Instead, he was rocked.

According to WTSP-TV, the confused teen opened up his gift only to find bunch of stones and a rolled up Chinese newspaper in place of the popular handheld.

Needless to say, mom was equally stunned.

“When he opened it, he was pulling the seal off, my sister-in-law carries a pocket knife and she opened it and that’s when he pulled it out and it was Chinese newspaper and a bunch of rocks,” she explained.

The troubling discovery prompted the Florida woman to contact the local Wal-Mart where she bought the curious box and complain, but reportedly workers there told her it wasn’t their problem and that she should contact Nintendo instead. Of course, Nintendo told her roughly the same thing, leaving mother and son with a $138 box of rocks.

“They don’t want to do nothing. They want me to keep the box of rocks. I’m not buying a box of rocks for $138,” she said.

Amazingly enough, however, Wal-Mart soon caved after learning that the same box of rocks had been previously returned by another disgruntled customer. How exactly it made it back onto store shelves remains a mystery, but for her troubles, Wykle was given a full refund and a $20 gift card.

It’s not the first time Wal-Mart has gotten into hot water for selling a questionable handheld. Earlier this month, a PSP system bought at a different Wal-Mart store in Florida was found to contain a memory stick filled with pornographic images.

by Ben Silverman

But if a recent rash of troubling stories about the Wii is a vision of things to come, the tide might be turning for the seemingly unbeatable machine.

Kinks in the system’s shiny white armor starting showing last month. Despite steady success in Japan, the Wii fell into second place in March as the underdog Playstation 3 clambered atop the region’s sales charts for the first time in 16 months. That was enough to garner some uncharacteristically somber comments from Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, who deemed the climate in Japan “unhealthy” for the Wii.

But to Cowan & Company analyst Doug Creutz, the U.S. market isn’t necessarily any healthier, at least if you’re thinking of investing in a console game. In an interview with Gamasutra, Creutz called the Wii “fool’s gold” for third-party game developers.

“The choice here is really between investing for the Xbox 360 and PS3 — since their capabilities are fairly similar — or the Wii,” he said. “I would caution investors and developers that the larger installed base of the Wii is really a bit of a red herring.”

Crueutz goes on to point out that while the 19 million Wiis in North America trounce competing consoles individually, combined sales of the 360 and PS3 actually top 22 million. That represents a larger chunk of the pie for game developers who can more easily port games back and forth from the two systems. Additionally, Creutz notes that Nintendo’s first-party games and the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises account for nearly one-half of all Wii software sales, a far larger percentage than what’s found on the other consoles. Comparatively, the Wii is simply a tougher nut to crack for third-party developers.

Peter Moore, president of enormous third-party game maker EA Sports, echoed Creutz’s concerns while speaking at a recent conference.

“You simply can’t take what you’re doing on the PS3 and Xbox and port – that’s a dirty word – down to the Wii,” he said, insisting that instead you have to build Wii games “from the ground up.”

He’s not the only one at EA with issues. Earlier in the month, an EA producer confessed to having trouble incorporating Nintendo’s upcoming Wii MotionPlus control attachment into its Grand Slam Tennis game, raising questions about when the tech would be ready for consumers. Nintendo answered that by officially announcing a release date only to curiously push back the release of the game they’ve repeatedly used to show off the new technology, surefire smash sequel Wii Sports: Resort.

Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom. NPD Group reports that the Wii again led the way in March 2009, outselling both the 360 and PS3 by a wide margin. Nintendo is also enjoying strong numbers for its newly released DSi handheld, with the company reporting first-week sales of over 600,000 units in the U.S. and Europe. Mario’s checking account won’t run out of funds any time soon.

The question is, will gamers run out of interest? The last two major first-party Wii games, Wii Music and Animal Crossing: City Folk, failed to generate the kind of excitement (and, in turn, sales) that Nintendo is accustomed to, a fact that analyst Ed Barton of Screen Digest believes is a big reason why the Wii is struggling. While older blockbusters like Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii are still selling well, Barton points out that the company needs new experiences to drive new sales.

Nintendo hopes to deliver exactly that with upcoming high-profile games like the aforementioned Wii Sports sequel and a remake of classic boxing game Punch Out!, but that still leaves plenty of wiggle room for the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 to continue closing the gap. And if Japan is any indication (and it usually is), that gap can disappear in a heartbeat.

So what do you think? Is the Wii destined for a downfall, or is this just a mid-life crisis?

by Ben Silverman

This young prodigy from Singapore is fluent in six programming languages, according to a BBC report this week, and his newest creation, an iPhone drawing game called Doodle Kids, has racked up over 4,000 downloads in just two weeks. He wrote it for his younger sisters, who love to draw.

Doodle Kids, which lets players sketch with their fingers on the iPhone’s screen and shake it, Etch-A-Sketch-style, to clear, has already racked up a healthy three-and-a-half star rating on the App Store. One reviewer commented: “Awesome app!…Amazing that something like this was made by a 9 year old”.

Want to try it out for yourself? If you have iTunes installed, you can find it right here, for free.

By Mike Smith

So says the global boss of 2K Games, Christoph Hartmann, and at least in the opinion of video game critics, he’s on to something. Using figures from review aggregation site Metacritic.com, almost half of Wii games released since the console launched in 2006 have scored below 65%, compared with about a third of Xbox 360 and PS3 titles. And 65% is a pretty crappy aggregate score, considering that many game review sites rarely score below 50%.

Raise the bar to 85%, and the difference is even more pronounced: 360 owners can play twice as many games rated above 85% as Wii owners, while the PS3 nearly triples Nintendo’s numbers.

Broadly, this problem isn’t Nintendo’s fault. In fact, without sterling first-party games like Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Wii’s situation would be far worse. Nintendo-developed games, with the possible exception of Wii Music, are a beacon of quality in a sea of, as Hartmann so indelicately puts it, crap.

Fortunately, this situation isn’t lost on most consumers. According to game sales authority NPD Group, the top ten best-selling Wii games — titles like Mario Kart, Wii Fit, and last year’s number one game, Wii Play — accounted for about 44% of all Wii game purchases in 2008. The remaining 56% spanned over 400 other titles.

That’s not the worst of it. Sales of Wii games that reviewed poorly (including 2K Games’ own Carnival Games, which aggregated a dismal 56%) eclipse those of many of the Wii’s real gems, including the breathtaking Okami, the superb Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and even the lighthearted, family-friendly Steven Spielberg project Boom Blox, which should have been a perfect fit for the Wii’s unprecedentedly broad audience. The Wii has a curious ability to make big hits out of low-scoring games.

Perhaps it’s the critics’ fault. Do video game reviewers, who typically boast decades of gaming experience and a deep affinity for the integrity of video games as a serious pursuit, miss the point of casual-friendly Wii sales hits like Carnival Games? Perhaps, but the connection isn’t as tempting as it might appear. Because Roger Ebert lists La Dolce Vita and Aguirre: Wrath of God among his top-ten films, should we assume, when he slams Bride Wars, he’s doing it because he’s elitist and doesn’t understand movie consumers? Or maybe he just knows what makes a crap movie.

By and large, consumers do, too. Who, once burnt by a tempting but terrible Wii game like Ford Racing Off-Road or Jenga: World Tour, would not be hesitant to take a chance on a genuinely outstanding title like Zack & Wiki or Boom Blox? If they buy games at all, consumers will limit their picks to reliable names, while the delightful upstart games to which the Wii is so suited will sink beneath the tide of crap. At worst, they’ll be so disgruntled that they’ll shelve the Wii altogether, relegated to a dust-gathering embarrassment that’s pulled out for a token Wii Sports or Wii Fit session once every few months.

So what can you do about it? Get educated. Without good resources, your odds of dodging bad games are not favorable. Sites like metacritic.com and gamerankings.com both provide great jumping-off points for research. Best of all, take a web-enabled phone with you to the store and you can look them up right before you buy. Although it’s true that some reviewers miss the point of broad-appeal titles like Tetris Party or Monopoly, the majority will at least help you dodge the crap.

By Mike Smith

Instead, the game’s software told her she was fat. Understandably, her father wasn’t happy.

“She is a perfectly healthy, 4ft 9in tall 10-year-old who swims, dances and weighs only six stone (84 lbs). She is solidly built but not fat. She was devastated to be called fat and we had to work hard to convince her she isn’t.”

Obesity experts in the U.K. are working equally hard taking Nintendo to task for failing to warn parents that Wii Fit isn’t appropriate for younger kids. At the center of the debate is the game’s use of the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a means of judging the health of its players. After standing on the game’s innovative Balance Board peripheral and entering basic information like height and weight, the game doles out an overall BMI number as well as a label, such as “underweight,” “ideal,” or in some cases, “fat.” While the somewhat callous system is reasonably accurate in determining the BMI of adults, a child’s BMI can literally change from day to day. Experts have deemed its use in Wii Fit misleading.

“I’m absolutely aghast that children are being told they are fat,” said Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum. “BMI is far from perfect but with children it simply should not be used. A child’s BMI can change every month and it is perfectly possible for a child to be stocky, yet still very fit.”

Nintendo apologized for the terminology used to describe players, but stopped short of actually adding a warning to the game.

“Wii Fit is still capable of measuring the BMI for people aged between two and 20 but the resulting figures may not be entirely accurate for younger age groups due to varying levels of development,” the company said through a spokesman.

Nintendo’s exergame is already a bona fide international hit, selling out quickly in both Japan and Europe. The game releases in North America on May 19.

By Ben Silverman

So what’s the deal? Most gamers are accustomed to a period of limited availability right after a new console comes out, typically in the fall run-up to the holiday shopping season. In the past, it’s been rare that console shortages continue into the following year. But here we are, closing in on 18 months after the Wii’s release in 2006, and you still can’t find one outside of Ebay.

Much of the problem is down to the Wii’s sheer popularity. Now officially the most popular console of this generation, well over 20 million Wiis have rolled out of Nintendo’s manufacturing plants since the launch, compared with about 10 million PS3s in the same amount of time. Even Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which has been on the market a full year longer than the Wii, can only muster sales of about 18 million. But hey, you actually have a reasonable chance of finding one at your local megamart — at least until Grand Theft Auto IV comes out.

Meanwhile, analysts the world over are betting on the PS3. After a disappointing performance last year, both in sales and software support, it’s looking like 2008 might bring much better news for Sony fans. Great exclusive games like Metal Gear Solid 4 and LittleBigPlanet are just around the corner, the newly-released DualShock 3 controller brings back rumble support, and Sony’s consistent firmware updates continue to expand the PS3′s already impressive multimedia capabilities. No wonder it outsold the Xbox 360 in both January and Febuary.

Speaking of the 360, the demise of the HD-DVD movie format has the rumor mill buzzing. Will Microsoft embrace Sony’s format and produce a Blu-Ray movie drive for the 360, or will it rely on its Xbox Live download service as the console’s only high-def movie source? Numerous optical drive manufacturers have been linked to the scuttlebutt, but so far steadfast denials from Redmond have been the only official word. Anyone expect that to stop the chatter? No, thought not.

Although the Wii’s lead is formidable, the spring’s biggest console battle isn’t going to include Nintendo at all. It’s just a few short weeks until Grand Theft Auto IV, one of the year’s biggest games, releases simultaneously on the 360 and PS3. How will the sales stack up between the platforms? How many GTA buyers will be picking up a new console to play it, and how will they split? The 360 is cheaper and boasts the promise of exclusive downloadable content, but on the other hand, those Blu-Ray movies look mighty sexy on a good TV.

By Mike Smith

With over 64 million Nintendo DS owners in the world and a monster music game franchise like Guitar Hero (over 14 million games sold in the U.S.), it’s no wonder Activision is giving living room rockers a chance to take their show on the road. Available this summer, Guitar Hero: On Tour brings the series’ fret-burning fun exclusively to Nintendo portable game system.

And that includes the guitar — sort of. Rather than make you haul a big plastic axe everyone you go, Guitar Hero: On Tour comes equipped with a space-saving new peripheral called the Guitar Grip that effectively simulates the guitar controller used in the console games. Simply plug it into the DS and you’ve got four familiar colored fret buttons to work with. The game also ships with a custom-made guitar pick stylus, allowing players to essentially “strum” the DS touch screen.

Over 20 songs will ship with Guitar Hero: On Tour, including tracks by such bands as OK Go and No Doubt. No other groups have been confirmed so far, though Activision has stated that most of the songs will be exclusive to Guitar Hero: On Tour and over 80 percent will be master recordings rather than sound-alikes.

Activision also announced a few multiplayer modes, including a new “Guitar Duel” mode that will allow two players in the same room to wail against one another in a head-to-head rock-off. Players will be able to use power-ups similar to the ones featured in Guitar Hero III, but tailored to suit the technical capabilities of the DS. For example, you’ll be able to set another player’s guitar on fire and score big points while they frantically blow into the DS microphone to put it out.

by YVG Staff

Yet the Wii is a gaming phenomenon and, unlike the Playstation 3, includes no technology of note that hasn’t been around for many years.

So why aren’t we soaking in Wiis? Have a look at some of the conspiracy theories on the Internet, strictly for your amusement:

First there’s the obvious, that Nintendo is artificially keeping supply low in order to keep demand high throughout 2007. That would make sense if Nintendo was charging higher prices now. But it isn’t, and so it’s losing out on millions every week by failing to fulfill demand and possibly losing sales to other consoles.

Also popular: Big box retailers are hoarding them for big sale days. The idea is that if they advertise Wiis on the weekend, they’ll get big traffic on those days and sell lots of paper towels and Pokemon junk (specifically mentioned are Target and Toys R Us). I can’t speak to this, but it sounds plausible at least.

On the more absurd side: A variety of lawsuits have stopped Nintendo from producing more consoles. Ok, except it is still producing consoles, just not enough for everyone.

A game store employee offered this to one Yahoo! Tech shopper: “Nintendo is at the end of its fiscal year so they aren’t sending them out.” Well, he said “physical year,” but we know what he meant. And unfortunately, that argument is inane. When companies get near the end of a fiscal year, they invariably try to sell more, not less, as it makes the numbers look better.

And of course, A-list NBA players have all the consoles. Even B-list players can’t get them.

And here’s an interesting twist: Independent Wii developers can’t even get hardware, as Wii publishers have taken all the consoles.

What’s the truth? Well, it should be obvious, if you’ve ever bought a game console in the past: Gaming companies are notorious for mismanaging their launches by not having enough product on hand for release, and being unable to fulfill demand for months at a time. The Xbox 360 was tough to get for close to a year, if you’ll recall, and like the Wii it doesn’t feature any outrageously next-gen technology.

What can you do to get one? Be patient. Shop on eBay or Craigslist if you’re desperate. And make friends with someone at a store that sells Wii hardware so you can get in line early the day they come in. Or just do what I do: Enjoy your PS2 and 360 for the time being.

By Christopher Null

Cheating is often the key to success for video gamers like 1UP.com Editor-in-Chief Sam Kennedy, who is bringing cheat code swapping sites out of the dark ages so gamers can get more bang for their gaming buck.

“The one thing that’s universal across games is that at some point everyone has gotten stuck,” said Kennedy, although he acknowledges that today’s gamers use cheat sites for more than just getting unstuck.

“If you’re spending $60 on a game, you want to get your money’s worth. Games are massive worlds these days and there’s not just one pass through them,” said Kennedy, who led the launch late last year of MyCheats.com, a new site from Ziff Davis Game Group.

While cheating can get you blackballed in competitive video game play, solo cheating is widely practiced – even if not always admitted.

This has given rise to dozens of dedicated Web sites, including GameSpot’s (Nasdaq:CNET – news) GameFAQs.com, CheatPlanet.com, CheatCodes.com, CheatCC.com and the cheat sections at IGN.com and GameSpy.com.

Kennedy said that some popular sites catering to the cheat code trade seem as dated as your father’s Atari 2600, with reams of text documents that are hard to navigate.

“Nothing has changed in the cheats space, until now,” said Kennedy, who incorporated the latest in Web-based information trading tools into MyCheats.com.

Think of it as a mash-up of social sites like MySpace.com and user-created content sites like
Wikipedia.org, Craigslist.org and Digg.com.

“Gamers really do like to share their passion and their knowledge,” said Kennedy, who noted that gamers are also early technology adopters who embraced blogging long before it hit mainstream popularity.

MyCheats.com invites users to submit and edit content for the site’s cheat database and its “super” strategy guides. They will also have the opportunity to rate content, the best of which will be given prominent placement on the site.

Cheat codes are special series of button punches that let developers test game code and jump past certain levels. Game makers have started leaving the codes in games and releasing them over time directly to gamers or through Web sites, magazines or book publishers.

Sometimes the cheat codes are unintentional bugs discovered by players that give a boost to gameplay. Others are “Easter eggs” that are intentionally put into the game for players to find.

Among other things, the codes might allow a character to regain full health, to start a level with a menacing weapon or to acquire in-game cash. Game companies like Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS – news) and Ubisoft (UBIP.PA) have long used the codes to reignite interest in a game that has been out for several months and are increasingly using the codes for marketing campaigns on milk cartons and elsewhere.

University of North Florida student Jonathan Jakes-Schauer said cheat sites go against his principles, unless he’s missing something obvious or he is replaying a game and wants to squeeze every ounce of entertainment out of it.

“Figuring out how to do things is a part of the fun,” he said, admitting he has “compromised his principles just a bit” while playing Square Enix’s (9684.T) popular role-playing game “Kingdom Hearts.”

By Lisa Baertlein