The Nintendo Wii brought video games back into homes that had abandoned them due to complicated controllers and games. Since the console was released in 2006, it has been hard to get a hold of one, and that helped generated a large buzz. The controller has a limited number of buttons and uses gesture-based movements to interact with most games. People of all ages can pick up the controller (or Wiimote) and play any of the included games (e.g. tennis).
Its on my list for Santa…still. Maybe I’m just too naughty so I never get it?
Its definitely one of the most innovative gaming platform world has ever seen. It has not only become a success in and of itself but influenced the way we interact with devices as well. Overall design and its gesture-based interaction has set and redefined new standards (atleast) for the gaming console industry.
I have this setup and I love it. I have just purchased several new fitness games. I use the WII everyday
Nintendo’s wii is to the game room as Oxo’s “Good Grips” peeler was to the kitchen, not to mention its value as a therapeutic tool for all ages and abilities, spawning the term “wiihab”.
Nintendo spurred an evolution in mainstream gaming by introducing kinesthetically based controllers with the Wii. Because this form of control requires players to use more of their bodies, the level of emotional engagement is much higher.
Yes! Nintendo deserves every damn penny or yen they get from it. Thank goodness there are some people out there with actual cohones rather than just doing the usual oh-so-me-too-ness like the Sony or MSFTs of the world.
P.S. having said that, the first time I used one I was really disappointed how the controller actually worked. I thought it would be a lot more sensitive where it would really require me to, like, actually make fully correct tennis motions when instead I think one can get away with like just a lame flicking motion? If I recall correctly, it was actually harder to get the thing to play the game right when I was doing full tennis mimicking. So that was overall pretty much a huge let-down.
but, still, to Nintendo I say: you go, girl!
A long-time video game enthusiast, I’ve endured my share of the habitual hyperbole that surrounds emergent gaming systems — succumbing most shamelessly to the ill-fated 3DO. So, I was dubious about Nintendo’s claim of building a console with a “revolutionary” control system. However, after finally getting my hands on one, the Wii not only substantiated the claims, it transcended the hype more than any single product I’ve experienced in my 40-year history. Further proof … a rehab hospital employed the Wii to assist my 65-year-old mother in recovering from a nasty bout of pneumonia. Now that’s revolutionary!
While the Wiimote has revolutionized the level of emotional engagement that users have with gaming as an experience, its true innovation lies in expanding the user base of gaming; typically targeted to boys and men, the Wii is accessible for people of both genders and wide range of ages; in addition, it’s affordable, and dead simple to set up.
As a Game Design student. I think it’s an awful bit of hardware. Now, before I get lynched for saying that, I will tell you all right now that yes, I own one and yes, I do have a few different games for it. It deserved my attention to see what all the hype was about.
The sad fact is that Sony did TRY all this, with the EyeToy. In fact, quite a few of the EyeToy games were quite good in their own right. It’s technology they’ve had for a long, long time now and are only just starting to develop more games for it.
The Wii, technically, is buggy and uncomfortable to use if you play anything more than Wii-sports and Wii-fit. Have any of you played Star Wars: The Force Unleashed? I’m going to bet that not many of you have. The problem Nintendo has now is that the Wii – however well it sells – has got to keep selling. The real money that will pay off it’s development costs is in the games sold on it.
Unfortunately, when people get bored of their Wii-fit and so on, that’s not going to happen, because quite a large percentage of the REAL gaming population will not be buying a console that requires a zillion add-ons (wii-motion plus, classic controller, etc) to make it worthwhile to play.
So lynch me if you will. I’ll be in the corner playing my PS2 that still works fine on some classic games that I love and have followed for years.
My P.S is to Pam Nicholls. I find it highly insulting that you think that pre-Wii gaming was just for boys. I am a woman in her early-twenties and have been playing games ever since the PS1 was released. Also, as of 2004(ish), there were more women playing games than teenage boys. That was at least two years before the release of the Wii. Please do not stereotype game-players in such a general way. We don’t appreciate it.
The Nintendo Wii brought video games back into homes that had abandoned them due to complicated controllers and games. Since the console was released in 2006, it has been hard to get a hold of one, and that helped generated a large buzz. The controller has a limited number of buttons and uses gesture-based movements to interact with most games. People of all ages can pick up the controller (or Wiimote) and play any of the included games (e.g. tennis).
Its on my list for Santa…still. Maybe I’m just too naughty so I never get it?
Its definitely one of the most innovative gaming platform world has ever seen. It has not only become a success in and of itself but influenced the way we interact with devices as well. Overall design and its gesture-based interaction has set and redefined new standards (atleast) for the gaming console industry.
I have this setup and I love it. I have just purchased several new fitness games. I use the WII everyday
Nintendo’s wii is to the game room as Oxo’s “Good Grips” peeler was to the kitchen, not to mention its value as a therapeutic tool for all ages and abilities, spawning the term “wiihab”.
Nintendo spurred an evolution in mainstream gaming by introducing kinesthetically based controllers with the Wii. Because this form of control requires players to use more of their bodies, the level of emotional engagement is much higher.
Yes! Nintendo deserves every damn penny or yen they get from it. Thank goodness there are some people out there with actual cohones rather than just doing the usual oh-so-me-too-ness like the Sony or MSFTs of the world.
P.S. having said that, the first time I used one I was really disappointed how the controller actually worked. I thought it would be a lot more sensitive where it would really require me to, like, actually make fully correct tennis motions when instead I think one can get away with like just a lame flicking motion? If I recall correctly, it was actually harder to get the thing to play the game right when I was doing full tennis mimicking. So that was overall pretty much a huge let-down.
but, still, to Nintendo I say: you go, girl!
A long-time video game enthusiast, I’ve endured my share of the habitual hyperbole that surrounds emergent gaming systems — succumbing most shamelessly to the ill-fated 3DO. So, I was dubious about Nintendo’s claim of building a console with a “revolutionary” control system. However, after finally getting my hands on one, the Wii not only substantiated the claims, it transcended the hype more than any single product I’ve experienced in my 40-year history. Further proof … a rehab hospital employed the Wii to assist my 65-year-old mother in recovering from a nasty bout of pneumonia. Now that’s revolutionary!
While the Wiimote has revolutionized the level of emotional engagement that users have with gaming as an experience, its true innovation lies in expanding the user base of gaming; typically targeted to boys and men, the Wii is accessible for people of both genders and wide range of ages; in addition, it’s affordable, and dead simple to set up.
As a Game Design student. I think it’s an awful bit of hardware. Now, before I get lynched for saying that, I will tell you all right now that yes, I own one and yes, I do have a few different games for it. It deserved my attention to see what all the hype was about.
The sad fact is that Sony did TRY all this, with the EyeToy. In fact, quite a few of the EyeToy games were quite good in their own right. It’s technology they’ve had for a long, long time now and are only just starting to develop more games for it.
The Wii, technically, is buggy and uncomfortable to use if you play anything more than Wii-sports and Wii-fit. Have any of you played Star Wars: The Force Unleashed? I’m going to bet that not many of you have. The problem Nintendo has now is that the Wii – however well it sells – has got to keep selling. The real money that will pay off it’s development costs is in the games sold on it.
Unfortunately, when people get bored of their Wii-fit and so on, that’s not going to happen, because quite a large percentage of the REAL gaming population will not be buying a console that requires a zillion add-ons (wii-motion plus, classic controller, etc) to make it worthwhile to play.
So lynch me if you will. I’ll be in the corner playing my PS2 that still works fine on some classic games that I love and have followed for years.
My P.S is to Pam Nicholls. I find it highly insulting that you think that pre-Wii gaming was just for boys. I am a woman in her early-twenties and have been playing games ever since the PS1 was released. Also, as of 2004(ish), there were more women playing games than teenage boys. That was at least two years before the release of the Wii. Please do not stereotype game-players in such a general way. We don’t appreciate it.
Vsem privet s alpha centavri
Privet s alpha centavri. Mi prileteli s mirom.