GameStop inadvertently reveals new Wii Remote with built-in Motion Plus

A box shot for an upcoming first-party Wii game was posted on Gamestop.com, and revealed a pack-in accessory called Wii Remote Plus. Nintendo meekly confirmed that it is real but has nothing more to say at this time.

Before today, not many people had even heard of FlingSmash, a unique action game in which the main character is shaped like a pinball. But now it's lighting up discussion all over the Internets because of something that appears on what is supposedly the final box art.

GameStop's product listing for the game outed the box art, which displays a black Wii Remote and the text "BONUS Wii Remote Plus inside!" It wasn't long after this was spotted that people came to the rational conclusion that this was a Wii Remote with the Wii Motion Plus attachment built-in.


Above: Left - What Nintendo had been sending to most outlets as its FlingSmash box art. Right - What GameStop put on its website

That's interesting, though, since Nintendo hasn't said anything about such a controller. And, you guessed it, after people started talking about it GameStop swiftly removed the FlingSmash listing from its website altogether.

Of course, once you let the cat out of the bag it's really hard to stuff that feline back in there. Pictures of the leaked box art are floating up everywhere now. So Nintendo has come forward and said it "is real" but "we have nothing to announce on this at the moment."

Because Motion Plus is becoming a standard feature in a lot of Wii games, integrating it directly into the Remote makes a lot of sense. With the Motion Plus connected to the Wii Remote, connected to the nunchuck, connected to the wrist strap, it's just too much madness to handle!


Above: FlingSmash. Basically, you fling and smash stuff

I guess Nintendo just felt left out of things with the PlayStation Move and Xbox 360 Kinect launching this fall. Now it also has something new to add to the motion controller craze of 2010.

So anyway, FlingSmash has a current release date of November 7. It'll probably take advantage of the Wii Play effect - that is, packing in a controller to highly inflate sales of a mediocre game.

Source:Eurogamer

Sep 24, 2010


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Let's see, that's devs and hardcore gamers against, with publishers, moms and 10 year-olds for it