Nintendo has promised a steady stream of new downloadable games for its Virtual Console service on the Wii, and today the publisher detailed its plans to keep the games coming for European gamers in the first few months of 2007. Nintendo Europe announced it will release 36 games for the Virtual Console over the first quarter of 2007. Of those games, 20 will be pulled from Nintendo consoles of yesteryear, while seven TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine games and nine Genesis/MegaDrive titles will be added to the service.

Sega announced five titles from its SEGA Genesis library: Streets of Rage, Bio-Hazard Battle, Gain Ground, Comix Zone and Bonanza Bros. will soon be available on the Wii Shop Channel for download and play on the Wii’s Virtual Console. Prices start at 800 Wii Points for SEGA Genesis titles. Wii Points can be purchased online or at select retailers at an MSRP of $20 for 2,000 points.

If you have a Wii, you’re likely have several Wii Remotes and Wii Nunchucks. As slick as the Wii looks, the gaming controllers can cause quite a clutter in your gaming space. Here’s a tip to keep your Wii Remotes and Wii Nunchucks organized.

Games for the Nintendo Wii have to pass a higher standard than most: They have to be fun to look at and play, and they also have to make good use of the Wii’s unique remote control-style controller.

Konami’s “Elebits” makes a solid showing in all categories. The basic game is simple: You’re on the hunt for tiny creatures with antennae called Elebits that, when captured, can restore power to devices that have been turned off by a power outage. You use the controller to point and shoot at the Elebits to capture them, and you also use it to open doors, turn on electrical devices, fling objects around, rummage through drawers and even turn things upside down.

If playing video games makes kids less active - and contributes to obesity - why not create more video games that require activity? That’s the question prompted by a Mayo Clinic research study published in the current issue of the medical journal Pediatrics.

The study is the first to scientifically measure the energy spent playing video games. While the study’s scope is small - only 25 children - it was conducted with great accuracy. Fifteen children were of normal weight for their height and frame; 10 were mildly obese. Both groups were tested while sitting and watching television, playing a traditional video game, playing two types of activity-required video games, and watching television while walking on a treadmill.

The results showed that sitting while watching television and playing traditional video games expended the same amount of energy. When participants played with the first activity-oriented video game, one that uses a camera to virtually “place” them in the game where they catch balls and other objects, their energy expenditure tripled. The result was the same for the lean and mildly obese children. Walking on a treadmill while watching TV also tripled expenditure for the lean group, but showed a nearly fivefold increase for the mildly obese group. While using a dance video game, both groups burned the most calories, but it was considerably more for the obese group - just over six times more than sitting still.