Let me start off by saying: Did I fall asleep and miss everyone striking oil in their backyard? Well, apparently so. And it seems that we need still more jewel-encrusted devices(This is worse then the Bedazzler making Jean jacket wearers into Rhinestone Cowboys in the 80′s.), since Crystal Icing wants to embellish your DS Lite with images of Mario and a flying Koopa for $350.

If that doesn’t satisfy your attraction to shiny objects, how about a custom Wii console covered with thousands of Swarovski crystals? One Wii pimped out in a Zelda theme was detailed with over 7500 24-Karat gold-dipped crystals. If you are interested in the price, you’ll have to follow the link. I’m too scared to look.

I don’t know about you, but I have been meaning to hack my Nintendo DS so it can play more then just DS and GBA games. I just hate the idea of cracking it open and messing up big time. Thanks to this DS Famicom Adapter, I won’t have to worry.

It will let you play old Famicom (NES) games right on your DS. An adapter may be needed to play American NES games using it, it’s too early to know for sure, but who cares. You will be playing the classics on your Nintendo DS in no time. So what if those cartridges were huge and clunky. When you combine 2 systems in one device, the results are always cool. It hooks directly into your DS Lite’s GBA adapter slot.

In a strange bit of Nintendo Wii/Mii news is the tale of the soldier serving in Iraq who sent his Wii home to the states just before he was headed home himself. When he got home his friends told him that his wife might have been less then faithful while he was away. His wife claimed she’d only kissed the suspect, a professional bowler, one time.

He might have dismissed it perhaps, but then he visited the Mii channel and saw a Mii that he didn’t create. Then he went into the Wii message board and saw the calendar option that showed the many nights his wife’s Mii and this other Mii played Wii bowling together. The Pro bowler’s Mii bore a striking resemblance to the man. So the husband has now filed for divorce.

Nintendo is celebrating its first year anniversary for the Wii with more good news. In the first week of release for its heavily anticipated title “Super Mario Galaxy” over 500,000 copies of the game were sold by retailers. This distinction places SMG as the bestselling Wii video game to date. It’s also one of the best reviewed games in Nintendo’s entire history with many publications calling it to be a top candidate for Game of the Year honors.

While Microsoft will likely put out its own press release next week to hype the anticipated big sales of its new IP “Mass Effect” it will also probably try and steal some thunder from SMG’s big sales by pointing out that its flagship title “Halo 3″ sold over 2.7 million copies worldwide within the game’s first seven days of release this past September. To be fair to Nintendo their 500K figure only includes domestic sales of “Super Mario Galaxy” but as PC World’s gaming blog points out its estimates for European and Japanese sales of the game would still peg the title at below 1 million units sold for launch week. So is Mario still as popular worldwide as Master Chief or has a new king of video games finally been crowned?

It’s about time we start seeing some Jedi action on the Wii. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is headed to the Wii next Spring, but in the meantime you can get your Star Wars fix with this new lightsaber attachment. You can get it now from Play.com.

A few features are a power up/down effect for saber glow. It can also be dimmed down. It sports 22 ultra-bright LEDs and an on/off switch. You’ll need 3 AA cells to keep it lit. These are scheduled to ship later this very month. $31 is all it takes to be a very happy Jedi.

To qoute Ben Kenobi, “The light saber is an elegant weapon from a more civilized age.”

2 great new bundles from Nintendo. Looks like they are taking the boy/girl route here. For the boys, the Gold model comes with Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and sports a special Triforce logo on the DS. For the girls(presumably), the Metallic Rose model gives you Nintendogs and adds a paw print in place of the Zelda logo.

Other then the colors and logos being new, you’ll get the same old DS Lite you know and love. If you are a fan of repackaged Nintendo handhelds that have had a repaint, you can pick one up for about $130.

Black Friday is fast approaching and although the Nintendo Wii has held strong as the leader in U.S. game console sales for the past year it may not be the case for long. When we first heard Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime talk about Wii console production shortages we suspected it was part of a marketing plan to create a greater demand for the consoles. After all, creating a sense of urgency is one of the most common sales tactics around.

Now that we are into Thanksgiving week and one of the biggest retail shopping days of the year is within site, where are all the Wii’s at? I’m starting to think that this is not part of a marketing scheme and that Nintendo really doesn’t have enough, although it is still surprising to me. The company has had a clear lead in console sales all year long and have been under demand the whole time. We’ve been reporting about the lack of availability as far back as January and Nintendo has had almost a year to catch up.

Anyone who’s had a chance to play the Nintendo Wii has probably also had the opportunity to represent themselves on the game console as a cartoon-like Mii character. Most probably try to make an accurate likeness of themselves but many create Mii alter-egos or try to recreate a well-known likeness. There’s even been Celebrity Mii design contests to see who can use the Mii editor to make the best celebrity Mii look-a-likes such as the likeness of Jack Black pictured here.

Well, all the fun people are having with these Mii’s hasn’t gone unnoticed by Nintendo and in response on Sunday the company will add the “Check Mii Out Channel” to the Wii menu lineup. For those that have their Nintendo Wii connected to the internet the new channel will be offered as a free download through the WiiWare section of the Wii Shop channel.

Here’s the latest in Wii attachments(It’s like the Wii is a vacuum) from dreamGear. A wireless gun that is compatible with all Wii shooting games and first-person shooters. Basically what they have done here is combine the Wiimote and the Nunchuck controllers into a single device. Of course it can be used by either left handed or right handed players and will kill a large variety of bad guys.

It’s kinda cool looking in a vintage Sci-Fi movie way. Looks pretty comfortable too. The price is $34.99 each. It arrives just in time for Christmas.

Even those who love the wii and own every attachment known to man will have to admit that the Wii fishing rod from Dragon may be taking things a bit too far. It attaches to the end of the Wiimote and even includes a telescoping rod with faux fishing line. If that wasn’t enough, they also saw fit to include a fake plastic fish to dangle from your fake fishing rod.

At $9.95 I guess it’s worth buying for the Wii lover who has to own everything, but be prepared to experience alot of laughter and ridicule from your loved ones. I would at the very least strongly advise you to ditch the fake fish and never speak of it again.

The remote extensions in these Wii accessories from dreamGear are made from a “soft and safe material”. In other words, you can get into the game and still have a working TV when you’re done playing.

Just announced, the kit includes a soft foam bat, golf club, and tennis racket, plus a few bonus items. The bonuses are a Wii fan to keep your system cool and a Wii remote glove for a better grip.

China’s clone of the Wii obviously does not have the same quality control that the Wii does. Just look at it. Now known as the Vii, this high tech knock off will cost less because of it. It is a complete clone of the console and the remote.

I know. Made in China right? Aren’t they the guys that just tried to poison us through the toy trade, among other things? Well, yeah. But we are talking a Vii here. What’s a little lead floating through the air and contaminating your room? As long as some form of Wii is available to you, who cares right?

Normally information that a company is doing nothing with their products price is hardly newsworthy, but when the company is game console giant Nintendo and it’s two major competitors are slashing prices for the upcoming holidays it something to take note of. At least that’s what Nintendo would like as the companies U.S. marketing head George Harrison continues to add onto CEO Reggie Fils-Amie’s talk of Wii game console shortages through the holidays.

According to Harrison, the company is currently making decisions in the nick of time on how many consoles Nintendo is going to make available for the U.S. market. With 10 days of shipping involved and the holiday season right around the corner the company still feels they won’t have enough to meet demand. Nintendo has consistently been the current-generation game console to beat leading sales against rivals Microsoft with the Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3.

It sure is looking that way. Rumor is that the Shiny golden DS Lite you see in the lower left of the picture may be headed for retail store shelves soon. That shouldn’t be a big surprise since we are entering into the holiday season. Plus, Nintendo marketing knows that we like shiny objects. Shiny gold objects, especially. Seriously, we aren’t that hard to please.

The above photograph is believed to have been taken at the Nintendo World Store when “Phantom Hourglass” launched. To make things even more interesting, Engadget is claiming that a certain individual is saying that his company has received orders from Nintendo to design graphics for a “BOX, SYST GOLD W/ZELDA: HOUR USG.” Who knows if this is all true. And if it is true, it could just be a limited run for a contest. But since Santa is coming soon, I’m betting an official announcement from Nintendo will proceed him.

If you’ve taken the time to connect your Nintendo Wii to your in-home wireless network you’ll want to check out the new firmware upgrade available for the console. The new version 3.1 can be automatically installed by going to your system settings and selecting the option to upgrade, and in our case it wouldn’t let us use the Shop Channel again until we did.

The firmware upgrade brings support for a USB keyboard to connect to your game console to make surfing the web and entering information a lot, lot easier. Prior to this update it was necessary to use the Wii Remote to navigate a pointer around the screen and select letters from a large keyboard anytime you wanted to type in a URL or fill out any information (including signing up and buying things from the Shop Channel). It was very cumbersome and the new ability to connect a keyboard to one of the two USB ports on the back of the console is a much welcomed feature.