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Hands on with Nintendo's Wii controller
Alright, we briefed y'all on what we knew so far about the Wii controller early this morning, but now that we've gotten our paws on the Wiimote itself, we wanted to let you know how it is in the flesh. Nintendo and millions of fanboys are betting a lot on this concept, and Nintendo itself said that "playing is believing" every other sentence of their keynote, so the real question is: do we believe? The short answer is that we're just not sure yet. The first chance we got with the Wii was for a golfing game (the shortest line we found, go fig) and as soon as we got our hands on the Wiimote we knew it was something special. We slipped the wrist lanyard on so we didn't fling the remote across the room, and held in our hands the light weight, ergonomic, and simply beautiful controller. If this was as far as we'd gotten we would have gone home happy. The controller allows plenty of leverage for the trigger "b" and the large "a" button, and only slipped out of our hand once from a particularly aggressive sword strike in "Red Steel." Click on for the rest.
Wii impressions: Wii Sports -- Tennis
Simple, intuitive and fun are buzzwords that have been shoved in our face eer since Nintendo announced the Wii, but I can't really think of any better words to describe my experience with Nintendo's distinctive tennis game. Sure, it's just a tennis game, but it's one that requires you to wave an imaginary racket in the hopes of hitting a clump of polygons representing a ball. I wouldn't say that the game is more immersive or realistic for it, as it still feels like a very laid back and simple session of whacking a ball back and forth. The controller is very reactive to your motions, and I quickly felt confident regarding the location of my virtual racket within 3D space. It didn't take long for me to start balancing on one foot and grunting like a pro each time I waved the wiimote. The only thing that seems confusing about the game, at least initially, is that it doesn't seem to allow you to control the movement of your character on the tennis court itself. My character seemed to gravitate towards the ball on his own, positioning himself just within reach of the ball hurtling across the net. Still, I found that the simplicity merely added to the fun and lightheartedness of what was essentially two grown men waving invisible rackets around. Great stuff.
Anatomy of shame: Dual Shake vs. Wiimote
Perhaps you heard a loud rumbling sound several moments after our friend, Krazy Kutaragi, took the stage at the Sony E3 press conference and revealed what was, according to him, a big "secret" regarding the new old and improved PS3 controller. The source of the noise was undoubtedly the countless gamers rolling their eyes in unison at a new "innovation" that, if you're at all interesting in gaming, is unlikely to have struck you as very innovative at all. It's arguable that Nintendo's Wii merely uses parts that have been around for ages and isn't particularly innovative in that sense, but it's difficult not to raise an eyebrow when a competing console manufacturer decides to implement a control interface that, until recently, was considered unorthodox. It was pretty shameless.
Nintendo Wii to sell for $250?
Almost lost among the hubbub of Sony's keynote extravagance was a little forum-derived rumor about Nintendo's Wii. It claims to be based on an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly with Zelda on the cover and a whole lot of Nintendo gems inside, including a purported $250 launch price. The tipster hasn't shown any scans of the magazine's actual content, but he did manage to get a picture of the magazine's cover up on the forum after work, so our legit-ness meter is looking pretty good. Along with the console price, and screenshots of Monkey Ball, Tony Hawk, Rayman and Red Steel, he mentions the Virtual Console gaming, Wii-remote tech, and some vaguely defined "ALWAYS online" functionality (the console is always hooked to the Internets, even when off). There's also a supposed built-in speaker in the controller (a DS-like mic seems more likely to us, but that's what he says). As we said, the rumor looks fairly solid, though we don't have long to find out, since Nintendo's keynote is kicking off early tomorrow. And being that we really don't have anything better to do, we'll be sure to liveblog it to pieces.[Via Joystiq]
TIME gets hands-on with the Nintendo Wii
We knew we should have taken that call from Miyamoto the other day, but our loss was TIME magazine's gain, because the Mario and Zelda creator was looking for someone to, wouldn't you know it, take the upcoming Wii for a little spin. TIME's five page article is so full of interesting deets that we barely have room to scratch the surface here, but suffice it to say that Lev Grossman not only reports on his hands-on experiences with a number of games, he's also able to get inside Nintendo's head, if you will, and tease out a bit of the methodology behind what some hardcore gamers perceive as the company's madness (Wii? those controllers? Nintendogs?). As for the actual gaming, Grossman got to play some tennis (the sensors even allow you to add spin), slay some dragons (brandishing the controller like a sword in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess), and bring those wacky Warioware minigames into the third dimension (think: fishing, weight lifting, cooking, etc.). Geez, this thing sounds like so much fun that we may just skip the Sony keynote this afternoon and see if the folks from Nintendo will let us play with their goodies.
Nintendo E3 keynote to be shown at Nintendo World Store
If you live in the New York area and are unable to attend E3 this year (given the hordes of sweaty, shoving geeks involved, it might not be such a great loss), be sure to drop by the Nintendo World Store on 9 May. The store will be broadcasting Nintendo's keynote, an event sure to host new DS games, Wii revelations and at least one appearance by Shigeru Miyamoto dressed as a Nintendo character. Missing it would be quite appalling.For more information and an opportunity to RSVP for the event, check out Nintendo's official World Store website. Be sure to snap some pictures and send them to us![Via N-Sider]
Wii marketing ideas
Making the best of a bad situation, the British Gaming Blog has posted an animation and some images relating to how they think the name "Wii" should be marketed to Nintendo fans. I especially like the Mario Kart pitch, with the letters in the logo breaking apart to form two racers battling it out at a deadly velocity (just don't ask where the four extra dots came from). Read - Weeeeee.Read - Nunchaku.Read - Mario Kart.
Next-gen Tony Hawk footage leaked
If the folks at Gaming Age are to be believed, this footage was swiped from an early build of a next-generation Tony Hawk game. There's nothing in the video that points towards this being Downhill Jam (confirmed for the Wii last month), but footage this early is unlikely to be tied down to a specific platform yet. It appears to be an animation test, showing a skater flail his arms about while attempting to maintain his balance. It looks good (if it's real), though expect next-gen naysayers to complain that "It's still just a guy on a skateboard. What's so next-gen about that?"[Via Gaming Age]
Koch to distribute Wii all over UK
We couldn't resist ... the headline wrote itself! But seriously, folks, if you haven't heard, back in January, Nintendo appointed Koch Media to be the preferred distribution partner of their products in the UK. Yep, that's it. Now get back to work![Thanks, Cirrus]
Wii unique like 'Google,' says Nintendo
IGN did its best to make sense of yesterday's Nintendo Wii announcement by going right to the source, Nintendo. According to Nintendo of America's VP of corporate affairs, Perrin Kaplan, Wii is the next in a line of unique product/service names that includes, Google, Virgin Airlines, Amazon, and Napster. But Wii surpasses these beloved names because it operates on multiple levels. "It looks like two people with heads who can play," says Kaplan. That's odd, to us it just looks like Nintendo doubled the letter i.While Kaplan successfully dodged questions about Wii's inherent phallic connotation, she did have a few words for the haters: "Live with it, sleep with it, eat with it, move along with it..." And to that we add, just wiigle with it![Thanks Gareth]
Wii know, wii feel the same way
Now that wii've (sorry, wii'll stop) had a few hours to let it all sink in, Nintendo's new "Wii" moniker for their next gen console still isn't ringing true. Sure, we get that whole community-ish thing they're going for, and we're happy for our friend, the letter "i," which has had quite a few successes in the consumer electronics industry, including a slew of popular Apple products and a double role in Intel's Viiv platform, but we're just not feeling "Wii." Turns out we're not the only ones, and between the comments on our Wii post earlier, Joystiq's informal poll, and the insightful commentary of our editorial staff...Ryan: "Eh, I thought the iPod was a pretty stupid name too. We'll just have to wait and see."Evan: "Just let me know when I can emulate the console on my phone."Marc: "Why?"Paul: "What do you want? Leave me alone! Can't you see I'm talking to Zelda right now?"Ross: "Sometimes, even hardcore gamers need to stop and take a Wii."...it's not looking like a home run for Nintendo marketing. Of course, the DS didn't get a lot of love at first, and in that case Nintendo clearly demonstrated that it's all about what you do with it. But with proponents of the console already facing an uphill battle in evangelizing the strange control scheme, Nintendo sure isn't helping out much.Read - Game Informer interviews N's Matt AtwoodRead - Joystiq's Wii pollRead - Joystiq's first impressionsRead - Revolution FanboyRead - Go NintendoRead - GameSpotRead - IGNRead - 1UPRead - Straight from the horse's mouth
Nintendo Wii -- the Revolution gets a real name
Seems like we've been calling this thing the Revolution for, well, forever. Well, we just got word over the wires that -- well ahead of any expected E3 announcements -- Nintendo announced the officially truly true name for the Revolution: the Nintendo Wii (like "we"). Nope, stop calling it the Revolution, it's not the Go, either. They're going for that whole gaming plurality thing that they've been talking about, bringing together communities who love to play, old school gamers, casual gamers, today's more evolved gamers: "It's about Wii, and together Wii will change everything." Ooook, guys, whatever you say. And yeah, we'll spare you all the puerile jokes.
