Nintendo Wii

It's midnight and all over the country videogames fans are freezing their butts off while they wait in line to get their mitts on Nintendo's newest - or maybe not, if they haven't pre-ordered. Yes, the Wii goes on sale today, though Reg Hardware has been lucky enough to have enjoyed the company of Zelda and co. in its warm, dry …

[jurgen]

It's won me over.

"Maybe it won't win over folk who dislike console gaming, at least not straight away, but it does present an opportunity to offer something for everyone."

I'm fairly geeky, and have been for quite some time (I remember going to friends' houses and playing with their Atari 2600 systems when I was a kid). So I should fall squarely into the "hardcore gamer" demograhic. Truth is, up until now, I've found it all quite boring.

The Wii is the first game console I've ever even considered buying. Nothing else has interested me as much, nothing else seems as *fun*.

[Anonymous Coward]

another swift kick in the nuts for the ps3!

Yet another swift kick in the nuts for the ps3 eh?

By the time sony manage to get any units into europe, microsoft and nintendo will hit them with a huge price cut on their consoles... gameover sony!

[Blah Blah Blah]

Wii?

I hate to be a downer on the Wii but it is just a souped-up Gamecube with a gimmick controller. All hype, no trousers.

The only nex-gen console with flexibility seems to be the PS3 at the moment. The Xbox is good for people who like PC games, and generic FPS games.

I wouldn't want my money to line Microsofts coffers though...

[John Williams]

PS3

Geeks make me laugh. They literally salivate while forecasting the end of the PS3!

Do you really think that Sony haven't got a trick up their sleeve if they're planning to release the PS3 so much later than Nintendo and Microsoft release their rival consoles? Or do you think that you are the almighty one who has an inside track and that the Sony execs are going to read your simplistic comment and quake in their boots?

Idiots!

[StooMonster]

Wii great

Blah Blah Blah is typical of what is wrong with gaming these days.

PS3 is just a souped-up PS2 with flashy graphics (well, equivalent to last years mid-range nVidia GPU) and a white-elephant, sorry Blu-ray, agenda which does not a great console make.

'Ridge Racer 7' as launch title? Doesn't that imply that it's same old games as PS1, PS2, PSP but with better graphics? Not bored of those endlessly repeated games yet, and got cash to burn on Sony's Blu-ray strategy, then PS3 is for you.

Want something different? Want something ... fun? Wii is the one!

[Anonymous Coward]

The First?

"The Wii has to be the first games console to get you up off your rump and onto your feet."

So... eyetoy... dance dance revolution... those games never happened?

[Anonymous Coward]

I dont get it !

I don't get the comment by the previous guy... so what it's a souped up Gamecube... does it actually matter ?

I like the idea of the controler and the whole shebang.. I'm more worried about the long term side of things... it's all new now, but is anything other than party games will be released on it ?

in 2 years time, the novelty factor will be gone and I dont want to be having the choice between mario party 16 and rayman 5... which so far seems to be the way it's heading...

As for the ps3.. sure it's powerful, but there's nothing worth buying it for at the moment anyway (bar blu-ray).. and what's the saying again.. it's what you do with it that counts !

[andy rock]

'Gimmicky'?!?

not quite sure Blah Blah Blah thinks is gimmicky about the Wii controller. i was thinking more along the lines of 'maybe changing the way we play videogames'? i don't think Nintendo's purchase of un 'undisclosed' amount of stock of a company specialising in gyros and motion sensors was a gimmick. that sounds like a plan to me.

more importantly, a product isn't about the spec of the box you play it on, it's about the whole experience. Nintendo seem to think differently about the way we experience games. as a DS owner, i can vouch for that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmmm

You're all idiots!

All of you, get off your fat geek behinds and go and enjoy life outside your 4 walls!

[James Cook]

All about fun.

I will be buying a Wii, simply for the same reason I bought a cube and a N64 before that and a Super Nintendo before that.

Innovation is always a winner for me.

If you remember when you first saw:

How great "mode 7" graphics were

Seeing 4 way split of a multiplayer game e.g. Goldeneye

Getting amongst 29 other cars in F-Zero X

Seeing Mario 64 on display

Then I think you will probably understand where I am coming from.

I have a PC for your run of the mill games, your pro evos, call of dutys or toca race drivers if you will.

I "plan" to have a Wii (hehe) for those drunken nights in with friends.

And (esp for the Hmmm poster) I will carry on playing Hockey at weekend for my aspect of real life interaction (I also work aswell - if that counts...).

So the motion controller will get old after a while. But if it gives me as much fun as playing: Bomberman 2, Super Mario Kart (Time trial was brilliant for deciding who gets the beers in), Goldeneye, Monkey Ball, Smash Mario Football to name a few. It will be worth the money.

[Martin Usher]

Well thought out design, nicely engineered too....

The Wii's graphics are unimpressive compared to PS3, even XBox, but the overall package -- the unit, the controller design and user interaction and Internet connectivity -- make this product a winner. After all, it would be fairly easy for Nintendo to design a box with a few more petaflops to get those cinematic graphics effects, its just silicon, but I just can't see how a Sony or a Vole can add the Wii's signature components to their units without a serious redesign (and I bet that Nintendo has patented these components to the max and then some).

A lot of the current high-def craze is really just fashion. Eyes have a limited resolution to start with and that resolution drops off rapidly at the periphery (and if stuff starts moving around). Our color resolution is also nothing like as good as black-and-white (brightness) resolution. TVs were designed around this knowledge, so while its neat to look at the textures of the clothing in a PS3's character in practice you won't notice it at normal viewing distances, particularily if you're fighting for your life!

[Matt Crerar]

Nintendo: Screwing Europe for 20 years

I was looking forward to the Wii. The innovative controller design and technology was appealing, knowing the company's history for innovation. However being a long stand Nintendo fan, I was aware of the companies complete disregard for Europe which has caused it's last to consoles to fizzle out like a couple of damp squibs.

This time I thought - maybe thinks will be different? Wii has launch with a bang in both the US and Japan, selling out and out selling the PS3 there. With the momentum of those two launches and with the PS3 not launching until after Christmas here, the Wii seemed unstoppable. What could go wrong?

But, oh wait, things don't seem to have changed that much, Nintendo still doesn't seem to care much about Europe. Two weeks before Christmas they ship less than they promised. Not only that, but they seem to have allocated less Wii's for those who have 'pre-ordered' to guarantee themselves or their kids' a Wii but they are still selling to those who sleep over, queue or just walk into a 24 supermarket. More concerned with 'selling out!' and headlines of people 'camping out' than customer relations. Oh and we have to pay £50 more than the Americans.

Could this be another 5 years or poor relations, bad advertising and PR, poor third-party support, shoddy PAL conversions and ever distant release dates. Something I'd rather not pay £180 for the privilege of going through, again.

Wii are not amused.

[Rampage]

In response to James Cook

In response to James Cook-

"So the motion controller will get old after a while. But if it gives me as much fun as playing: Bomberman 2, Super Mario Kart (Time trial was brilliant for deciding who gets the beers in), Goldeneye, Monkey Ball, Smash Mario Football to name a few. It will be worth the money."

The wii controller gets old??

DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY OF US ARE TIRED OF GAMEPADS MY FRIEND?!?!?!

That is why I havent bought a console since the innovative N64! I've owned Atari 2600, NES, SNES,Genesis, N64.

Tired of thumb gynmastics.

[Jon Brunson]

Quite simply, Wii rocks

Sorry, but isn't the PS3 just a "souped-up" PS2? Isn't the "gimmick" of motion sensing in the PS3 controller? Isn't Sony screwing over Europe by launching here in March AT THE EARLIEST? Isn't the Blu-Ray an unproven tech that we'll get bored of in 2 years when we've either all got blu-ray (or HD-DVD to be fair) players, or digitally downloading our movies?

It seems the people knocking it (including my MS- & Sony-fanboy friends) knock the Wii and say it's crap... all up until they play it. Now they want one and have been round here all Wiikend playing.

"The Wii [is] the first **games console** to get you up off your rump and onto your feet" - afaik eye toy & DDR are not "games console"s.

PS. Also, bare in mind in relation to the price is that our price has 17.5% VAT on top, the US price never includes tax, and in most states they don't pay any anyway, so it's our government that's ramping up the price, not Nintendo.

PPS. In reply to Matt Crerar - from what I've heard from shop owners (Woolworths, Tesco & Asda - game/station seemed unaffected by this -), Nintendo shipped the number of units they promised, but a ship got "lost" at sea (I don't know if they meant sunk, or just caught up in a bad storm) which is why those units didn't arrive on time. Still, I got mine, played it for 20:40hrs yesterday and am very happy (and lucky it would seem!) :o)

[feargal halligan]

lordy...

Well at least these comments give me a laugh. Really guys: very funny. After 3 years reading the register I finally, well, register to reply to the above:

I mean, reading a 5 page review of a gaming console, and having an account with el reg, and then taking the trouble to say "you're all geeks, go out and get a life"...? That's one of the funniest posts I've ever seen on the web. If you can't see the irony there, then ignore my comments, thanks - no doubt the healthy outdoor game of soccer you were enjoying when you posted this will distract you anyway.....?

And then there's this practise of calling console features a "gimmick"...?

Last I looked, video game consoles are probably the closest thing I can think of to being a "gimmick" in and of themselves: by their very nature, if you want to be a puris. They flash and bleep as much as possible, do no real "job" and have no real "function" (bar "recreation" which we all know requires no specific hardware LOL) - I mean, what a plainly dumb remark. All innovation in a game is a "gimmick" - moot point.

Honestly, the QWERTY keyboard I'm typing on this is just a "gimmick", too - the altair 8800 didn't need one, why should this machine?

But Hey, I could pick holes all day: fact is I'm no nintendo freak but time after time after time they point the way for everyone else. This is not an opinion, there is a thing called "the videogames industry" which proves it.

Remember the way the games market collapsed in 1983 because of the lack of structure for royalties, rights management and designers being paid? Remember who came along and rebuilt it with solid ideas based on gaming markets?

Remember the famicom / NES? Remember those wierd controllers - cross arrows on the right, two buttons on the left - they introduced... and how everyone now uses them? Joypads?

Remember who put the most effort into forming JAMMA and making coinops and consoles the same industry?

Please, don't be so silly: Nintendo are a games company. Sony and Microsoft are (naff) Stereo and (terrible) Operating system brokers, respectively. To try and say that Nintendo is using "gimmicks" when the Xbox and PS3 are just graphic processors with expensive optical drives attached is hilarious.

After all, in 30 years time what Sony or MS titles will people remember like they remember Donkey Kong?

Hats off to nintendo, they seem, as ever, to actually give a damn about their target market - kids and young adults - by producing intelligent, innovative devices at low prices with high usability.

The rest of the industry could take a couple hundred pages out of their book, really.

[Mike Whitehouse]

Do any of you own a wii, PS3 and XBOX 360?

well i do, and i have a little something to say about them all. The Wii is an excellent party console. Having friends round to play video games has never been more fun and anyone can play, not only those who play games on a regular basis. Hell, even my mother can play!

There is no completion to the way xbox live works, sony are trying, but they really arnt quite there at all, live may cost you £40 a year, but its worth every penny and alot less than many MMO's you find today. The live tag system is great, its like haveing xfire and teamspeak built into your console on a system level.

The PS3 on the other hand does have blue ray, even though i hold no hope at all in this being a winning format in the next hi-def movie format due to sonys track record in inventing new formats. (betamax, minidisc, atrac-3, UMD, and the memory stick mostly only works with sony devices) it does provide a much much larger capacity for data then dvd, this will come into play about a year after the launch when developers are getting to grips with the tech and can start to make much more detailed environments. Yet this is see has the only good point for now.

So basically what i am saying is, if you like the aspect of online play, go buy a 360 and stop bitching about the PS3, If you like casual gaming and have alot of friends who dont really play computer games, go get yourself a Wii. If you really need a hi-def movie player now, have the TV to back it up and are willing to wait a while before you can play any really decent games due to giving the developers time to figure out how to get the best out of the hardware then go by a PS3 and stop moning about the 360 and Wii.

All 3 consoles have good points, all have bad. But mostly, all 3 companys are in it to win it in thier on way and will still be there for the next round of consoles and fan-boy hype 5 years down the line.

Appreciate the games. Its the developers that make a console what it is. Without them there would be nothing. (gizmodo, case and point)

Kramit out

[Anonymous Coward]

Wiii... a wiii behind

Nintendo is very far behind in terms of hardware specs. Anyone who says that does not matter should take a closer look at games like Gears of War (x360) on a 1080p TV and then try to play Mario. Nintendo games will look exquisitely bad in comprising.

The only thing that Nintendo has going for it is the new controller, and few good titles (Zelda, etc). I am very intrigued with the new controller, however at launch; there are simply no real killer games to sell it. Wii sports is fun enough but embarrassingly bad looking (why not just release the new controller for the gamecube if you plan on making games like this). I had high hopes for Red Steel, but… wow is that ever bad. I am yet to see a game rated 9/10.

Zelda, Mario and Metroid will only get you so far, and I would love to see more innovation on the kind of games are being released on Nintendo systems.

Innovation should not mean a MAJOR sacrifice in quality. I love the fact they have a new cool controller. At the same time they are pushing it along with substandard hardware that in no way can compete with other modern consoles. I would not mind if Nintendo was not quite as powerful as Xbox360/PS3, but it is almost an entire generation behind…. With more people getting HD TVs this will become more evident with time.

[John Mayock]

utter rubbish

quote:

A lot of the current high-def craze is really just fashion. Eyes have a limited resolution to start with and that resolution drops off rapidly at the periphery (and if stuff starts moving around). Our color resolution is also nothing like as good as black-and-white (brightness) resolution. TVs were designed around this knowledge, so while its neat to look at the textures of the clothing in a PS3's character in practice you won't notice it at normal viewing distances, particularily if you're fighting for your life!

What utter nonsense! I have a 2k LCD and the 360 is outstanding as would a ps3 hooked up. I work in the tv industry also. To say HDTV doesnt matter since you cant tell the differ is about the most dumb thing I have hear in years. YOU must be blinded by sheer wii ignorance!! its the only reason. 720 or 1080p are so sharp and vivid.

As for not seeing differencesin textures. lol omg are you for real. Your blind!

[James Rouse]

Specs aren't so important to some of us

I see a lot of people moaning about the lack of HD and comparitively low specs. Not all of us have the money to spend on a PS3 not to mention the additional hardware required to really appreciate it. A 720 HD LCD and a 5.1 surround sound setup arent exactly cheap, and neither is the PS3 itself.

The Wii is an attractive choice for anyone looking for a console for casual use. It's relatively inexpensive, with innovative (and not to mention fun) controls. The PS3's HD graphics and 5.1 surround sound might be really awesome for so-called hardcore gamers. Many of us are buying a Wii simply because its good clean fun. An absolutely perfect excuse to get the mates round with a few beers and some pizza.

Mario Kart is still a firm favourite with my friends after a night out. The Xbox usually sitting forlornly powered down on the next shelf.