The Wii and Nintendo DS offer a level of intuitive interaction with games never before achieved on a mainstream gaming platform. For this reason, Nintendo and third parties are able to produce “non-games” that practically anyone can pick up for fun or practical use, even if they’re not games in the traditional sense. Nintendo’s “Touch Generations” series has offerings that make it easy for anyone to enjoy the DS, with releases such as Brain Age, Electroplankton, and Nintendogs.

Each week, we’ll present you with some of our ideas that we think would be potentially useful and fun non-games and applications for the Wii or Nintendo DS. Maybe someone out there will decide to make a homebrew application based on it. Maybe some official developer will decide it’s an idea worth trying out. Or maybe it will simply spark your imagination and open your eyes to the endless possibilities of Nintendo’s new systems. This week, we look at the potential another brain program such as Mensa could have on the Nintendo DS.

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“In the heat of the tennis match, Jerry Marlin jumped up to return a serve, landed wrong and blew out his knee… Marlin, 41, of Nashville, recently underwent knee surgery and will wear a leg brace for at least two months.”

The catch? Jerry was just playing a game of Wii tennis. While the injury is one of the most serious yet caused by Wii gameplay, Jerry Marlin and all of his doctors agree, the Wii is great for getting the family together and getting some physical activity into their daily schedules. The bottom line, however, is to use common sense and make sure to properly stretch before playing a WiiSports game, and make sure not to play longer than you would play the real thing without taking a break.

Tennessean.com

CVG’s Mike Jackson sat down with Sega Europe COO and President Mike Hayes and Nintendo of Europe’s marketing director, Laurent Fischer, to discuss the new Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. The game will bring the two game icons together for the first time in Beijing, China for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Check out the excerpt below.

Discussing the possibility of Sonic and Mario appearing in the same game, Yuji Naka once told me that he was concerned about how different the two characters were. Is that one of your key concerns?

Hayes: Not at all. If is was a Sonic world and we Mario trying to run around collecting rings it wouldn’t be right. So that is why the Olympics arena is perfect to bring them together. The two characters can compete quite sensibly in that environment.

Hit the link below for the rest of the interview.

CVG

YouTube

Why not complement your solar-powered Wii with a solar-powered DS Lite? That’s what the guys at Tom’s Hardware did! You can check out the video at the link below. What I don’t understand, though, is why you’d want to have a solar-powered DS. I find it very difficult to play the DS in the sunlight in the first place.

Tom’s Hardware

According to DS Fanboy, Amazon.com is having a pre-order sale where they knock off a third of the price - a whole $5! A good deal if you ask me, and while your there you might as well check out some of their DS games as well, many of which have also been discounted.

Amazon.com
via DS Fanboy

GameStop appears to have a Wii-make of Resident Evil 4 scheduled for release in June, and for only $30. Do they know something we don’t?

GameStop
via Go Nintendo

We’ve heard the talk, and now it seems Nintendo is getting down to business when it comes to Wii supplies. At the moment, Foxconn Precision Components is the only manufacturer contracted by Nintendo to produce Wii consoles. While Foxconn has been able to produce about six to seven million Wii units by the end of March, that number is clearly not enough to satisfy worldwide demand for the product. The Wii consistently remains out of stock in stores, managing to sell out shortly after each shipment.

PS3 manufacturer Asustek Computer, Xbox 360 manufacturer Wistron, Compal Electronics, and Inventec are all in the running for a manufacturing contract with Nintendo. Hopefully with twice as many companies producing the Wii, it may become a little easier for everyone to find the console they want.

CVG

It appears that Koji Kondo, Nintendo’s leading man for music, will not be able to make it to the GO3 Expo this weekend. Mr. Kondo was supposed to be promoting PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, but he’ll be back at work at Nintendo instead.

“Koji Kondo was looking forward to speaking and attending the conference. Unfortunately it is with much regret that due to an unforseen clash of work commitments, Koji Kondo will no longer be able to make it to the GO3 conference.” - PLAY! Spokeswoman

GameSpot

Nintendo of Europe’s marketing director, Laurent Fischer, sat down with GamesIndustry.biz to discuss some important details revolving around the focus of his job - marketing. Fischer talked about how he and Nintendo are going about addressing the astronomical sales and sellout rates of the Wii, the current dry spell in games, and how the Wii is or isn’t affected by the moves Nintendo’s competitors take. Excerpt and link below.

That was something that Shigeru Miyamoto touched on in his GDC keynote earlier in the month. If the game needs it, Nintendo is happy to hold it back to be polished. That’s quite refreshing for a publisher…

At Nintendo I’m marketing director, but I’m proud to say that the marketing department has the last voice. When the product is out it’s exactly as the creator intended. It’s the way the development studio dreamt it from the very beginning. Some companies may aim to release games at Christmas or for specific financial times of the year - Nintendo has nothing to do with that, it’s never been the case.

GamesIndustry.biz