Nintendo Wii: A Game For All Ages

[dipdude]

Nintendo Wii: Entire Exclusive Story Online - A Game For All Ages

Nintendo gave TIME the first look at its new gadget, which it hopes will turn girls and even granddads into video gamers

It is cherry-blossom time in Kyoto, Japan, and I am dancing the hula for Shigeru Miyamoto. It's not easy to get into the hula spirit in a hushed conference room in a restricted area of the gleaming white global headquarters of Nintendo, with several high-ranking, business-suited Japanese executives watching my every (undulating) move. But I'm doing my best. I'm trying out an electronic device that the Nintendo brass devoutly believes, or at least fervently hopes, is the future of entertainment. Outside, drifting pink petals remind us of the impermanence of all things.

You may not have heard of Shigeru Miyamoto, but I guarantee you, you know his work. Miyamoto is probably the most successful video-game designer of all time. Maybe you've heard of a little guy named Mario? Italian plumber, likes jumping? A big angry ape by the name of ... Donkey Kong? The Legend of Zelda? All Miyamoto. To gamers, Miyamoto is like all four Beatles rolled into one jolly, twinkly-eyed, weak-chinned Japanese man. At age 53, he still makes video games, but he also serves as general manager of Nintendo's entertainment analysis and development division. It is an honor to hula for him.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1191861,00.html

 

[dipdude]

Almost lost among the hubbub of Sony's keynote extravagance was a little forum-derived rumor about Nintendo's Wii. It claims to be based on an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly with Zelda on the cover and a whole lot of Nintendo gems inside, including a purported $250 launch price. The tipster hasn't shown any scans of the magazine's actual content, but he did manage to get a picture of the magazine's cover up on the forum after work, so our legit-ness meter is looking pretty good. Along with the console price, and screenshots of Monkey Ball, Tony Hawk, Rayman and Red Steel, he mentions the Virtual Console gaming, Wii-remote tech, and some vaguely defined "ALWAYS online" functionality (the console is always hooked to the Internets, even when off). There's also a supposed built-in speaker in the controller (a DS-like mic seems more likely to us, but that's what he says). As we said, the rumor looks fairly solid, though we don't have long to find out, since Nintendo's keynote is kicking off early tomorrow. And being that we really don't have anything better to do, we'll be sure to liveblog it to pieces.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/09/nintendo-wii-to-sell-for-250/

 

[Ck Nish]

Yeah. I've heard about much of this. A shame about the price though. Especially when it's only slightly more powerfull than the Xbox.