Announced back in May, The Biggest Loser is now officially available for the Nintendo Wii and DSi platforms for $40 and $30, respectively, bringing the grand total of fitness games on the market up to seven billion and one.

Developed by THQ, the game mimics the experience of being on The Biggest Loser Ranch just like the TV contestants, except that you get to live in your own house and you can keep eating delicious donuts with reckless abandon — it’ll be our little secret.

Band Hero is coming to the Nintendo DS this fall and, yes, you’ll be able to play drums and, double yes, there will be an actual drum peripheral for your DS. Nothing too fancy, just something called the “drum grip” that fits over the DS’ buttons and D-pad. Oh, and as luck would (not) have it, the drum grip won’t work with the DSi. So there’s that.

Launching in September for the Wii, DS, PC and Mac is a childhood favorite of mine, Waldo. Yes, the striped sweater wearing dope is making his triumphant return to the world in the form of a videogame. The question is: where the hell has he been for the last 21 years? I’d like to buy him a beer.

Nobody wants to read “businessy” news on a Friday afternoon on CrunchGear, so let’s keep this one short: Nintendo only had an okay year last year; this year, it expects sales to be flat. It chalks that up to a decline in the software tie-in ration for new DS and Wii consoles. That is, the sheen of Wii Sports has worn off, and people are no longer compelled to buy the four game per Wii (2 per DS) that they had

Earlier today at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata made it abundantly clear that his company is doing just fine despite the global recession.

Sony has fired a peremptory strike against the Nintendo DSi, launching tomorrow. In a harshly worded letter they wrote:

If Nintendo is really committed to reaching a broader, more diverse audience of gamers beyond the “kids” market that they’ve always engaged, there isn’t much new with the DSi to support that. Significant gamer demographic groups are being ignored, and there continues to be limited opportunities for games from external publishers to do well on the DSi. Compare that with the PSP platform, where we have many blockbuster franchises from our publishing partners launching this year, representing a wide variety of genres and targeting diverse demographics. Games such as Rock Band Unplugged from MTV Games, Assassin’s Creed from Ubisoft, Dissidia Final Fantasy from Square Enix, and Hannah Montana from Disney demonstrate the commitment that publishers have to the PSP. From our own first-party studios, we’re launching unique versions of LittleBigPlanet and MotorStorm, and we’re also planning a steady stream of downloadable games — both new titles and PSone classics — to add to the content that PSP owners can already purchase wirelessly through PlayStation Store.

WHOMP!

The DS is the favored accessory all over Japan, and like every other game or electronic device there, some people find themselves playing it until they nearly die. What it is about that island nation that makes people do this, I don’t care to guess, but the fact is some people need an electronic mom to flip the switch when it’s clear they’ve been playing too much. The Health Control Game Timer (Japanese) is designed to do just that, so if you’ve found yourself bent like a tree and light-headed after a marathon Advance Wars session, this may be in order.

Has Nintendo finally exhausted all the momentum out of the Wii and DS? DeutcheBank seems to think so, which earlier today downgraded its rating of the Japanese super-happy-fun company to “sell.” The logic is pretty simple: odds are this is as good as it gets for Nintendo, so investors would do well to cash out now, and collect whatever profit it is they’ve accrued over the past few years.

The frequent criticisms of the Wii are, unfortunately, very apt today. The accusations of fluff games and kids games find their targets easily here, yet Nintendo seems optimistic as ever.

With the sole exception of Punch-Out (itself the subject of other criticisms – franchise milking), the highlights of the 2009 lineup are looking mighty unexciting.

Let’s see here… Personal Trainer: Walking. O be still my heart!

Another day, another lawsuit. This time, a Texas company called Wall Wireless has accused several companies, including Nintendo, Sony and Nokia, of infringing on one of its patents pertaining to wireless communication. None of the accused companies have responded to the complaint just yet.

The next-gen Nintendo DSi is already for sale in Japan and American gamers should get access to it within the coming months. It seems that The DS Lite Onyx might be the first of the current generation to get that axe. This comes from an internal GameStop newsletter and begs the question if other models will soon join this model.

Folks may have been renting Xbox 360 titles like mad last year, but that didn’t do much for console sales. The NPD group announced sales figures for the Wii and DS earlier today and the numbers are astonishing.