These days, with the Big 3 hardware manufacturers out-hyping themselves in addition to each other (see: Sony) in an effort best convince the public that there’s a console war going on here, you can’t swing a dead cat by the tail anywhere on the internet without hitting a forum full of fanboys showing off the latest in lame console case mods and paint jobs. I mean, really. It’s like graffiti. Just because I respect the meaning behind it doesn’t mean there aren’t still a lot of really shitty pieces out there for every nice burner you see (sorry, it seems I’ve been watching Style Wars again lately). Hell, I guess that’s a lot like music too. Or anything, really.

Also, does this mean I can call myself a “war reporter” now? Always wanted to do that.

But I’ll leave the “deeper meaning in art” discussions to my hipster roommate who works at a fine art gallery in Chelsea. He likes that stuff. For those of us who don’t need to put the word “fine” in front of “art” to make it meaningful, there’s these custom, hand-painted Wiis. As part of a joint project between Udon, Magic Pony, and Nintendo of Canada, these gorgeous pieces of Wii-art will be given away in a sweepstakes exclusive to you Canaidions. Which is a real downer for those of us here in New York City with kind of a thing for video games and maybe more than a few Street Fighter comics lying around our apartments. If you know anyone like that. And I’m not saying you do.

I’ve cut out the images and artist blurbs below, so you can check these brilliantly styled Wiis out while side-stepping the need for any further clicking. Unless you want to pick around their their rather suave (but Flash) website, or are one of our lucky neighbors to the north that actually gets to enter into this contest, then you can head right on over to http://theartofwii.nintendo.com yourself. And if you do live in Canada, enter this contest, and happen to, you know, win two of these Wiis (it could happen!) and are feeling a little guilty about your luck and feel compelled to give it away, you can reach me at dylangarret (at) gmail (dot) com. Or my home phone number. I mean, I’ll totally give it to you. I really like that Tsang Wii. I know beggars can’t be choosers, but I’m just saying. . .

Enough of that. Let there be jpeg: