What’s the deal with the rush on Black Friday and Holiday shopping?  Judging by the barrage of holiday advertising, and rumors of shortages on some electronics and video games, you might think that Christmas is just a few days away, rather than several weeks away.

According to Yahoo! Tech, several video games, and electronics may be in short supply this year.  Among them are the Nintendo Wii, Wii Fit, and Guitar Hero World Tour.  I did a quick search just to see how online supplies of these items are faring.  I had no problems finding a ready supply of each of these items, but will admit that’s subject to fast and furious change this time of year. [Read more →]

Since the full-sized RockBand drum set won’t fit in a backpack for lugging to your friend’s house, it seems only logical that a portable version for Xbox 360 will soon be available from Mad Catz. These officially-licensed RockBand portable drums are easily set up on any flat surface, and include a navigation panel, 4 drum heads, kick drum foot pedal, and 2 drumsticks.

According to GameShark, the drum heads are designed to withstand more than a million strikes- which is more than enough assurance to rock on! No word on an official availability date, but GameShark has the RockBand portable drums listed as “coming soon” for $59.99.

Regarding my last post about the Nintendo Wii, critics will point out that there’s a very good reason to get an Xbox 360 or a PS3 over a Nintendo Wii — the latest in the GTA series, Grand Theft Auto IV.

I’m way behind though, I’m still playing GTA Liberty City Stories on my Sony PSP.

The console gaming industry has proven this before — just because you have the fanciest gaming system for sale does not mean it will win. In the late 70s and early 80s, the Atari 2600 beat the graphically superior Mattel IntelliVision and Coleco’s ColecoVision because it had games based on familiar, popular arcade games (even if they looked blocky). Nintendo’s GameBoy completely dominated the portable gaming market in the early 90s, despite far superior units like the NEC TurboGrafx-16, the Atari Lynx, and the Sega GameGear.

In the latest round of console wars, the Nintendo Wii was up against some technological powerhouses, the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3. Yet, the Wii has outsold them. Why? In part because of its price, but the primary reason the Wii has garnered such love is its unique baton-like controller, the Wiimote. With it, gamers can interact in a physical way. Sword-fighting. Bowling. Drawing. Tennis. Nintendo tapped into demographics not typical of other gaming systems: the elderly, female, and other adult non-gamers.

Meanwhile, the Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 have struggled to keep up despite impressive graphics. The PS3 in particular has had the disadvantage of being the most expensive and being the most difficult to develop games for, leading to fewer games and fans for the system.

Still, the question remains — will the Wii maintain its top status? Will physical games continue to appeal or is this a passing fad?