So, you got Wii Fit.  You played it regularly, didn't you?  The Balance Board never collected dust in the closet, or behind the couch, at all.  You're probably looking trim and slim even as you view this news item.  What's that?  You didn't stick with it?  Dust bunnies the size of a small elephant are the only ones using the Board?  Yeah, me too.  It looks like that may change later this fall, perhaps.  Shaun White Snowboarding is coming soon for the Wii, and pretty much all the other platforms, too.  However, it's the Wii version that piqued my interest.  First of all, the game will support the Wii Balance Board.  That seems natural to me, since the skiing minigames were my favorite part of Wii Fit by far.  Of greater importance to Co-Optimus readers is this quote from IGN's preview:

Well another Co-Op Night has come and gone, and this one was a total success.  Rock Band 2 works incredibly well online, and it was a piece of cake to get 4 players in on the musical action.  Our band, Billy and the Bots toured the country picking up a rickety old van, and hiring some staff including our mom and some creepy kid.  A lot of the staff even got to play together including Loren, Marc and myself - and my wife even joined in on the action picking up the vocals.  The ability to mix local playsers and online players seemlessly is a great feature, and Harmonix should be applauded for that!

It's another Week of the GameDaily HUD, and with everyone's favorite co-op rhythm game hitting store shelves, it was an obvious focus. 

The crew at Left 4 Dead 411 have received a pretty epic (exclusive) video from Valve. The video is a 10 minute HD video about the making of Left 4 Dead. The video was originally only viewable at E3, but fortunately, Valve is deciding to let it loose upon the interwebs. The ten minute video is narrated by Gabe Newell and also features an extended version of the E3 trailer. For those of you looking for the highlights of the video, L4D 411 has kindly located them for you. Some of the more interesting ones are:

Remember Feeding Frenzy? That Xbox Live Arcade title demo that came preloaded on your HDD? (At least, it was preloaded on my Christmas 2007 Xbox 360 Pro...) If you tried it, you may have experienced a light-hearted and simple-to-play game that was worth a second or third Sunday afternoon spin, but probably not a full purchase.

This week, Co-Op Classics is all about our trip to the 1984 Arcade.  Last week, we gave you a little preview, and now, the full report.  Which games hold up the best after 20 or so years?  Which are total clunkers?  Could I keep up with four 14 year old boys hyped up on soda pop and cheesburgers?  (The answer to that one: not really.)  Read on to find out!

The fine folks over at the Official PlayStation Blog have brought word that the 4 player co-op game Little Big Planet has GONE GOLD and will be available on North American shelves October 21st.  The game will be available in the rest of the world on the 24th of October.  To celebrate the launch, fans will be able to download a free SackBoy SpaceMan model (pictured above) and a "I was there" t-shirt for their game during the first week. 

Despite the best effort from dedicated fans, the folks at Blizzard keeping churning out colorful and beautiful screenshots for the upcoming 5 player co-op title Diablo 3 on the PC.  The latest set of four screens shows some truly impressive visuals and lighting.  Take the above screenshot of a fire elemental.  Simply gorgeous. 

You know, people make mistakes.  Sometimes, it's for the better.  Take what happened with some Inside Xbox Content this week.  Someone accidentally said that Sierra's Zombie Wranglers, a 4 player co-op game with drop-in/drop-out support was already available for download.  Alas, this was not true.  But upon further inspection of Xbox.com, it appears the web page is live for the title.  This usually means the title is coming within the next week or so, and as X3F deduced, we're going to put our money on next week along with another co-op title.

Well, we talk about Castle Crashers a great deal at Co-Optimus, so you might be thinking "what's the big deal about it?" Fair enough, you want some proof that our love is valid. How about a number? 250,000. That is the number of people who have downloaded Castle Crashers so far. For a reference, the game came out less than a month ago, on August 27th. So in around 22 days, a quarter of a million people have downloaded the game. Also, the game has increased number people playing Alien Hominid by a factor of five! Also, The Behemoth has hinted, as before, that a patch is inbound to fix the online issues. So any one of the 250,000 out there?

Criterion Games has announced on their blog that the Burnout Paradise free update originally codenamed "Davis" is now available on the Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network.

Recent rumblings of a new instrument for Guitar Hero: World Tour have now been verified.  Fans of enormous brass instruments and German orchestra bells (a favorite of many elementary music teachers) will have to wait until the next GH, however.  The instrument, if you can call it that, is MIDI sequencer functionality.  Through some arcane, sorcerous method, players can transfer MIDI files, perhaps of their own band, into GH:WT and further editing can be done there.  The PS3 version will have full functionality, but the 360 version will only support drum tracks due to "hardware issues".  (Insert your own fanboy comment here.)  I know I dream of playing "The Touch" from the original animated Transformers movie in GH:WT (don't we all?), but that may not be as easy as I'd like.  Says project director Brian Bright: