http://blog.nj.com/…

We received responses to our Question of the Week about the new gun-like remote wand that Wii is planning to unveil for its first-person shooter games.

Most people think it’s a bone-headed idea.

“Great, this is what we need. Children with guns learning how to aim and shoot. Then we can sit back and wonder what is happening to our country with kids killing kids……what’s next? Could we make it squirt blood, too” one reader commented

A “very concerned grandparent” wrote:
“….Why don’t they enclose an application to the NRA in every box as well….the marketing person who came up with this brain child of an idea should be fired.”

Another reader commented, “I think it’s irresponsible for Wii to come out with a controller that looks like a gun so kids can play games simulating shooting. What kind of message are we sending as parents when we buy these things for our kids?”

ARGH!!! I wonder how many of these whiny people have ever handled a real gun? How many of them have played videogames? Have played Duck Hunt? How many of them have watched any movie with a gun in it? Have let their children watch a movie with guns in them? Have toy guns in their home? Sad thing is I was really disappointed with the design of the Wii Zapper. It doesn’t look comfortable to use. I’ll see when it’s released… as I will now have to purchase one… maybe two… just because.

Here are the known changes:

Channels:

• The blue light around your Wii CD drive now lights up every time a game is inserted or ejected.
• Digital Clock added to the Wii Menu right under the channel bar.
• Forecast Channel now displays the current condition (cloudy, raining, etc.) directly in the Wii Menu in the Forecast Channel box.
• News Channel can now show 2 scrolling headlines at a time in the Wii Menu, 3 when you click on the button (supposedly this requires occasional downloading of the headlines to keep the ticker updated).
• Message Board now has the “Today’s Accomplishments” message as a white message which allows it to stand out from other messages.
• Address Book entries can now be shifted around using A+B (supposed to be a launch feature) but only to empty spaces. Not too convenient.
• Calendar in Message Board no longer shows “Today’s Accomplishment” only days as having messages.
  Scrolling messages in the Message Board now uses a different sound.

Wii Shop Channel Overhauled (Visual aesthetic is the same, changes made to organization and browsing methods mostly):

• New Welcome screen detailing 4 Recommended Titles and the points they cost (gone is the title screen bar that had linkable games). The title bar can be clicked on to bring up a list of 20 recommended games.
• Titles You’ve Downloaded was moved to the main shop menu.
• New ways to browse.
• Popular Titles (2 pages of 10 and includes launch games so not only based on recent info).
• Newest Additions remains the same.
• Search for a title which can use partial names.
• Search by Category.
• System shows the different systems and how many titles have been released under each.
• Publisher showing different publishers, and amount of titles released, through logos.
• Genre (different genres listed and amount of titles under each).

Settings:

• Warning added pre-system update detailing that technically modified consoles may cease to function upon being updated. Also the only way to not accept an update is to power down the console by holding the button for 4 seconds (the user can’t back out of hitting I Accept w/o powering down).