Wii hands-on worries about controller, likes games

"Now this gen its about what brings you more immersion into the game. I'll use call of Duty 3 for an example Does enhanced visuals, sound, and imparticular A.I. (Assasins Creed anyone) bring you into the game more."

Actually, yes, more NPCs with complex indivdiual and collective AI makes it more dynamic rather than scripted. So, yes it doe improve gameplay and immersion.


"Or does a controller in which you can throw your arm just like you would to throw a grenade and the char acually does it on screen bring you more in."

This is the $50k question. It will be fun the first time you do it; what about after a 2 hour session? Every other day? How many ways are there to throw a grenade (that wont be interpreted as another gesture)? That is, all the unique control gestures will have been used one way or another in the lanuch releases.

Its like going to an amusement park. Those games are FUN because of their novelty (you dont do those types of things everyday)! But, shallow, and, they're not going to be fun if you do them everyday.

I think the majority of the problem is that most people see these party games and expect Nintendo to only have these "gimmick filled" games. People see the commercials Nintendo has created with people jumping behind chairs and wild swinging motions. The reality of things is that there is a bit of everything, besides jumping behind chairs and couches. There will be games that might need broader and bigger motions, but there will also be games that will need little to none. There will be games that are short and party-themed, but there will be games that will be hours long and full of solo play.

Most act like this "gimmick" is the only thing to do on the Wii, but in reality there is much more to it than just motion sensing. Its how you want to play the games, and they leave that option for you. The library of games will not stick you with one style of playing.

Nintendo leaves the options for the consumer and developers.. Its how the developers use them and how they go about them. Its about what games you like and pick up to enjoy and have fun with. People tend to steer towards getting tired and not being able to relax with the Wii, when its just how you want to play the games, and what games you play.

@ 47

If you really cared about visuals you would drop 1,200 to 1,500 on a new pc and not a PS3 360. The reason to get those two is the living room experience. Now they bring a better LOOKING and SOUNDING living room experience than the wii but the wii brings a different one.

Now for some people shotting nazis isn't something the've ever done before, but if you look at the wii you will acually FEEL more like your doing the shooting yourself then pressing a button and haveing a pretty looking guy do it for you.

Game makers have trouble getting a game with a controller that they've been developing on for the last 6 years to work right, why do you think the wii wont control like a wonkey POS? Baseball, driving and fishing. Maybe FPS if you have a 50 ft screen like all the promo videos, but other than that its going to get old real fast and be very frustrating that it wont work like you imagine. I skeptical, so we'll just have to see.

"Actually, yes, more NPCs with complex indivdiual and collective AI makes it more dynamic rather than scripted. So, yes it doe improve gameplay and immersion."

Of course it does thats why I said it

"This is the $50k question. It will be fun the first time you do it; what about after a 2 hour session? Every other day? How many ways are there to throw a grenade (that wont be interpreted as another gesture)? That is, all the unique control gestures will have been used one way or another in the lanuch releases."

Your right this is the tough question to answer and to tell you the truth I don't think call of duty 3 will be the game to properly answer it, however I think by this time next year developers will have found ways of making it fun. For an example read a preview of mario galaxy. One other note about that is that the gesture of picking up my thumb and pressing a button is something I have been doing for 19 years, and I still haven't got tired of it

You know, It does bother me some when going back to old games and seeing older graphics. Doesn't ruin the game for me.. I play Condition Zero for compitition and skill wise, but I switch to CounterStrike Source to just relax and have fun with the game. Switching to CZ makes me cringe at the graphics, for about the first 2 minutes until I realize how much fun Im having with the game and the people.

I pulled my N64 out the other day and played Bond. It was the graphics that got to me, It was how sensitive the C-buttons were for looking around. I remember the game being so easy to pick up and play, and now it seems so hard to aim when used to newer style of FPS controls.

The DS touch system isn't worn thin at all. It being NEW is. Everytime a new great game comes out for DS, it will be praised again. Its just a matter of what games are coming out and what developers are doing with it. You can say the same about any system when the games aren't coming out left and right for it. People aren't dropping the DS to pick up a PSP becuase of the "Novelity" is lost.

Graphics arent a concern. The processing power for gretter AI and even physics should be the concern. This isn't much of a problem for Nintendo, besides having greater physics for games.

@48 - "This is the $50k question. It will be fun the first time you do it; what about after a 2 hour session? Every other day? How many ways are there to throw a grenade (that wont be interpreted as another gesture)? That is, all the unique control gestures will have been used one way or another in the lanuch releases."

Its all about the game. Can you sit in front of any game for 2 hour session? Every other day? Do people complain how they have to sit there and hit buttons for 2 hours and they grow tire? Down the line it will become more of a habit than a gesture. Are you going to get tired of playing WarioWare for 2 hours? Probably.. becuase it deals with a lot more motion than most of the games and relies on being a quick party game. Are you going to get tired of playing Zelda or Metriod for 2 hours, most likely not unless you get sick of the game itself.

Its how long a game, or anything at that matter, can hold your attention. You can do a 2 hour presitation for class or a business with a laser pointer, are you going to get tired of holding the laser pointer and using hands as gestures when you talk? Its probably being in a dark room talking aobut the samething for 2 hours that will make you tired..

Yea let's make fun of his shirt and haircut because it draws attention from the fact that this thing is a gimicky piece of crap that should never have left the drawing board 20 years ago. Making fun of people's hair and shirts is easy enough but you know what's easier? That's right... Making fun of you while you flail your arms around on your couch like spastic dork. I absolutely LOVE the thought of a living room full of grown men trying to sit down and enjoy a game of football while having to sling this plastic junk around like a bunch of short bus kids swatting imaginary flies. You want revolutionary? Tell me how revolutionary the games look on your hi-def tv. That is if you can see to play them through the graininess.

The only thing missing from this crap is the gyroscope robot.

I'm getting tired of people (>) bringing up Vboy as a failure.

The hardware wasn't finished when it was pushed to market. The suits (Yamauchi) was tired of waiting for it to be perfected and wanted all the resources put into making N64. Virtual Boy sucked ass because it was still in ALPHA stage. (My source, why, Wikipedia of course!)

N64 was hardly irrelevant. First 3D console with analog control. Constantly copied since. First home console with rumble. Another Nintendo innovation quietly ignored.

Gamecube could be argued as irrelevant, because it really didn't add anything to what N64 did, except prettier graphics. You might could argue quick saving to memory card, and quick loading off the disk, but that would be stretching it.

Wii is what gamecube should have been. Gamecube isn't Wii because Yamauchi was still at the helm at GC launch (also the reason there is no 3rd party support for it).

Its a new day, a new generation, and a new captain at the helm.

This guy is worried about the way he looks playing the Wii. Well, he could start by getting a better shirt and descent haircut. Problem solved.

Looking stupid is kind of relative...

Staring blankly at a screen pressing buttons on a controller looks pretty stupid.

Swinging your arms around to affect the screen may actually look more natural.

If the Wii turns out to be something I only drag out at parties, I'd be cool with that.

I don't consider my 360 to be something I want to drag out at a party.

Getting drunk and stupid and playing Call of Duty just ain't the same as playing tennis and flailing your arms around, breaking furniture.

opinions...

- if you are a console gamer -

THE Wii ITS NOT FOR YOU. I DONT CARE IF YOU DONT LIKE THE GRAPIXZ, THE NAME, THE COLOR, THE IDEA, ETC-

as for me, this is the ONLY AND FIRST console im going 2 buy in my life. and i HATE KIDDY STUFF.
I HATE MARIO SHIT. HATE ZELDA SHIT. I HATE RETRO GAMING SHIT. THEN WHY?... IT DSNT USE THE THING I HATE THE MOST. REGULAR CONTROLLERS. THats why I love pc games. ( dont need a ps3 and linux, sorry fony)
i like to be able to "control" the actions on the screen. regular controlers FAIL, they are so retro it makes me want to puke. just sit in your couch. pick up your remote controller, pretend your are playing a game and move your hand a little. i dont even care if this wii shit is weaker than a gamecube or ps2. the idea is just to cool 2 ignore.

gamerx - The Wii is just an enhanced GameCube. Even Shigeru Miyamoto calls it that - "The hardware is basically a GC. We've upgraded our development tools to new versions but, you can still use GC programs as they are.". It might be enhanced in all sorts of interesting ways but it is still lamentably underpowered compared to its next gen rivals.

Considering that $50 more can buy you a system literally 12x more powerful (3 cores at > 4x the speed) and with 19x the runtime memory (512Mb versus 27Mb), it's a wonder that anyone would buy it except for its controller. And at the end of the day that is about all the system has going for it.

I'm neither a Nintendo, Sony or Xbox fanboy, but I have read Ryan Garside's article and it has to be one of the worst pieces of journalism I've read for a long time. If a game journalist cannot be excited about the _potential_ of this new input device then he should find a different job, because it's obvious that his enthusiasm for video games has gone.

There is little worse than listening to someone who, whatever the subject, always assumes the worst case scenario when there is so much potential.

His argument for the Wii controller being a gimmick is based entirely on the word "might". It's very strange to me that Ryan automatically took a pessimistic view and wrote a 3 page article about it. I'm inclined to agree with crono141 when he/she suggested that Ryan could be biased toward Sony. I'm not even going to comment on his obsession with how he looks in the photos (you won't look any better or worse playing any other console), not to mention his constant focus on graphics, disregarding everything that Nintendo is trying to achieve with this console. As for his comment "This is how models look playing the Nintendo Wii": Ryan, it's called Marketing and you'll find that other companies are guilty of this horrendous misrepresentation of player aesthetics too. However, if you want to see regular people playing the Wii for the first time, Nintendo have also made that available. Not only that, but they seem to be having fun. As did you.

If people like Ryan Garside were around to playtest the NES joypad 20 years ago, he would have told us that it offers nothing new compared to a joystick and that it wouldn't catch on. Grow up and accept change. If not that, then embrace the potential.

"Considering that $50 more can buy you a system literally 12x more powerful (3 cores at > 4x the speed) and with 19x the runtime memory (512Mb versus 27Mb), it's a wonder that anyone would buy it except for its controller. And at the end of the day that is about all the system has going for it."

If that stuff concerns you just make your own pc. 1,200 dollars will get you a better system then a ps3 that does so much more, if fact wait a year or two until that pc is less than 600 and then come and talk stats to me.

See I used to never used this argument before because a nice pc used to be 3,000 bucks, but not anymore. They just keep getting cheaper and cheaper. And modern systems just keep getting higher and higher in price.

If you want to spend money on graphics, then buy the new quad-core pent chips coming out. Graphics are never a next-gen thing, its the way they are brought out. Graphics were amazing for Mario 64, but it was the enviroment and how they used it that was so awe-inspiring.

As amazing as graphics can and will be, they are never really the inspiring motive towards playing a game for hours. Arguements about how powerful a system is, has been going on with computers for years, and it will just be outdated within half a year.

Like I said before, its not about the graphics. Its about the AI and Physics for what hardware can do now a days that is "Next-Gen" when it comes to pure processing power. Half-Life 2 was awe inspiring for its graphics, yes, but its most known for the way their physics are run.

The PS3 will be outdated by the time it gets to most American and Japanese households. The graphics will be out of date compared to computer graphics. Hell, the computer now has its own Physics card that takes all the physics in the game and powers it on the card instead of the Graphics card.

Graphics are the best compliment to the game. It doesn't make the game at all, just makes for some great eye candy. Graphics might get you more immersed in the game, but doesn't get you more involved.

Miyamoto has admited that the technology and developing for Wii is similair to the Gamecube, but he has also said it still packs more punch and still has more 2x the power than XBox/Gamecube. There are other things to look at than just graphics, and even though the Wii isn't as strong as its competitors, it still adds power to do more than last gen. They still broke all the barriers that the Gamecube had and even more, and still pushing the system.

Underpowered by the other systems, yes. Doesn't mean that the push isn't there and that it isn't that great. You underestimate what a system and processing power can do at an age we are at now, where bigger numbers don't show as much of a difference as they used to.

Here are what some people are saying:

1. Graphics dont matter -->

...you will RUN out and buy the component cables for Wii, i garuantee... otherwise stick to your guns and use the composite cables.


2. If Nintendo make Mario, Zelda, etc .. thats all i care im good and I dont care about the hardware specs. -->

...yes, that is fine for you. And, a lot of people said the same thing for N64 and GC. This is no good for devs.

After the intial luanch games (which are really concelled and reworked GC games) third party support will drop (prob after the first year).

Why?

Because (1) the Wii demographic are Nintendo fanboys who are only interested in Nintendo franchises and (2) Nintendo is one of the best software makers out there. So, unless you are a AAA+ title (like RE4) you have no chance in h*ll of suceeding on Wii.

And forget about doing a platform game, thats covered with MArio. Forget about doing a Zelda-like game, thats covered by Zelda. Forget about doing a FPS-adventure game, thats covered by Metroid Prime. Forget about doing a party game, thats covered by Wario Ware. etc, etc. ... all Nintendo franchises which will sell in the millions to Ninentdo fanboys who will not blink an eye at anything else.

So... Devil may Cry, Kingdom Hearts, FF games, Halo all wouldn't have succeded if they were on the cube

Top 20 selling GC games:

# Super Smash Bros. Melee (6.10 million) [186]
# Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (6.01 million) [187]
# Super Mario Sunshine (5.56 million) [188]
# The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (4.32 million) [189]
# Luigi's Mansion (3.27 million) [190]
# Metroid Prime (2.77 million) [191]
# Pokémon Colosseum (2.50 million) [192]
# Mario Party 4 (2.43 million) [193]
# Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (2.33 million) [194]
# Animal Crossing (2.24 million) [195]
# Mario Party 5 (2.01 million) [196]
# Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (1.88 million) [197]
# Star Fox Adventures (1.85 million) [198]
# Sonic Mega Collection (1.80 million) [199]
# Pikmin (1.61 million) [200]
# Mario Party 6 (1.54 million) [201]
# Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (1.51 million) [202]
# Soul Calibur 2 (1.48 million) [203]
# Resident Evil 4 (1.44 million) [204]
# Sonic Heroes (1.43 million) [205]

..RE4 (GAME OF THE YEAR) is ranked 19..... yea, all those titles you mentioned would not have done well.

>

Just like on the DS, right.

Developer will follow where the largest market share is. Even square is hedging their bets this gen.

One thing Nintendo doesn't do well is serious RPGs. Sure, there's paper mario, but its a lighthearted romp in silliness. Nintendo doesn't really make that good an action game. As for FPS, I'm more looking forward to Red Steel (3rd party) than Metroid Prime 3.

Sure, Nintendo is one of the greatest software company's in existance, but that doesn't automatically rule out anyone else making games for it. SNES had nintendo and everybody else making games for it, why can't wii?

What about expanding the market. You assert (and continue to assert) that only Fanboys will buy wii. Well, its been alot more than fanboys that have bought DS, and there are TONS of non-gamers looking at Wii and scoffing at the outrageous pricetags of the competitors.

Regardless of what you think Wii is, and what Wii is capable of, there is alot of consumer interest, alot more than for PS3 and 360 combined, I think.

This is Nintendo's time.

*sigh* This is SO not a bad thing...

http://nwizard.com/blog/archives/65

so you can honestly say that if kingdom hearts was on the cube instead of the ps2, even as well as the ps2 it wouldn't have sold as well as some of those games. Or how about Halo, what if Halo was for the cube (a mystical cube with online support) that wouldn't sell well either??

You might have to do better than gamecube games sold numbers to convince me of this one

finn: Resident Evil 4 .. the Game of the Year by so many publications .. hailed as a classic .. was OUTSOLD by Mario Party 4 AND 6 .. what does that tell you.

1. Nintendo makes good games
2. Nintendo makes a lot of good games
3. A AAA title like RE4 is being outsold by party games.
4. Nintendo has a lot of fans
5. Nintendo fans aint interested in anything other than Nintendo (just read that list over, the DS and N64 lists are the same .. ALL Nintendo franchises .. its on wiki)
6. Nintendo isnt goning to stop making games for Wii.

Therefore, third party devs a snowball's chance in hell of succeeeding on a Nintendo platform --> NO third party support after a year.

How about you just DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON GAMES? If you're so worried about looking like an idiot go spend $600 on some new clothes. The point is to have some fun. It's not your life, unless it is. Go try the Wii out at Gamestop when they come out and THEN decide. Don't listen to other people, especially when they don't have an idea what their talking about.

#33 "The Wii will probably follow a similar track, with developers struggling to figure out the best way to utilize the system. I think eventually, most games will ignore the features of the Wii unless they contribute to the gameplay. Maturity will be shown in Wii games when developers stop feeling required to use features that don't fit naturally."

I doubt that that's going to happen. It's not that they feel required, ot's more like they are required. I wouldn't doubt that for the first year on the DS, that Nintendo denied any concepts that didn't use the touch screen.. And the same for the Wii. I mean.. think about it

@42 Now this gen its about what brings you more immersion into the game. I'll use call of Duty 3 for an example Does enhanced visuals, sound, and imparticular A.I. (Assasins Creed anyone) bring you into the game more. Or does a controller in which you can throw your arm just like you would to throw a grenade and the char acually does it on screen bring you more in.

I have no idea. I found Call Of Duty 2, to be one of the most immersive games i've eve played. The AI, the sound that made me feel like i was part of a moive, the beautiful smoke effects. It was one of the first FPS i played from beginning to end. And your argument... I ask you this.. What's more immersive, an FPS where you push buttons and click a mouse, or an FPS where you pull a trigger just like a real gun.

@43 "Even though the N64 didn't do as well as the PSX, I still don't think you can call that system irrelevant when it really pushed the FPS Genre for consoles, along with Wrestling games. The system itself might have "failed" compared to Sony, but the games that came out for it were revolutionary at the time. To say the system was irrevelant is just ignorant. Also pushed new ideas that were still "Amazing" at the time with Super Smash Brothers, Mario 64, and Ocarina of Time."

I like you.... you sound the oppisate of every DS fanboy. DS fanboy who point to the DS's sales, and instead of taking the PSP on it's own ground. say "It's not selling, god it's such a failure" But you sir "It may not be doing as well as..... but it's not a failure" But i do have one disagreement. Where does Super Smash innovate and start new genres? The fighting game had been around for many many years. If anything, SSB's main innovations are something you don't want to examine. Basically how to take a fighting game, remove all the depth from it, but make it so that the characters overpower the game. Not saying there is no depth to SSB, but the skill of the game is based on little more then timing and reflexes. There are clones of the game, no doubt.. and most of them are laughable, half-ass, anime licenced games, that are as bad as movie licenced games, but with japanohillia at it's height, most don't care. And while SSB may be used in many tournamoents, it's nothing like Halo 2 in the US, or Virtua Fighter or Street Fighter in Japan.

@45 "Nintendo designs hardware to play Nintendo games. If you like Nintendo games you buy Nintendo hardware. If however you do not like Nintendo games your better off with a Sony or Microsoft product."

You just described the reason for the 'cube's failure to capture market share. Sure Nintendo has some great games, but so do many 3rd parties. And the problem with being on a Nintendo console, is that.. well... you have to compete with Nintendo. And on a system where the largest audience is there for the Nintendo games.. unless you come up with a "Nintendo Game" you stand no cahnce. Hence the reason Capcom pulled their exclusive titles from the cube. Soul Calibur sold well on the cube.. but that's because it was a nintendo game.. it had Link.

@49 "Wii is not a "Gamecube 1.5 with a new remote.... Wii will not look ugly on HDTVs as HDTVS automatically upscale/downscale resolutions so image quality is not affected significantly."

The Wii, IS a gamecube 1.5 with a new controller... get over it. Throw around online services that should have been around last gen, and such... but when I look at screens, I see gamecube graphics. When I see how many GC games nintendo is scrapping to put on the Wii, or when devs take thier GC titles and turn "press X" into "swing forward" and call it a new game... I see Gamecube 1.5 For god sakes, the Xbox1 has abilites beyond the Wii... seeing as the Wii's graphics chip dosen't even include programable shaders... a hardware feature that is as old as the Gamecube itself. Graphically, a next gen console is as good as it's worst looking game. Now that that is settled... does that make the system bad? No... Nintendo is saying that graphics are good enough where they stand. And having sat down with some Gamecube titles lately.. i almost agree in many ways. Something like Metroid Prime, don't need a 360/PS3 level of power to make. Much like DoA4, the differences between the games would be barely seeable. Same with many higher end Gamecube games. Realistic type of games... it can't do so much. But that's not what Nintendo consoles are really about. As for "Native 480p support) we'll see. Nintendo is already making us jum through hoops to get the ability to use 480p. And your whole thing about upscaleing, proves you don't own an HDTV. Trust me, there is a big difference between 480p and 720p. But an even biggger difference between 480i and 480p. If nintendo can give me 480p on all games.. which, i'm wait and see about as well (since the gamecube was dedicated to 480p support... so much so that Nintendo removed the port from the gamecube)

@50 "People tend to steer towards getting tired and not being able to relax with the Wii, when its just how you want to play the games, and what games you play. "

You make assumptions about a future that isn't here yet. But much like the DS, you may have little more than simple games. The DS, while has some nice quirky games, As of today, still lacks any good RPGs.. lacks any good fighters, lacks any good 3D games.. and the PSX had some great games... the DS CAN do it. But instead we get, another puzzle game, another quirky touch screen game.. and so on. That may fly on a handheld, but not on a console. Am I saying it won't be diverse? I don't know. I mean, it's not even out yet. Do I hope for it? Hell yes. But Nintendo consoles aren't known for diversity. And that's the reason the PS2 won last generation. It was a console with something for everyone. FPS, fighting, RPG, Sports, Raceing, party games, platform games. E rated games, M rated games... from sponge bob, to GTA. So the options, right now, are in the developers hands.. and in turn, they give the consumers the choices.

but what about the snes like the man above me said. 3rd party games sold great on that (Final Fantasy).

Resident Evil 4 is one game, and it came out pretty late in the systems life, in fact too late for anybody to take 3rd party games seriously on the cube because the 3rd partys went to the other systems so other than a select few games most "cube only" games were 1st party only, on top of that RE4 came out on the PS2 so that could have stolen alot of it's thunder because there are way more PS2s and I don't know a single gamecube owner who doesn't have a ps2. But I know alot the other way around.

In fact if you look at the top 9 in that chart (save double dash) all of those games came out before resident evil so they had a longer time to sell as well.

Look great games on ANY system are gonna have a hard time selling against the compotition thats just the way it is. But that doesn't mean that other developers are going to be intimidated by mario

In the way that the launch titles for any system rarely show the potential of a system, I can see the games that really use the Wii control coming later. Either way, I can't wait to actually try it out.

As for looking silly, it took me 3 songs on Guitar Hero before I realized the way to play is to stand and ROCK!

Duscrom -
Uhm, this has been said a hundred times already, but just because the Wii supports the same instruction set and graphics calls as the GC, that doesn't mean it doesn't have more in addition, and do them faster.

The only references I can find to Wii *NOT* having shaders is in the commentary on forums from people who don't develop for Wii. I have found references that Wii *DOES* have shaders, and a fairly reputable site[1] puts the ATI Hollywood chip on par with the 360's chip. Even this has a good chance of being mere speculation, since Nintendo and ATI haven't said much about it. If you have a source to cite on the Wii's graphics chip, I'd love to see it.

Just don't forget this is an ATI chip. They know what they're doing. After all, they made the chip that's in the 360, which came out a year earlier.

(BTW, the GC had shaders but they just didn't measure up, well below DX8 spec, might or might not have been programmable)

As for the online service that should have been around last gen... pffft. Something like 5 to 10 percent of Xbox owners used it. Why should Nintendo have lost money on an network that few would have wanted. This is the gen for networking, partly due to MS's jumping the gun last gen.

Also, the GC 480p support is a direct result of how many sales they had of component cables, which they were very well aware of. Statistically speaking, effectively no one had an HDTV last gen, and almost no one does this gen. No one bought component cables, so why increase cost on the gc? You realize they had a trade in program where you could get a component GC for free by sending in your current GC? You can bet very few people cared about that either.

----
1: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/nintendo-revolution1.htm

@Moogle
"Statistically speaking, effectively no one had an HDTV last gen, and almost no one does this gen."

True and False. Latest estimate places North America and Japan at 50% penetration for HDTV. People are moving toward HDTV, everyone loves the idea of flat tvs you can hang on your wall. My parents got an overpriced plasma tv just because my mom wanted to hang the TV above the fireplace. I suggested they get HD programming and their exact response was "We don't want to pay more for cable" Soon people without HDTVs will be in the minority. HDTV is fast on the rise. I'll post the links later when I find them again.

@Druscom

You spoke a little too soon. Hehe, recently a few good rpgs came out for the DS. Depending on what you like that is. There is Magical Starsign. There is Children of Mana. There is Contact. All came out fairly recently. Japan just got a "Tales" game. Soon here we will have Final Fantasy 3. They are comming, just taking thier sweet time haha.

Found the links for ya'll to look at.

"Japan's HD penetration surged from 50% to 64% to lead in HD penetration."
http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/topstory/005364

"As a result, DisplaySearch is expecting HD penetration on a sell-in basis to rise from 51% in North America in 2006 to 90% in 2010 with global penetration rising from 25% in 2006 to 60% in 2010. "
http://www.hometoys.com/htinews/oct06/articles/hdtvconference/report.htm

You can take these articles as you want. I havn't found anything recent to dispute them tho. If you can find something recent to dispute em, please link it :)

i don't understand how 'bit' thinks that the controls are gimmicky and can only be played in short spurts. from what i've read from different articles, after playing and getting use to the wii controls, its' actually difficult to go back to traditional controllers, which have a lot less freedom. if nintendo sets a new standard (and it will probably become the standard) of video game controls, the old controllers will just seem like dinosaurs. it's not a matter of this being gimmicky , and people getting bored with the new control scheme after awhile, but rather, people become used to it after some time, and not wanting to go back to that old style of control.

Ugh.
Everytime I see these topics I just wanna strangle someone.

First off. Stop saying the graphics are bad. They are not. I hate it when people talk about it, because they make it sound like the Wii has Atari like graphics when they are comparing it to the 360/PS3. The Wii has very nice graphics. Better than PS2, GC, XB and then some. Nintendo may not care about having uber graphics, but they do update them. Besides, I'm still trying to figure out why people are dying to see sweat dripping off of a videogame characters face. WOW, awesome graphics there.. not.

2nd: The only Nintendo "console" to fail was the Virtual Boy. The GC did fine. May not have had great 3rd party support but it still did fine.

3rd: This whole "gimmick" thing. Look at the PS3. That has some really bad gimmicks than I want to remember. Use the PSP as a rear view mirror? A Yu-gi-oh card simulator?(you know the thing with the cards and the duck at E3) Sixaxis controller? The Kareoke/music machine thing (dont know what its called) Come on now. Don't just point at Nintendo.

Also the person that said that the Nintendo fans shouldnt lap up everything they feed us? Tell that to the videogame industry. Nintendo rejuvenated it time and time again with "gimmicks" that would die and now are standard. This is a step toward VR which tons of people have been waiting for. You can only hit at buttons for so long. Being able to actually do those things is a really good idea.

I just think people need to try the Wii when the demo units come out, with a clear mind. I know for some that will be hard. I'm very excited about it, however, if I try it out and do not like it, I wont get it. Plain and simple. I'll cancel my reserve and probably go for a 360 which goes against every bone in my body because I hate XB (long story) but I'm not spending 600+ on a PS3.

huh.

I see all this banter about the wii being gimmicky because of motion sensitive controls. What I don't see is banter about the PS3 being gimmicky because of motion sensitive controls, even with the not-so grand previews folks have been giving it, what with it feeling "too light" and "cheap." bashing on the SIXAXIS would be too easy. Sure you can have a traditional control scheme with it...

but wait! What's this?

ZOMGTHEWIIHASGAMECUBECONTROLLERPORTSLAWLZ!!!11

That's right. Now, not to rain on anyone's Nintendobashing parade or anything, but isn't SSBB going to be controlled with 'cube controllers instead of the wiimote? Oh your God that's right! developers can program a game to use whatever kind of controller they please.

Virtual Console, A new way to play games, the safeguard of having traditional controllers to fall back on if things go awry, not needing to fork out an extra Grand on a new TV so I don't feel cheated, Superb First party titles, all for a lower pricepoint. Anyone can say what they want, I know what I'm looking forward to.

@15 >

Way to make yourself sound intelligent. By insulting a few million gamers. Pure genius I'd say, "derr...I makey myself sound smart by makey fun of udders."

@37 >

I'd hardly call making many millions in profit (not revenues, we're talking PROFIT) a failure. And both the N64 and GC made nintendo tons of money. At the end of the day, isn't that what companies like Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, (heck, take any company) is all about? Were the N64 and GC the top selling consoles in their generation? No. Absolute not. But that doesn't mean they are failures. Heck, I'd call the Xbox (which I own) a failure before I'd call the GC (which I also own) a failure.

Nintendo has only one failed console that I know of and that's the Virtual Boy. Kudos to Nintendo for being brave enough to try new directions in advancing gaming but the Virtual Boy just sucked and sucked hard.

Oh and that failed consoles the N64 produced games like Mario64, Super Smash Bros, and Mario Party...which the rest of the industry has copied but excepting the case of 3d platformers has never outdone the originals. And there are some great 3d platformers out there that arguably may be better than Mario64 but every one of them copied the camera angles used in Mario64. The GC was more derivative but it still had some great and unique games. I'm not saying there aren't any great games on the PS1 and PS2 or even Xbox, but to say the N64 and GC are failures is simply ignorant. Other tech companies would kill for failed products as produced by Nintendo.

@38 Elixir

Yes, the Wii controller can be gimmicky but it does have the potential to be great. And I haven't read a single gamer or journalist who hasn't had fun with the Wii controller. I do agree that there needs to be more in depth play time to really see how the Wiimote responds but unless you've had extensive play time with it, you're hardly one I'd call as an authoritative figure on whether it's a gimmick or not.

And as far as fanboys go...you haven't met Sony fanboys yet have you? Most Nintendo fanboys like Nintendo because it is one of the best producers of games. Nintendo's first party games have been absolutely stunning for so long that Nintendo fans expect excellence from Nintendo produced games. Aside from Gran Turismo (an excellent game but hardly innovative unlike many Nintendo games) and Ico, what is out there from Sony that has been innovative or extremely well made?

Sony's main strength is it's great developer support but this is waning due to poor reception in the press and by many gamers due to the PS3's very high cost of entry. Many people simply can't afford a $500 point of entry. And realistically it's $600 if you buy a single game and after tax. That's not even counting a second controller. The problem with most of your hits being from 3rd party developers is that should you falter, they won't hesitate to jump ship as evidenced by them producing games for Sega due to poor treatment from Nintendo and finally jumping ship to Sony for it's greener pastures. They won't hesitate to jump back on the Nintendo bandwagon if they perceive that's where the grass is greener.

Oh...and Nintendo's last gimmick controller saved the gaming industry way way back when ET almost killed it.

@78 Aex

Sorry but the only numbers I can find are shipment numbers which put HDTV's at roughly 50% of what's being shipped (and presumably sold) in the last quarter and not 50% HDTV penetration as in total number of used sets in the market today. Last I heard, actual HDTV ownership in households (market penetration) is at roughly 15-20%. Please link me the article showing 50% of the TV viewing public owns HDTV's. At this point, some of the lower end HDTV's which only do 720p (which is still quite nice) are creeping into the relatively affordable stage. Enough that middle class families in most places will be able to afford one.

The problem is the distinct lack of affordable HDTV content. I have an HDTV but let's face it, I don't watch TV enough to justify a $100 cable bill. For most people, the quality of mpeg2 quality video from DVD's and satellite services are good enough where they can't justify spending upwards of $500 for a small HDTV and upwards of $100 for a 36 inch or larger HDTV.


And for those who constantly say that the Wii is not a next generation console because it's based on older technology...you obviously don't know what you're talking about because the Xbox360 and the vaunted PS3 is based, amazingly enough, on some of the same "old" technology as the Wii. All three use CPU's based on the PPC architecture. Not to mention crappy CPU's like Intel Core 2 Duo's which are based on old as heck Pentium 3's (which is derived from even older technology). I won't argue with the Wii being GC 1.5 because in some respects it is basically a trumped up GC but in other respects it is not. I do wish that they had bumped up the graphics capability though. I don't think they needed to put in hi-def resolutions but definitely allow more graphics capabilities.

As for the actual Bit-Tech article. I thought aside from the stupid complaints about how he looks compared to paid models, he didn't show any bias. If anything, he has valid points about the Wii controller.

Well i can remember at least 200 times where i would hold a playstation or xbox controller with the winged side in my hand like the butt of a gun. wishing tha ti could just point and shoot. Or swing and the sword on the screen would move.

people said that legend of zelda the windwaker sucked because the gameplay and mechanics were not interesting and easily boring. Well that game is awesome and when you get down to the root of it, Anyone who does not like the game, simply cannot stand the graphics. They say gameplay is not revolutionary because the graphics arent revolutionary. If graphics were all that gaming had to offer, people would just go see movies. And the psp would be the top handheld system of all time. Dont blame it on the games library, blame it on the fact that button mashing has been around for 30 years. Its time for something different in a mainstream console. And no not a light gun or a power glove. Both together on crack, with a classic nes paddle. Oh and let us not forget the separate accelerometer in the nunchuck unit, as well as your famed and classic joystick. You people are rediculous, rumble packs were a gimmick, memory cards were a gimmick, built in hard drives and dvd/cd players were a gimmick when built into a system. So was dual analog and progressive scan. You people think everything new on a system is a device to distract kids from good games. Well if i hear another f***ing developer talk about revolutionary concepts and talk ONLY about the graphics, im gonna lose my mind.

Play the games, decide for yourself, and shut the hell up, please.

Another thing to keep in mind is that one of Nintendo's goals with the Wii was to bring new audiences into gaming, including audiences that haven't played console games much or at all. They're trying to expand the market for games, which is a good thing. However, I think it's pretty clear that many of these new players are going to look at the Wii as an occasional diversion, not a hardcore pastime; and as such, for many players, the fact that control scheme may feel somewhat gimmicky probably won't be much of an issue. And even for the core gamer audience, I don't think it's going to be a huge problem... very few people seem to be planning to buy only the Wii, so it can be the quirky cousin to their 360 or PS3 and still be successful. I think trying to make just another next-gen competitor would have been a bigger risk than this, honestly.