Video games are hitting the main stream in our society, and are being used for more than pure entertainment. One of the biggest leaders in this change in the ways games are viewed is the Nintendo Wii. The latest news is that the Wii is being used to rehabilitate two severely burned sugar plant workers in Doctor’s Hospital of Augusta, BC.

“If fishing is your thing, we want to get that person back to fishing again. If it’s working at the plant, that’s what we’re geared towards doing,” she said.

A new tool, or toy to some, is helping to make that road to recovery a bit easier. It’s called Nintendo Wii.

“We have them do bowling, hunting, fishing; activities to stimulate some of the things they may do at home and they’ve really enjoyed it. This has brought a whole new aspect into the treatment program that we’re able to do just a little something extra that makes their stay more interesting,” said Dean Beasley, Director of Doctors Hospital Rehab Unit.

Reading about video game consoles that will be used as bedside monitors for patients or video game interfaces used to train our military is very interesting. However, the use of the Wii in rehab, schools and nursing homes is humanizing. It’s good press and the games industry needs all it can get.

via NBC Augusta

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Marvelous Entertainment and Grasshopper Manufacture (Killer 7, No More Heroes) have confirmed that the Nintendo DS port of the PS2 adventure, Flower, Sun, and Rain, will be making its way to North America after all. Featuring extras and add-ons exclusively for the DS, Japanese gamers should expect the game to hit their shores on March 6th, while the US version will follow “shortly”. We have not heard any word regarding a European release date either, but we will keep you updated as more information comes our way.

Storyline: Sumio Mondo is an assassin who arrives on the resort island of Lospas and takes a room at the F.S.R. hotel after being given the assignment to detect and defuse a time bomb planted on a plane which is soon to leave the island’s only airport. On the way to the airport however, Sumio encounters other hotel guests and island residents requesting his help with various problems, including searching for missing items. While Sumio is distracted by them, the airplane with the bomb on board takes off and explodes, crashing into the island. The next morning, however, Sumio awakens in his hotel room and discovers that something strange has happened - not only has not even headed to the airport yet, the airplane explosion and crash have not happened either. Sumio attempts to head to the airport to prevent the explosion and once again people who need his help appear, distracting him long enough to lead to a repeat of the previous days explosion, and Sumio once again awakening in his hotel room with the previous events having yet to unfold. As the same fateful day repeats itself over and over, Sumio finds his hotel room becomes more and more warped and twisted, reflecting the fact that he is slowly losing his mind from the repetition.

Players will control Sumio Mondo, to seek out other people’s items while using a suitcase-shaped instrument named “Katherine” to solve the mysteries about said items. Sumio can crack any secret code by using “Katherine” with a “Dial” for inputting numbers and to get the information needed, players will get hints from what people say, combined with a tourbook of Lospas Island. The DS version will feature over 50 missions in 18 scenarios, and the touch screen will be imperative when solving many of the puzzles in the game.

For more information on Ground Hog Day Flower, Sun, and Rain, check back with us often and visit two sites related to the game here and here. Hopefully, you will get the pages translated before you decide to try and decipher them yourselves.