Ho. Lee. Crap. Look at this little Japanese tyke go:

And as if that wasn't enough, if you want to see some BONKERS Taiko no tetsujin (Taiko Drum Master) and Pop N'Music superhuman reflexes... just hit the jump (click the "read more" link) for some serious über-human gaming prowess.

So the recent number crunching I explored here on GFR revealed a shocking trend: the Playstation 2 was the second-best selling console last month. Read that again, that's the PS2, NOT the PS3, and this is despite the best efforts of stores like Gamestop who will give you $100 off a PS3 by giving up your PS2 in an effort to move their stagnant PS3 stocks (or harvest used PS2's to sell as used bundles and cash in on this trend...). So... whaaaaaaa?

There's a few possible explanations, but I think I've gotten to the bottom of this. First, the obvious: the new PS2 is slim, sleek, and runs a cool $129, as opposed to the huge, Norbit-crushing and expensive-as-hell PS3. It has a library of hundreds of incredible games, most of which are priced at $20 or so (FFX, God of War, Katamari, etc), as opposed to the anemic launch title selection of the PS3. But there's one key bit here...

...Guitar Hero. And it's not alone - the entire "Revolution" series: Dance Dance Revolution, Karaoke Revolution, and Karaoke Revolution: American Idol. Not to mention other oft-overlooked lovelies, like personal favorite Taiko Drum Master. Seriously, these wacky-controller-based games (did I just invent a new genre? WCBG's?) are the darlings of an increasingly partygame-based video gaming culture (to which the Wii owes much of its success, since the entire consumer base essentially primed and ready for silliness and 4-player+ social gaming experiences), and the PS2 has a lock on MANY of them. It gets them first, it does them easily, and they've clearly made a huge difference.

I'm not just making a blind assertion based on my own gaming-during-houseparty experiences here, there are real quantitative data to back up this theory. Observe (via Kotaku):

That's right folks, last month, during the giant consumer electronics shop-till-you-drop extravaganza, not only did the PS2 finish second out of all the consoles on the market, but what came in just under Gears of War with a cool 802,000 units in sales?

Guitar Hero II. That's a potential attach rate (game:system ratio) of 0.66, which means for every 3 PS2 systems sold, 2 of them could have had Guitar Hero II co-gifted. Even if the games were bought for previously owned systems, this was still the 7th best selling game all month, punching way above its weight and landing in the same list as Madden, Call of Duty, Zelda, and Gears of War. These are very real numbers, and the music industry is taking note as well.

And why do I care so much? Because, quite simply, the raised-in-Bawlmer-on-Def-Leppard white trashiness side of me could not be more excited for the upcoming release of Guitar Hero: 80's Metal Edition. Time to rip some hot licks to Bon Jovi et al.

So in short, as long as these gems still keep getting new iterations and new controllers, Sony might not be in such bad shape after all, since the PS2 is pure profit at this point.

I'll be the first to admit that the best game on PS2 (even beating out longtime personal fav FFX) is God of War. No contest. After renting and beating it two or three times from Gamefly, I just picked up a copy on eBay for $8, and it's still an amazing experience. Needless to say, I'm super-psyched to play the sequel without having to upgrade to a $600 PS3, even though they're easy to come by, in order to play it (hooray for late-stage PS2 development!). With Component Video enabled, GOW looks easily as good as Ninja Gaiden or any of the top-shelf graphical masterpieces on Xbox.

And the sequel...oh boy:

In the recently released 4th Quarter 2006 numbers (compiled by the research firm NPD), Nintendo pretty much mopped up the competition. Kotaku has done a rather thorough analysis of the numbers, and while the Xbox 360 outsold the Wii in December, Nintendo totally hit their target and sold 1.1 million Wii units in 2006 from launch to Dec. 31st! In the same story, the DS Lite kicked the living crap out of the PSP, which should be surprising to no one, but the lead they've established is shocking: 2.5 million more DS/Lite units sold than PSPs. Ouch. In fact, the DS and (of all the darndest things) the PS2 were the real winners last month, with Nintendo selling 1.6 million new DS units, and the PS2 selling an impressive 1.4 million. This over the "next-gen" console sales for December, which clock in at 1.1 million for the Xbox 360, 604,200 for the Wii and an anemic 490,700 PS3s.

So, in short, Nintendo hit their launch goal (1 million by year end), and sold more DS systems than any other system. Microsoft won December, and has sold 4.5 million Xbox 360 units since its launch in 2005 (though this means in a month and a half, the Wii sold enough systems to make up 25% of the 360-owner market). Sony sales are in the shitter - PSP losing badly to DS, and the PS3 is finding more of a home back on store shelves rather than in people's homes or selling like hotcakes on eBay.

But the PS2? Sony's saving grace? What could be up with this? I've got an idea, but I'll talk more about that later...

So at any rate, because all of Sony's current systems are falling short of everyone's expectations, Microsoft is now taking note of the real competition: Nintendo. Bill Gates himself acknowledged that Nintendo is their "toughest competition," even though the company isn't directly aiming at any of their users. This is an interesting admission, and is a double-slap in the face of Sony, especially after such a smackdown on the PS3's nascent online service by MS reps recently.

Poor Sony. My heart breaks, and yet my Wii elbow throbs on...

This hilarious Wii sex video reminds of something that was WAY more real life from a while back, a launch title for the PS2 to be specific. The game was Rez, and the sexy back came in the form of a "Trance Vibrator" which was supposed to be used for... well, I'm not sure what. Basically, it gave Japanese girls something to do while their boyfriends played countless hours of PS2:

"We sat side my side on our makeshift couch, I with the trance vibrator and Justin with the controller. As the levels got more advanced, so did the vibrations... revving up to an intense pulsing throbbing..."

Read the entire story here!