Nintendo's Next-Gen Arsenal 321
Much of the coverage of the next-gen skirmish so far has focused on Sony and Microsoft. The already-impressive Xbox Live vs. the PS3. Just the same, for the first time in many years Nintendo is definitely in the running for top spot. About.com has a piece looking at what the big N is bringing to the next-gen party this November. From the article: "While Nintendo is trend setting with controllers like the Wiimote and, to a lesser extent, the nunchaku dongle, other companies will be following along. Nintendo's game plan from the genesis of the Wii has been touch and gamer-friendly games. They see the future of gaming in the Wiimote. Everyone else, at this point, seems to be just catching up."
about.com (Score:5, Insightful)
What it needs the most is... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What it needs the most is... (Score:4, Insightful)
Nintendo's Strength (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What it needs the most is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Wii has easily gotten the most, and best, press (Score:5, Insightful)
Aside from last holiday season's hype, the X-Box has been a back burner item for the press. Sony's PR has been almost uniformly poorly received.
Meanwhile outlets like slashdot have been talking up the Wii for months and months. It's not like we didn't have items posted on /. just for the name switch from Revolution to Wii, you know? Hotly debated at the time, too. People are paying tons of attention.
Where'd the idea that Nintendo's been all but ignored come from? Lordy. How'd this "Did you know Nintendo has a new console too?" story get accepted?
Re:I hope this works... (Score:5, Insightful)
There Is An Exception, IMHO (Score:3, Insightful)
A Wii Skeptic (Score:2, Insightful)
It is just far to early to be making any judgments about the Wii. The system is all about game-play and we do not really have any experience with the Wii's game-play to make any judgments about it. Is the game-play going to improve enough to make up for the difference in graphical prowess that the Wii lacks when compared to the other two next-gen systems? I'd like to believe that Nintendo can pull it off, but I'm not convinced yet.
I'll be sitting on the fence until after the system has been released.
Re:Lets get this over with (Score:1, Insightful)
The slashbot mentality picked the Wii as the current flavour and all who disagree shall be modded into oblivion. I guess with Bill Gates turning into a genuinely nice guy and linux becoming pretty much mainstream, the needed a new cause to crusade for!
So come my friends, pick up the banner and be part of the hurd! Xbox and Playstation are evil only caring about better graphics that just dont matter! For real good gameplay, you need a gimmicky remote and outdated graphics!!! NINTENDO! NINTENDO! NINTENDO!
God the moderation system on this site really stinks sometimes. Oh well, see you in a couple minutes in moderation hell! (Score:0,Flamebait)
Nah (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:What it needs the most is... (Score:2, Insightful)
Quite to the contrary, I think. My daughter has loved Animal Crossing as soon as it came into our home. She has been frustrated, because we don't have any other kids nearby that won the game as well, and she wants to visit new towns. With online gameplay, it could be possible for her character to visit towns world-wide. I, and I suspect many others, would love to have this capability, with other Nintendo games, as well (Harvest Moon comes to mind).
With online capability, Mario Kart Double Dash, and Super Mario Strikers, Tennis, Golf, Baseball, etc. will take on completely new dimensions. I, for one, am looking forward to it, and will purchase it as soon as it is released.
The real forgotten system (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:about.com (Score:3, Insightful)
This is the kind of crappy article that I expect on digg. I thought having editors on slashdot prevented this kind of non-news from being posted.
Oh well, I guess it's just a slow news day.
Oh, please. (Score:2, Insightful)
I call corporate shill.
Sustainable Entertainment (Score:2, Insightful)
As a pretty avid gamer I see myself tiring of the Wiimote (great name, btw). Wouldn't your wrist tire quickly? It just doesn't seem to work well for long periods of gaming (>2hrs).
Okay, so the average gamer is not hardcore. I understand that. But will they stay entertained? At some point the novelty of the wiimote and wiigames (made that one up) will wear off and the system will be judged on its ability to provide superior entertainment.
Nintendo can typically provide superior entertainment in its games. I just hope the Wiimote opens new doors for innovative entertainment and doesn't typecast the wii as a novelty item--Virtual Boy style.
I fully intend to buy a Wii and I think I will really enjoy it. But the real test is if I am still playing it a year from now.
Re:Nintendo's Strength (Score:3, Insightful)
I thought I'd reply to you both in one shot. I COMPLETELY agree that just going for pure photorealism is the wrong way to go with games, but considering the gap between where the rendering power of your typical gaming system is NOW, and what a typical NTSC (and NOT highdef) Television is capable of displaying, its clear there is still a LOT of room for improvement. Saying that the Ps3, 360, and Wii games will look exactly the same because we've hit the limits of what's possible on NTSC is just dead wrong. Is the "next" generation capable of photorealism? No, and the one after likely won't be, either. But that doesn't mean everyone should stop pushing the envelope.
as for physics and animation, we're in complete agreement. "more power" in CPU's and GPU's isn't just for pretty graphics, but will add an entirely new dimension in how our games behave and animate, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next generation will be able to do.
Re:Oh, please. (Score:3, Insightful)
call anything you want, I'm only speaking what makes sense. Tekken 3 and Vagrant Story were great games too back in the day and looked AMAZING. today? Not so much.
Much as demand for what was "great" by Ps1 and N64 standards died off as the Ps2 and Dreamcast ramped up and surpassed them, its VERY unlikely gamers will simply settle for what was good by Gamecube standards when The Ps3, 360, and PC are breaking new ground.
Re:Oh, please. (Score:3, Insightful)
Meanwhile, one of the biggest successes of the XBox 360 is the XBox live games, most of which are roughly at the standard of SNES.
Re:Lets get this over with (Score:2, Insightful)
Did you ever think that the people that are excited about the Wii are genuinely excited as opposed to jumping on the band wagon?
I own a PS2 because there are a large number of games on it that I like and it was fairly cheap. I don't own an XBOX because there aren't any games on it I care for. I'm not interested in an XBOX 360 at all because of the lack of games I'd actually want to buy, and I'm not paying $600 for a PS3. If they made the PS3 $300 and there were more than 10 games I wanted I'd consider it.
The Wii on the other hand is going to be fairly cheap and there are DOZENS of games that I'll want to get, not including anything new that's released for it.
Graphics are awesome, and certainly have their place. But I'm not dropping a ton of cash on a PS3 or XBOX just for good graphics. The Wii has absolutely everything I could want in a console: classic games, "casual" games, and party games. The controller is just icing on the cake, and I'd buy the Wii even if the controller wasn't available at launch.
I don't have a problem with the PS3 or the XBOX 360, they're just not for me. A lot of Slashdot feels the same way, probably because we don't sit in front of a videogame console as our primary means of entertainment.
Re:Wii controller (Score:2, Insightful)