninja, and Dr. Yang, master of the invincible spirit transformation, must overcome 10 levels of the Dragonbeast to save Princess Yuki. Each stage contains intense 3-D and 2-D zones where the duo must perform dozens of attack moves and solve magical problems and puzzles before advancing. Battle humorous enemies like the Carp Meister, who stuns victims with poisonous fighting fish, Tanaka-U-Out, a knockout artist who wallops opponents with a bone-crushing hammer, and the Sumo Tag Team, kings of the unbeatable belly-buster crunch. Collect coins to buy new equipment and to receive clues, spend some time playing minigames in the arcade or try your luck and increase your fortune at the Quiz House and Horse Races.

Shockman (TurboGrafx16, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points): It’s been two years since Arnold and Sonya were made into Shockmen. A message from the professor to return to their bodies has them head to his laboratory, but they are ambushed by a mysterious enemy along the way. After narrowly defeating the enemy, they catch a TV news flash announcing the Ryo Empire invasion. They find that the professor has been abducted and set out to rescue him. Shockman is a side-view action shooter that has eight stages, including Action Stages, where you jump and use special techniques, and side-scrolling Shooting Stages. This game expands on the well-paced story from the previous version and contains cooperative elements like shared life and a powerful Team Shockbeam that can be used during two-player simultaneous play.

If you upgrade into an Elite, your Arcade games have a surprise for you

It's always fun when you get to test out new hardware: trying to see what works and what doesn't, looking for differences—the whole thing can be exhausting once you get into the details. I moved my Live account from my old system to the Elite easily enough, and then I started to redownload all my Arcade games. This is kind of a process since I have over 20 games and the system only lets you queue up to six downloads at a time. I sat down and played some Geometry Wars, and then I remembered hearing about the problems people had with migrating their games. I rarely have my system away from my home network, so I reached back and unplugged the cable to see if I could play the games without the online authentication.

All the games, all of them, turned into demos that asked me to download the full version. This is unhappiness in the making. I plug my cable back in and get on the phone.

I'm told by customer service that the only way to get the games working is to get my free data migration cable, and then he asks me to register my system to get the cable. Okay, I'm done getting customer service-d and the snow job has begun. I'm a little upset that among the many cables that come with the Elite they don't give you the data cable like they do with the standalone hard drive—and in fact many people online have been talking about their plans to buy the stand alone and return it after using the cable—but I'm even more upset that the cable is reportedly causing the same DRM to kick in with your games. No fun.

Why can't this be something that turns on when you move the games, and then you can call and get them unlocked again? If I bring my Elite to a friend's house that doesn't have Ethernet in the living room, we can't play Geometry Wars? That's silly.

C'mon Microsoft. Those of us who upgraded have spent $880 between the two systems, plus games. The least you can do is allow us to easily play the games we've paid you for. This needs to be fixed.