Wii shall Win
Nintendo’s latest console is set to attract a new kind of gamer, says Robert Colvile
When Sony’s PlayStation first launched, I was baffled by the array of buttons on its controller. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was an untapped market of gamers out there who, like me, wanted simple, no-frills gameplay.
It seems Nintendo had the same idea: next Friday, it launches its new console in Britain. The Wii (pronounced “wee”, and yes, all the bodily function gags have been made already) is aimed explicitly at this casual market.
Far less powerful than Sony’s PlayStation 3 (due in the UK in 2007) or Microsoft’s Xbox 360, its unique selling point is the “Wiimote”, a motion-sensitive controller that can be pointed at the screen like a gun, tilted from side to side like a steering wheel or even swooshed around like a sword.
“What we looked at was: ‘How do we get people interested that don’t normally play video games?’” says David Yarnton, head of Nintendo UK.
“The most important thing we found was that people were scared: there were too many buttons; it was too complicated. So we’ve made the controller so that people can just pick it up and start playing.”
As well as simplifying the controller, Nintendo is also changing its approach to games. Although it will still woo long-time fans with classic franchises such as Mario and Zelda, it will also offer titles for the casual gamer – “a bite size rather than a full meal”, as Yarnton puts it.
Certainly when I tried it out, the Wii was a completely new experience – steering a truck by tilting the controller felt as natural as breathing; noting that my rival kept his guard low in the boxing ring, I launched a knockout right hook that nearly shattered a window.
Inevitably some of the games, such as the new Zelda, felt like traditional titles with the motion control bolted on. But others were like nothing I’d seen before: I adored Trauma Centre: Second Opinion, in which you play a hotshot doctor, slicing open your patients with a flick of the wrist.
The Wii looks to be a winner, or at least a survivor, in the bitter console turf war that kicks off this Christmas. And however successful it ultimately is, the one certainty is that no one will be able to accuse the console’s users of lazing around on the sofa any more – my arms got more exercise in half an hour than in a week of sitting around at work.
Read more at the Telegraph.co.uk
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