Wii

posted on: 2006-05-11 at 4:59:00 PM

Nintendo announced yesterday that they have come out with the official name for their newest video game console (formerly called "Revolution"). The new name:

Wii

My stance on the Wii is pretty firm. First of all, I love the name... I don't get what people's problem with the name "Wii" is! I swear, the majority of the response from that name is negative:

"I LIKED REVOLUTION BETTER"

Really? So I suppose all you neigh-sayers also liked "Game Cube" over "Dolphin?" The name "Game Cube" was void of anything creative - except for the fact that the machine did, in fact, look a little like a cube with a handle. But didn't the X-Box also look like ... A BOX? And the Playstation / Playstation 2 look like ... A STATION FOR PLAYING?

Come on people!!! GET CREATIVE! I'm sick of things having to be the result of a focus group (which is invariably the source of the current generation of home video game console names). Even though the Nintendo Gamecube was successful, it missed the mark that it was aiming for. First of all: attachments. How many attachments does your Gamecube have? If you're like me - all of them! But if you're like the majority of Americans, NONE. You didn't have the GameBoy Player, nor the GameBoy Advance Link Cable or E-Reader. You certainly didn't have the Broadband Adapter! The Gamecube didn't do as well as it could have because it tried to compete with the main-stream-ness of the Playstation and X-Box. It was cool that EA Sports brought some freshness to the Gamecube by throwing in the "Mario All-Stars" to their NBA Street series - there was a little show of support there, but face it, people: Nintendo is successful because they're DIFFERENT.

That being said, let's re-address their direction for the Wii. First of all .. "Wii." WHAT A COOL NAME! It's immediately recognizable, and phonetically capable in most languages worldwide. That is a plus. Secondly, it has a meaning other than the obvious "I am a [enter shape here] that plays games." Wii (pronounced "We") sounds fun! The fact that it has two "I"s is symbolic for the type of gameplay that can be expected, multiplayer!

The accessories for the Wii are different, out of the gate. The controller is wireless and position-sensitive. This means that if you move the controller 1 meter from left to right, the machine (and the game) reads this input and moves the character the equivalent space within the game. The controller (or as I like to call it, the "Wii-mote") is revolutionary. It is not an "air-joystick." It's a real-deal three-dimensional positional controller that is accurate down to the millimeter! You move the controller very gingerly, the game responds with the character moving very gingerly.

It looks like there are going to be a lot of accessories available for the Wii (I was reading about a web-cam type accessory that will possibly use elements in its field of view as props in video games ... how cool is that!?).

Nintendo could have taken the easy road once again, and made a machine that caters to generic gamer - but Nintendo has never been well placed there. The Wii will be successful - thanks to innovation and uniqueness.

posted by Carl

---

0 Comments: [ Post a comment ]

---

Post a Comment

<< Home