Call of Duty, the current king of video games, has just shown the next iteration in the series: Modern Warfare 3.  It also has been announced that Call of Duty would soon make its official debut in China with subscription plans estimated to earn $100m in its first year.

China already loves Call of Duty, and here is proof.  This Taobao shop creates replicas of Call of Duty’s ‘Task Force 141′ tactical jacket, as popularized by the character named Ghost.  Very similar to the way that the Bruce Lee’s megashop creates homage clothing.  These Modern Warfare fans have recreated Ghost’s outfit with a wide variety of sizes and options. Cotton-or down-filled, in a variety of sizes, or even custom made. Because when you zipline into a terrorist-filled oil rig, you can’t risk getting snared up.

Every task force should have one hot chick.

A while back I announced that I was going to start using exclusively tactical products.  If you tour my apartment, which is in the upper deck of a Russian submarine, you will find tactical dining tables (made to kick over in case of gunfights) , tactical dinnerware (throwing knives only),  and tactical Snoopy throw pillows (love Snoopy!).  Of course, I don’t invite many guests.

How do you know if something is tactical or not? Having patches is a good clue.

Custom Call of Duty-inspired tactical jackets are a special treat only afforded to us by the magic of Taobao. Enjoy it!

Fun little training games are one of the DS’s strong suits, and a game called My Chinese Coach was released a few months ago. It is not a full-featured learning course, but has a handful of good interactive exercises that will be useful for helping beginner- and intermediate-level students remember words and tones. 

If you get some momentum with this training thing, you can also train your brain, your eyes (probably my favorite), and facial expressions.

There are currently two models out on the market (not counting the old ugly one). The DS pictured here, and a brand new DSi released in Japan which has some added features like a camera. 

If you are new on the DS scene, it is my recommendation to pick up the standard DS and not the DSi. It usually takes about two years for the game developers to figure out cool stuff to do with the new features (see the facial expressions link above for an example of what they are doing so far). With the standard DS, you already have a lengthy back catalog of great games to explore. And you’ll save a bit of money. 

The one linked here has all the accessories you need, including the R4 card, a 7-day unconditional exchange and a one year repair warranty. 

A Nintendo DS - 1120rmb

To get the full Wii experience, you will want to pick up the Wii Fit Balance Board. I tried it for the first time this past weekend, and I really liked it.  Besides zany minigames like Hula Hoop, Wii Fit focuses on nuanced movement with balance and yoga exercises.

The mood of these new Nintendo products is a step into the future. The clean white designs and gentle prompts are like some 2001: Space Oddessy vision of how we will someday exercise in our space pods.

When I was in 4th grade, my teacher turned me into a slave for gold-star stickers.  I was skipping recess and cleaning the overhead projector for those stickers. Skipping recess, dude. Nintendo pulls some similar psychological tricks to incite your gold-sticker addiction. But they employ these nefarious tactics to remind you not to skip recess.

Wii Fit encourages you to play for short periods every day. You get a stamp on the calendar when you finish your daily activities, and a chart to show your progress. The drive to get today’s stamp is just enough to overcome the inertia that kills most exercise plans within the first week.

The balance board accessory is a really nice-looking and sturdy machine. Most of the ones available on Taobao come with the Wii Fit game disc in traditional Chinese. But you should have a local shop that will be able to provide English editions of this and most other games. Accessory compatibility is not a problem on the Wii, and this Balance Board will be compatible with the Wii console we wrote about earlier.

Get Wii Fit on Taobao - 658rmb

The Wii is Cheap and Awesome

So what special considerations do we need to take when buying a Wii in China? Since China is not an official Wii market, the ones on sale here are a mix of imports from other regions. That means that the ones for sale here are unlocked – firmware scrubbed – to accept a wide variety of discs.

Make sure you get an English-ready model

The thing you need to avoid here is a Wii that was made for the Japanese market, because it will likely be in Japanese. When looking on Taobao, make sure to keep English 英文in your searches.

Get a Nintendo Wii on Taobao – 1500rmb

Word on the street is that this new thing – Wii Motion Plus – is the real deal. It adds a lot of accuracy to what the Wii’s motion detectors can pick up. Right now, people are saying that the new Tiger Woods game is great for demonstrating what this new technology can do. Golf was my favorite Wii Sport, so I am pretty pumped for it. Wii Motion Plus – 200rmb

Check out all of our Wii-related posts.