Okay guys, I know I said last week that there would be changes and structure and all that good stuff going on around here. Well, I swear I wasn’t lying to you. It’s just that things right now are ridiculously hectic. As we speak I am surrounded by boxes that are full of all my belongings, my wife left the TV on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” and has left me alone in here without the remote, and I’m pretty sure my laptop hates me and is deciding it is ready to die on me any minute. Oh, and tomorrow I am buying a house, so that means I also get to move. Yeah, woe is me, I know….What all this means to you, the viewer, is that it’s going to have to be quick updates, for today at least. I promise I will get something up for you guys everyday, and hopefully they are substantial. I’ll definitely get at least two of the type of posts that you come to me for, cynicism and all, up this week. Just not tonight. On another note, it’s football season y’all!! I’m not just talking about preseason handegg, but the proper football of the English Premiere League started this weekend and my Red Devils of Manchester United got off to a great start courtesy of Wayne Rooney. God, I love the fall. Finally I’ll have something to watch on a Saturday/Sunday afternoon that’s not classic boxing, tennis, or a Pirates v. Nationals game.

And with that, we have come to the end of the post. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you without something Wii. I know I’ve not talked about it much re: at all, but Rock Band is a huge game. I suckered myself into Guitar Hero:World Tour when it first came out, now it’s covered with dust. It’s fun and all, just not to me. I guess that means that it’s not fun. What is fun is The Beatles, or they were fun. I think. I don’t really know whether they were/are fun at all. I know it seems like I must be some big time celebrity, but I’m not yet on a first name basis with Paul or Ringo (he’s still alive, right?). I am a fan of their music, collectively, not solo work, and The White Album is amazing. (Side note-if you haven’t already, you HAVE to get DJ Dangermouse’s “The Grey Album”. Trust me.) So, a stupidly popular game, and ridiculously popular music, must be a match made in heaven, right? Harmonix is hoping so because the company is releasing “The Beatles:Rock Band” next month, on September 9. Finish the next sentence and you’ll find a trailer for the game. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.

I want to start off today by letting you know that there’s going to be some changes to Wiispin in the coming weeks and months. I know, we fear change, but I hope it’s change for good. Like that good old fashioned Obama change. The changes aren’t going to affect you guys at all, at least it shouldn’t. What it will all boil down to, is that I’m going to try and get more serious about my writing. This is something that I’m passionate about, and if I could parlay writing into a career I would be ecstatic. I’d even be happy if I could somehow get to a spot where people think I’m a professional, so they’d pay me the pro money. Then they’d realize that I’m really just some guy with a laptop and paying a monkey may have been a better investment. So, I’ll be looking into ways of making that happen, which should mean that The Spin (you guys didn’t think I forgot, did you?) should be a more enjoyable place for you. Because you’re the ones who are important, at least until I start getting the big bucks.

You like that post title, don’t you? It invokes a sense of mystery, makes you think “What is he on about?” Well, I’ll tell you, be patient grasshopper. I know that what I’m about to say may upset some of you, but I’m going to say it anyway. I’m glad that Michael Vick got signed by the Eagles today. I feel that he was a man who made a mistake and he paid for it. He deserves a chance to do his job. No matter how much we all may view playing in the NFL as a privilege, to the players it’s their job. If you commit a crime and pay your debt to society, I feel that you have the right to go back to work. That said, I do agree that what he did was horrible and inexcusable. Vick represents a great opportunity for the NFL to showcase that their troubled players can be reformed. I have no doubts that he’ll succeed. On top of all that, he’ll eventually be the QB-2 behind McNabb, who I’m pretty sure will be hurt by December 6. December 6 is when the Eagles come to The Dome to face my Dirty Birds. That’s right, I can almost taste Matty Ice v. Mike Vick. It’s going to be SO epic! What all this means to you, the gamer, the one who probably has already bought Madden 10, is that Vick’s not in the game, not yet at least. Don’t worry though, the team at EA are working on that as we speak.

The Tortoise and the Hare is a story that everyone who wasn’t raised under a rock, and by wolves, has heard. You’ve heard it, I’ve heard it, even the person sitting next to you has heard it. Oh yeah, I’m psychic like that. I’m not here to tell you that tale, despite what the title may have led you to believe. What I’m going to show you are heroes in a half-shell (turtle power!) and some raving mad rabbids. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had numerous games developed in their honor. The earlier games were stupidly hard and almost made you hate Raphael and his cronies. Almost. For everyone who has a bit of animosity towards the turtles, Ubisoft is developing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:Smash-Up. Or, as I like to call it, Super Smash Ninja Turtles. The reason I gave it that moniker is because it’s basically Smash Bros., but with Ninja Turtles. It’s even made by the team behind SSBB, it has nothing to do with me being witty or anything.

Another title that Ubisoft is bring us is Rabbids Go Home. If you ask me (Why do I say that? It’s not like I’m going to wait for you to ask, or even if you did ask I’d answer…), the Rabbids have worn a bit thin. When they first showed up to terrorize Rayman and amuse us with hilarious gifs, they were a welcome change. This was mainly because they made mini-games super enjoyable. But then they had a sequel. Rabbids 2 was okay, but nowhere near the original. That wasn’t enough though, then came the catastrophe that was TV Party. Fail isn’t even the word to describe that game so I’ll just stop. Now, Ubi are bringing the Rabbids into our homes one more time by presenting their quest to return to their own homes. Some marketing genius at Ubisoft brilliantly though of calling this game Rabbis Go Home. You see, that’s the position I need, that guy probably gets paid major dollars, and just to think, “Hmm..it has rabbids and they’re trying to go home..Rabbids Go Home!” Yup, I’m a bit sour. The thing I want to know is, is this the last we’ll see of the rabbids? Or will they make it home and then we’ll get a game based on the planet Rabbidopia? Will they call that game, “Rabbids on Rabbidopia” (dibs)? Probably. If they do, you can count on me writing about it just for you, I love you that much.

TMNT:Smash-Up is due to release September 22, so if you’ve grown tired of SSBB be ready to get right back into all night brawls. Rabbids Go Home doesn’t have a firm release date so far, which is kind of sad. I mean, these Rabbids are ready to go home for crying out loud! Well, sometime in Q4 they’ll be able to, and they’ll just have to wait until then. If you stick with me for another sentence or two you’ll be treated to the latest trailer for Super Smash Ninja Turtles, as well as a featurette on the humans who inhabit the world the Rabbids so desperately want to escape. I’ll even throw in my all-time favorite Rabbid gif since it’s Friday. As always, enjoy and stay thirsty my friends.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I brought you the magic that is Daisy Fuentes Pilates, and I am sad to announce that Ms. Fuentes’ run at the top may be short lived. It seems that Ubisoft wants to worm its way into the “let’s market a fitness game using former models/sex-symbols” genre that Sega and Daisy have a stranglehold on. The French publishers just announced “Your Shape w/Jenny McCarthy” which will be released later this fall. That’s right, the same Jenny McCarthy that stole our heart from the pages of Playboy and the TV show “Singled Out” will soon be available as your own personal work-out buddy. Don’t ask me why they chose to go with buddy as opposed to trainer, maybe to keep it quirky since that’s one of the things that made Jenny stand out. BTW, did you guys know she’s dating Jim Carrey? Seriously, Ace Ventura’s got game! Anyway, the blonde beauty isn’t the only thing that Ubisoft are bringing to the table, they’ve also developed a camera that uses its proprietary motion tracking tech. Basically, put the camera in place, turn the game on and get going. You’ll notice I made no mention of a controller there. That’s because you don’t need one. The camera will do what cameras do (film), and then input the image of your body into the game. Using this image it will then assess your fitness level and then pair you up with Jenny to get started molding an all new you. If you ask me, Ubisoft has thrown down the gauntlet. Not only are they giving us a former Playmate of the Year, but they’ve developed a camera that could, I’d imagine, be used in other games. There’s no reason to think that YSWJM will be the only title that can utilize the peripheral, so this is very exciting. Now, don’t get too excited you pervs. Even though Ms. McCarthy is pushing 40 years old and is now a mother and activist for autism, once you watch the trailer for “Your Shape with Jenny McCarthy” it’s not hard to remember why we loved her in the first place, she’s definitely still got it. YSWJM, I’m gonna go ahead and call dibs on that acronym by the way, will be released sometime later this year and will be bundled with the JennyCam (dibs) for $59.99. The fact that I mentioned Jenny McCarthy and Daisy Fuentes within the title and first sentence of the post means that you’re ready for the trailer, so check below. Enjoy and stay thirsty my friends.

Today was not the best of days for yours truly. It wasn’t especially bad, except for the fact that the US lost to Mexico. Again. It’s sad the way they completely dominate us when we play in Mexico City. For those who are joining us for the first time I’m talking about football (soccer), and welcome to the site, I hope you enjoy your stay. I don’t want to sound too crude or anything, but Mexico pretty much rapes us on their home turf. We are now 0-23-1 against Mexico when we play them there. We’ve played them 24 times and lost 23 of them. Jesus Christ, that’s just embarrassing, right? The thing is, it’s not really that bad. I mean it is, but it’s definitely gotten better. The boys played a solid match today, but we just couldn’t compete in that environment, never really had a chance. If you are capable of using the type of logic and of thinking the way that I’m able to, you can come to the conclusion that it’s like Mexico is the Wii and the HDC’s (HDConsoles) are like the US. No matter what they try to do, the Wii is going to continue it’s dominance, especially when/where it matters. The Wii is, for all intents and purposes, murdering the competition and I love it. I just wish Team USA could hand it to Mexico in their own backyards. It will happen one day…I hope.

One thing we don’t have to hope will happen is the release of Spyborgs. I’ve talked about the 4 player co-op brawler quite a few times here at the Spin. The Spin, I like that, it’s kind of like how Brandon, Brenda, Dylan and crew used to frequent The Peach Pit so much it eventually just became “The Pit”. I think we’ve gotten to that point in our relationship, so feel free to tell you buds that The Spin is where it’s at. Where was I? Oh yeah, Spyborgs. As you all know, the game was given what amounts to a total overhaul from the one that was originally announced. The original concept for the game was set like a Saturday morning cartoon, complete with commercials. While Capcom and the team at Bionic Games have done away with that for the most part, they’ve kept a bit of it in the form of a series of webisodes that will be released prior to the games launch. The first webisode is out now, and features the Spyborgs Stinger and Clandestine doing battle on Devil’s Fate Island. I’m not gonna lie, I love the fact that they’re doing this. It’s an amazing way to build hype for the game, and can tell us a bit of backstory at the same time. I just hope that these are independent of the game as opposed to being cutscenes that we’ll see again when Spyborgs finally makes it to store shelves on September 22. If you’ve really been paying attention you’ll know that September 22 is seven days, or a week as I like to call it, before Sept. 29, which was the original release date for Spyborgs. Yup, the wait has gotten shorter!

Now, let’s talk about that save info I promised you. Well, I didn’t really promise you that I’d talk about it, unless you consider my post titles to be promises. That would be weird though, wouldn’t it? I mean, by using my special logic that I mentioned earlier, I could do all sorts of stuff with that info. I could start coming up with crazy post titles. Of course, I’d need the imagination for all that so I don’t think you need to worry. Yet. Anyway, just a quick bit about saves. I’ll give you the bad news first. If you’re one of the millions, or even billions of people who can’t wait to get their hands on the up-coming Metroid Prime Trilogy, you might want to make sure you’ve beaten Metroid Prime:Corruption before you get too excited. The developers announced today that save data for Corruption will not work with Prime Trilogy. It’s corrupted if you will. That’s right, I went there. Since I know you so well, I know that me saying “I’ll give you the bad news first…” was taken as a promise that good news will follow. Well, you are right. The good news is that pretty soon you’ll be able to play Downloadable Content directly from an SDHC. That means that all you Guitar Band and Rock Hero nutjobs will be able to download as much as 32GB worth of music without having to worry about filling up the Wii’s internal memory.

So there, I think we covered all the “promises” that were made. We talked about Spyborgs and the save info. I don’t know what else I have to give you besides the webisode for Spyborgs,which will be found below. As always, enjoy and stay thirsty my friends.

I was talking to someone today about the Wii, a co-worker in fact. He’s really into videogames, like really into them. He takes his PSP out when his family goes to dinner, as does his son and wife, and they play while waiting for dinner. This guy’s got to be around 40 years old, and when I envision that scene, it cracks me up. Anyway, he was telling me how he’s disappointed in the Wii. How there’s nothing but party games, and they aren’t fun, and all the typical ignorant things people assume about the Wii. I had to be patient with him though, he’s a 360 owner and has to send it in to get fixed about every 6 months, but I also had to smash his argument. The thing is, these conversations happen all the time. Those of us who own a Wii, and pay attention to it, know that the Wii has grown in leaps and bounds. We know that The Conduit is one of the best shooters available, that MadWorld is one of the funnest and goriest brain dead games you’ll ever play. We also know that PES 10 is going to be ridiculously good and will continue to revolutionize the way football games are played, and that Dead Space:Extraction is on pace to be one of the greatest on-rails shooters in years. The thing is, no one else knows this. I mean, obviously people do, but not the masses. I’m not talking about the masses that launched the Wii into a must own system for everyone aged 8 to 80. I’m talking about the masses that claim they are videogames. The supposed “Core” gamer. Just like KRS-One taught us that you are not doing hip-hop you are hip-hop, these people believe they are what games are. Ok, not in that literal of a sense, but I’m sure there are those that do. They feel like they know everything about games because they have a 360 and have like a 50million gamerscore and beat Halo 3 on legendary three times in one night with the lights off because their parents were asleep upstairs and if they woke them up their mom would probably make them sleep in the treehouse. First off, these people are sad. They aren’t sad because their life consists of playing videogames, they’re sad because they neglect an entire console. To continue your education in hip-hop, these are the same guys that act like Flo-Rida is real hip-hop when they’ve never heard of Rakim or Eric B. Well, the Wii ain’t no joke, so follow the leader and when it comes to the fun to be had playing videogames you will definitely be paid in full.

Now that I’ve just stunned you with a segue so amazing I should go ahead and retire, time for something completely different. One of the greatest things about the Wii is the level of imagination it invokes in game developers and publishing houses. All three of the major consoles right now have a service to provide independent games, but WiiWare blows them all away. Like, I don’t even think it’s close. The games available through the Big N’s downloadable service are amazing, at least most of them are. Ok, some of them are. But, the ones that are really are. It has to be the controls. It just opens up the imagination with what you can do, and allows developers to dive into worlds that are only possible here. All of this adds up to a huge bowl of win, and right now NyxQuest is floating at the top of that bowl. NyxQuest is a platformer centered around Greek mythology and is brought to us by Spanish developers, Over The Top Games. The first thing that should be said is that if you loved/hated Lost Winds, you will probably love/hate NyxQuest. If you haven’t played LostWinds you should kill yourself. I KID!! I KID!! I didn’t mean it, I would never want you to do anything like that, but you should seriously do whatever you have to in order to get the 1000 points and buy the game right now. In fact, you’ll need 2000 because you might as well go ahead and get NyxQuest at the same time. I’m serious, I can wait…. Okay, now we can get back to the matter at hand. I’ll put NQ in the simplest terms possible: you play a goddess named Nyx who is on a Quest to meet up with her old pal Icarus. During Nyx’s Quest (I do hope you’re sensing a pattern here…), she’ll use wind and fire to guide herself to the safety of platforms, it is a platformer after all. Once you dig a little deeper you’ll learn that NQ is a beautifully paced and designed game that invokes not only the innovation but the imagination that all games promise to have, yet so few can (or choose to) actually deliver. NyxQuest is a short burst of a game, but one that you will thoroughly enjoy the entire time. Over The Top Games’ debut on WiiWare is only the latest gem to hit the platform, let’s all hope there are many more to come. Tonight I leave you with the debut trailer (which I’m kinda late on) for NyxQuest, which is available right now for 1000 points. I’m also blessing you with the legendary (and greatest MC of all time) Eric B. & Rakim’s classic track Paid In Full, just because I can. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.