To be honest, I’ve barely touched the games yet — I spent five minutes playing a quick game of Wii Tennis. The rest of my time with the console has been spent exploring the various menus, the Wii Shop, and setting up the Wii with our wireless router (which was thankfully very simple).

While Wii‘s design has prompted plenty of comparisons with Apple‘s hardware, everything still feels distinctly Nintendo — that is, extremely well constructed, well thought out, and functional yet simple.

The most significant feature of the Wii is the control, which is a one-handed ‘remote’ style device. Its motion- and position-sensing can be used for gesture-based control (demonstrated in the bundled Wii Sports), as well as being a pointer in the menu system and games that require some kind of aiming. It can also be augmented with a ‘nunchuck’ attachment, which adds a more traditional pseudo-analogue stick, a couple of extra buttons, and additional motion sensitivity.

Other features of the Wii include ‘channels’, which are additional bits of software functionality. This includes the ‘Mii Channel’, which allows you to create a personalised avatar to use in certain games, such as Wii Sports. There is also a Photo channel, which lets you play around with photos on a SD memory card, and the Wii Shop, which allows you to purchase and download classic games originally released for the Nintendo’s own NES, SNES and Nintendo 64, as well as the Sega Megadrive and Hudson Turbografx systems, to play on the ‘Virtual Console’. In the near future, News and Weather channels will also be added for checking up on events and outdoor conditions, and an Internet Channel, which will will use a version of the Opera browser for surfing on the TV.

Apologies for the crap photo. Our camera doesn’t deal well with anything remotely close up.

As well as the console, we’ve put in a pre-order for an extra controller for some 2-player Wii Sports (no rude jokes, please) action, and a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Wii Sports is a collection of simple sports-based games designed to demonstrate the potential of the Wii’s motion sensitive controller, and comes bundled with each Wii console.

Twilight Princess is the latest in a long line of Zelda adventure games by Nintendo. The N64 incarnation of The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, was the title that got me back in to gaming, and taught developers how 3D games should be made. The Gameboy version, Link’s Awakening, won Jane over and convinced her to save up and buy her very own system with its mixture of adventuring and puzzling (and its TV ad with Rik Mayall).

Twilight Princess was originally designed for Nintendo’s Gamecube, with production beginning several years ago. The motion-sensitive Wii controls are a relatively recent addition, and as such there’s been a fair bit of negative talk about how well they will work. I trust Nintendo not to bodge this up, though—from previous experience, if something’s not perfect, they just don’t bring it out until it is. Can’t wait!

Firstly, Wii, as it’s now been dubbed by Nintendo, looks like a really exciting prospect with its innovative control system. It was quite telling of the versatility of the motion- and position-sensitive controller and accompanying ‘nunchuck’ attachment to see how different developers used it. It was very well received, and although not as powerful as the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, showed that (shock horror) a good, fun game is not all about the graphics.

Things look less rosy for Sony, though. The inclusion of Blu-ray in PS3 has indeed forced the price way up — $599 in the US (or $499 for a cut-down version) and an artificially inflated €599 (or €499) in Europe. Apparently, Sony has also revealed a £425 price tag in the UK.

Sony keep reiterating that PS3 "isn’t a games console" and "what great value it is since it features a Blu-ray player", but this appears to be to the detriment of those who do just want a games console. What they have been particulary quiet about, is the lack of, among other desirable features, an HDMI A/V connector on the ‘cheap’ version of the ‘non-’ console. This means that once Blu-ray movie discs start shipping with ICT (an ‘anti-piracy’ measure encouraged by US movie studios) enabled, it will not play those movies in high-definition.

The Blu-ray inflated pricing of Playstation 3 looks to have left Microsoft and Nintendo in a very strong position to draw the attentions of gamers who would otherwise have opted for a Playstation 3, but are not willing to re-mortgage their homes for the privilege.

Ars Technica have published an editorial on the subject of the inclusion of Blu-ray in PS3: Sony’s PS3 Gamble.

Sony announced today that the release of the PS3 will be delayed until November (although the simultaneous worldwide release means that European gamers will be able to get the PS3 earlier than expected!). The reason for the delay? The copy-prevention technology in Sony’s Blu-ray disc (BD) format still needs to be finalised. This extra waiting time (for Japanese and American markets, at least) gives console rivals Microsoft and Nintendo a bit more time to build market share, all for the sake of incorporating Blu-ray.

While this does put Sony at a slight disadvantage, I don’t think it’s the main issue that will bother consumers, as PS3 will still be out in time for the all-important Christmas period. The main issue will most likely be the cost of the PS3 as a result of incorporating BD technology. If a stand-alone Blu-ray player costs, say £500, then presumably a Blu-ray player with a powerful games console on top will cost even more, surely putting the cost of a PS3 above what most people will pay for a games console.

Otherwise, Sony will have to take a loss on each PS3 sold, which is what Microsoft did to get their Xbox console established, and they have repeated this loss-making tactic with their follow-up console, Xbox 360, which launched last Autumn. The last I heard, Microsoft’s home entertainment division (I can’t remember its offical name) was still at a significant loss of several million US dollars.

In their previous generation console, the Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony made a real success of including a DVD drive. As well as providing a superior format for holding lots of game data, the fact that the £300 console was also a DVD movie player was a big selling point (at the time, DVD players were still relatively expensive). The PS2 is acknowledged as helping the uptake of DVD as a common video format.

This is presumably why they believe they can pull off the inclusion of Blu-ray in the PS3. However, there are some significant differences. Firstly, DVD was four years old when the PS2 launched, so had already established a degree of acceptance in the movie market. It was also the de facto standard for digital movie distribution, as it had no competition.

Blu-ray is only launching this year, around 6 months before the PS3, and this time there is a competing format with HD DVD entering the market at virtually the same time. The issue of cost also comes up again — a DVD player surely cost far less to include in 2001 than a brand new Blu-ray player will this year. Discs will also be more expensive so early in the format’s life cycle.

Depending whether Sony launch a very pricey console (surely £400+?), decide to take a loss on each console, or a bit of both, there’s a very good chance that they will see either their home console market share (currently around 70%), their profits, or both, eroded for the sake of sneaking Blu-ray players in to people’s homes.

Mac Mini inside a NES

Some of Nintendo’s more recent designs (such as the upcoming ‘Revolution’ and DS lite) have been compared to Apple’s products. I’m not sure the NES is one of them, though.

For those familiar with the browser-sized sport, you’ll probably have had a go at the 10-over slog. This pits you against 5 bowlers for 2 overs each, and you have to amass the highest score possible. My best to date is 271-0.

This forms the basis of the leagues, which are user-managed invitation leagues. My league, Hove Actually, runs for 6 rounds of five days each, and is in its third season. Each round gives you five days to set the highest slog score possible, and points are awarded to everyone who sets a score. One point for each player in the league goes to first place, and each successive place scores one point less.

The current season features four teams, and as always has involved tight competition between myself and LHR drummer, Russell (aka. Pilfold). Last season I clinched a tied second place with five hours remaining, beating Russell by a gnat’s whisker. Dan Palmer (aka. iandisco), being the type of person who is good at everything, has a 100% winning record. You’ve gotta hate him.

So, what’s the controversy? Round 4 of the current season began Friday 4th, and Russell set his score of 271-0 over the weekend. That’s my best score, so I’d have to achieve my best result to beat him. I set about the task.

Then I discovered a significant change – they’d got a new set of bowlers! Some of the bowlers were easy to deal with, as they were similar in style to the previous ‘All-star’ team. However, other bowlers used a significantly different style, and will require plenty of practice to deal with appropriately. I limped to 232-2, nowhere near the target needed. Even Dan is at risk of losing his 100% record – he’s currently on 252-2.

They’ve skewed the playing field (kind of like Rottingdean’s cricket ground, which is quite slopey), and it looks like come Midnight tomorrow (the end of Round 4), Russell, who has a single-point lead over me in second place, will add two more points to that gap with two rounds left. My only chance is to beat Dan, a feat which no-one has achieved yet.

Grr! Still, there’s always next season…

In September 2005, at the Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo revealed the real reasoning for the ‘Revolution’ codename – its new controller.

Nintendo has always led the way in controller design, which in turn affects what’s possible in the games themselves. They’ve pioneered many innovations in console control design – the D-pad, shoulder buttons, ‘analogue’-movement, and ‘rumble’ feedback. All of these devices have since become standard on any joypad. So, trust Nintendo to take the next step. But they haven’t added new buttons, sticks or screens to their pad. They believe that controllers and therefore games are becoming too complicated for the casual player to just pick up and play. What they did, no-one saw coming:

The first thing you think is “Er, it’s a remote control and it only has seven buttons and a D-pad. How on Earth am I going to play modern games on that?”

Well, the answer is this: it’s position and motion sensitive. The hardware calculates the position, direction and movement of the controller to translate the slightest physical actions in to ingame actions. I have to admit, at first it all sounds a little gimmicky and I was wondering how it would work in the context of a real game. However, on seeing the promotional video played at TGS, it all became clear.

The video is from the perspective of a TV set, showing people using the controller to play various games. While it doesn’t show any real software, it does get the viewer using their imagination and dreaming up what you can do with the new control. In each case, it’s easy to tell what type of game is being ‘played’ by the sound effects combined with what the gamer is doing. I can’t imagine that being possible with a joypad! The video shows people ‘playing’ shoot-’em-ups, adventure games, huddling together on the sofa with ‘Mario Party’ style games, and even drumming, fishing and chopping veg! The main advantage of the controller seems to be its flexibility – it could be used as a mouse-style pointing device, sword, gun, steering wheel, fishing-rod, fly-swat, or whatever the game designer can come up with.

It already has its critics, but most people with a bit of imagination are excited about the prospects that such a controller brings with it. It’s not clear how, or even if traditional games will translate to the ‘Revolution’, but do we really care? What we want is new and exciting ways to play, and Nintendo is looking forwards, not back.