Nintendo Week

Nintendo Week
Title card
Genre	Entertainment and news
Created by	Nintendo
Starring	Gary Culig Alison Whitney[1]
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	7 (archived)
Production
Location(s)	Atlanta, Georgia
Running time	Varied (usually 8 minutes)
Distributor	Nintendo
Release
Original network	Nintendo Channel
Original release	September 14, 2009 – March 29, 2012
Chronology
Preceded by	Nintendo Channel digest video
Followed by	Nintendo Update
Related shows	Nintendo Show 3D

Nintendo Week was a weekly entertainment and news series that reported on the latest and upcoming video games and news concerning Nintendo platforms, including Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS. The series had two hosts, Gary and Alison. It premiered on September 14, 2009 as part of the launch of a redesigned Nintendo Channel, and aired its final episode on March 29, 2012.^[2] It was only available via the North American edition of the Nintendo Channel. In the series, the hosts presented new game releases, industry interviews, demonstrations, and previews.

It was produced in the distribution center of Nintendo's offices in Atlanta, GA. Originally, new episodes premiered on Mondays, but from July 28, 2011, they were shown on Thursdays from that point onward. On November 24, 2011, the show received a new set (before that, the set was a house with a Super Mario Bros.-themed background on the wall). February 2, 2012 was the last appearance of Alison Whitney on the show. After Alison's departure, Gary's counterpart Dark Gary (also played by culig) was promoted from recurring character to Alison's replacement as co-host. Nintendo Week also filled in various guest co-hosts alongside Gary and Dark Gary from the week beginning February 16, 2012.

On March 29, 2012, Nintendo Week had its series finale on the Nintendo Channel and was replaced by generic Nintendo Update announcement videos, which started on May 31, 2012, and on occasion the Nintendo Channel also included segments from the 3DS eShop's Nintendo Show 3D with host Jessie Cantrell. During the show's run, new episodes debuted on Mondays until 2011 which was then changed to Thursdays, alongside NOA's decision to introduce weekly updates on that day.

The show had gathered a large fanbase, mainly consisting of adult male Nintendo fans, despite the show being targeted to younger audiences. Nintendo Week is notable for being the first media outlet to announce the WiiWare game Excitebike: World Rally.

Hosts

Gary

Gary was the main host of Nintendo Week. He has made a Flipnote animation called "The Sad Guitarist." He wore plaid clothes often, and was good at the archery mode in Wii Sports Resort. He lost to Alison in the Ultimate Host Showdown after getting distracted at the last second by Alison. He had an "evil twin brother" named Dark Gary. He and Alison have been through many things, even gaming college. It was revealed in one episode his favorite Nintendo 3DS game is Pilotwings Resort. In one episode, Gary was shown to be somewhat gullible, as he believed Dark Gary when he told him that there was a gaming convention, which led him to the middle of nowhere. Gary officially announced his final appearance on Nintendo Week on March 29, 2012, having the same reason as Alison: he was too an alien who had decided to go back to his homeworld, alongside Alison and Dark Gary followed by a disclaimer indicating that it was the final episode of Nintendo Week.

Alison

Alison was a co-host for Nintendo Week from September 14, 2009 to February 2, 2012. She simply called her own Flipnote animation "Alison's Flipnote." She really liked to tease Gary, even asking him if he was proud of his figure in one episode. She was the Ultimate Host Showdown Champion, thanks to throwing Gary's attention off guard, leading to him missing the final target in Wii Sports Resort. It was revealed in one episode that her favorite Nintendo 3DS game is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. Gary and Alison are best friends. On February 2, 2012, she left the show. Her exit was explained by saying she was an alien who had decided to go back to her homeworld. However, her withdrawal marked nine more absences.

Dark Gary

Dark Gary is Gary's evil twin brother who lived in a roof tent. He was introduced in episode 3 when Gary was fighting the Dark Samus boss in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption when he turned off Gary's Wii to plug in the microwave. His catchphrase is "Bro" and he loved kettle corn. He had a crush on Alison, and got rid of Gary sometimes. He was constantly wearing black clothes. He had a fake soul patch, which he seemed to be attached to. In one episode, he panicked when he saw the "Ghost of Gaming Future" (who was practically him) had no soul patch. He also tweaked Gary's Flipnote animation and called it "The Sad Guitarist 2." He was also a Ninja Boss and was fluent in Japanese. Dark Gary loved to do bad things, such as popping balloons and stealing lollipops from babies, and could never stop from annoying people. Many times he tried to steal a game when Alison kicked him out of the house before she got it back. Along with that, Dark Gary liked to steal Alison's lunch, according to some episodes. This attribute eventually became the theme for an official downloadable microgame, which Alison developed herself, distributed via the North American version of WarioWare D.I.Y.. Dark Gary's signature black, wool hat was the main prop in this microgame. He was the last character seen in the series finale of Nintendo Week, as once Gary left, Dark Gary's body began to slowly vanish in the same light as Gary had, albeit he originally thought that he had Nintendo Week all to himself. As he was disappearing, he began to explain to himself (and to the audience) that since he was Gary's "twin brother", he could not exist without his presence, but hinted he is possibly being transported to where Gary and Alison went. The moment he was gone, he left one last echoing remark as a tease, "Guess we'll never know, Bros!"

Recurring characters

• Superintendent Runcible - the maintenance man for Alison and Gary's building. He lived in the basement, preferred "old school" video games like Super Mario Kart, and had an obsession with marshmallows. He had a huge secret lab/warehouse/aircraft hangar where he taught Gary to make the marshmallows. He described himself as "a marshmallowtarian" in one episode, which annoyed Zeus, who then promptly turned him into a marshmallow.
• Inspector Schwartz - a female police detective that showed up from time to time, and usually threatened to arrest people as part of her normal casual conversation ("Food this good should be illegal, I should arrest all of you!")
• Uncle Dave - Alison's uncle, a handyman who fixed up her home on occasion. Affable and outgoing, he's extremely condescending to Gary, though it is unclear if he actually disliked him.
• Zeus - Lord of Olympus, king of the Greek gods, first appeared in the episode that introduced the video game Glory of Heracles (an RPG based on Greek mythology), where he sent them to the underworld to retrieve his copy. Later, he showed up as a party guest and helped out in the kitchen, which revealed his interest in using lightning bolts, as he did so when cutting lemons.
• Acrobats - early episodes featured a team of acrobats who would act out scenes from video games in clever fashion. This was quickly dropped.
• Alison and Gary's friends - whenever there was a video game including 3 players or more, the various group of friends would come over to play video games with Gary and Alison.

References

1. http://www.alisonwhitney.com/index.php/resume
2. "New-and-Improved Nintendo Channel Gets Updated Features and Weekly Show". Nintendo of America. 2009-09-14. Retrieved 2009-12-07.

External links

• Nintendo Week episodes at GameTrailers