It seems Nintendo game consoles have been running third in a field of three for years now. Given the GameCube’s failure to establish itself in a market that’s more concerned with gaming realism than it is with cutesy titles, our expectations for the company’s latest console were very low indeed.

That’s why no one was more surprised than us by how addictive the Wii is. Yes, the graphics are still inferior to its competitors, but when it comes to old-fashioned fun, the Wii outflanks them both.

PS3 Fumbles, Wii Recovers. Nintendo, a pioneer in the gaming console business back in the ’90s, has since fallen on hard times. First, Sony and then Microsoft came out of nowhere to eclipse Nintendo and dominate the console market, with a combination of better graphics and titles that appealed more to the all-important young adult male demographic that drives most game sales today.

The Sony/Microsoft juggernaut had largely obliterated Sega, whose Sega Genesis was at one time a dominant player in the gaming market. And with the latest round of next-generation consoles, they appeared poised to do the same to Nintendo.

Then the unimaginable happened. Sony blew its holiday launch window, having a mere pittance of PlayStation 3 units available for its November debut (as few as 150,000 units, according to some analysts.) Microsoft had already launched the Xbox 360 the previous year, and was now well established and coming out with a compelling list of new titles. But Sony’s fumble opened a small but critical window for Nintendo.

Wiimote Control. That’s why we were more than a little nervous as we put the Wii through its paces. Would this mark the end of a gaming giant or mark a new beginning?

Besides its cringe-worthy name (whoever is handling product naming at Nintendo clearly hasn’t master colloquial English), the Wii’s big “innovation” is a plastic wand called a Wiimote. You swing the Wiimote around in a manner that’s supposed to mimic natural movements to control game play. Playing baseball? Hold the Wiimote like the handle of a bat and swing away. Tennis? The Wiimote mimics the handle of the tennis racket for forehand, backhand and even overhead smash moves. Same thing for the holes in a bowling ball or the hilt of a sword: Swing your arm forward and let go of the trigger to release the ball or pull the Wiimote up from your shoulder to unleash steely death on your opponents.

Considering the company’s recent forays into alternate input strategies (Nintendo DS touchscreen, anyone?), we didn’t hold out much hope for the Wiimote. And we couldn’t have been more wrong. The Wii controller is amazingly intuitive, allowing you to use real arm and hand movements to control similar movements in the game environment. The controller’s ability to capture your body motion and reproduce them in game physics is downright eerie at times. I’ve been bowling since I was six and have always had a wicked hook to the right. When I played the bowling simulator, it faithfully reproduced that hook, much to my chagrin.

Of course, the Wiimote doesn’t reproduce all movements perfectly. When playing golf in Wii Sports – a bundled offering that also includes bowling, baseball, tennis and boxing – flexing your knees and pivoting your hips as you swing delivers a beautiful drive down the fairway. But a gentle swing on the green produces nothing. I found that sometimes I had to “trick” the Wiimote for fine control, such as moving the controller up and down instead of side to side for short putts.

Big Game, Wii Graphics. The Wii has some other shortcomings, as well. The biggest of these are the graphics, which are fairly primitive compared to the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

We didn’t expect the bundled sports simulations to offer breakthrough visuals. The point of Wii Sports is to give users a buffet of Wiimote experiences to enjoy – a goal it achieves with distinction. But we also tested “Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess,” a 3D adventure game that is the latest installment in one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises. While game play was enjoyable, the graphics were jaggy and lacked realism. In fact, the game reminded us, more than anything else, of one of the PlayStation 2 Jak and Dexter titles, which were state-of-the-art three years ago.

Despite the lack of advanced graphics, there is no denying the infectious nature of gaming on the Wii. It’s just plain fun and, amazingly, equally fun for a whole spectrum of users. During our testing we had both male and female adults and children try out Wii Sports, and they all had a blast. The Wii is the first gaming system we’ve tested in a long time with such wide appeal.

The Wii effectively recaptures the wide-eyed innocence and engaging (but not violent) challenge that games like Pac-Man once embodied. So, while $500 powerhouse consoles like the Xbox 360 and PS3 may deliver the purest burst of testosterone-laced adrenaline, the Wii – at half that price – delivers something much more fleeting: a gaming experience that is as wholesome as it is captivating.

And let’s not forget, the Wii will get you off your butt and into the game. As many of our play testers can bear witness to, you can build up quite a sweat playing Wii Sports. So, perhaps the most realistic gaming experience is the one that actually makes you want to get up and really get into the game.

Wii Mii. One other component missing from the Wii experience is an online environment, where gamers in different locations can challenge each other over the Internet. Arguably one of the biggest innovations of the Xbox 360 was integrated online play via Xbox Live. With the Wii’s highly social form of gaming, an online component would be a welcome addition to the platform (and one we fully expect to see added in the near future.) Although, without a hard drive to store downloads, even when Nintendo does get their online service going, it’s application beyond shared gaming are likely to be minimal.

Until Nintendo gets its online act together, there is another unique feature of the Wii that comes about as close to an online profile as you can get without an Internet connection: the Mii.

The Mii is an avatar that tracks your performance, recording high scores and the like. The Mii is a little digital person you create that represents you in all your gaming efforts. For those with a more fractured personality, you can create many Mii’s on your Wii. You can even download your favorite Mii to the Wiimote and take it with you to a friend’s house. Yes, that’s right: Your Mii can visit other people’s Miis and play with them.

You can even customize the look of your Mii to fit its personality, or to more closely resemble you. It’s surprising the number of variations you can create on something that’s little more than a stick figure with hair. We have no idea yet if a particularly accomplished Mii earns you anything more than bragging rights, but if you do manage to whup your friend in tennis, isn’t it reassuring that the little person on the screen doing the victory dance shares your dashing good looks?

Geek-o-Meter: The $250 Wii brings something to gaming that’s been missing for a while – fun. Nintendo’s ability to maintain its innocence while appealing equally to both male and female gamers in an increasingly testosterone-driven business is nothing short of remarkable. Oh yeah, and the Wiimote is a blast. We give it a 9 on the Geek-o-Meter.

The Specs

Design

• Featuring a compact design that makes it a natural addition to any television setup, the Wii console is white in color and can be displayed either vertically or horizontally

Size

• About 8.5 inches long, 6 inches wide and less than 2 inches thick (roughly the size of 3 DVD cases stacked on top of each other).

Network

• The Wii console communicates wirelessly with the Internet via wireless or a Wii LAN adaptor. Wii also can connect wirelessly with Nintendo DS. (Note: As of the posting date of this review, Nintendo had not yet launched their online service.)

CPU / GPU

• PowerPC CPU (code-named “Broadway”), made with a 90nm SOI CMOS process, jointly developed with and manufactured by IBM; GPU developed with ATI.

Media

• A single self-loading media bay plays single- or double-layered 12-cm optical discs for the Wii console, as well as 8-cm Nintendo GameCube discs. (Note: Does not play standard CDs or DVDs.)

Input / Output

• Input: Four Wii Remotes can communicate with Wii, which features a bay for an SD memory card.
• Output: An AV Multi-output port for component, composite or S-video.

For More Information

• http://wii.nintendo.com/

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 3:47 pm and is filed under HOME, TECH, ENTERTAINMENT, GAMES - Wii, GAME CONSOLES. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.