Posted by Raphael, August 4, 2008 at 9:45 AM
Major League Eating: The Game for Nintendo's WiiWare has an awesome unlockable character: the Alaskan Crusher, a Kodiak bear. The bear is based on a 2003 Fox special where major league eating champ Takeru Kobayashi was soundly defeated by a Kodiak bear in a televised head-to-head eating competition. Here's video footage of the virtual bear. [Via Eatfeats]
Previously
'Major League Eating: The Game' Released on Nintendo's Wii Ware
Photo Gallery: Competitive Eating Stars Battling at Nintendo World Store
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, July 14, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Major League Eating: The Game is out! And we're making an open call, a challenge to other food blogs out there—we're looking specifically at group endeavors like you, Grub Street, Eater (and your regional variants), Slashfood, and The Kitchn. We dare you to throw down against the virtual eating skills of the Serious Eats crew, so bring it! Your place or ours—or even online. Stick a fork in it—you're done!
Lack of response will be seen as cession of the Scarf Scepter to us.
Posted by Raphael, July 14, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Today, July 14, 2008, marks a momentous occasion in the history of virtual gluttony: the release of Major League Eating: The Game on Nintendo's Wii Ware service, a game which we've tracked extensively. The game is for one or two players, with the killer feature of online play and leaderboards. Requiring players to "master a smorgasbord of offensive and defensive weapons including bites, burps, belches, mustard gas, and jalapeño flames while cramming and chewing food at a world-class pace," the game is officially sanctioned by Major League Eating, the sporting league that oversees all professional competitive-eating events, including the Nathan's Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest. The game will "simulate the fast and furious action of a professional eating competition" and feature "the world's greatest gurgitory athletes."
Expect an extensive review here on Serious Eats.
Previously
Photo Gallery: Competitive Eating Stars Battling at Nintendo World Store
Eater X, Speed Eating Sushi
Video Trailer for 'Major League Eating: The Game'
'Major League Eating: The Game' Coming Soon for the Nintendo Wii
Posted by Raphael, July 4, 2008 at 2:40 PM
Today in Coney Island, after ten minutes of regulation time, America's defending champion Joey Chestnut and rival Takeru Kobayashi were tied at 59 hotdogs. A five dog eat-off ensued, and Chestnut won! The Mustard Belt remains in America's hands, and Chestnut set a new 10-minute record. Go USA!
When asked why he put his body through this year after year, Chestnut replied, "I love to eat, I love the competition. It's the Fourth of July, and you can get away with it on this day, push your body this hard, for something silly like this."
As ESPN commentators said, "The passions were raw, but the hot dogs were cooked."
Video after the jump.
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Posted by Raphael, July 1, 2008 at 5:15 PM
WiiWare games get released Monday mornings, and every Monday, like a good boy, I check to see if Major League Eating: The Game is going to be available to download. And every week, I'm disappointed. Rumor had it that the game was going to be released in time for the Annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4th, but this week only Magnetica Twist was released. Here's hoping that next week, on July 7th, we'll be able to get our virtual gluttony on.
Previously: Serious Eats' coverage of Major League Eating: The Game
Posted by Emily Koh, June 11, 2008 at 9:00 AM
The famous July Fourth hot dog eating contest at Nathan's in Coney Island will be shortened this year from 12 minutes to 10. Major League Eating, the organization that runs the event, says it discovered random notes and scribblings in a "trove of numerous old items and ephemera" at the original Nathan's stand in Coney Island that implied that the contest's traditional length was actually 10 minutes.
"The issue is history, and the preponderance of the event suggests that the contest was always 10 minutes," said George Shea, chairman of the MLE, in the Brooklyn Paper. All qualifying rounds of the 2008 circuit tour will follow suit and become 10-minute competitions, and the change will most likely be permanent.
Given that current world champion Joey Chestnut beat out six-time champ Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi last year only in the last few minutes of the contest, does shaving off those last two minutes dramatically change the playing field? We talked to Major League Eating media manager Ryan Nerz about to find out.
Continue reading »
Posted by Raphael, May 20, 2008 at 6:15 PM
Photographs by Gordon Mark
Serious Eats intern Gordon Mark went to the Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan today for the promotional release of Major League Eating: The Game, coming soon for the Nintendo Wii, a game which we've reported
extensively on. Gordon was also there to watch Tim "Eater X" Janus and "Crazy Legs" Conti challenge each other in eating real and virtual watermelon. To the tune of The Who's "Baba O'Riley" (aka "Teenage Wasteland"), Crazy Legs won the six-minute meat-space competition 15 wedges to 15 wedges and one bite. Later, Eater X won the virtual competition because the Crazy Legs character threw up inside the game, an automatic disqualification.
More pictures after the jump.
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Posted by Internet Rockstar, April 18, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Editor's note: In early March we first told you about the release of Major League Eating, the videogame. Last week, we asked our friend Ben Brown, the internet rockstar, if he'd attend the press event for us in San Francisco to check out the game. —Adam K.
Tim Janus is a world champion competitive eater. His professional name is "Eater X," and he paints his face like a super hero when he appears at public "gurgitation events." You may also know him as the man who spearheaded the "alternative beverage movement" within the competitive eating community (using lemonade instead of water as a hot dog chaser). And now, thanks to a new videogame coming out in May for the Nintendo Wii, Janus has achieved what millions of slightly overweight manboys have dreamt about since their tweens: He's become a videogame character.
Major League Eating is the official videogame of the Major League Eating organization, which makes up and enforces the rules for competitive-eating events and oversees them. The Wii game, which will be available on the new WiiWare game download system soon, involves players—surprise, surprise—eating pizza, hot dogs, and a variety of other food as fast as they can.
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Posted by Raphael, April 8, 2008 at 10:15 AM
The trailer for the upcoming release of 'Major League Eating: The Game' looks like it might have potential, especially considering online play and leaderboards. The newly released website for the game does indeed confirm our suspicions that you can play as your favorite competitive eater, including Joey Chestnut or Takeru Kobayashi. The virtual gluttony is set as an online purchase through Nintendo's upcoming WiiWare service on May 12th. Check out the video after the jump.
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Posted by Raphael, March 3, 2008 at 6:00 AM
First there was Cooking Mama for the Wii, where players can prepare and cook a variety of international dishes. It always left me a little unfulfilled, since you never actually got to virtually eat anything you virtually cooked. But the world of virtual (professional) eating is near.
Soon you'll be able to channel your inner Joey Chestnut or Takeru Kobayashi by playing Major League Eating: The Game for the Nintendo Wii. Mastiff, the game's publisher, has announced that it will be released on the Wii on May 12 in North America as a downloadable WiiWare title, for one or two players, with the killer feature of online play and leaderboards.
The game will make "extensive" use of the Wii Remote to "simulate a variety of eating techniques including the cram, toss, and 'typewriter.' Burp-offs and Hot Potato challenges during the contests keep the competition intense and eaters on their toes."
Continue reading »
