We haven’t weighed in on Microsoft’s Kinect (formerly “Project Natal”) because we haven’t seen anything exciting about it yet. Maybe it’s better than Sony’s Move, and advancing what the Wii provided from a technological perspective. But let’s step back for a moment and look at where this all began, with Nintendo’s current console offering.

We picked up a Wii on release. We waited in line overnight, for crying out loud. And we did thoroughly enjoy the initial titles we played, but let’s be clear: they weren’t groundbreaking titles. Good titles with motion control, yes, but not groundbreaking titles in and of themselves. Maybe motion control is what made the Wii unique, and sold casual gaming to the masses, and maybe even pushed consoles into family entertainment centers where parents were previously skeptical of consoles as family-friendly entertainment. But as far as titles go, there’s no single Nintendo Wii game that’s more fun to play than any great title on any other console lacking motion control. (For example, the original Mario Kart was no less fun than the current Mario Kart is today.)

Yes, we’ll make a small exception for workout titles; EA Sports is a fantastic at-home workout for those without a gym who want to get into better cardiovascular shape, and traditional control schemes obviously wouldn’t work in this regard. But EA Sports, and games of this ilk, are not exactly fun gaming titles in the traditional sense.

So now with Kinect set to release late this year, we have another motion control scheme, albeit without a physical controller necessary. And this may work well for casual games, and probably pretty good for workout titles also (there will, after all, be an EA Sports title for Kinect). But for other gaming? If anything, Microsoft is looking to grab more Wii users and capitalize on the fact that a good chunk of gamers own both a Wii, and an XBox/PS3. Capturing the “casual” gaming crowd is an expected move for Microsoft, who has already moved in that direction during the XBox dashboard re-do (avatars, et al).

We’re highly skeptical that Kinect will bring anything worthwhile to the table if one already has a Wii sitting next to their XBox; Kinect is the Wii peripheral for the XBox. It’s a cool idea, but nothing more than a novelty, which conveniently comes out mid-way through the XBox 360 lifecycle. If anything, it combats Nintendo’s move of potentially releasing an HD Wii, forcing Nintendo to up their ante and delay a new product release more in line with Microsoft and Sony’s next generation, else simply throw in the towel like Sega did after the Dreamcast.

Either way, the Kinect alone won’t win Microsoft the battle here; the Kinect is a reactive move by Microsoft. Not in the way that the Move is Sony’s reaction to the Wii (which is playing catch-up more than anything else), but in the sense of allowing the XBox to be a competitor to the Wii on all angles – not just meeting the Wii’s capabilities, but arguably exceeding them without adding cumbersome, physical controllers. This move will likely pay off in keeping the 360 situated as the premiere US console, but probably won’t force Nintendo out of the console business entirely, unless Microsoft is able to capture some choice IP for Kinect-based games.

We just don’t see the Kinect doing much to sway the console wars one way or the other at this point. The Wii has already been widely adopted, and so the potential installation-base in Wii-less households appears very small. Unless there are some killer titles out there that make having Kinect outrageously desireable (and we haven’t seen any yet), why drop the money on Kinect? Similar Posts:

• Project Natal: death knell to the Wii. – Reviewing the news coming out of E3 this week has shown itself to be a dreary affair. One, because w…
• Nintendo must be high. – The rumour band-wagon is hastily moving forward that a gyroscopic controller from Microsoft will ful…
• Stop buying our heroes, Microsoft. – When Microsoft purchased Bungie during the dawn of the XBox, it would be unfair to say that there wa…
• Welcome back, WASD. – When Goldeneye came out for the N64, I was less than impressed, considering that First Person Shoote…
• Nintendo “Flipper” production ramps up. – Nintendo has reported that NEC is ramping up production of the “Flipper” chip for their upcoming Gam…

Reviewing the news coming out of E3 this week has shown itself to be a dreary affair. One, because we had a chance to attend the expo before other priorities revealed themselves (and thus didn’t), and two, because as the hoarse voice in our head mocks, “Perhaps you’re just not a gamer anymore.” And maybe we’re not – we’re certainly not console aficionados anymore, having shed the weight of the console wars many years ago. It was by chance that we again took up the console call with Microsoft’s enormous black boxen, and later again with the innovative Wii. But let’s be clear: our gaming time is a mere sliver compared to when we vapidly devoured every PC title worth playing, and the prospect of playing competitively as we did in Counterstrike years before is simply not realistic anymore. Indeed, we may even argue that our three-round battle with World of Warcraft was the end of our earnest gaming days, but perhaps this is an overstatement: time is simply one variable that affects our level of excitement for games these days, and in short, most new titles simply do little for us. One, because we’re now more interested in titles that don’t require massive time investments per session, and two, because the vast majority of titles remaining either aren’t particularly good or simply don’t titillate us.

Sure, there’s the occasional game of note that grabs our attention, like Fallout 3 or its DLC. There’s even a couple titles from E3 that peak our interest, be it Borderlands or Grindhouse. But most titles simply bore us, and we happen to attribute much of that boredom to the simple fact that we dislike, nay, loathe the typical console control scheme. Look, we’re PC gamers at heart (it’s why we took years to come back to consoles), and quite simply, there’s nothing better than a keyboard and mouse to control most games. Especially FPS titles. In fact, much as we loved Fallout 3, we purchased it for the 360, and the reliance on crappy console controls was our biggest complaint.

This hatred of typical console controls is why we had such high hopes for the Nintendo Revolution Wii. Yet sadly, as innovative as it was, the Wii proved to be little more than a novelty. Indeed, most games we’ve played on the Wii are either novelty titles (like Wii Sports) which wouldn’t occupy our long-term interest anyway, else titles that really didn’t benefit much from the Wii remotes in the first place. But rather than poo-poo all over the Wii yet again, let’s admit that Nintendo’s effort was good, even if the result (prior to Motion Plus, maybe) was marginal.

For those who love casual games, particularly the mini-games Nintendo titles are known for, the Wii certainly stands out from the 360 and PS3. And that’s why Nintendo has managed to survive this round of the console wars, and why it was inevitable that Microsoft and Sony would want a piece of the motion-control pie. So set out both companies did, and both revealed their Wii-killing accessories at E3. The PS3 did so with little fanfare, while Microsoft just made Natal a gamer household name.

For those asleep while E3 was going on, Natal isn’t a controller, it’s the lack of a controller. Natal’s hardware component is a camera that captures physical movements, such that 360 gamers don’t need to hold a controller to swing a sword, or punch, or jump, or do whatever. Natal, capable of facial recognition, will not only act as an interface to the 360, but to a whole slew of new games that will track user movement as an input mechanism. In theory (and from what E3 videos show us), Natal is just as sophisticated as the Wii in terms of motion control, and will likely compete well against Motion Plus equipped Wiis too. The question Microsoft and Sony have been asking is this: “If we can duplicate Wii functionality on a more powerful system, won’t we lure gamers away from the Wii?” And that’s a good question to ask, if it weren’t for the lead Nintendo already has in the motion control arena. While Sony is still vested in the original question, however, Microsoft made steps not just to duplicate Wii functionality, but to move well beyond it, making their original question moot.

It’s like this: every peripheral that intends to use Wii functionality will likely be built to interface with the Wii remote. If not, then the Wii remote still needs to be used in conjunction with the peripheral. For example, why does EA Sports Active use a resistance band instead of a dumbbell? Never mind the acute advantages of a resistance band for casual athletes over a heavier exercise device: a dumbbell would simply never work alongside the Wii remote and nunchuk. Only a resistance band will work since EA Sports Active is ultimately tied to the Wii’s controllers to function.

The same game on the 360 (which is indeed coming, BTW), with Natal as an input device, is far more flexible. (It will likely be cheaper, too, since the game won’t require a nunchuk pouch to be part of the package.) Indeed, EA Sports Active, with Natal, requires the user to hold no device at all, so they could just as easily use a resistance band as they could a dumbbell. In other words, the flexibility a workout game can have with Natal is hugely significant, as a Natal-equipped 360 with EA Sports Active could easily be used with a resistance band, dumbbells, a kettlebells, et al.

About the only disadvantage to Natal versus the Wii is what the camera can’t see, as would be the case if the Wii remote is used behind the player. And that’s a relatively unlikely scenario. There’s also the Wii’s added advantage of having buttons present on the Wii remote while the swinging happens, but Natal can still be used in conjunction with a controller, remote, or other peripheral, so it’s not like Natal’s making gamers give up button presses entirely. If anything, it solves more problems than it creates, and ultimately trumps both Nintendo’s and Sony’s motion control offerings. The trick for Microsoft will be in pricing Natal competitively, and that means cheaply, in order to keep a Natal-equipped 360 close in price to the Wii, and there’s obviously some difficulty in that. If Microsoft can work this formula out, however, there’s no reason they can’t succeed in luring the Wii faithful away from Nintendo’s current-gen icon.

For gamers like us, Natal presents an interesting new landscape. We can likely expect not only casual games that Wii gamers know and love, but since we’re talking the 360, more mature titles that use Natal as well. And that presents some nice possibilities, as we can easily visualize Natal control schemes for fighting games, FPS, etc, as long as there’s some basic method to control avatar movement. For melee-oriented games, Natal is a no-brainer in this regard, as a nunchuk-like accessory would be enough to compliment the Wii. Even FPS could work incredibly well with a nunchuk with trigger component. The next question is, without that component (and there’s no indication that one will exist at Natal launch), will Natal games be limited to too casual games? Right now, Natal offers a rather incredible control scheme with the potential to add motion control to games that the Wii simply can’t handle, effectively becoming what the Wii should have been at launch. But Microsoft could just as easily fail on this front, by either focusing too strongly on party games, or not pushing the possibilities for Natal-enabled mature titles to third-party developers. In other words, Microsoft needs to push the idea that Natal is core to the 360 experience, else it will become just another accessory soon to be forgotten by the general 360 user (think Power Pad, the PS2 camera, etc).

That hoarse voice in our head, it’s chiding us. And if Natal proves to be little more than another hardware console novelty, then maybe it’s right. But we’re pretty certain that Natal can recapture our love for console gaming by making motion control both fun and efficient as an input medium. If not, we’re taking our gaming hat and heading back to PC territory. Even if it’s only for a few minutes a week.Similar Posts:

• Microsoft Kinect: a cute novelty. – We haven’t weighed in on Microsoft’s Kinect (formerly “Project Natal”) because we haven’t seen anyth…
• Nintendo must be high. – The rumour band-wagon is hastily moving forward that a gyroscopic controller from Microsoft will ful…
• Thus ends the Revolution. – At least the name, that is, since Nintendo has scrapped the “project” codename for their latest cons…
• Stop buying our heroes, Microsoft. – When Microsoft purchased Bungie during the dawn of the XBox, it would be unfair to say that there wa…
• Dispute the value, not the price. – A recent Gizmodo post caught our eye, in which Adam Frucci attempts to draw comparisons between the …

A recent Gizmodo post caught our eye, in which Adam Frucci attempts to draw comparisons between the current generation consoles by price. Asserts Frucci, “the prices of all three consoles are incredibly close, and you can obviously fiddle with these configurations to change them.” And fiddle with Fucci’s ridiculous numbers we can, and should, because Frucci’s evaluation of the Wii is sadly mismanaged, because not only does he include an extra $80 for four Motion Plus add-ons that do nothing for the console right now because they’re not even available yet, but he, in turn, leaves the $90 cost of the XBox 360′s wi-fi adapter out of his baseline console pricing scheme. Is there any consistency to his madness?

Frucci may as well inflate the price of the Wii by another $80 because he left out the Wii Balance Board. Oh, and the price of component cables (even though they’re only 50 cents at Amazon). Come on, Frucci, pull your head out of your ass and realize that the cost of a console doesn’t include accessories that are currently unavailable, and, in fact, don’t have any games out which support them. That’s not to say that the Motion Plus won’t take off, but if they do, they may very well simply be incorporated into the Wii remote at a future date anyway. Why emphasize them in a console price comparison as though they are required for Wii gaming today? Should we also add to the XBox 360′s price because of the rumoured Wii-like remote that may ship for the 360 later this year?

If Frucci’s not a Wii-hater (and a 360 fan-boy to boot), we don’t know why he’d opt for the more expensive Wii controller charging station, instead of the $33 one also available at Amazon. And why does Frucci incorporate the price of a quad charging station for the PS3 and Wii, but only a dual charging station for the 360? By our estimates, Frucci’s Wii price should sit squarely at $457, while the prices for the PS3 and 360 are $557 and $604, respectively (wi-fi included). We even threw the PS3 and 360 a bone here by removing the price of two games, since Wii titles are not only $10 cheaper per title by Frucci’s estimates, but the Wii comes with a game, which, via Frucci’s numbers, means that the Wii is another $50 cheaper.

In other words, games aside, a Wii is approximately $100 cheaper than a PS3 and about $150 cheaper than a 360 assuming one needs four controllers and a charging station. And that doesn’t even consider the annual costs of XBox Live!, which accrues at least $40/year just for online multiplayer. So even with Frucci’s silly notion of including Motion Plus in this comparison, that’s only two years of multiplayer gaming on the 360, which we gather, most 360 owners have already paid for (aww, shucks).

Sadly, Frucci and Gizmodo haven’t done anything but add flames to the latest console war. It’s one thing to dispute the value of money spent on each console, but that’s subjective depending on who the user is. From a pure price stand-point, however, the Wii clearly wins, and even though we’re fond of the 360 as a heavyweight gaming machine, the truth is that it’s the most expensive system available, even compared to Sony’s monstrosity. That’s true even if we don’t include the 360′s wireless adapter, because Live! is disproportionately expensive considering that Sony and Nintendo offer their online services for free.

Why all the hullabaloo? Because in a highly subjective argument regarding the console wars, there’s still a capacity for objectivity, and price is one of those. One can expound upon the merits of any console to argue for its purchase, but that doesn’t resolve the ugly reality of real costs. A solo gamer looking to play online can pick up a Wii and get gaming for just over $250. Fact. That same gamer can’t get down and dirty with a PS3 or 360 without dropping about $100 more. Fact. Buying three additional controllers doesn’t make the Wii any less desirable from a pure price standpoint over its competition.

Let’s not argue value by obfuscating costs to try making a point, and stick with the truth, shall we? We’re looking at you, Frucci.

Similar Posts:

• Welcome back, WASD. – When Goldeneye came out for the N64, I was less than impressed, considering that First Person Shoote…
• Microsoft Kinect: a cute novelty. – We haven’t weighed in on Microsoft’s Kinect (formerly “Project Natal”) because we haven’t seen anyth…
• Getting an iPhone 3G sans contract: the costs. – In what should be illegal, AT&T is charging $700 for a 16GB iPhone that’s not contracted to them…
• Five months later, and still sucking. – Look, I wanted to love it just like everyone else, and briefly, I did. But it’s now almost five mont…
• Wii Channels, and other console computery. – Rumours are spreading that “unannounced” Wii Channels will show up in the days leading up to Christm…

Reggie Fils-Aime is not the man we want to see heading Nintendo’s North American chapter. That’s not to say that he’s totally off-base with his opinions and statements, but as VentureBeat’s recent interview of Films-Aimes illustrates, the man comes across as far too defensive of Nintendo, even for a President. Maybe that’s because Nintendo should be defensive given the onslaught of Microsoft and Sony, for despite the Wii’s propensity for flying off shelves, the library of “must-have” Wii titles is fairly low compared to what’s offered by Nintendo’s competitors. Really, how long can the Wii endure with only a couple novelty titles? Isn’t it true that the average 360 or PS3 owner buys more titles than the average Wii owner?

We’ve long said that Nintendo needs a leader who’s not only willing to cater to a new generation of young gamers, but also to the original Nintendo generation, who is now grown up and wants more mature, engrossing titles. But Nintendo neglects this latter segment in much the same way George Lucas turned away from the original Star Wars geeks, giving fans a watered-down set of prequels with little weight and too much CGI. Fils-Aime, similarly, doesn’t quite grasp the desires of the old-school fanbase, but perhaps that’s to be expected from a man who marks the SNES days as the origin for his love of Zelda. It’s not as though the man was wearing diapers when the first two Zelda titles were released on the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), so what gives?

The disconnect at Nintendo doesn’t end in its North American headquarters, however. Rather, its infected the very roots of Nintendo’s core, which is why the Wii is such a paradox: for a company that stressed so many times that it’s in the business of making games, not media centers, it’s definitely odd that the Wii sets itself apart from the 360 by offering a free-to-download web browser. There are even third-party keyboard peripherals available at mainstream game shops. Where’s the gaming nexus here? It would be one thing if Nintendo wanted to firmly leverage Flash for developing small, casual games played through their Opera-powered browser, but that’s not what Nintendo’s done. Nor have they extended the ability of third-party keyboard peripherals to be used as game controllers, so as to mimic the experience PC gamers have in many titles.

And while Nintendo can access YouTube and other video sites, they missed the ball on NetFlix integration. Because they’re a stout gaming company and not willing to promote non-gaming activities? Then explain the weather, picture, and voting channels on the Wii, which clearly promulgate non-gaming activities. Nintendo’s actions are clearly going one way, while their “100%-gaming” philosophy says something else entirely. But that’s okay in one sense, because we’re no longer fighting against the PC stereotype that Microsoft so ardently opposed when they first pushed the XBox into consumer’s hands. Nowadays, we expect our consoles to do more than play off-the-shelf video game titles. What Nintendo, and to a degree, Microsoft and Sony need to firmly embrace, however, is this “totality” philosophy, instead of half-assing their media center initiatives. After all, what the Wii lacks in computational power, it can make up elsewhere, and offering channels that leverage more than just games is exactly what Nintendo needs to do.

As with the iPhone, maybe a number of features weren’t available upon initial release. What was important, however, is that the framework was intact, such that the platform could evolve over time. The Wii already has a polished, simple interface, which is far more user-friendly than the interfaces of the 360 or PS3. And the channel system, if innovated upon properly, can easily seed Wii owners with online video streaming, magazines, and music – all areas that Nintendo’s competitors have not fully explored. The difference is that if every console manufacturer suddenly invested in these areas, the Wii’s simplicity, and price, would immediately gives it a market boost, for the same reasons that it couldn’t stay on shelves for the first year it was available.

Back to Fils-Aime and his silliness:

We don’t believe used games are in the best interest of the consumer. We have products that consumers want to hold onto. They want to play all of the levels of a Zelda game and unlock all of the levels. A game like Personal Trainer Cooking has a long life. We believe used games aren’t in the consumer’s best interest.

The topic of used games is relevant to the recession, and arguably anyone with frugality in mind. Fact is, replayability is not a huge feature in most games, and its natural for people to exchange their gaming assets in the same way they shuffle other forms of media. The Zelda titles, for instance, don’t offer much to a gamer once every level has been played and unlocked – like most every other game on the market. Even games with more replayability, like, say, Fallout 3, will ultimately be consumed of its content by an eager gamer. Rather than complain about the second-hand gaming market, what Nintendo should be doing is developing games with non-liner gameplay, and perhaps focusing on a digital distribution model that would make buying games easier for customers, with the added bonus of combating physical game exchanges. The reality is that despite Fils-Aime’s ridiculous opinion, used games are absolutely in the consumer’s best interest, because in most cases, they get the same experience as buying a game new, but at a cheaper financial cost. Fils-Aime’s quasi-defense?

Describe another form of entertainment that has a vibrant used goods market. Used books have never taken off. You don’t see businesses selling used music CDs or used DVDs. Why? The consumer likes having a brand-new experience and reliving it over and over again. If you create the right type of experience, that also happens in video games.

Perhaps in Nintendo’s white towers, there is unlimited money to throw around, and bags-of-holding that make storage inconsequential, but in the real world, people really do buy used goods. Come on, Reggie, Powells isn’t that far from Seattle (you have a Nintendo-plane, don’tcha?), and there are undoubtedly many a used-book shops in downtown Seattle, too. San Francisco’s Amoeba Music is an obvious testament to the popularity of used music/movies, and again, there are plenty of lesser known stores that cater to similar crowds. And most importantly, the user’s experience is not diminished by these supply chains, because when they get home and pop their media into the appropriate player, the experience is still new to them.

In other words, Fils-Aime is plain wrong. Combating the used games market is not only ignoring revenue streams that are as-yet untapped by the console industry, but it’s also ignoring (and thus under-utilizing) the strengths of the Wii. And that’s rather unfortunate, because on one hand, Nintendo’s a great innovator of products, which is why we bought the Wii the first place. On the other hand, Nintendo is being short-sighted with the Wii, and that’s resulted in a poor game library that’s made us not want to hold onto our Wii. In fact, if it weren’t for the Wii’s homebrew scene, we wouldn’t have hooked it back up to our television after a recent move, and that’s something Nintendo, and others, needs to take note of – if homebrew is keeping buyer’s attentions, then what does the company need to do to incorporate the offerings of homebrew developers into the product?

Right now, the Wii’s growth, even its entire legacy, is wrapped up in how it will leverage its software. Gimmicks like the Wii Fit will only go so far, because they’re expressly limited by their accompanying software programs. If Nintendo wakes up and starts asking the NES faithful what they want in a system, and not just the kids of the NES faithful, then Nintendo’s stake in the console wars will be well-earned. Cooking Mama in the living room, a cooking application in the kitchen, and ubiquity that future generations will grow up with. It’s the dream Microsoft has been shooting for for years, but it’s within reach of Nintendo right now.
Similar Posts:

• Nintendo must be high. – The rumour band-wagon is hastily moving forward that a gyroscopic controller from Microsoft will ful…
• The Revolution stalls. – Optimistic reports placed the Nintendo Revolution at a tentative March or April release date, but ne…
• Microsoft Kinect: a cute novelty. – We haven’t weighed in on Microsoft’s Kinect (formerly “Project Natal”) because we haven’t seen anyth…
• Wii Channels, and other console computery. – Rumours are spreading that “unannounced” Wii Channels will show up in the days leading up to Christm…
• Apple to advance iPhone gaming, not join console fray. – Despite Apple’s sordid foray into the video gaming market with the ill-fated Pippin, TUAW’s Mike Sch…

We still don’t quite understand what Sony was thinking when they stopped manufacturing the 60GB PS3. Those blind to PS3 on-goings may have missed the fact that the 60GB PS3 was the flagship PS3 that included four USB ports, slots for a variety of memory card formats, and most importantly, complete backwards compatibility with the PS2. Later models of the PS3 dropped hardware PS2 compatibility by emulating the PS2 via software, and ultimately, dropping backwards compatibility entirely. Comments from various Sony fanboys we talked to responded to this move with quotes akin to, “That’s because Sony wants to emphasize their PS3 lineup, which has better games. Who wants to play old games anyway?”

Those kind of comments are interesting because it wasn’t long ago that Sony launched the PS2, touting, “Why would you buy an XBox when you can get a PS2 and have access to the whole Playstation library?” In other words, backwards compatibility was referred to as a “must-have” feature, and access to games from legacy systems is a trend today as well as yesterday, which is why one of the Wii’s key features is their Virtual Console, and why the 360 continues to support XBox games, despite the software emulation.

Sony’s sale of only one PS3 model these days is further interesting because they don’t advertise the lack of backwards compatibility, despite that their user-base is now accustomed to this kind of feature. When a PS2 owner now decides to buy a PS3, they’re being blind-sighted by the lack of backwards compatibility, since there’s no mention of this feature having been removed on the box of the 60GB model.

Then there’s the apparent lack of regard to users of other legacy hardware, as we recently realized when we convinced Bones WIley to pick up a copy of Rock Band last week. After unpacking the instruments and setting everything up, we quickly realized that there weren’t enough ports on the 60GB PS3 to plug everything in, since Sony decided to cut the number of available USB ports in half to two. This makes Rock Band on the “new” PS3 $25 more expensive for most gamers, since the Rock Band hub is required to plug everything in.

Off and running again, we had a blast playing Rock Band, and decided we’d pick up a second guitar, along with Guitar Hero III, so we could jam on the bass while Bones played lead. Then we found out that Rock Band guitars can’t be use in the Guitar Hero games, and vice versa, making this kind of purchase moot. Yet, Guitar Hero instruments on the 360 can be used with Rock Band without problem, making Rock Band yet again more expensive for PS3 owners assuming they already have Guitar Hero instruments.

It’s almost as if a PS3 purchase these days not only gets one a sub-par system with arguably the worst gaming library of the current-generation platforms, but the PS3 also rewards owners with a wallet-raping time and time again. We’re not sure how Sony managed to screw things up this badly, but even if we hadn’t been opposed to a future Sony console purchase before, now we’re definitely set to avoid Sony products like the plague.

Similar Posts:

• It’s time for instrument standards in music games. – So Rock Band brought the music party game genre to a new level when it added drums and a microphone …
• Song redundancy in Rock Band. – After much time believing that the Guitar Hero franchise was not for him, my pal Maxator recently fo…
• Guitar Hero III sells records. – It’s no big surprise that the Guitar Hero franchise is positively affecting sales of the respective …
• The Revolution stalls. – Optimistic reports placed the Nintendo Revolution at a tentative March or April release date, but ne…
• MacBook owners: No Guitar Hero 3 for you! – It was good news that Guitar Hero 3 (GH3) was shipping for both Windows and OS X, and this fact prom…

The Wii collecting dust in our living room has been eager for our attention, humming with it’s blue luminescence every few weeks. We ignore it, however, because of our sad disappointment with the Wii’s game library. Almost a year ago, we had a similar complaint, and though things are looking less grim for the future, there haven’t been many great improvements in recent months. Nonetheless, the impending release of Wii Fit has our novelty alarms going off, and so we decided to turn our Wii on for the first time in many a month, so as to get it ready for the Fit. The experience was, well, average. If you haven’t touched your Wii in ages either, follow our guide below:

Step One: Turn on the Wii and grab the latest system update. Realize that there’s nothing particularly noticeable about the upgrade, other than the fact that it took much longer than expected. Surf the Internet while the download finishes, and make sure to turn down the volume, as you’ve probably forgotten just how annoying the Wii system sounds can get.

Step Two: Check the Wii Shop and download, in order, the Nintendo Channel, and the Check Mii Out Channel. Apparently, one still can’t download stuff in the background, and instead has to watch the Mario jumping sequence until a download finishes. Surf the Internet in the meantime. We would have downloaded the new Photo Channel, but it removes the ability to play mp3 files. Yeah, sounds like a real upgrade. The Wii Ware games sound interesting, but there’s limited information about them. Click on the “more” button and realize there’s not really more information about the games there, either. And by “more,” we mean “more usefu”. Now get annoyed that Nintendo could easily have put in some resizable screenshots of these games in the “more info” section, but instead wants you to guess how good the games are. We did, which is why we didn’t download any.

Step Three: Launch the Nintendo Channel and check out its offerings. What’s this, no full-screen videos? And, the videos for the Wii Ware games look like amateur trailers, with little real info about the games included. Surprise, surprise. There isn’t even a combat sequence shown in Final Fantasy’s My Life as King. At least the first-party videos are more informative. Overall, the videos made us want Wii Fit and Mario Kart more, but diminished our desire to check out any of the Wii Ware titles.

Step Four: Check out Check Mii Out Channel. Novelty value high, but looks like it would ultimately be a time sink. We’re told that “Hitler” Miis were banned, but that didn’t stop us from posting A.H. Overall, we’re impressed with user submissions, many of which are pretty good caricatures of celebrities and fictional characters. Of the latter, some were put together very creatively: Spider Man, Venom, Garfield, etc. Mark your favorites and download the ones you want, because no Wii is happy without is very own Snoop Dogg Mii.

Step Five: Briefly check out the Internet Channel to make sure mendax.org displays reasonably well. It does, though the pictures we’ve been embedding in our posts could use to be downsized some. Check out WiiCade for updates, but the most popular games are still the ones we played a year ago. Meh.

Step Five: Shut the bastard down and wait for Wii Fit. That comes out tomorrow, doesn’t it? In the meantime, do like we’ve been doing for the last year: spend time with the 360 instead.

Similar Posts:

• Bones Wiley embraces the folk music. – Two days ago, Bones Wiley posted two more videos on his YouTube page. The videos suffer from minor …
• Video on your phone. – It seems like companies have given up the idea of seeing the person you’re talking to, and instead a…
• Dog : Man :: Aibo : SDR-4X – Creating robotic dogs was only the first step. Now, Sony has created a bipedal robot with the abilit…
• Too much drool over Apple TV. – People have been going ga-ga over Apple TV ever since it was announced. I wasn’t sure what the big d…
• Why the SSSCA is a bad idea. – First off, this isn’t really an article. It’s more of an articlette. A mini-article/editorial, if yo…

The rumour band-wagon is hastily moving forward that a gyroscopic controller from Microsoft will fulfill the role of the Wii’s innovative control scheme. Nintendo doesn’t feel particularly threatened, however, because they’re keen on pointing out how they did it first, and somehow, this first-to-market strategy is what they believe to be key to market success.

Sadly, Nintendo must not have realized that first-to-market does not mean ultimate success. Look at the Dreamcast for a recent example, as it was quickly dismissed for the PS2, which had fewer games, no online strategy, and much less of a homebrew community. The reality is that a console is only as good as its games, and even that reality is dwarfed by the hype that needs to be built through marketing and word-of-mouth.

While Nintendo can gladly claim they envisioned the Wii-mote’s functionality first, and that they received excellent word-of-mouth from the get-go, things are different now. The Wii has a couple of exclusives that are worth playing, though all of these were developed in-house by Nintendo, and none of them are receiving the same types of ratings that the big-name titles on the XBox 360 and PS3 are getting. Sure, it’s true that Wii Sports was a phenomenal success, but for a free title that was bundled along with the Wii, it didn’t exactly manage to sell titles, which consoles are supposed to do.

Aside from Zelda, Smash Bros, Super Mario Galaxy, and the new Mario Kart, what’s really worth even looking at on the Wii? All but one of our gaming friends in San Francisco have allowed their Wii consoles to collect dust, while their 360s are receiving more play than ever. Even the XBox Live Arcade options are more appealing than what’s available on Virtual Console. In fact, after the BluRay vs. HD DVD debacle ended, we’ve seen more people buy PS3s than Wii titles, with no one picking up new Wii units since they were in high demand. In fact, we couldn’t even sell ours on craigslist, unless we were willing to take a major monetary hit.

Our point is simple: if Microsoft releases a Wii-mote clone and has even two solid titles that will maximize it (ala Wii Sports) at launch, the Wii is dead in North America. We may give Nintendo one more sale with Wii Fit just to see how great the novelty is compared to when the Wii first hit shelves, but with a poor library of games, there’s little reason to dump money Nintendo’s way when the 360′s library is not only established, but expanding.

The only thing that Nintendo’s shown with the Wii-mote is that the technology can be used well in a handful of games, and that’s all MS needs to gain a few more sales and ultimately oust the Wii’s growth in the North American market: a handful of games. Beyond that, MS has owned the competition in every which way aside from their banking on HD DVD. Nevertheless, they still have the best library of games, and it’s still a big question as to whether or not Sony can meet Microsoft’s sales in North America by the time the next generation of consoles is released. With a Wii-mote clone, we’re thinking that MS will firmly secure their lead.

Similar Posts:

• Nintendo “Flipper” production ramps up. – Nintendo has reported that NEC is ramping up production of the “Flipper” chip for their upcoming Gam…
• Five months later, and still sucking. – Look, I wanted to love it just like everyone else, and briefly, I did. But it’s now almost five mont…
• Success of the Revolution? – I’m not sure why I’m so jazzed up about the Nintendo Revolution, especially considering the fact tha…
• Gaming on the go. – I haven’t been paying too much attention to the last generation of portable handhelds, and I’m fairl…
• A clear disconnect at Nintendo – Reggie Fils-Aime is not the man we want to see heading Nintendo’s North American chapter. That’s not…

And by “poppy-cock”, I clearly mean “bullshit”. While some reports indicate that the scarcity of the Nintendo Wii is pushing prices through the roof, I believe these to be incredibly isolated events, perhaps greater in areas inhabited by predominantly stupid folk.

While Wii scarcity issues are real, the demand is overly stated by the media. In San Francisco, where Wii-sitting was exhaustive, a few rogue Wii consoles could still be found in certain retail outlets in the very midst of the media hysteria over Wii scarcity. Even when some PS3 units were selling for double their retail price on eBay, the Wii barely managed to bring in fifty to one-hundred dollars above its retail price on similar auctions.

So maybe before Christmas, one or two desperate parents, unable to come up with an appropriate gift for their respective youngsters, shelled out almost a grand for a Wii. They were obviously desperate, however, because the Wii continues to be sold online for much less. My own craigslist auction for a Wii has had no hits at all, despite being online for several weeks, and with my bundle price almost equivalent to the retail price of the included items. In fact, craigslist in San Francisco depicts a rather poor resale rate of Wii systems in general, which is highly contrary to the demand for the console that the media portends.

A more even-handed picture of Wii demand suggests that the availability is pretty consistent with those who want to acquire a Wii. If anything, the demand is only slightly above the availability itself, which is still causing the occasional line to form outside a Best Buy near you, but not much of one if at all. And really, who can blame consumers? The Wii console is still selling rehashed titles from successful systems, instead of offering gems from the Saturn, Dreamcast, or Jaguar. Exclusives on the Wii have been pretty poor to date, with Mario Galaxy being the only “must-have” on the system since the Zelda game released along with the Wii.

2008 may very well be the year that the Wii comes into its own, but frankly, I’m tired of hearing how cool Smash Bros is going to be, when the dumb thing should have shipped long ago. There’s a reason my Wii is getting no play-time at all, and that reason is poor product execution, ala BeOS. Just because the Wii has potential, doesn’t mean it’s being utilized, which is why we still don’t have a clear online strategy, and why titles like Guitar Hero III and Rock Band are usurping the “party” genre that the Wii was meant to monopolize.Similar Posts:

• The new console market. – The Sega Dreamcast is an odd beast. Technologically, it is an evolutionary product: faster than its …
• Nintendo must be high. – The rumour band-wagon is hastily moving forward that a gyroscopic controller from Microsoft will ful…
• Your line is pointless. – As iPhone fever continues to burn up geeks everywhere, I found it rather odd that though reports of …
• Virtual Console should support “lost” systems. – It spontaneously occurred to me today, after reading about the upcoming Virtual Console (VC) titles …
• Welcome back, WASD. – When Goldeneye came out for the N64, I was less than impressed, considering that First Person Shoote…

Look, I wanted to love it just like everyone else, and briefly, I did. But it’s now almost five months after my last public complaint about the Nintendo Wii, and things haven’t changed much at all, aside from the fact that there are another couple layers of dust covering the cute little console sitting next to my television. And, where are we now? The same shitty titles, with a couple more mini-games bundled together in an effort to sell themselves as a unified title under the “party” heading. There’s still no good first-person shooter (mixed reviews my ass), the virtual console is still bland for offering mostly games from systems anyone over the age of 16 has already played during their initial incarnations, and there’s no online capability to speak of. All we have are promises after promises, but is it really going to take a full year before the Wii grows into what we expected it to be a month or two after launch?

WiiWare was formally announced today, which gives me some hope that Nintendo offers something unique, and given the poor library on the Wii thus far, it looks like indy developers are the Wii’s last hope, at least until we start seeing a reasonable online component supporting something compelling to play from larger developers. As it is, I’m sick of ports, or titles with Wii-mote capabilities hacked in.

Given the rather impressive assortment of games on XBox Live Arcade, is it too much to expect the same to happen on the Wii? Or, will development for the WiiWare platform fail because Nintendo is still unsure about launching a comprehensive, online service for multiplayer gaming? The apparent lack of a future hard drive for the Wii is another obstacle WiiWare developers will have to tackle, because as cool as SD cards are, having to juggle them around isn’t fun, and modern titles, indy or otherwise, aren’t as small as most virtual console titles.

Back when I bought the Wii, I expected it to single-handedly replace most of my gaming time, but I’ve since been relying on the XBox 360 and World of Warcraft to fill in the rather significant gaps in Nintendo’s offering. Unless Metroid Prime 3 or Super Smash Brothers manages to grab a lot of gamer attention, I don’t see any other titles on the horizon yet that will distract most console gamers from Halo 3 or Grand Theft Auto 4. At this rate, we may not see a true killer title for the Wii until 2008.Similar Posts:

• Microsoft Kinect: a cute novelty. – We haven’t weighed in on Microsoft’s Kinect (formerly “Project Natal”) because we haven’t seen anyth…
• Stop buying our heroes, Microsoft. – When Microsoft purchased Bungie during the dawn of the XBox, it would be unfair to say that there wa…
• Success of the Revolution? – I’m not sure why I’m so jazzed up about the Nintendo Revolution, especially considering the fact tha…
• Nintendo must be high. – The rumour band-wagon is hastily moving forward that a gyroscopic controller from Microsoft will ful…
• Thus ends the Revolution. – At least the name, that is, since Nintendo has scrapped the “project” codename for their latest cons…

In a moment of pure geekery, Maxator managed to convince me to camp out for the Nintendo Wii. It may not have been a pure example of convincing per se, but the end result was that we both agreed to lend one another company in line at a local Target. By sheer chance, it turned out that the Target we arrived at was in a strip mall whose policy it was not to have people camping out, so we ultimately didn’t need our camping after all, and were issued numbered bracelets at 10pm. The idea was to return at 6am the following morning, get back in line, and be issued Wii according to our position in bracelet-designated line.

The event was a success, and time-in-line was approximately seven hours total. Admittedly, this reeks of dorkery, but it’s not like I had anything planned for Saturday night anyway that wasn’t accomplished in line. That is to say, Maxator and I ate unhealthy food and drank a lot of whiskey.

One of the miraculous things that occured during out wait in line was the transformation of a normal citizen into a god for the duration of our time in line. And by “god”, I mean “jackass”. I refer here to Mr. Plastic-Cuffs, the head security guard of the strip mall in which our Target was located.

This balding fellow took the time out of his otherwise empty schedule to issue silly orders such as “stay out of the road,” whike himself standing in the road. Mind you, at 9pm, no cars wanted to drive around Target anyway, unless you include Mr. Plastic-Cuff’s sidekick, the near-comatose Security Driver.

Security Driver would spend his time on duty driving around Target again and again. He didn’t really check for dangerous situations, but rather stared dumfoundedly at the line of people waiting in line for the Wii, which I gather was around 210 people, since this Target in particular had an inventory of 210 Wiis. (As an aside, this proves that PS3seerker actually had positive intelligence.)

I found it rather interesting that Security Driver and Mr. Plastic-Cuffs didn’t really have the equipment to deal with a potentially hostile situation. Though Mr. Plastic-Cuffs did have a pair of metal handcuffs in addition to his quick ties, he had no method for neutralizing anyone, unless he has a hidden affinity for the martial arts. Even then, I would discount his ability to issue a quick dirt-nap to a perpetrator, but then again, what do I know? Suffice to say, neither of these two skilled security guards carried a gun, nor mace.

In any case, the result of our waiting, in my case, was a Wii, an extra remote/nunchuk, and Zelda: Twilight Princess. Apparently, no retail outlet on earth has the composite cables necessary for HD-viewing. Unfortunate, but reasonably acceptable.

Over the past couple days, I’ve had the opportunity to play both Twilight Princess and Wii Sports, which came with the Wii. The former is a thoroughloy enjoyable game, even though I’ve found the bobber fishing to be positively retarded, and the lycanthropy to be overdone. In truth, the lycanthropy itself isn’t so bad, but rather it’s the accompaniment of a childish shadow-thing, and the overindulgence of TRON-imagery in what is supposed to be a fantasy world. Creative differences aside, however, Zelda is a delightful title whose control scheme is many times more enjoyable than the N64 titles that I briefly played.

Wii sports is pure fun. It’s not exactly a single-player title, but the more players who participate (and the more beer involved), the greater the fun becomes. As far as party titles go, Wii sports is top-notch, and probably the best tech-demo of the system Nintendo could have included. Speaking of which, the console gods have surely shined on us to finally include a game with a release system, unlike the past couple generations of systems.

I am also fondly awaiting a good first-person shooter for the Wii. Sadly, Red Steel has been getting horrible reviews, and Call of Duty 3 has not received the reviews I would have liked. Still, between the two, the latter sounds far more appealing, which is rather unfortunate, since I was hoping Red Steel would redefine console FPS games.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the Wii. The interface is solid, and doesn’t feel as cluttered as the X-Box 360 dashboard, or the PS3′s interface. Sadly, however, the Wii interface is relatively lacking in features, with the online component offline. Not only is the web browser not available yet, but the Internet news channels, and the weather forecasts, remain unavailable. Worse, neither will be active until at least December 20th. Why this feature isn’t available yet is beyond me; it is not difficult to get that kind of functionality out the door.

I’ve not downloaded any of the virtual console titles yet, but I am hoping that independent titles become available, akin to the X-Box Live Arcade games. As much fun as legacy titles are, I am not that interested in very old titles, as I either have those systems and games already, else didn’t buy them for a reason. However, I have to say that the Wii has a lot of potential. Hopefully, this potential will soon manifest in online games, a headset component, and rechargable controllers.Similar Posts:

• Microsoft Kinect: a cute novelty. – We haven’t weighed in on Microsoft’s Kinect (formerly “Project Natal”) because we haven’t seen anyth…
• The hype’s gone bad. – It’s XBox 360 release day, which means that a lot of people probably skipped work to play their new …
• Wii still overrated. – I spent $250 last October to play a bunch of crappy Flash games. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had fun on…
• Five months later, and still sucking. – Look, I wanted to love it just like everyone else, and briefly, I did. But it’s now almost five mont…
• Success of the Revolution? – I’m not sure why I’m so jazzed up about the Nintendo Revolution, especially considering the fact tha…