Portable Planet

It’s a smaller than usual week for Euro Wii gamers looking for classic titles on the Virtual Console.  With only two titles to choose from, it’s a tad disappointing.  But there’s always next week.

Stake your claim as king of the jungle this week as the world famous ape family swing their way onto the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console. Released for the Super Nintendo in 1995, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest sees our hero Donkey Kong take a step aside to allow his family members to take centre stage. When the big ape himself is kidnapped, it is up to the young Diddy and Dixie Kong to fight their way through eight worlds of comical action to save their superstar relative. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest is available now for 800 Points.

Joining this retro classic is another all-time great from Nintendo’s archives. Originally making its debut in 1992 on the NES, Mario & Yoshi is a fast-paced puzzle game starring everybody’s favourite plumber and his faithful dinosaur side-kick, Yoshi. In this game, players must catch falling enemies from the Mario series in-between egg shells, to free Yoshi trapped inside. With increasingly difficult stages to master and a frantic split-screen multiplayer mode to enjoy with a friend, this is the ideal title for puzzle fans! Mario & Yoshi is now available to download for 500 Points.

Source: Nintendo

 NPD Funworld has released its April numbers for the States, and Wii has once again topped the chart for next-generation consoles.  Xbox 360 came in second, while PS3 is still struggling to keep up with the competition. 

Nintendo Wii sold 360,000 units in the month of April.  Microsoft’s Xbox 360 reached 174,000 consoles sold, which is certainly respectable considering it’s been out for over a year.

PS3 is still having a tough time getting out of the box.  Sony’s PlayStation 3 only sold 82,000 units in the same time period.  Whether it’s supply or consumer apathy, Sony must be hoping for better days to come…and soon.

The hardware sales top eight (including all platforms) for April is below.

APRIL 2007 US HARDWARE SALES

1) DS: 471,000
2) Wii: 360,000
3) PlayStation 2: 194,000
4) PlayStation Portable: 183,000
5) Xbox 360: 174,000
6) Game Boy Advance: 84,000
7) PlayStation 3: 82,000
8} GameCube: 13,000

Source: GameSpot

American Idol is now down to the final two contestants — Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis.  So who does Simon Cowell think is going to be the next Idol winner?

He has no clue.

“I can’t call it at this stage,” Cowell told reporters on a conference call. “For Blake, he’s a brilliant entertainer, but the negative is he’s not a fantastic singer. The advantage for Jordin is she is a great singer and the negative is she hasn’t done one performance yet which I can remember as a ‘wow.’”

Perhaps it’s because he thinks that Melinda Doolittle got a raw deal this week.  Calling her elimination “unfair”, he said that “she had delivered 10 weeks in a row better than anyone else.”

Sparks and Lewis will face off in the two-part American Idol finale next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Source: Washington Post

Davis Creek Meats and Seafood, a Kalamazoo, Mich., establishment, is voluntarily recalling approximately 129,000 pounds of beef products, due to possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced recently.

The beef products were produced between March 1 and April 30, 2007, and were shipped to foodservice distribution centers and Marketplace stores in Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

 The problem was discovered by Michigan Department of Community Health as part of an E. coli O157:H7 illness investigation.

The recall includes boxes of mechanically tenderized steaks and ground beef of varying weights. Labels on the boxes bear the establishment number “Est. 1947A” inside the USDA mark of inspection and a date code (on the top right corner of the label) between “060” and “120.” Only products with those date codes are subject to recall. Each box also bears a net weight declaration and the message “Manufactured for Gordon Food Service” or “Distributed by Gordon Food Service.

A full list of products included in the recall can be found here.

Source: USDA