WarioWare and Wii win toy fair award

Nintendo of Europe has won a ´Toy Award´ at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg for both the Wii console and ´WarioWare: Smooth Moves´.

The combination of hardware and software won in the category ´Trend + Lifestyle´ out of a total of 223 new products by 163 manufacturers that are presented at the show. There are 8 categories in total.

Here is the official statement by the jury. They were probably having too much fun playing the game to spell its name correctly.

The jury selected the “Wario Wear: Smooth MovesTM” game together with the console from Nintendo; here the player dances, boxes and jumps through 200 crazy microgames. Fast reactions and smooth movements are called for.

The jury chose the product because the play concept of Wii tends to encourage playing PC games in groups instead of alone. In addition, the product not only appeals to player types with an affinity to PCs, but also to new age groups – a real lifestyle theme. The innovative controller – for more fun and movement – and the “Wario WearTM: Smooth Moves” represents a return to the more classic games in the game console segment.

The award will be presented tomorrow. Winners are allowed to print the ´ToyInnovation quality label´ onto the product. Obviously, there is also some significant media coverage involved.

The fair officially opens its gates on February 1st.

EDIT Thanks to Joystiq, MaxConsole and GoNintendo for linking to this story.

Sources: International Toy Fair, Nintendo of Europe - press server (registration required)