Too many pre-orders for Wii Fit at Toys'R'Us Canada

Gamers looking to reserve a copy of Nintendo's aptly titled, upcoming Wii fitness game, Wii Fit , at Toys'R'Us stores in Canada will now have to go looking elsewhere. After doing a quick double check, we can confirm that Toys'R'Us locations across Canada have stopped taking new pre-orders for the game because they have simply received too many. This is certainly good news for Nintendo, as it demonstrates the game's popularity, even over a month before its release.

“ Wii Fit combines fun and fitness,” Nintendo of Canada spokesperson Matt Ryan told us, “It’s an easy way for every member of the family to keep active and play together. What we think is universal in its appeal is the blending of an activity that’s good for you with the entertaining aspects of a game as you track your progress. Because of this mass appeal, Nintendo anticipates that Wii Fit will be received quite well with Canadian consumers.”

If you live in Canada and are still looking to reserve yourself a copy of Wii Fit , we do know that EB Games is still, currently, taking pre-orders. Future Shop and Best Buy Canada, however, are not taking any pre-orders for the game.

Toys'R'Us locations in the U.S. are still taking pre-orders for Wii Fit .

PS3 Firmware update details

Today, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) announced details regarding the upcoming firmware update for Playstation 3, which is slated for release next week. Firmware version 2.30 will add DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio to the Playstation 3, allowing users to enjoy Blu-ray movies will full, high definition audio. The update will also allow Playstation 3 users to start accessing the revamped Playstation Store, giving them easier access to games, demos, game videos, Blu-ray movie trailers and more.

Here comes the technical stuff:

With DT S-HD Master Audio, Blu-ray movies played on a Playstation 3 will now have pure, high-quality audio that is, bit-for-bit, identical to the original studio master. DTS-HD Master Audio has the capacity to deliver audio at the incredibly high variable rate of 24.5 mega-bits per second (Mbps) on Blu-ray disc, which is significantly higher than standard DVDs. DTS-HD Master Audio also offers 7.1 audio channels at 96k sampling frequency/24 bit depths.

The DTS-HD Resolution Audio codec gives content creators the ability to deliver uncompromised, high-definition audio on Blu-ray, while requiring less disc space than DTS-HD Master Audio. TS-HD High Resolution Audio streams audio at a high constant bit rate of 6.0 Mbps on Blu-ray discs, and is also capable of up to 7.1 audio channels at 96k sampling frequency/24 bit depth resolution.

Nintendo announces Mario baseball game for Wii

Though not specifically anticipated, this was certainly hoped for by Wii users, and Nintendo confirmed it today. A Mario baseball game will be coming to Wii, and it is scheduled to release this year. Nintendo announced Mario Super Sluggers today as the kickoff to its semiannual media summit in San Francisco. Following the spirit of sports-themed Mario games like Mario Strikers Charged and the upcoming Mario Kart Wii , Mario Super Sluggers brings together interactive baseball action with characters and elements from across the Mario universe.

“ Mario is truly a one-of-a-kind character; clearly fans can’t get enough of him and his friends,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “We’re giving Wii users brilliant new ways to enjoy him while expanding our series of active-play games.”

The cool thing is that Nintendo will be introducing Wii Sports styled controls for swinging and pitching, so learning to control the game will be just as simple and intuitive. Of course, we certainly hope that the controls will at least be more accurate. Mario Super Sluggers will be releasing some time later this year.

Tournament semifinalists announced

GameStop announced today the semifinalists who will advance to the final stage of competition in its American Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament. The semifinalists were selected from over 75,000 competitors who successfully completed the three previous rounds of competition at the Store, District and Regional levels. The following semifinalists who qualified to compete in the final rounds of the tournament on April 12 at GameStop's San Jose Tournament Center are:

• David Campondonico - Fairview, NJ

• Zachary Citron - Boca Raton, FL

• Timothy Cody - Manasquan, NJ

• Austin Cornelius - Dallas, TX

• Trevon Daniels - Goochland, VA

• Sheldon Dukes - West Chicago, IL

• Derick Janssen - Plant City, FL

• Tim Joyce - Glendale, AZ

• Lee Martin - Houma, LA

• Daniel Rodriguez - Falls Church, VA

• Gabe Soto - Saginaw, MI

• Daniel Taylor - Blacksburg, VA

• Nghia Trong Tran - Torrance, CA

Each of the semifinalists will get two opportunities to compete against one another in a five minute match. The two with the highest scores after double elimination rounds will be declared the finalists. The finalist with the best of three rounds score will be declared the Grand Prize Winner of the 2008 Super Smash Brothers Brawl Tournament. The finalist with the second highest score will be named the Second Prize Winner.