Nintendo hands-on (p)Wiiview

Many thanks for the sober preview. ;) I'm getting a 360 for my birthday as I've been saying for the past week or two, will pick up a Wii and a PS3 next year — dunno in what order (probably both at once) — so I don't really need to take sides.

It's interesting to see the hype settle down a bit with regards to the Wii. The remaining portion of this year is certainly going to be fun to watch!

I'm amazed at the graphics on the console, such low specs yet it can produce near current gen content. I can't wait till there is the the "re4" of the wii which pushes it to the max O_O.

There probably has been too much hype over the total-immersiveness of the games and so on, but Nintendo are once agin set to deliver their unique take on gaming- perhaps its the market that is changing?

In terms of introducing crazy new ways of controling the games, I find one of the best uses for the DS stylus is for playing Advance wars, and thats just point and click stuff. Not nearly as complex and cool as Metroid on the DS but just as satisfying.

Originally Posted by kenco_uk
This time, the XBox360 is building up its userbase and its had plenty of time to itself; the Wii being the first challenger this Chrimbo and the PS3 bringing up the rear. Of course the PS3 is going to down a storm (despite SCE's marketing division having multiple lobotomies) but I see it having a tough climb to the top.

You are forgetting the Dreamcast.

Like the X360, the Dreamcast came to the market before the PS2.

Unfortunately for MS, the X360 has sold less units in these 11 months than the Dreamcast did in the same time. The userbase the X360 has built is nowhere as great as MS wants us to belive, and quite far from their previsions (they expected to have a 10 million (in units sold) advantage by the time the PS3 launched, and they are still 4 million short, with only a few weeks before PS3 launches.

I'm not saying the X360 will go the way of the Dreamcast, as MS has way, way more money than SEGA did and can support his console for much longer...but the cold numbers say the X360 sales worldwide aren't really that exciting
( http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/16/analyst-xbox-360-sales-solid-but-lackluster
)

Don't get me wrong...I'm no SONY fanboy...I have already decided to get a X360 as soon as I get a HDTV. But I'm pretty sure that many geeks and forumites all over the Internet, are going to get a rude awakening when the PS3 does pretty well and they realise that 99% of the stuff and news that are so big in forums and tech sites are close to irrelevant to the general public.

And this article, more or less confirms what I've allways thought about the Wii. A gimmicky controller that doesn't add as much to the experience as N's marketing would want us to belive and a great party console. But for daily gaming a X360 or PS3 look much better. The Wii doesn't look much more than a Eye-Toy On Speed to me (yeah, I'm a N hater...sue me ;) )

it takes them a while to make games that fully use the new interface. It happend with the DS, at first that was a gimick.

Originally Posted by M4RTIN

the dc was only perceived as a half gen console as it came out so long before the ps2, in reality it wasnt that much less powerful. but most people assumed it must be crap as it came out so much before the ps2, also a lot of people wanted to wait for the ps2 for whatever reason.That doesnt appear to have happened with the 360 at all and it has had massive sales compared to the original and especially the dreamcast

According to this : http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/16/analyst-xbox-360-sales-solid-but-lackluster/
the X360 is selling worse than the original XBox

Originally Posted by Wedbush_Morgan_Securities_and_Deutsche Bank

The Xbox 360's installed base is still smaller than the original Xbox's equivalent after the same number of months of sell-through. Xbox 360 sales are even more lackluster if you consider that the original was an unproven product that was trying to sell-in against the hugely popular PS2 ... In 2001, the PS2 was consistently selling-through >300K units a month, whereas the Xbox 360 has not broken 300K since its launch in November.

And I read somewhere that the X360 hasn't sold as many units as the Dreamcast in the same numbers of months (launch shortages probably have something to do). I don't have the numbers, though, so I could be wrong.

Nice review of the Wii and how you perceive it being at launch, but I have one little question. What is with the damn angled pictures? Was it impossible to take a straight shot of the screen or something? I'm sorry but it just annoyed the ever living piss out of me while I was reading the article. Also, why the watermark on Nintendo press release images? They're all over the internet so it's not like someone is gonna steal it from bit-tech...

I had been looking forward to picking up a Wii at launch...until they released the price. $250 for the console and $5 - $10 for classic games? God, I absolutely refuse to buy any of the classic games on XBOX Live Marketplace for $5 a piece so I sure as hell won't be paying that for classics on the Wii. Especially when I can't hop on a torrent site and download every NES, SNES, N64, SEGA, etc etc, game made in just a few downloads. I could see myself paying $1 or maybe even $2 but $5? I don't think so, Nintendo.

I might pick one up sometime next year...or when the price drops. Probably when the price drops to $150 as the most I'd spend for a Wii is $200 and the controllers cost $60 a pop....

Capcom Classics Collection (PS2)

1942
1943: The Battle of Midway
1943 Kai
Bionic Commando (arcade version)
Commando
Exed Exes
Final Fight
Forgotten Worlds
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Gun.Smoke
Legendary Wings
Mercs
Pirate Ship Higemaru
Section Z
SonSon
Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II': Champion Edition
Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Trojan
Vulgus

= £12.50 (new two for £25)

On the Wii = 22x3 = £66

BARGIN!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the great info :) However, I'm excited about the control scheme for Monkey Ball... I've always had a lot of trouble with precision movement with the analog sticks in any game so I've always been bad at console FPS games (mouse + keyboard is the king) and was not so great at Monkey Ball either.

I think I'll have much better luck at Monkey Ball with the wiimote!

Playing Monkey Ball on Sega Superstars makes you look like a Spitfire doing cartwheels.

It's ace.

Hmmmm, "interesting" article...

I think it's a bit strange that one of your big disses against the Wii was that it made you look silly. Do you really care? If my friends come over and want to play games, I don't think any of us would really give a rip how "stupid" we look or how embarrassed we feel. In fact, I think that's partially the point for the some of the Wii games - Wario Ware, Cooking Mama, Trauma Center, Wii Sports...

Some of your other comments at least make sense - small motions producing better results than more realistic motions could be a problem, or at least an annoyance - but I think it's also important to remember that what we're seeing are the very first generation of Wii games. As others here and elsewhere have pointed out, the same problems/complaints/issues came out when the DS was first released, and yet here we are today - the DS is a huge hit and features a boatload of interesting, innovative games.

For me, this is the first system I've been hyped about in a LONG time. I have pretty much every system out there, but buying them and playing them hasn't been the experience I was hoping for. I'm pretty sure the Wii will change that - maybe not on launch day, but definitely soon after.

I wonder how close the 2nd and 3rd place players in the console wars are going to be. Gamecube sold about 21million and xbox 24million units but the real battle is the cost margins. The gamecube didnt sell as much but they also didnt lose as much on each system sold. Im not sure how much the Wii costs to manufacture but im sure its going to be a similar situation. The R&D costs on Wii games will also likely be less because its based on a familiar platform.

Already got the 360 myself but im definitely going to check out the wii.

You can have your wii60 all you want. Gimme Wipeout, Gran Turismo, and Colony Wars for PS3 and I'm sold.

Originally Posted by sn_85
I wonder how close the 2nd and 3rd place players in the console wars are going to be. Gamecube sold about 21million and xbox 24million units but the real battle is the cost margins. The gamecube didnt sell as much but they also didnt lose as much on each system sold. Im not sure how much the Wii costs to manufacture but im sure its not going to be a similar situation. The R&D costs on Wii games will also likely be less because its based on a familiar platform.

Already got the 360 myself but im definitely going to check out the wii.

Nintendo is making a profit on each Wii sold right out the gate. It's like $12 a console or something of the such.

Originally Posted by bloodcar
Nintendo is making a profit on each Wii sold right out the gate. It's like $12 a console or something of the such.

oops my bad. i meant that nintendo wouldnt be losing money on system much like the GC situation.

This article confirms what I've been thinking about the Wii.. The hype wants us to believe it's a revolution and it will win this generation for Nintendo.. I've been thinking it's overhyped and that the novilty of that controller would wear of pretty quickly, leaving nothing new really, not even better graphics.. My predictions therefor are that the Wii won't do a whole lot better then the Gamecube last-gen, because nothing changes that much besides the controller, and that's not enough to get a lot more people to play the same old Nintendo games.. The Nintendo fans will buy it, and that's it..

But I would even question myself if I was a Nintendo fan, and already had a Gamecube, if only that controller was worth spending so much money on.. Unfortunatly you won't have much choice in the end as Nintendo won't support Gamecube anymore, so you're kindof force to buy a Wii..

Anyway.. PS3 will probably be #1 in sales again at the end of this generation, but it'll take some time to catch up to the Xbox 360.. The Xbox 360 will end up in 2nd place this generation, much closer to the PS3 then the 1st Xbox was to the PS2.. Generation after this one MS will will most likely take a serious headstart again as they will most like be the 1st to release a new Xbox again (my guess is arround 2009-2010)..

For me personally, I'm satisfied in a gaming-needs by my (high-end) PC and Xbox 360 for the time being.. No need to buy a PS3 anytime soon.. Maybe I'll buy it when it's cheaper and has more games I'm really interessted in that I can't get on my 360, and it also depends on how the online MP support plays out on the PS3.. And finally the Wii, well, I'm just not interested in Mario en Zelda games, so that's easy..

the journalist wants to be a single dissenting voice, raining on everyone's parade. nintendo is trying something different, and we're getting a great innovative experience, for cheaper than other consoles/PCs. it's always going to be easy picking faults on a console that hasn't even been released yet; but then, enough articles have been written by intelligent people, who love videogames, that i can put up with this one negative guy. i mean, he complains about aliasing in zelda. i bet he was annoyed with the textures in ocarina of time.

I was annoyed with textures in Ocarina of Time...

you played ocarina of time, and you felt annoyance at the textures? personally i noted the poor textures, and then got lost in an awesome videogame. unfortunately, and i realise how this contradicts my first post; i think at the time, graphics didn't come better than ocarina of time. you had jagged messes with interspersed FMV in playstation games; or you had beautiful 3d games with dodgy textures in n64 games. it wasn't until the dreamcast, and PC games a year or two later, that these flaws started to be ironed out. my point is that given this guy not only decides the wii is a novelty because he's afraid of looking stupid (so why the 1000000000 photos of him throughout the article? humble people don't wear glasses like those); he complains about aliasing in zelda, when ocarina of time has already proven you don't need flawless graphics to become (subjectively) the best videogame ever - that's according to 1000000 such articles. did i mention i love exaggerating on the internet? it helps diminish the impact of flamings i receive.

hmm, my above paragraph reads clumsily. how about this. i don't want someone who complains about zelda's graphics to tell me that the wii could be no more than a novelty. i feel they're missing the point.

and briefly, to explain my offensive comments about the journalist; whatever innovation the wii contains, i'd like it if game journalists wholeheartedly supported it. game journalists play a very key role in encouraging innovation. people read reviews, and articles, and do what they're told (except for you critical thinkers, god bless you). that's why i was disappointed to read an article from a leading games site dismissing the wii, and the majority of posts on this forum saying 'great article'. to be honest i wouldn't overly care if the wii was a grand gimmick; better that than the other product differentiation route that sony's taking. they're going to sell an overpriced console, with useless technology, because 100000 people (um, maybe i should've upsized that exaggeration scale) enjoy final fantasy. zelda all the way!

Hmm, gonna take issue with your posts there a bit Billy. Firstly, and not very importantly, but those glasses aren't exactly flamboyant - they're pretty normal and it's not a smart thing to judge someone by their choice of eyewear I don't think. Regardless, Garsides point wasn't that he didn't like it because he looked stupid playing it, but rather in general that consumers might not realise that they will not look like the actors in the opening shots. They will look like ordinary people doing something silly.

Garside most certainly didn't slate the Wii. He gave some criticism, and is one of the very few people who seem to have actually managed to not get caught up in the hype. This is a great thing, and that's why the article was great.

I can't help but feel that perhaps you're a Nintendo fanboy, and just dislike any sort of news that isn't positive about it.

i dont know why some people feel some people feel they have to vehemently argue in favour of a console made by a company who they owe nothing to. it happens with anything of course.

on the other hand, my brother will be getting a wii and i'll buy games for it. but im certainly not a "fanboy" of any company. i buy what i like and it isnt based on brand name

Originally Posted by billy83
game journalists play a very key role in encouraging innovation. people read reviews, and articles, and do what they're told (except for you critical thinkers, god bless you).

Unfortunately "people" don't read reviews or articles, the highest selling Video Game magazine in the UK is the Official PS2 Mag, this has a monthly readership of 300,000. Think about that number, there are something like 30,000,000 PS2's in the UK, so what we have here is 1% of the entire country that actually activley reads reviews/articles (granted second/third reads, call it 2% if you like). Normally you would bump up this number with web based media, however a quick scout around these forums and there is a thread in the General section about what people look at on the internet, I'm not 100% but I don't think there was one dedicated Games site on anyones list, except mine where there were about 5!

Also can I just say that, following on from M4TIN, a good game is a good game, no matter what console it's on.

There is no reason for the above post, I just felt like typing something.

i dont know why some people feel some people feel they have to vehemently argue in favour of a console made by a company who they owe nothing to. it happens with anything of course.

Some people get paid :o - others are just stupid fanboys :D

Oh and use the edit button people, there's no need for all these double posts.