This week’s gaming news post covered the release of the Iron Man 2 video game. A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, where they were auctioning off various props from the Iron Man 2 movie. None of the props were ridiculously cool, like the actual suit worn by Tony Stark or anything, but they sure went for ridiculously cool amounts of money. Here’s how much the stuff sold for:

• A battle-damaged and crushed Iron Man helmet: $11,000
• The left hand of the Iron Man suit: $5,500
• The right foot of the Iron Man suit: $1,900
• Iron Man suit butt plate (yes, really): $700
• A random boom box from a Humvee: $500
• A California license plate that reads “STARK6″: $900
• A newspaper that reads “WHO IS THE IRON MAN?”: $1,000

Monster Hunter Tri came out this week for the Nintendo Wii, so here’s a quick rundown of all the game’s weapon classes for those who are interested.

• Bowgun: Projectile weapon with all kinds of different ammunition and all kinds of different uses.
• Sword & Shield: Sounds traditional and normal, but actually takes the most smarts to use, because you can use other items while still having your weapon out, so items are vitally important.
• Hammer: For those who don’t even care about blocking, and would rather just keep smashin’ ’til the job is done.
• Long Sword: Like a really huge, awesome katana.
• Great Sword: Powerful and able to block, but very slow.
• Lance: Shield that can’t be stopped combined with a huge long spear. Pretty tough for monsters to get around that!

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is the biggest kids’ release of the next week, and because maybe the coolest thing about kart racing games is all the characters, here’s a full list for you:

1. Sonic the Hedgehog – No surprises there.
2. Miles “Tails” Prower – Side note: It took me years and years to get the joke on why his name is Miles Prower. Do you get it?
3. Knuckles – Again, not too surprising.
4. Doctor Eggman – His real name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik. I guess “Eggman” was just a bad nickname he got in school.
5. Amy Rose – She was introduced in my favorite Sonic game ever, Sonic CD, for the SEGA CD. As a kid I had a combination Laserdisc/SEGA CD player, and I swear those are both real things.
6. Shadow the Hedgehog – I realize he’s the anti-Sonic and everything, but it still seems odd that a hedgehog can have a gun, like Shadow does.
7. Big the Cat – Another Sonic side character, and he looks about as much like a cat as Sonic looks like a real hedgehog. I mean, look at him.
8. AiAi – He puts the “Monkey” in “Super Monkey Ball.” Otherwise, the game would just be “Super Ball,” which actually might be trademarked already.
9. Amigo – From “Samba de Amigo.” For those keeping score, that’ s Monkeys 2 – 3 Hedgehogs.
10. Ryo Hazuki – The main character from the Dreamcast cult hit, “Shenmue.” Yeah, don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it.
11. Beat – From “Jet Set Radio,” another cult hit for the Dreamcast.
12. Alex Kidd – Oh boy, this is even more obscure. He was SEGA’s main man until Sonic took the stage, and hasn’t been in his own new game since well before you were born.
13. Billy Hatcher – From “Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg” for the Gamecube. He, uh, wears a chicken suit. Hm.
14. Zobio and Zobiko – A zombie couple. Too early for Halloween and too late for Valentine’s Day.
15. Ulala – From “Space Channel 5,” another Dreamcast game you’ve probably never played, but should. I miss the Dreamcast now.
16. Jacky Bryant and Akira Yuki – From the “Virtua Fighter” series.
17. B.D. Joe - From “Crazy Taxi,” which hopefully you’ve seen in an arcade or something. Do arcades still exist?
18. Robo and Modo – Now here’s one I hadn’t even heard of. They’re from “Bonanza Bros.,” which apparently came out in 1990. Ooooookay.
19. Opa-Opa – A living spaceship. Cool.
20. Chuih, ChuBei, ChuPea, and ChuBach – All from “ChuChu Rocket!,” another awesome game for the Dreamcast.
21. Banjo and Kazooie – Xbox 360 version only. Sorry, Nintendo fans like me who played the original “Banjo-Kazooie” on the N64.
22. Avatar – Not like James Cameron’s Avatar or the animation show Avatar, but your New Xbox Experience one. Obviously, also Xbox 360 only.
23. Mii – For the Wii.

This week, Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll was released, the first in the Super Monkey Ball series to support the Wii Balance Board. Pretty sweet, but those of you who bought Wii Fit are still probably wondering: Just how many games support my balance board anyway? Well, here is every single one of them that’s cool for kids, with a helpful awesomeness rating out of 10 for each game to help you choose one.

• Academy of Champions: Soccer – 6/10 Awesomeness Rating
• All Star Cheer Squad – 7/10
• Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 3 – 7/10
• G1 Jockey 2008 – 3/10
• EA Sports Active (and Active: More Workouts) – 9/10 if you’re into exercise!
• Equilibrio – 5/10
• Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout – 7/10 again, just for exercise
• Imagine Fashion Party – 8/10
• James Cameron’s Avatar: the Game – 5/10 surprisingly terrible
• Jillian Michael’s Fitness Ultimatum 2009 & 2010 – 8/10 exercise only
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games – 9/10
• My Fitness Coach 2 – 7/10 only exercise
• NewU – 7/10 only exercise
• Overturn – 7/10
• Punch-Out!! – 9/10 and yes, there are two exclamation points in the title…
• Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party – 10/10 perhaps the most awesome
• Rock ‘n’ Roll Climber – 6/10
• Shaun White Snowboarding (Road Trip and World Stage) – 9/10
• Skate City Heroes – 7/10
• Skate It – 9/10
• Snowboard Riot – 6/10
• Tetris Party – 9/10 I’m sad that I’ve never been invited to a Tetris party…
• The Incredible Maze – 4/10
• Walk it Out – 6/10
• We Ski – 8/10
• We Ski & Snowboard – 8/10
• Wii Fit – 10/10 but surely, you’ve played it, right?
• Wii Fit Plus – 10/10
• Wii Music – 7/10
• Winter Sports 2: The Next Challenge – 8/10
• Yoga – 6/10 Well, it is just yoga…

For this week’s game releases, we got Guitar Hero Van Halen, Hotel Dash, and AiRace. Here’s the full tracklist for Guitar Hero Van Halen, so you can better decide if this one’s worth your money.

Alright, FIFA 10 is finally here.  If you missed the last post, what I’m doing here is taking the big-name sports games and simming seasons in them to see how close they are to real-life results. Now, the soccer season isn’t even a fourth complete in most places, but we need to establish results now before tricky old FIFA updates the rosters later on in the year. Without further ado, let’s see just how it thinks two of this year’s major soccer (football) leagues are gonna turn out!

England’s Premier League: The top four in-game: Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool. Chelsea came next. We’ll see how that turns out, but one important error between real-life and the game here: Tottenham Hotspur came in 18th in the game, and they’re currently third in real life. Something’s up, there.

Italy’s Serie A: The league table came out to be Inter, Sampdoria, Juventus, then Roma in the game. The current real-life table is Inter, Sampdoria, Juventus, then Fiorentina, but Roma’s definitely coming up to higher spot in the future. In other words, FIFA was scary accurate on this one.

In this week’s gaming news post, we talked about the new FIFA. I’d like to announce that I am taking the realism of sports video games to task! I’m going to run through one season in whichever sports game I’m covering, then tell you how close it came to getting it right. Now, FIFA doesn’t come out until the 20th, so I’m sorry if I can’t tell you who’s going to win the Scottish Premier League just yet (it’ll totally be Hibernian, though).  I do have MLB 09: The Show sitting right here with me, though, and the MLB playoffs are in full swing, so here’s the way Sony’s baseball title thought the season would go:

In the playoffs, names in bold if team made playoffs in real life: Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers

So, I guess four out of eight ain’t bad. The AL was only off by one team, and the Tigers were about an out away from making it to the playoffs in real life. Unfortunately, MLB 09′s NL guess was terrible. The computer inside my alarm clock could have guessed the Dodgers would win their division, and the other three who made it in the game were pretty terrible in real life.

Who won the world series in my sim, you ask? Why, the CHICAGO CUBS did, for the first time in over a hundred years. That would have been a lot more exciting than how this postseason is turning out in real life. Check back next week for my FIFA sim results!

Well, we learned in today’s Kidzworld gaming new releases post that in Wii Fit Plus, you can weigh your dog or cat, even though they can’t really play any activities! Well, I’m here to give Nintendo some ideas on how to better integrate our pets into the game:

1. If you have a dog, then the screen should show a picture of a kitten and make meowing sounds. That’ll get your dog running, or barking, or jumping, or something. At least he’ll be burning calories. Just switch roles if you have a cat.
2. Let’s add in some really high pitched notes into the game at various points, just see how your dog reacts.
3. Toy bone-shaped Wiimotes are a must.
4. Wii vitality sensor technology inside a tempting ball of yarn for your cat.
5. Maybe a new Wii balance board that can double as a scratching post?

And today’s question for you all: Do your pets ever even react to what’s on your TV screen?

Since we talked about NHL 10 and NHL 2k10 (titles way too similar, I know) on the news p0st today, I thought I’d mention some other, slightly different, hockey games that you should also totally look out for.

1. NHL 3 on 3 Arcade – From earlier in the year, an arcadey, awesome little EA downloadable game.
2. NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2007 – A Hockey Manager game? Yep, and you can get the 2005 version for a full four dollars on Amazon.com!
3. Ice Hockey – From 1981, for the Atari 2600. You can’t get any much more old school than this Activision classic without reprogramming Tennis for Two.

Almost all of the songs in The Beatles: Rock Band have now been revealed, but one is being kept secret for now, likely an endgame surprise. Here’s the list, in order of the songs’ original release, and with which level the songs will be played in:

# Twist And Shout / Cavern Club
# Do You Want To Know A Secret / Cavern Club
# Can’t Buy Me Love / Ed Sullivan Theater
# I Wanna Be Your Man / Ed Sullivan Theater
# Eight Days A Week / Shea Stadium
# Paperback Writer / Budokan
# And Your Bird Can Sing / Budokan
# Yellow Submarine / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# With a Little Help from My Friends / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Within You Without You / Tomorrow Never Knows / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Revolution / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Birthday / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Dig A Pony / Rooftop Concert
# I’ve Got A Feeling / Rooftop Concert
# Boys / Cavern Club
# A Hard Day’s Night / Ed Sullivan Theater
# I’m Looking Through You / Shea Stadium
# If I Needed Someone / Shea Stadium
# Ticket to Ride / Shea Stadium
# Drive My Car / Budokan
# Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Getting Better / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Good Morning / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Hello, Goodbye / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Hey Bulldog / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Dear Prudence / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# While My Guitar Gently Weeps / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Helter Skelter / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Something / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Come Together / Abbey Road Dreamscape
# Don’t Let Me Down / Rooftop Concert
# I Want You (She’s So Heavy) / Rooftop Concert
# I Me Mine / Rooftop Concert
# I Saw Her Standing There / remainder unknown
# I Want To Hold Your Hand
# I Feel Fine
# Taxman
# Day Tripper
# Back In The USSR
# I Am The Walrus
# Octopus’s Garden
# Here Comes The Sun
# Get Back