My [url=https://www.leighlo.com/spore/index.php?gallery=./Music/2005-08-28-BluesPrint&image=DSC_1127-BW.jpg]mum[/url] and [url=https://www.leighlo.com/spore/index.php?gallery=./2004-Archive/2005-Random&image=2005-12-Mike02.jpg]my brother[/url] took me out for my birthday today.
My birthday is next Wednesday, in case you’re interested. I’ll be turning 23. I’m not sure if I’m excited about it. Maybe I’m just at that point where I’ve pretty much said “ehh… it’s just a birthday…” or something to that effect, anyway.
We went to the Westfield at Bondi Junction because really… now that the malls have taken over… where the bloody hell else can you go.
Not that that’s a bad thing. On the David Jones & Hoyts side of the complex, there’s a pretty good pizza and cake shop, and we had dinner and dessert there respectively, and it was a very nice gesture for my mum and my brother to take me out and I thank them for it.
But… before we went up to the food complex in the Westfield… [url=http://wiievents.nintendo.com.au/locations]we saw a Wii demo station[/url]… and WOW!!!
Sorry… I mean… [url=http://wii.nintendo.com/index.html]WII!!![/url]
Yeah, it’s a stupid name. Nintendo [url=http://www.nintendo.com/revolution]should’ve stuck with the Revolution[/url] since it really is a revolutionary product in how it handles gaming, but wow. I want one.
I want one now.
I’m not much of a console gamer. I have my Nintendo DS and in the past I’ve owned a Sega Master System (still do), a Genesis, Game Gear, and a Saturn. It wasn’t so much that I was a Sega fanboy… even if I actually was. It was more that I was into games that played more creatively, and Nintendo and Sega have been the only real companies to do that sort of gaming in the past in my opinion… and it still holds true. Sega and Nintendo still like to throw spanners in the works for levels of creativity in the sorts of games that you play and Nintendo love making you play games differently.
It’s one of the reasons I love my DS. Games like [url=http://au.gamespot.com/ds/puzzle/cookingmama/index.html?q=cooking%20mama]Cooking Mama[/url], [url=http://au.gamespot.com/ds/puzzle/traumacenter/index.html?q=trauma]Trauma Center[/url], [url=http://au.gamespot.com/ds/puzzle/kiminotamenarashineru/index.html?q=xx%20xy]Feel The Love[/url] (a Sega Rub Rabbits game), and [url=http://au.gamespot.com/ds/adventure/survivalkids/index.html?q=lost%20in%20blue]Lost In Blue[/url] are just four examples of how different a style of game experience can be when playing the DS. It’s not your typical Playstation or Xbox game in that you just watch it on the screen and play it on your gamepad… you join in.
Sure, it’s not graphically impressive like the Playstation Portable (PSP), but the games load quicker, are more interesting and fun, and it’s not connected in any way to Sony which can only be a good thing.
And the Wii looks like it extends this whole new gaming experience just one step further.
Tonight I saw some people playing the Wii. For a demo setup that was being run by Nintendo, I did find it odd that most of the people playing the games were actually wearing those white Wii shirts and therefore employed by Nintendo. Surely it should be the future customers trying it out. There were some, sure… but the Wii Attendants (as I shall now call them) were also there playing it. Are they already in love with the device in the way that I am?
I saw one guy playing a bowling game, and while the in game character didn’t move exactly the way the man bowling with the remote did, it still made you actually grip the remote and bowl the bowling ball as if you really were bowling a bowling ball.
A saw another game where a kid had to push hands back and he did it by gripping his controller like a bo-staff and was pushing it back in the face of the hands… so to speak. Then he was playing a driving game and he gripped the rectangular remote-like controller like a steering wheel and — similar to what kids do when they play games as if they’re driving — the kid drove the imaginary steering wheel and it got reflected in the game.
I can only imagine what the [url=http://au.gamespot.com/wii/puzzle/wiimusicorchestra/index.html]music conducting game[/url] will be like, as well as what [url=http://au.gamespot.com/wii/puzzle/traumacentersecondopinion/index.html?q=trauma]the new Trauma Center[/url] and [url=http://au.gamespot.com/wii/adventure/sadness/news.html?sid=6147534&mode=recent]the film-noir styled game[/url] will be like.
The concept of the DS allowed people to be immersed in the game in one way… and this takes it to a whole new level.
And since the DS and the Wii are both wiireless (sorry, had to do it)… will they talk to each other?
I haven’t even played it yet, but from what I can tell… the Wii is going to Rockk.