My mom just called...She wants a Wii for Christmas.

My mom plays Space Invaders-era games and can't jump and shoot in Super Mario Brothers 1 to save her life. And she told me flat-out she wants a Wii and as much information on it as I can give her on it, so she can buy games for it. All I have to say, "Thank you, Nintendo". And..."Holy s***!"

So...Anyone want to give an odds estimate of my chances of finding one 3 days before Black Friday? ;p

Huzzah for gaming moms!  Contra might be a tad out of her league, but I've got her hooked up with my Jet Black DS Lite, along with the two Brain Age titles and Hotel Dusk.  Surprisingly, she's gotten much further in Hotel Dusk than I ever did.

Good luck with finding her that Wii.  That Mario-in-space game undoubtedly swept what few systems remained right off the shelves.

I had a similar breakthrough with my mom as well. The first and last video game she played, coincidentally, was also SMB 1, and I remember her falling into that first pit time and time again. After that she showed no interest in my video game hobby whatsoever.

Recently, though, I was waiting with my mom at the Dr.'s office and I brought my DS to pass the time. Apparently the stylus caught her eye and she became curious about how I was playing. Thankfully, I had Clubhouse Games with me, which turned out to be the perfect way to showcase the DS. For 15 minutes, she was addicted to bowling. Now, we were in a public place, so she eventually gave it back to me and said "that's cute" so as not to betray her maturity, but I knew she was hooked. I've yet to introduce her to Nintendogs, but I know she loves animals -- especially cute baby ones -- so I know exactly what the perfect present for her is.

I'd say 0%. You just know stores are hoarding it for Black Friday. So, you gotta ask yourself: How much do you love your mom?

I have not seen Wiis stocked in any stores consistently yet since the friggin machine came out a year ago. I saw some here and there and heck, I got mine on pure luck of strolling into a Target on a random weeknight. One time I saw some arse buying up like four of them and of course, the jackasses at Wal-Mart let him have em all.

I could've sworn I saw one yesterday at Wal-Mart, but I wasn't actually looking for it, so who knows what it could be.

Good luck finding one for your mom!

Good luck, man. If you REALLY love your mom, you can always buy one from ebay. It's a hundred dollars more for the base machine but it would probably be easier than trying to hunt one down locally.

I got one last week due to the serendipitous arrival of a shipment while I was trying to exchange a defective Ico disc. So if you don't have a job or anywhere else you need to be, you could camp out in a game store until a shipment arrives. Also, this was 3 or 4 days after I finally broke down and ordered the GC version of Twilight Princess instead of waiting for the Wii version. You may want to do that to increase your odds. Trying to manipulate the laws of irony usually backfires, but if you want to give it a shot, I have a copy for sale.

Actually, if you want to talk about irony...I had decided I wanted a 360 for Christmas and I had told my dad about it a few days ago (we're always pretty open about what we get each other). And one of the decision factors in that (over the Wii) was the fact it would be much easier to find. So I wonder if he knows mom asked me for a Wii...

I have 5 Gamestops (3 of which I know people at...or at least one guy that always works at different stores. ;p), a Best Buy and 2 Wal-Marts in biting reach, so I'll see how the next two days pan out. But yeah...I think Mario might have inadvertantly become my worst enemy in this situation.

If I'm not mistaken, most Gamestops get their shipments between 11 and 1 every day, and they "don't know" when they will be getting Wiis in. If you have some time around lunch, you should call up those five Gamestops and see if you could take an extended lunch break do get down there and grab one.

My mom wants a DS for Christmas this year. Nintendo are hitting the oldies!

Slightly OT, but this is so very sweet about Mom's and gaming...

Found it on Kotaku yesterday.
http://animalcrossingtragedy.ytmnd.com/

That was surprisingly touching. :'(

Yes it's very moving and beautifully put together.

What a sweet little story.  Coincidentally, it reminded me just how good Uematsu used to be.  (No, not really "missing the forest for the trees")

A holiday shopping reminder for all DS owners: if you have a DS you need to play Hotel Dusk on it.  Thank you.

you'd have better luck playing pick-up sticks with your buttchecks than finding a Wii now...

who can name what classic thanksgiving movie that  was from?
hint: 6 bucks and my left nut says we're not landing in chicago...

Planes, trains and autos... great movie... wipe that *^$#ing grin of your @*#&ing face. I want a &^%#ing car, right *&^%ing now.

The most recent article about Wii shortage:

http://www.wired.com/gaming/hardware/ne … i_shortage

Reading this makes me tremendously glad I picked up the system back in March.  Some of my co-workers have gotten so desperate, that they're making offers to buy mine.  (Tempting though it may be to part for almost double the retail price, I needs to have my Galaxy for the remainder of the holiday.) ;) 

Seriously, who could've predicted this level of popularity?

I don't have the quote, but I'm pretty sure Nintendo flat out said that it expected supplies to be very tight through the rest of the year, and that was back in March or something.

I don't want to be a "troll" or a “conspiracy transmitter” here but the whole Wii shortage thing seriously smells weird to me. I don't have any data, charts or incriminating evidence so I won't say anything else but there is this feeling I have that the Wii's popularity is something like a mirage - it's there but then it isn't - much like finding an actual console.

And no, I'm not just some angry person that can't find a wii.

Do you think Nintendo isn't producing 1.8 million a year or something?  I mean, I admit it is weird, so I'm not going to flame you here, but I don't get what else could explain how they are manufacturing it for this long without someone somewhere revealing the man behind the curtain.