First, Nintendo announced the Wii, proclaiming that it would revolutionize gaming with its motion controls. It worked well, but not as well as it could have. The Wiimote itself only uses an accelerometer to determine movement and orientation; it doesn’t have a gyroscope. A few years later, Nintendo announced the Wii Motion Plus, an accessory that added a gyroscope to the Wiimote, making it more precise. Instead of, say, building the gyroscope into new Wiimotes and still offering the accessory to users with old ones, Nintendo continues to “enhance” the gaming experience solely through a little plastic block you snap onto the bottom of your remote.

That’s where Nyko came in. The gaming peripheral company originally made the Wand, one of the first third-party Wii controllers on the market. After the Wii Motion Plus came out, it put 2 and 2 together and came up with the Wand+, a Wii controller with the Wii Motion Plus gyroscope sensor built right into it. The more I handle this remote, the more I wonder why Nintendo didn’t do it first.

I’m not a mature person. I freely admit that I laugh at some pretty stupid things. That’s probably why I haven’t stopped giggling since I received this week’s Gamestop ad in my email. If you preorder Donkey Kong Country Returns from Gamestop, you get a free banana pouch. For your Wiimote. You can just… carry around your Wiimote in your banana pouch.

If loving dick jokes is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

The DSi sequel to beloved GameBoy Color game Shantae finally has a release date. On October 4th, the newest entry in the series will be “ret-2-go!” The original Shantae is a platformer based around a half-genie in charge of protecting Port Town, a small fishing community. After nefarious pirate Risky Boots steals a prototype steam engine, Shantae quests through all of Sequin Land to get it back, utilizing her ponytail as a whip and transforming into various animals. And she belly dances too.

The Shantae series is yet another series that I’ve felt rather bad for. Despite its quality, it’s never gotten the respect it deserves. It came out a good deal after the GameBoy Advance had already taken over as the prime handheld, and the less than amazing sales of the first game did the sequel no favors in getting made. In fact, the sheer existance of this game in a testament to the fanbase and to Shantae creator Matt Bozon. Matt Bozon actually created Shantae in his spare time and also did much work on an unreleased GBA sequel titled Shantae Advance. But due to the low sales of the original, retailers and analysts recommended multiple platformed release or some type of cross-media tie-in.

In a 2007 response to an IGN fanmail, Bozon mentions how they would make a version of Shantae everytime they got a new platform. Shantae has been made “on Gamecube, GBA, DS and Wii, and a few other dabblings in mobile and Plug and Play, and web, and somewhat of a false start on PSP.” Nintendo Power had previously revealed that this was the first in a trilogy, though I don’t know if this is still true. Hopefully, this eight year lapse will herald a glorious return for the franchise.

Help! My fridge is being attacked by pixelated aliens!

Next to the Dragon Quest magnets from last week, these are the coolest magnets that could ever grace a fridge. They’re just Space Invaders units, ready to slap onto a fridge, file cabinet, or any other metal surface to recreate a screen from one of the most famous video games ever made.

If you love FPS games on your iPhone, you may want to try Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus. As a game that promises multiplayer capabilities, a large variety of weapons and loads of shooting and killing, Modern Combat 2 really does seem to push the boundaries for what has so far evolved on the smartphone gaming platforms. I was able to get some hands-on time with the game recently at Gameloft’s studios here in NYC, and though it didn’t seem like the final version the game certainly didn’t seem to disappoint at all.

Good Old Games has built up a tremendous amount of good will from the gaming community in the two years since it launched. Offering classic, out-of-print, DRM-free games tweaked to run on modern computers with extremely reasonable $6-10 price tags was a brilliant way to get nostalgic PC gamers to fall in love with the company. Now, GOG may have piddled most of that good will away due to a spectacularly ill-conceived PR stunt.

GOG.com disappeared Sunday, with the cryptic message, “This doesn’t mean the idea behind GOG.com is gone forever. We’re closing down the service and putting this era behind us as new challenges await.” As a result, users who didn’t make local backups of the games they purchased were effectively locked out for days, and it seemed like they would never get their games back. Earlier, GOG announced that it was all a marketing gimmick to promote the end of its two-year “beta” cycle and the launch of the newest version of its service.

It was a spectacularly ill-conceived and poorly-executed gimmick, and one that may have alienated many of the service’s customers. GOG has released a half-hearted mea culpa for the stunt, saying they would like to “apologize everyone who felt deceived or harmed in any way by us closing down GOG.com without any warning and without giving access to your games.” All considered, GOG really should have just gone with a press release and a service outage warning for the upgrade.

GOG 2.0 launched Thursday September 23 at 8:00 a.m. EST.

Civilization 5 launched yesterday in North America, so many of those who have so ravenously anticipated the latest in the turn-based empire-building series are probably playing as we speak. However, for those who are still on the fence – or who live in Europe, where the game doesn’t hit until Friday – here’s some enticement to draw you in (or draw you back).

Firaxis has released another trailer that has some slick gameplay video alongside in-game cinematics, but the new demo is probably of greater interest. If you’re ready to skip the foreplay and just dive straight into some Civ goodness, it’s up on Steam for $49.99. Just don’t blame us when you start having problems with your spouse/significant other/parents/kids/pets over the phrase “Just one more turn.”

For decades, Samus Aran has been synonymous with strong female role models in video games. She was one of the first, and she was easily one of the best. Her game portfolio rivals Mario’s and Link’s for quality, with almost every chapter turning out to be a system selling title. Like Mario and Link, she has always been the silent hero, saying very little as she saved world after world.

I have no idea why Nintendo thought it would be a good idea to put her in the hands of Team Ninja, a developer best known for its unhealthy fixation with jiggle physics. Ever since it was announced that Team Ninja would develop Metroid: Other M, gamers have been worried that Samus would be re-imagined as a scantily-clad, midriff-showing amazon whose assets wobble more than the metroids’ gelatinous bodies. The good news is that didn’t happen. The bad news is that any objectification and misogyny that would have gone into her character design instead went into her personality. Team Ninja made Samus worse than an air-headed, bouncy bimbo. They made her weak.

So, remember that Pokémon trailer from a few days back? As it turns out, it was viral marketing for a Pokémon fanfilm. More details can be found at ShogunGamer’s interview with the creators.

I find it interesting how so many fan films are nailing what Hollywood has failed so harded at. I mean, look at Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, Street Fighter: Legacy, and Street Fighter: Beginning’s End. Compare to Resident Evil: Afterlife, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-li, or even the flawed yet entertaining Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Even stuff that’s only inspired by games (such as Dead Fantasy, the Awesome Series, and Super Mario Bros Z) is still able to capture the spirit of their respective games. I guess it’s the difference between being motivated by passion versus being motivated by money.

It all started with the God of War Collection. Then came the Sly Collection. The next was the Team Ico collection. Now add three more to the rumor mill, as Joystiq has found out evidence of a Mortal Kombat: HD Acade Kollection via a GameStop listing, while VG247 has found listings for the Splinter Cell Trilogy and the Prince of Persia Trilogy listed on European retailer Zavvi.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of any of these; in August, Amazon France had Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia listed while ShopTo had the Mortal Kombat listed. All pages have since been pulled, but it’s looking more and more likely that the two titles do exist. The Mortal Kombat: HD Arcade Kollection is to ship on November 16th, the Splinter Cell Trilogy is set for November 26th, and the Prince of Persia Trilogy is not to come out until March 11th of next year. It is expected that the Mortal Kombat game is expected be a compilation of Mortal Kombat 1, 2, and 3, the Splinter Cell game will probably consist of Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and the Prince of Persia game is likely the Sands of Time trilogy, which is Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. All are expected to have the budget price of 39.99USD.