Nintendo has just announced that the Nintendo Wii retail price will drop to $149.99 beginning May 15th, and it will include a free copy of Mario Kart and the Wii Wheel accessory as well. This bundle replaces the bundled Wii Sports game that used to come with the system, and we have to admit, this is an amazing deal and a great way to help revitalize sales of the Wii system and games. Nintendo also lets us know that it is into color coordination, because the steering wheel and the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers match the color console you purchase — white or black. Not bad, Nintendo, not bad. Hit the break for the full press release.

Nintendo Unveils New Wii Package at $149.99, Launches ‘Nintendo Selects’ $19.99 Wii Games

Having Fun with Family and Friends Just Became More Affordable than Ever With New Suggested Retail Pricing

REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nintendo is dropping the suggested retail price of its Wii™ system to $149.99 and including a Mario™ game with the Wii hardware. Starting May 15, the newly priced Wii system will come in either black or white with the Mario Kart™ Wii game and a matching colored Wii Wheel™ accessory, replacing the previously included Wii Sports™ and Wii Sports Resort™ games.

Also on May 15, Nintendo launches the new Nintendo® Selects collection of Wii games, a set of popular games that millions of people have already experienced, at a suggested retail price of $19.99. The four must-own games in this collection are The Legend of Zelda™: Twilight Princess, Animal Crossing™: City Folk, Mario™ Super Sluggers and Wii Sports, which is available for the first time as a separate software purchase. Parents and video game fans can now easily expand their library of fun, family-friendly Wii games.

“From the day it launched, Wii has let players of all ages and experience levels have fun with one another,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “The new suggested retail pricing for both the hardware and select games will help create more of these magical moments for even greater numbers of people.”

With Mario Kart Wii now included with the Wii hardware, players will be able to enjoy fun go-kart racing with Mario and all his Mushroom Kingdom pals right out of the box. The Wii Remote™ Plus controller, Nunchuk™ controller and Wii Wheel included in the package will all match the hardware, meaning they will be either black or white. The new black Wii Wheel will also be available separately at a suggested retail price of $9.99.

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://wii.com.

Yes. Performance Designed Products has just unveiled the Wii accessory every Wii user has been waiting for — even if he or she didn’t know it. That’s right people, say hello to the Energizer Induction Charging System for Wii. PDP’s Energizer-branded line of accessories packs a few gems but none as sweet as this new Wiimote charging dock, which makes use of wireless induction charging technology to facilitate contact-free charging of Wiimotes. Badass. Users won’t even have to remove the protective sleeves or wrist straps from their Wiimotes; just plop that sucker on the charging dock and let induction do its thing. The dock can also be laid flat so Wii MotionPlus users won’t even have to disconnect the adapters to juice up their controllers. Fantastic. The Energizer Induction Charging System for Wii is slated to hit stores next month for $49.99 — a bargain at twice the price.

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Using a series of extremely sophisticated environments and 1,440 bit graphics, Sixense used CES 2009 rekindle interest in its next evolutionary step in gaming controllers. Okay, maybe the demo scenarios weren’t quite as impressive as that, but Sixense’s TrueMotion gaming controller is nothing short of awesome. Evolutionary is certainly the keyword here as Nintendo did the grunt work in terms of bringing motion-based game controls to the masses, but TrueMotion takes the concepts put forth by the Wiimote and other motion-based options and really moves them a giant leap forward. Using a base station that creates an electromagnetic field around the gamer, TrueMotion allows for a much more responsive experience that is infinitely more precise. The solution will be compatible with existing games along with games designed specifically with Sixense’s controllers in mind. We’ll let Sixense’s demo video, an oldie but goodie, do the rest of the talking. We do however, now finally have firmed up timing and pricing set by the company – expect TrueMotion to become available for PC by year-end 2009 for around $100 (one remote bundled with a game).

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Is iFun cool? Yes, very much so. Is risking the livelihood of your iPhone or iPod Touch in the name of gaming a good idea? Well, the jury is still out on that one. As seen in the relatively cheesy video above, iFun is a gaming suite by SGN that allows users to connect to a computer and use an iPhone or iPod Touch as a motion-controller while playing games. It’s reportedly a bit laggy, but still a very cool use case for Apple’s touchy devices. Still, we have to recommend you tread with caution here as there’s a reason the Wiimote has a wrist strap – to prevent it from flying out of your hand and impaling your TV. It’s one thing to sacrifice a $30 Wiimote to the gods of gaming but it’ll be hard to shrug off a $200+ loss when that iPhone slips out of your hand and smashes all over your wall or desk. Our advice? Listen to Shaq: “The law of physics states that a body in motion stays in motion. And if you have two objects that meet in the air, the smaller object is going to fall much harder at the same rate of speed it was going.”

[Via Gadget Lab]

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