Nintento Trademarks "Zii"

So, if yesterday we said to ourselves, "Hell yeah", this morning, we said, "What the hell?"

According to this article, via IGN, Nintendo's trademark filing for the term "Zii" has started off rumors of a new console release, which is, as some speculate, may be the long-awaited Wii HD unit. In other words, Wii HD = Zii. What a cacophony of names that will truly be, if real.

We're at a crossroads on how to feel about this development, because, we love the Wii so much, but, also don't know if "Zii" is a console who's name we can pronounce with a straight face. So, here's hoping that the following bit from the article turns out to be true:

"The trademark could be little more than a move to protect Nintendo's existing intellectual properties."

And that the Wii HD we get to play has a strong, manly name...or at least isn't homo-phonic to the beginning of the word zebra.

Wii Could Be Very Excited

As if we don't dork out on Wii enough on this blog, we've now decided to top off our previous news item about PlayStation for Netflix with rumors and conjecture regarding a possible similar marriage between the video rental website and Nintendo's massively successful console.

 

So, the breakdown of all the salacious details is as such:

1. According to this blog post, an un-named source connected to the Wii/Nintendo collaboration has confirmed that Wii and Nintendo are in fact working together

2. According to this same blog post, the un-named individual has also seen screen shots of the Netflix site running through Wii

3. News of this collaboration isn't really that news-y at all as Netflix has both recently surveyed its customer base to ascertain how much of it would prefer to view streaming video through a Wii and has posted job openings for in-house programmers to help deal with the project

4. The release date is merely marked as "soon", but, two possible timing points for the announcement of the collaboration have been suggested to be "by the end of the year" (this means, 09!) or whenever it is that Nintedo finally announces Wii HD. 

GameSpot breaks down the gossip pretty well and we personally can't wait. HD or not, we think it'd be pretty darn cool to wave a Wii controller at the TV and have Amelie come on.

It's A Mee! Mario!

Happy news today, as Charles Martinet has leaked via his Twitter that he is working on Nintendo's new version of Mario Bros. He tweets:

"Awesome new Mario Game! And it's not NSMB Wii, and it's not Galaxy 2, but it's going to be crazy fun!"

So, while we think that Twitter, being as it's limited to 140 characters for any individual post, may ultimately throw a lot of confusion out in the world by making people blurt out incomplete thoughts, and this may mean, that the news is not for sure, or is somehow just a total work-in-progress, we're also happy to hear of the possible re-emergence of our favorite Italian plumber. Ahhhh, just the name Mario alone takes us back to our sick days as a child and spending many hours on our parents' bed trying to outrun dinosaurs and listening to that iconic background music.

We'll be waiting patiently, here by the computer, until more, detailed news emerges. Until then, can Nintendo slap together a nifty Mario mobile app? We'd be much grateful.