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Jamie Varner, World Extreme Cagefighting lightweight champion, says he used video games to strengthen his hand after a debilitating injury.

After pummelling Donald Cerrone in January of 2009, the fighter found himself with a broken metacarpal bone. The doctor’s orders? Play videogames.

“He told me to stay playing video games because that would strengthen everything up,” Varner told The Sports Network.

Unfortunately, Varner had made the rookie mistake of loaning his Xbox to a friend, fighter Ryan Bader. Bader finally forked over the machine in time for the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

“I’ve been on that non-stop pretty much,” Varner said.

And now he’s finally back in fighting shape: After nearly a year in recovery, Varner will defend his championship against Ben Henderson this Sunday in Sacramento.

Image courtesy Activision

See Also:

• May NPD: UFC Game a Smash Hit
• Review: Modern Warfare 2 Kills Well With Others
• Powerful Modern Warfare 2 Plot Hits Close to Home
• Infinity Ward Nukes Modern Warfare 2 Glitches
• Test-Driving Modern Warfare 2’s Night-Vision Goggles
• Color Blind Modern Warfare Players Petition for Patch

Nintendo aims to release the new Legend of Zelda game for Wii in 2010, company president Satoru Iwata said Wednesday.

In an interview with the Asahi Shimbun, Iwata said that the recent release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii has reenergized flagging Wii sales in Japan, and that Nintendo would aim to release more games that will keep the momentum going. To that end, Nintendo will announce a game this July that will use the Vitality Sensor controller that Iwata showed at last year’s E3, and release Zelda by the end of the year.

The new Legend of Zelda will use the Wii MotionPlus controller add-on.

Iwata also said that Nintendo is currently developing a successor to the Nintendo DS that will feature higher-resolution graphics and a motion sensor.

(Analysis below.)

At E3, Nintendo said that Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M would be released in 2010. I highly doubt that Nintendo will release all three of these major games in every territory in one calendar year.

At the very least, we could see a repeat of 2002, in which Super Mario Sunshine was released worldwide, Metroid Prime shipped in the U.S. only and Zelda debuted in Japan only.

That seems to be the best-case scenario, though. If one game was delayed into 2011 for all territories, I wouldn’t be shocked at this point.

Then again, maybe Iwata really is serious about firing all cannons and keeping the momentum going. After all, it’s not as if there are that many big years left in the console lifecycles anyway: 2010 will be Wii’s fifth Christmas.

‘Wii is accelerating again’ [Asahi Shimbun] (Japanese)

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the first in a long-running series of legal adventure games, will be released as a WiiWare download on Monday, January 11.

The Nintendo DS versions of the three Ace Attorney games have been out of print for some time. Some collectors have been asking an arm and a leg for the rare cart, making it a hard game to recommend to anyone but the serious collector¹.

On Wii the game will only set you back $10, for which you get the first four cases with the fifth bonus case coming in May as DLC. At that sane price, know that the game comes with my highest praise.

For too long, the Ace Attorney series has been gaming’s best-kept storytelling secret. The writing in this series is among the best in the medium; the characters, made all the more expressive by lively animation, are funny and extremely likable (even the jerks). And the music is downright awesome.

My only fear is that the games are best suited to handhelds. Ace Attorney games are about language, lies and semantics — they’re reading-intensive. There’s a chance that these verbose games may play out a little differently on the couch where distractions could put a crowbar between the player and the text. Also, you’d have to not mind looking at a DS game blown up onto your TV screen for 20 hours at a stretch.

¹Kohler says: This would be a great time for me to recommend Amazon’s “Warehouse Deals,” which can ship via Amazon Prime — I bought a used game from there over Christmas and it was in perfect condition. They currently have the first game for $30.

Image courtesy Capcom

See Also:

• Phoenix Wright Manga Comes to America
• Phoenix Wright: Justice For All Impressions
• Capcom: Phoenix Wright-Style Game Starring Harvey Birdman …
• Trailer: Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations
• Phoenix Wright Television Shorts To Air In Japan
• TGS Cosplay #1: Phoenix Wright

Games should constantly surprise players. You shouldn’t be able to predict what’s going to happen in the next five minutes or five hours. Bayonetta gets this.

Released by Sega on Tuesday, the inaugural game from the ex-Capcom Devil May Cry crew is the first critical smash of 2010. I haven’t played enough of it to render a full opinion, but I’m in it enough to know that the glowing reviews are on the money.

And the reason I’ll keep playing is the way Bayonetta turns the most basic game elements into delightful surprises. Example: Most videogames have sections where you have to find a hidden key, then use it to open a door.

Key/door is one of the fundamental mechanics of the adventure game for a few reasons. It has a simple visual language that anyone can instantly grasp: When you see a keyhole shape, you know what you need to find next. Game design-wise, it lets you be a little bit non-linear because it forces the player to go back and explore the territory he’s just traversed to find the key.

It’s so convenient and useful that of course it’s utterly played out. Games like Resident Evil tried to dress it up: You didn’t collect keys, you collected colorful crests and jewels that fit into indents in the walls.

Bayonetta goes beyond cosmetics. The first time I opened a chest, a stupidly huge key popped out. When I picked it up, a group of monsters attacked me and I realized that the key was a weapon, and I could swing it around me to take them out. The most basic of game design cliches was now something fresh and new.

Even in the first couple hours of Bayonetta, I’ve seen plenty of things like this (see the fantastic weapon stolen from a defeated enemy in the screen at top). If you’re on the fence, rest assured that this is an excellent use for one of those Christmas gift cards.

See Also:

• Hands On: How BayonettaStacks Up on 360 vs. PS3
• Bayonetta the God of Fun
• Bayonetta's 'Very Easy' Mode Means Disabled Can Play

On Monday, the Independent Games Festival (for which both Chris and I are judges) announced the finalists for this year’s competition.

Over three hundred entries were submitted this year. Judges whittled down the competitors to five competitors in each of six categories, including best audio, design, visual art and technical excellence.

The big category is the Seumas McNally Grand Prize — which nets gamemakers $20,000 in cash. This year’s nominees for the top award are Joe Danger, Monaco, Rocketbirds: Revolution!, Trauma and Super Meat Boy.

Take special note of the Nuovo Award, where off-the-wall, experimental art games are celebrated. Among this year’s excellent and completely out there Nuovo nominees are Daniel Benmergui’s Today I Die, A Slow Year by Ian Bogost (pictured above), Tuning from Cactus, Closure and Justin Smith’s nutty Enviro-Bear 2000.

The full list of nominees can be found at the IGF’s website.

The Seumas McNally Grand Prize and other IGF awards will be handed out at the awards ceremony on March 11, 2010, during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Image courtesy Ian Bogost

See Also:

• Top 3 Indie Games to Watch Out For
• Wired 10.06: Thin! Tan! Hotter Than Hell!
• 2010 Indie Games Fest: A Different Color of Horror
• Big Games From Small Developers – Video – Wired
• Independent Games Festival – Video – Wired

Pat Laffaye of Westport, Connecticut has beaten the high score for the arcade game Frogger — the real one, and also the fictional one set by George Costanza on a famous episode of Seinfeld, scorekeepers at Twin Galaxies announced on Monday.

The fictional record of 860,630 points was set on April 23, 1998 — that’s when the episode of Seinfeld titled “The Frogger” originally aired. Laffaye’s score of 896,980 is a new world record, at least until the next fictional character comes along and bests it (we’re watching you, Sheldon Cooper).

“Even though it was imagined by television writers, Pat has broken one of the most famous scores in pop culture,” said a Twin Galaxies representative in a statement. “Pat’s amazing score will now forever be attached to not only Twin Galaxies history, but pop culture trivia as well.”

Pat Laffaye also holds a record score for Paperboy. He and rival gamer Donald Hayes have been embroiled in a King of Kong-style duel for the top Frogger ranking for some time.

Image courtesy Twin Galaxies

See Also:

• Battlestar Babe Lights Up Green Lantern, Sucks at Frogger …
• July 3, 1999: Gobbling Up a ‘Pac-Man‘ Record
• Donkey Kong Challenge: This Is What $10001 in Quarters Looks Like …
• Nov. 13, 1982: Teen Sets ‘Asteroids‘ Record in 3-Day Marathon
• Guitar Hero Champ Perfects GH3’s Most Difficult Song

Nintendo said Tuesday that it had sold over 3 million Wii consoles in the U.S. in December 2009, which would be a new monthly record for home game consoles.

After a year of month-on-month sales declines, December’s number’s would represent a big jump for Wii, which only sold 2.15 million units in December 2008 due to supply constraints.

The official numbers will be released by the NPD Group on January 14. Tuesday’s announcement was based on Nintendo’s internal estimates.

The current one-month sales record is held by PlayStation 2, which moved 2.7 million units during December 2002.

That record was for all game machines until the portable Nintendo DS beat it in December 2008. Nintendo said that DS also had a fantastic 2009, estimating that it sold more units this year than any console ever.

It’s clear that Nintendo can credit the launch of New Super Mario Bros. for much of this renewed Wii demand, as it said that sales of the four-player action game are now “approaching” 4 million units.

It still seems highly unlikely that, as per Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime’s prediction, Mario will outsell the Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2 over the course of the holiday sales season (through the end of January).

See Also:

• NPD December: $18 Billion Year For Game Industry
• December Sales: Nintendo Moves 3 Million… DS Lites
• November NPD: Modern Warfare Shifts 6 Million Copies
• November NPD: Nintendo Moves 1.5 Million DS Lites

Irritable bowel syndrome sufferers know that big books make for the best toilet reading — wide spines and wide loads, plentiful pages and abundant dumps just go together. But you’ve just finished War and Peace. What should you do?

Sounds like Guinness has you covered. Earlier yesterday afternoon the publisher announced that its Guinness World Records 2010 Gamers Edition ($14.99) is now available for bathroom consumption. According to the official release, the 2010 edition has what we should expect: a list of records that games have broken. Curiously, its said to have interviews with “key figures in the industry,” as well as spreads on 2009’s biggest sellers. Neat.

[image cred]

In Japan’s bargain bins, you can get a lot of gaming for the equivalent of $10.

Over the past two years of trips to Tokyo Game Show, I set out into Akihabara with yen in hand, looking to buy (roughly) 10 games for 10 bucks. At first I picked up games like D and Burn: Cycle, then found more obscure titles like Götzendiener and Soukaigi in 2009.

In a thread on the gaming message board NeoGAF, I attempted to rally the message board’s many Japan-based posters to take the 1000 Yen Challenge, and three did, going for maximum quantity over obscure curiosity. Here’s what they came up with.

BudokaiMR2: Spent ¥1,091 in Osaka’s “Den Den Town” district and came up with 13 games (pictured top). “I tried to 0nly buy games that I had never played before,” he wrote. Of the 9-yen (about 10 cents) copy of the Dreamcast adventure game Sakura Taisen, he says the store “just had a box of 50 at the cash register, all for the same price so I said what the hell.”

1. Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn) – ¥10
2. Biohazard: Code Veronica (Dreamcast) – ¥100
3. Ehrgeiz (PS1) – ¥100
4. Wave Race 64 (N64) – ¥20
5. OverDrivin’ GT-R (PS1) – ¥50
6. Seaman (Dreamcast) – ¥100
7. Counter Revolution War (PS1) – ¥100
8. King of Fighters ‘96 (Saturn) – ¥50
9. Samurai Spirits (PS1) – ¥50
10. CyberBots (Saturn) – ¥252
11. Sakura Taisen (Saturn) – ¥9
12. SD Gundam X (Super Famicom) – ¥50
13. Valken 2 (PS1) – ¥200

Kohler’s take: I’d never have spent $2.50 on Cyberbots, myself. But Sakura Taisen for one thin dime is probably the single cheapest game I’ve ever heard tale of in Japan (aside from the free copies of N64 shogi games that Super Potato was giving out last year).

WhiteAce: Bought 15 games for 960 yen in Akihabara. “I did buy stuff here that I already own, but either in poor condition or missing the box,” he wrote.

Not content to simply come in under the 1000-yen limit, WhiteAce also attempted to get the best games for his buck: He added up the average scores that the games received on the aggregation site GameRankings, then divided by yen spent. (Unrated games defaulted to 50/100 points.)

1. Rallisport Challenge (Xbox) ¥100 – 87 pts
2. Nectaris (PC Engine) ¥100 – 50 pts (n/a)
3. Legendary Axe (PC Engine) – ¥100 – 50 pts (n/a)
4. Super Family Circuit (SNES) – ¥100 – 50 pts (n/a)
5. Biohazard : Code Veronica (DC) – ¥100 – 93pts
6. Enemy Zero (Sat) – ¥50 – 69 pts
7. Decathelete (Sat) – ¥50 – 76 pts
8. Virtua Cop 2 (Sat) – ¥50 – 83 pts
9. Tobal No. 1 (PS1) – ¥50 – 82 pts
10. World Wide Soccer ‘98 (Sat) – ¥50 – 55 pts
11. D2 (DC) – ¥50 – 64 pts
12. Anarchy in the Nippon (Sat) – ¥20 – 50 pts (n/a)
13. Winter Heat (Sat) – ¥20 – 78 pts
14. Street Fighter Zero 2 – ¥50 – 50 pts (n/a)
15. Dynamite Duke (Mega Drive)- ¥100 – 50 pts (n/a)

Total spend: 960 yen
Gameranking total points: 985
Ratio: 1 yen = 1.02 points

Kohler’s take: An excellent haul full of super-cheap games with lots of play value. I don’t know if I’d try to maximize my review-score return this fall when I go back to Japan, though: part of the fun for me is buying hilariously bad games.

cvxfreak: Went for the highest ratio of games-to-money, spending only ¥690 (about $7) on 13 games. This, plus choosin mostly good-to-excellent titles, helped him obliterate WhiteAce’s games-to-score ratio.

1. Dead or Alive 3 (Xbox) – ¥100 – 85 pts
2. Sonic Adventure (DC)- ¥100 – 87 pts
3. Sega Rally Championship 2 (DC) – ¥50 – 82 pts
4. Sega GT Homologation Special (DC) – ¥50 – 81 pts
5. Soul Calibur (DC) – ¥50 – 96 pts
6. Ready 2 Rumble (DC) – ¥50 – 84 pts
7. Fighter’s Megamix (Sat) – ¥20 – 50 pts (n/a)
8. Fighting Vipers (Sat) – ¥20 – 50 pts (n/a)
9. Virtua Fighter (Sat) – ¥50 – 89 pts
10. Virtua Fighter Kids (Sat) – ¥50 – 73 pts
11. Virtua Cop (Sat) – ¥50 – 75 pts
12. Virtua Cop 2 (Sat) – ¥50- 83 pts
13. Shinseki Evangelion (Sat) – ¥50 – 50 pts (n/a)

Total spend: 690
Gameranking total points: 985
Ratio: 1 yen = 1.43 points

Kohler’s take: Somebody sure likes Sega, and fighting games. These are two categories into which much of Japan’s stock of almost completely unwanted games tends to fall. This is also why game stores must love to see vacationing foreigners milling about — if tourists didn’t take these back to their home countries, Japan would be buried in Fighting Vipers.

Besides the Japan residents who decided to take the challenge, Kyle Orland at Crispy Gamer attempted it in the U.S., bumping the maximum spending limit up to $20 because older games are much more expensive here. He still managed to find some great bargains on 14 games across a variety of systems by scouring all the used-games stores in Pittsburgh.

“Was raiding the ultra-bargain bins worth it? For me, I’d have to say it was,” he said. “I haven’t had a chance to really dive into any of these 14 games yet, but I can’t imagine that the combined experience of all of them won’t be worth $20.”

Want to try something similar? Give it the hash tag #1kyengamer on Twitter and post your findings.

See Also:

• Broke in Tokyo: Excavating 10 Weird Games for $10
• Classic Game|Death: The $10 Pile of Tokyo Shame
• Weekend Thrifting: A Symphony, a Soldier Blade
• Weekend Thrifting: Hitting the Vectrex Jackpot
• Weekend Thrifting: The Perils of Vintage Piracy