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It’s tough being a super hero. If you’re Dr. Doom and you’re feeling down, you can just blow something up. If you’re The Thing, well, all you can really do is look in a mirror and cry to yourself.

That was before Punch-Out!!, though, with a new ad (courtesy of Gamervision) popping up in comics showing two beefy brawlers finding a proper outlet for their stress. Oh, we really wouldn’t suggest playing with the Wiimote and Nunchuk, super guys. The game is way better with the classic controls.

[Via Kotaku]

Super heroes duke it out in Punch-Out!! originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Features

Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Thought of by many as the "Disney of video gaming," Nintendo has crafted themselves an image of family-friendly entertainment. But to certain generations and classes of gamers, the term "family-friendly" is synonymous with "kiddy," and immediately sparks disinterest. But ever since publishing Rare's Killer Instinct, they've been working on broadening the public's perspective. Trying to appeal to the bloodlust of the Mortal Kombat crowd didn't give them any headway, and as generations progressed and they've garnered more "mature-themed" titles, they still haven't been able to shake the "kiddy console" stigma.

Even after snagging the exclusivity to the Resident Evil series for a generation, Nintendo was largely overlooked by the Playstation-bred gamers that were brought up on the series. How much more will it take for Wii to be regarded as a platform that can satisfy the tastes of mature gamers?

We're still waiting on the official lab results, but it's commonly accepted as fact that with advancement in age, the ability to appreciate bright colors diminishes. Or at least, that's the impression you'd get from listening to the ramblings of Mario-haters. In some circles, liking a game with muted tones such as Gears of War precludes enjoying something more vibrant like Kameo. Nevermind the mature themes and violent gameplay of the latter title, which distinguish it from other games that are similarly colorful and cartoony. It's written off as kid's stuff and passed over. This predilection for prejudgment may be what led Rare to drastically change the themes and gameplay of their first Conker game, but kept the vivid style to catch a few people off guard.

Definitely NOT kid's stuff

Why do some people believe the cartoonish settings of a Mario game make the sci-fi worlds in Mass Effect or the fantastic multiverses of Final Fantasy seem real in contrast? A gamer looking for realistic gameplay scenarios that adults are used to living out should logically be attracted to Nintendo exclusives like Trauma Center, Cooking Mama, or the upcoming Disaster: Day of Crisis. Why is it that violence, sex, and profanity are the brightest beacons for attracting people in search of "mature" content?

Regardless of whether your interests involve chainsawing rival drug dealers, turning zombies into swiss cheese, flipping burgers, or swimming alongside dolphins, Nintendo likely has something to offer you. They've worked hard to change consumers' perceptions of them, but it takes fanboys like us to get the message out and convert others.

With a new focus on expanding the market rather than overtaking competitors for existing marketshare, does Nintendo even need to change their image? Leave a comment to tell us how you'd run things if you were heading up Nintendo's marketing departments. I hear they have some openings.

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Filed under: Interviews

Now, we've been saying for awhile now that the Wii would revolutionize the industry and it has. But, we wouldn't go so far as to say we were bored by it all pre-Wii. We loved the GameCube, we loved the GBA and we still love our DS. We loved the N64. We hardly found ourselves without games to play, that's for sure.

"A major insight that Nintendo had early on was that they saw that gamers were getting bored, even though they didn't know it yet," Kaplan remarked. Robert Matthews, senior director of consumer marketing for Nintendo of America backed her up, stating "Just look at the way people consume entertainment today. The idea that you would spend hours playing videogames is just not real anymore."

While we'd argue that, blogging doesn't leave us with as much time for gaming as we'd like, but we think overall that there will always be a place for lengthy games, jam-packed with feature-rich content and that Nintendo's new proven focus shouldn't try to do away with those.

Do you guys care to toss in your two cents?

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Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy did a marketing stunt last weekend in the city of Perugia* in Italy. During the Eurochocolate festival, a kermesse dedicated to everything chocolate, Sony arranged a pile of 150 PlayStation 3’s and a huge Sixaxis controller made of chocolate! Despite this PS3 Chocolate model featuring a new brown color, Sony didn’t get rid of the “fingerprint problem”, local kids were also quoted as saying it tasted yummy. — Pictures made by TTP.

* Perugia is located near the Tiber river, which in the Command & Conquer universe was the place where a Tiberium meteorite crashed on Earth and the deadly substance was first discovered. Isn’t useless trivia fun?

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Filed under: News

Following in the footsteps of George Harrison, Nintendo's top PR person (and the apple of Matt C's eye) Perrin Kaplan has decided to call it quits with Nintendo. She didn't state any reason why she was departing in her correspondence with Reuters, but we're sure she just doesn't want to relocate. Leaving her home of 15 years to follow her job to a new city just probably isn't a life choice she's comfortable with.

Oh well, at least she'll have Matt to help her through the tough times when she departs at the end of the year.

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Filed under: News

Nintendo's DIY Wii marketing site, MyWiiStory.com, is now almost functional, and looks rather like we imagine the final site will. MyWiiStory is designed to allow gamers to post written or video stories about how awesome the Wii is. It looks like the posts will be moderated, so don't try to sneak a story about how the Wii isn't awesome, because they'll totally catch you.

"We want all Wii owners to go to MyWiiStory.com to further demonstrate the extent to which we have brought new players into the world of video games," outgoing marketing VP George Harrison said in the latest press release about the service. We wonder if the new expanded audience will go for what is basically an extremely tightly focused version of the Nsider forums. In any case, get your story ready for the site's eventual opening. We've got a great one about eight months spent talking about the Wii on the Internet multiple times a day.

[Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: News

Brandweek magazine, which we suppose we'll have to get familiar with if we want to continue pretending to know something about business, named Reggie Fils-Aime their "Grand Marketer of the Year" for 2007. The magazine celebrated Reggie with a long article about how awesome the Wii is, and how his strategy and competitiveness helped put the (awesome) Wii in a gazillion homes.

Reggie is given a lot of the credit in this article for Nintendo's unusual Wii marketing, including the "Wii would like to play" commercials and the Wii ambassador program (in which popular bloggers in non-game fields were invited to Wii parties in fancy hotels). Whatever role Reggie has had in the adult-focused marketing of the Wii, it's paying off.

[Via Game|Life]

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