You Have To Burn The Rope

There is a new game burning up the Internets called You Have To Burn The Rope. Developed by a Swedish programming student named Kian, the game takes about 60 seconds to beat and rewards you with an awesome little diddy. In order to win the game, you have to run through a short tunnel then confront a boss at the end, which can only be destroyed by burning the rope. You can play it now by clicking here.

Nintendo E3 2007 Media Briefing Part 2

If you haven't already read part 1 of my Nintendo E3 2007 Media Briefing recap then please click here and read it so I don't have to retype anything (sorry, I'm lazy). Go ahead, the rest of us will wait while you get caught up. ...... Done? Great, lets get to part 2!

In addition to the Wii Wheel, which we discussed in part 1 so I hope you weren't lying when you said you read it, Nintendo will also release two additional Wii controller accessories. The first, the Wii Zapper (working name), is a unique hand-held frame that allows you to attach both the Wii-Remote and Nunchuk to each other in a blaster housing. And just why would you want to do this you might ask? First-person shooter games of course! The Zapper will arrive this year packaged with a Nintendo developed game. My guess is the game will be something that recreates those crazy carnival games where you shoot water into a clown's mouth and a balloon inflates out of his head. Does anyone else find that creepy? Regardless of the Nintendo game, the Zapper will really shine on Capcom's new Resident Evil game, the Umbrella Chronicles. This shooter reveals the back story behind the fall of the Umbrella Corporation by exploring locations from previous Resident Evil titles plus never-before-seen locations, like Umbrella's stronghold. This is definitely not your father's zombie blasting game.

The other big news from yesterday's briefing is Wii Fit, a new game that will make going to the gym obsolete if Nintendo has their way. Fit comes with the Wii Wireless Balance Board (working name), a pressure sensitive board that looks like a large scale. You begin Fit by standing on the board and having some basic measurements taken and recorded. Don't worry, you won't have to endure seeing your weight displayed on your plasma because Fit measures and tracks your Body Mass Index (BMI). The game then offers more than 40 activities including aerobics, yoga, muscle stretches, and hula hooping plus sports, like soccer. The idea is to stay active while having fun and hopefully watch your BMI come down.

The Wii Zapper and Resident Evil: Umbrella Corporation are scheduled to be in stores in time for the holidays. No date was given for Wii Fit but it should be out some time in 2008.

Triple Word Score

In addition to this blog, I also right for a consumer, product-driven blog and web site so I'm always on the lockout for interesting products. This morning I found this Scrabble furniture (pictured), which was designed by Stephen Reed Industrial Design for employees at the London offices of Bloomberg.

Despite the fact that I am a horrible speller (thank god for spell check) I love Scrabble. My friends and I frequently use board games to make important decisions for us. Such as, the looser of this game of Trouble has to make the next beer run.

When I was preparing to move into my first apartment after college with my best friend Heather, we had to determine who would get the larger bedroom in an apartment we found in Jersey City. It wasn't just a question of a few extra feet as the larger room was nearly twice the size of the smaller one. So we agreed to let a game of Scrabble decide the bedroom fate.

We had a heated game at my parents house with members of my family frequently checking on the status of the game. By the time the felt bag was out of tiles our scores were nearly neck and neck. I had no more possible word combinations to make, which gave Heather the last go. She plopped down the word "FAX", which put her score above mine and awarded her the larger bedroom.

I quickly contested that "FAX" was not a word as it is actually an abbreviation for "Facsimile". We asked my family members for their opinions and even made a bunch of phone calls for a greater polling audience. In the end, more people agreed with Heather than me and she moved into the larger room while I begrudgingly took the smaller.

To this day I still refuse to accept "FAX" as a word.