“Let’s get this out of the way first: the Wii’s graphics look terrible compared with the competition. But within about a half hour of playing games on Nintendo’s revolutionary Wii, you won’t care. This new game console transcends visuals to deliver the most satisfying game play, for a wide range of gamers, than either the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3,” Jim Louderback reports for PC Magazine. (The Nintendo Wii will go on sale starting Sunday, November 19.)
“Using the controllers can be as simple as waving the primary device around like a wand… during the first 20 minutes of testing, as we played Nintendo’s excellent new Twilight Princess game, both my 7-year-old son and I were pining for the old school. But after about a half hour, we were clicking, swinging, pointing, and playing with ease. By mid-day, we were hooked,” Louderback reports.
“Most Wii customers probably won’t start off with the complex Twilight Princess game, however, since Nintendo will include Wii Sports, a cartoony take on baseball, bowling, golf, tennis, and boxing, with every Wii it sells this fall. Wii Sports lets you ease into the new controller and helps current console gamers break old habits. During an extended weekend of testing the new console and the new games, with current console users and those new to gaming, the new controller delivered an immersive and easy-to-use experience,” Louderback reports.
“It remains to be seen whether Nintendo will capture a large number of nongamers, but the Wii will certainly appeal to everyone who owns a GameCube, along with families and other gamers looking for something new. Nintendo expects more than 30 games to be available for the Wii this fall, with more on the way next year. And at $250, the Wii is a much easier purchase, one that will deliver more fun to your home than its pricey competitors. If you can find one.”
Much, much more in the full review here.
MacDailyNews Note: Not Apple-related, but may be interesting to some MDN readers. We’re going to follow the story of Nintendo’s Wii for pretty obvious reasons.
Related articles:
5 must-have Nintendo Wii launch games – October 09, 2006
Nintendo’s Wii on Toys ‘R’ Us hot holiday list – September 26, 2006
Nintendo to launch Wii in Japan on December 2nd, priced around US$200 – September 14, 2006
IBM ships first microchips for Nintendo Wii – September 10, 2006
Can Nintendo’s Wii end up number one in market share? – July 18, 2006
Nintendo Wii wins E3 ‘Best of Show’ award – June 01, 2006
Nintendo’s Wii steals show at Electronic Entertainment Expo – May 12, 2006
How can the Wii’s graphics look “TERRIBLE” ?
The GameCube has some great looking games like Metroid Prime 1&2 and the Wii is supposed to look better than that.
Sure… Nothing on it is going to look as awesome as Gears of War does on our 360s, but the new Zelda is looking pretty damned good if you ask me!
I plan to get one before the end of the year to compliment my 360.
“No HD support = No sale for me. Sorry Wii…”
Uhhh….It can do 480p.
Last time I checked, you need an HDTV to display 480p.
I don’t think there’s a “huge” markup, but at least Nintendo makes a profit from the first unit. Xbox still hasn’t made a cent.
This thing is going to be huge. I like my Gamecube very much and thought it was a nice system… but it wasn’t different enough. This is… I can’t wait to try Zelda with the new controller….
The DVD playback thing is stupid… I don’t want a game machine that does all this extra stuff, I just want it to play games. I have a DVD player to play DVDs.
:rolleyes: you are wrong. You need an EDTV to display 480p. HDTV does 720p, 1080i or 1080p natively.
So WTF does all this have to do with Apple?
What next, MDN? Automotive press releases? How about hot new home & garden ideas? Or maybe horoscopes and soap opera news?
If you’re gonna get completely off topic you might as well do it right. At least non-Apple Microsoft news is relevant because it keeps eyes on the enemy. This other stuff is BS.
Keep the Wii news coming, Nintendo is similiar to Apple, they both make computer hardware, they both compete with Microsoft, and they both make extra cool products. Bet you can think of more similarities if you thought about it.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. That is why this is Apple related. Let’s cheer on Nintendo, as they increase Microsoft’s cash bleed with the XBox.
“rolleyes: you are wrong. You need an EDTV to display 480p. HDTV does 720p, 1080i or 1080p natively.”
My HDTV also does 480p natively in addition to all the above resolutions.
My point was that the Wii does support a resolution higher than a standard def TV and if it looks better than the GameCube does on my Sony Bravia, then it will look just fine.
I have to wonder what kind of tech snob bozo would pass on games like the new Zelda just because the system doesn’t do 720p.
I guess the same bozos who are missing out of all the great games on the 360 just because the system is made by MS.
This is what separates a true gamer from a clueless casual.
^I’m right with you!^
MW: awesome (Nintendo and Apple are AWESOME.)
(^Right with Linux Guy, I mean…) 😀
My gamer wife is totally hot for a Wii. Retro ol’ me is interested in the classic downloads. That being said, Electronic Gaming Monthly had a rather sober review that bet on the PS3 to kick the Wii’s ass for one reason — third-party support. Outside of the launch, it just doesn’t look like there are a lot of non-Nintendo Wii titles on the way.
I hope it doesn’t end up like the GameCube, my wife’s favorite console that just gathers dust because there’s nothing worthwhile to put in it. She’s pretty much given up on consoles and plays DS these days.
The way I see it next month, it’s going to be either a …
A. Wii-60 Christmas, or
B. Playstation-Wii Hanukkah, or
C. 51″ Flat ScWiin Kwanzaa
What do you guys think?
If Nintendo sells 4 million by the end of the year third party support will come. PS3 will be the flop here… not Wii…. and geez, EGM was always such a joke magazine… did it improve over the years?
Personally i’m not interested in the Wii at the moment. Until i play one i feel games from 3rd party developers (what few are choosing to support the system as of now) will devolve into nothing more than you swinging the controller around (And i mention only 3rd party games because we all know that the 1st party games for the wii will be exceptional). But of course my opinion could change after i play one. But as of right now, i’m getting ready to line up for a PS3. Right now and in the near future the PS3 has the solid online offering that the wii currently lacks, and many exclusives that i can’t wait to play.
to those who will not be able to get a Wii on Sunday dont worry because sources from my EB/Gamestop corporate and Nintendo themselves say that there will be another shipment of Wii’s before Christmas. Sony informed my company on Monday that there will be yet another shortage for PS3’s smaller than the 400,000 expected so we had to let most of the people who reserved it that they will not get the console on Fri. I can see why the Wii is always mentioned on this site simply because hmm what company in console gaming is as innovative as if Apple were to have a console well none other than Nintendo.
There are plenty of third party titles coming for Wii, if you read games industry websites you’ll see that some publishers are cutting back on PS3 development and upping Wii development. PS3 is expensive to develop for, whereas Wii is cheaper; so if Nintendo delivers on sales, then profits will be higher. THQ and EA both stated wide support for Wii in the last couple of weeks.
Example of third party Nintendo Wii launch title: ‘Call of Duty 3’ by Activision.
Check this video, follow this link http://www.gamesradar.com/gb/wii/game/news/article.jsp?articleId=20061114124035640038§ionId=1006&releaseId=20060509124650359076 and then click ‘movies’
Who can honestly say the Wii version doesn’t look like the most fun version of ‘Call of Duty 3’?
Or you can download movies:
Call Of Duty 3 – Low Res (WMV, 320×240, 8MB) http://downloads.advancedmn.com/~media/games/callofduty3/callofduty3_13.wmv
Call Of Duty 3 – High Res (WMV, 640×480, 20.3MB) http://downloads.advancedmn.com/~media/games/callofduty3/callofduty3_13_hi.wmv
Looks fantastic fun, much better than holding a Dual-shock pad and wiggling analogue stick and pressing buttons.