The black Wii and red DSi are coming from Nintendo Japan, not Colorware. The black Wii (aka “KURO Wii”) has been rumored for over two years now. It’s nice to finally have some color options for both the Wii and DSi.

The black Wii with black Wiimote, nunchuck, and classic controller will hit Japan on August 1st for ¥25,000 and the ¥18,900 red DSi on July 11th.

When the Wii first launched it didn’t take long for a myriad of accessories to spring up for the console. You could get swords, shields, and sports equipment made of foam or plastic to slip your controllers into for more realism.

With the new Wii MotionPlus accessory coming all of the accessories that gamers have collected for the Wii will need to be replaced. Sakar has announced that it will be launching a full line of accessories for Wii MotionPlus equipped controllers.

That’s right, it’s a shoe with Nintendo inside. This shoe has a fully-functional original Nintendo Entertainment System built in, so you can enjoy all of the classics right from your foot. It’s got sole. Insert a sports game and you have a case of athletes foot.

We covered this literally a year ago, but since all the other gadget blogs wanna act like it’s new, we figured we’d share it again. Just for Kicks. Get it? Kicks?

One of the must own games in the glory days of the Nintendo system was Metroid Prime. Any gamer around when the game was new probably played it at one point. Metroid is also one of the first games I recall seeing a commercial on TV for.

Nintendo has announced that it will be bringing the Metroid Prime trilogy to the Wii with all three games on a single disc. The games will have a unified menu that allows players to choose which game they want to play.

One of the best old school Nintendo games from my youth was Punch Out. I remember thinking how badly the game cheated when I couldn’t beat that fat guy, only to realize you had to punch his jiggly belly then hit him in the jaw.

Yesterday marked the return of Punch Out with the launch of the game for the Nintendo Wii. Like the boxing mini game in Wii Sports, Punch Out uses the Nunchuck and Wii Remote to allow players to actually throw punches in the game. Sounds like a workout for sure.

Today at GDC09, Masato Kuwahara, project leader on the development of the Nintendo DSi, gave people a first-ever glimpse at two Game Boy spin-offs that never were. The first a is hefty predecessor to the Game Boy Advance; the second a touch-screen GBA SP.

Kuwahara says that the unnamed Game Boy Color successor was in development in 1995/96 and based on a 32-bit ARM RISC processor. The second, more recent R&D project was essentially a Game Boy Advance SP with a touch-screen over its flip-up display. The guts of the unit were actually from a Game Boy Color. It “was not well received” by Nintendo management.

This toaster rejects bread in favor of NES titles, which are far more delicious. Created by the same modder behind the Nintoaster, this mod is just as heart healthy.

This followup is part toaster, part Super Nintendo, and is perfect for any geek kitchen. We’re hoping that the toaster/console trend keeps on keeping on, because there are still a whole bunch that need to be assimilated. Video below.

Ever wonder what Mario would look like if he had been created by an old world Russian doll maker? Cmsturmhous has posted this handmade set of Matryoshka dolls showing a whole bunch of characters from the games. From Mario and Luigi, the princess, Bowser, to Toad.

They all look like they need to go on a diet, especially Mario who is the largest. No way this version can jump as high as a coin box or smash a Goomba. Pretty cool. Now I want to play a fat Mario game, where the Mushroom kingdom is over-run by twinkies and my job is to get Mario in shape as I try to rescue the fat Princess, who is in Bowser’s dungeon eating a gallon of ice cream and a turkey leg.

NVIDIA is making the best of its purchase of Ageia several years ago and is aggressively rolling out its PhysX platform for computers and game consoles. The first physics effects added to early video games were not that cool, but more recent games like Mirrors Edge were fantastic when PhysX enabled.

NVIDIA has announced that it has been approved by Nintendo, as a third party solutions provider for the Wii console and the PhysX SDK is now available to registered Wii developers. NVIDIA says that the SDK includes a full-featured set of APIs along with a robust physics engine that gives game designers control over the character and its physical interactions.

When you have a popular product all sorts of things, both good and bad, come along with that. You have to deal with copycat products and lawsuits form companies trying to get in on the action. The Nintendo Wii is the most popular game console around and as a result, Nintendo has had to fight several patent infringement suits over the innovative console.

A judge in Tyler, Texas has tossed out a patent infringement lawsuit brought by a company called Fenner Investments against Nintendo. The suit alleged that the Wii console along with its controllers and the GameCube infringed upon patents held by Fenner.

Why be bored at work, when you can build your own version of Mario Kart? Made using bits and pieces that you have around your desk already. Donald Kenny created this awesome little Mario sculpture. It’s right up there with the Starship Enterprise built from office supplies.

It’s made using coins, binder clips, wire, and other found office supplies. Have your buddies build some others, like Bowser, Koopa and Toad. Plus create some small turtle shells and bananas and soon you will be racing in the break room.

When it comes to pure portable gaming consoles there are two choices — the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS. You can play games on other devices on the go, like the iPhone and iPod touch, but the DS and PSP are the only dedicated portable gaming systems.

Nintendo has announced that it has now shipped 100 million Nintendo DS consoles since the systems were introduced. The original DS launched in 2004 and offered dual screens and voice recognition, something not offered on other portable consoles.

Looking for a neat place to hide those game codes as well as your various tiny trinkets and doodads? Well, here it is. A trinket box in the form of an original classic NES controller.

It’s from Etsy seller GeekGear. All of the buttons are glued into place, making look just as it did before it was modified. Great for keys, spare change, a thin usb stick may even fit inside. It’s storage is a little limited since the inside plastic has not been sanded down, but we love the simplicity of it.

Nintendo has the most popular and best selling game console on the market thanks to its Nintendo Wii. The system is still hard to find in many areas. The Nintendo DS is also the most popular portable game console and the latest version the DS is set to continue that tradition.

We mentioned last week that the DSi was available for pre-order at both Amazon.com and GameStop. This week Walmart.com announced that it too was offering a preorder system for gamers looking to get a DSi console.

Someone has taken an old NES controller and modded it into The Compwnent USB Nintendo Controller mouse by adding a new chip and USB cable. It will work with any OS. We’re not sure how comfortable it would be to use, but it’s not like it will injure your wrist over time. Why not?

It will show up as “Compwnent USB NES Controller” on your device list and boasts a Mouse Mode. Hit A, B, Start & Select simultaneously and you can use the D-pad and A/B buttons to control mouse movement and left/right click! The NES Controller will cost you $35.