Living room arenas around the world will soon become even more cluttered with toy instruments thanks to Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour. Axes for the two respective franchises haven't gotten along on the Wii, and while we're still not sure whether the next generation will cooperate ezGear is hoping to bring some peace (and eliminate some clutter) for current Nintendo rockers with its ezJam Combo Guitar. Inside its baby-blue Strat-esque styling there's port to plug in your Wiimote when playing Guitar Hero III as well as an integrated wireless transmitter for Rock Band. At $70 it's a little more expensive than other third-parties like the Nyko Frontman, but playing lead in two bands instead of one is totally worth it.

It's Friday the 5th, that means that the $200 Xbox 360 just became the lowest-priced console in the US (as it is in Japan) compared to the perpetually "sold out" $250 Wii and 80GB PS3 selling for double the price of a diskless Arcade. With no new price cuts expected from either Sony or Nintendo, the holiday console wars are officially on. Picture proof of the $199.99 Xbox 360 Arcade in the wild after the break.

[Thanks, JerkyChew]

Getting the Wii to run backup disks has never been quite as easy as running homebrew, but that might be about to change -- there's apparently a secret recovery mode that can be accessed with a special GameCube memory card. Not much is being revealed yet, but apparently if a "device" with a unique ID signature is present in the slot at boot, the Wii will drop into recovery mode and happily run whatever you throw at it, from backup disks to homebrew code. Hopefully we'll find out more soon -- video after the break.

Update: It looks like the recovery mode is only good for fixing "certain bricked consoles" -- so much for that.

[Thanks, brakken]

Love your Wii but tiring of your standard control options? Looking for something that involves less arm swinging, feels a little bit more like an Xbox or PS3 experience, and loses that Classic Controller cable? Well the folks from Nyko are here for you, and they want to hold you all night long... and they brought the Wing. What's the Wing you ask? It's essentially a standard gamepad on highly concentrated crack-cocaine. The wireless controller features two analog sticks and a plethora of buttons (both up front and around the back), and can run for around 30 hours on a pair of AAA batteries. No word on price or release date, but if you notice a sudden crime wave and rash of unexplained fires, the Wing is probably out.

Well, it looks like all that experience Nintendo has half-explaining Wii supply issues isn't going to waste -- the company just issued a statement regarding shortages of Wii Fit that sounds awfully familiar. Seriously, follow along with us here:

• Wii shortages, Nov. 14, 2007: "The demand for Wii hardware globally has been unprecedented and higher than Nintendo could ever have anticipated."
• Wii Fit shortages, Aug. 28, 2008: "Nintendo had a substantial supply nationwide for launch, though some stores saw spot shortages due to unprecedented demand for this unique product."

Here's a thought, guys: if there's "unprecedented" demand for the console, the demand for arguably the biggest accessory for that console since launch probably isn't unprecedented as well -- and your PR people shouldn't be so well-versed in making excuses like this.

[Via Slashgear]

Move over, Child's Play -- well, don't move over, keep being awesome -- there's a another outfit in town looking to bring the joy and life long addiction of video games to hospitalized children. The Starlight Starbright foundation has been teaming up with Nintendo for over 15 years to bring games to hospitals, and the latest effort of the team up is the Wii Fun Center, a $4,250 unit which includes a Wii "costumized for hospital use," a Sharp AQUOS LCD and a DVD player. Lest you think somebody is ripping off the children, that price includes shipping, setup and repair the lifetime of the unit. Starlight Starbright is hoping to have about 500 of them in hospitals by the end of the year, but kids let's try to stay away from sending yourself and others to different wings of the hospital, yes?

For Roomba hacking extraordinaire longjie0723, it's just another day in the office. Grasping for one more way to control the circular vacuum with something video game-related, he keyed in on the Wii Balance Board. Granted, he's already had success controlling the Roomba with a Wiimote, so we assume that whipping this one up was a lesson in simplicity. We still can't really understand why this here hack is necessary, but unlike decisions made by publicly traded companies, independent DIYers don't need no logic to get their mod on. Video after the cut.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

Samba de Amigo is barreling towards the Wii, and we all understand that it'll be a lot less exciting without the Wii Maracas. Thanks to Amazon's quick trigger finger, we now know that Sega's Wiimote accessories will go for $14.99 per pair, and if all goes to plan, they'll be shipping out on September 23rd. Of course, we'd suggest you pocket that and just craft your own wildly colored (and slightly gourd-shaped) Wiimote covers, but we understand not everyone was blessed with those DIY genes.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

Remember a million years ago when Nintendo first introduced the "Revolution," later to be known as the Wii? It wasn't white, and it seemed multiple colors were a shoe-in for the shiny plastic console. Since then, Nintendo has sung a very white, supply-limited song with the Wii, and we're ready for some change. This is not that change. But at least Nintendo is acknowledging that, indeed, other colors do exist, and look just smashing when waved around in the air, in the form of fancy new pastel-colored Wiimote straps for Japan. They cost a few bucks each, or you can get the whole pack for $10. No word if they'll be heading Stateside.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

Nintendo just can't seem to keep its nose out of patent troubles, with its highly successful Wii now the target of a new patent lawsuit from Hillcrest Labs, which claims that its patents for "a handheld three-dimensional pointing device" and the gloriously vague "navigation interface display system that graphically organizes content for display on a television" which apparently predate Nintendo's own. At least we're not dealing with a complete patent troll here: Hillcrest Labs does have a product based on its technology, called The Loop remote (pictured left), based on what it calls "Freespace" motion control technology. It's fairly clear Freespace is a much different beast than the Wiimote, and we'd like to believe something so vague as a handheld 3D pointing device (a very un-new concept) isn't enough to best Nintendo in a court of law, but naturally Hillcrest is requesting Nintendo stop shipping Wiis to the States (that shouldn't be hard, huh Nintendo? Yuk, yuk.) and reward Hillcrest with unspecified monetary damages.

Up until now, Wii-owning racers have been stuck with the Wii Wheel, Brando's Wii Multi-Axis Racing System or something they cooked up in arts and crafts. Now, however, Logitech is providing a much better option for serious track stars. The Speed Force Wireless racing wheel is the first force-feedback wheel for Nintendo's latest console, and while it was designed to work with Need For Speed Undercover, it'll do just fine with future force-feedback racing titles as well. Disgustingly, you still have to plug a USB receiver into your Wii before this thing will work, but we guess that's the breaks, huh? Look for this one to pop up in November (US and Europe) for $99.99. Full release after the break.

PlayOn wants to make sure you can get your daily dose of Barackrolls and Airwolf episodes beyond the desktop, while Hulu might not have a slick streaming set-top box of its own, this media server software turns flash video RSS streams into easily browsed folders for your DLNA-compliant hardware. PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and HP MediaSmart HDTVs being at the top of that list (with Nintendo Wii support planned by year-end) owners can grab the beta release of the software and stream low-res episodes of Psych, or any assortment of YouTube video they please. With Netflix support "just down the road" this could provide an end around for PS3 owners looking for streaming love, or Xbox 360 owners without Xbox Live Gold (we know you're out there.) Bad news is the beta only lasts 60 days and there's a $30 pricetag waiting at the end of the free lunch highway. Our experience was good, with no stutters in a Psych episode streamed via Wi-Fi to the PS3 (albeit with no choice of HD clips), but we'd wait for confirmation on the whole Netflix bit before dropping any dough.

Update: Getting 69-C00D36C4 / folder could not be accessed errors on your PS3 or Xbox 360, or waiting for 64-bit Vista support to dive in? PlayOn CTO David Karlton updated the official blog to let users know fixes and additional support is in the works, so keep an eye out for more news shortly if things aren't working just yet.


[Via PS3 Fanboy]

A Wii Wheel for racing? Fine. A club attachment for golfing. Eh, okay. InterAction Laboratories' Wii Sqweeze? Puh-lease. Recently "demonstrated" by CEO Greg Merril, this goofball peripheral possesses a pair of rubber handles which "allow for shoulder abduction and adduction." Reportedly, the unit was shown off playing some sort of bow hunting game on a PC, though the company promises native Wii compatibility before its 2009 launch. Can we get a show of hands from people who'd actually buy this thing for more than $4.99? Don't make us phone in the quick-lipped auctioneer.

Carrying on the rich hacker tradition of picking up the slack for companies that are unwilling or unable to provide the functionality users need, a team of Wii coders have given the console what Nintendo could not: DVD playback. By installing a small, hidden channel on a system, this package blesses the console with a libdi file (DVD access library), and allows you to watch your favorite videos with the MPlayer application, an open source media player. The install file will run on modded and unmodded systems, and the software is also capable of playing media from SD cards (though it's experimental right now). Finally Wii owners can join the ranks of, well... pretty much everyone else.

[Via TehSkeen; Thanks, brakken]

Look folks, we won't deny that hardcore usage of the Wii could result in weight loss, but we have all ideas Japan's Kosuke Kitajima relied a lot more on swimming laps religiously and eating a set diet than playing Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Nevertheless, the Olympic gold medalist, who snagged said medal in the men's 100-meter breaststroke earlier this week, did mention that he used the game to prepare his mind. "See, Mario does the breaststroke," he stated, "and thus, it's perfect mental training for envisioning the actual Olympic hall." We'd say that's being mighty generous, but whatever gets you to the other end first, right?

[Via Joystiq]