Good, well thought-out piece by John Siracusa about the Wii. As he admits, Nintendo may and probably does have something going with its approach to the console, but it’s a shame they didn’t try harder to match the competition’s processor power. Sure, gaming needs to be about fun, but looks do matter. My hope is that creators will flex their muscles to make things look cool rather than photo-realistic. For example I’d love to see a game that looks like a cartoon, or a grainy black-and-white horror movie. Still, more computational ability couldn’t hurt.
While I’m very excited about the Wii, and I’m behind the idea of a new kind of gaming involving motion control, I think there’s a big flaw in Nintendo’s strategy: there’s nothing wrong with the status quo. I’ve been enjoying games for years now using joysticks and buttons. Maybe Nintendo’s new generation will be so much more fun that I’ll completely forget the old way, and picking up an old game will be like using a rotary telephone, but I’m not so sure. I have a feeling you’ll still want to play some games with a standard controller, and then with the Wii you’ll be stuck with the same game as you’d have on the XBOX 360, only not as pretty.
Still, my money’s on the Wii.