E3 Special Report: Nintendo- Now You're Playing With POWER!

Anyone who is around my age can remember a time that when you were playing video games, no matter what you owned, you were “playing Nintendo” in much the same way you Xerox a copy and drink a Coke.  Those days are behind us, but this era dropped a small amount of the fanboy seed for Nintendo in you. 

Quite literally, without Nintendo, there is a really good chance that video games wouldn’t be the powerhouse industry that it now is.  This is especially ironic in that Nintendo could also be equated as a company who would innovate, but refuse to change with today’s gaming trends. 

Between the company releasing the Wii with outdated specs, deciding not to add HD capability to the machine, and using the much maligned “Friend Code” process, it is interesting to see what the big “N” is doing to keep in step with it’s much more powerful competitors.

Watching the live tweets of the Nintendo conference is not the same as actually being there, I’m sure and I am in the poor position of having not even seen Nintendo’s new console in action, but I’m going to attempt to anyways.

Continuing my trend of not really “getting” what makes other gamers excited, I sat through the game announcements of new “Zelda” games and whatnot and was completely bored, especially since most of these announcements were for 3DS games and I couldn’t be less excited about that thing.  I played one for a total of five minutes and my head hurt, but I can say that my head problems weren’t as bad as they were when the Virtual Boy attempted the same many years ago.

Then Nintendo showed their new console…or more accurately, the controller for the new console, and they called it “Wii U”.

Pronounced just like it looks (as if it was a European police siren), the new Wii U controller is the size of a small E-reader and has face buttons, shoulder buttons, motion tracking, and a 6 inch touch screen in the center.  Quite honestly, I can’t see myself playing games with this thing, but to be fair, I said the same thing when I saw the original Wii controls. 

A few tech demos were showed and the single most impressive thing I heard of was a golf game where you place the controller on the ground and you swing at a ball on the screen and it flies on-screen down the fairway.

You can also have the game stream to the controller if someone wants to commandeer your TV, but only for a few feet as it requires the console to power the game.

I am rather skeptical about this whole thing.  They say that the console is a modern machine with graphical capabilities comparable to the other current-gen consoles and will output 1080p; however, many of the visuals shown during the conference were on those other consoles and not native to the Wii U.  Like I said earlier, the controller looks unwieldy.  I recall people throwing their Wii remotes when it first came out and I can only imagine the potential damage this thing could be capable of.  The controller also looks as if it could cost around $100.  If my guess is right, then how on earth could I hope to play multiplayer?

Nintendo; however, is showing initiative and had the most interesting showing of E3 in my opinion.  Nintendo frequently takes chances and when they pay off, it does in droves.  I can’t wait to see what they have in mind for this thing and the kind of experiences we’re in for.

E3 Special Report: Sony, Livin' La Vita Loca

To be fair, I have to give a little bit of full disclosure with this one.  I do not own, nor have I ever had a lengthy play session with the PlayStation 3.  

There are a few reasons for this, but the most prominent is that I am, in fact, a broke nerd.  I can really only afford to buy games for and accessorize one console at a time and this time around it is the Xbox.

So with this said, I felt that the Sony conference was pretty forgettable, but only because I pretty much don’t care about the PS3 and the games associated with it.

That statement is going to get me a lot of flack with the gaming community, but I need to explain it further.

During the announcements, Sony started announcing big exclusive after big exclusive that everyone was hyped for in the crowd.  Me?  I’ve never really played the games that these sequels were for.  

As an old school Sony fan, I was pleased to hear some of the more classic titles getting new installments, like Twisted Metal, but I was lost on some of the newer ones.

Sony’s biggest two announcements were a 24’ starter 3DTV that I didn’t get a price for that is PlayStation branded.  This seems a little odd as I don’t think I’d want to experience 3D on a smaller screen.  Sony understood that the reason why 3D isn’t so widely accepted at home yet is due to the expense, but what they aren’t counting on is that I don’t want a crappy experience either.  I’m not saying that 3D on a smaller screen can’t work, anyone with a 3DS would argue that fact, but I’m just saying that if I decide that I was going to be jumping into the 3D TV bandwagon, I would do it full-hog.  

Second is the portable gaming system, the Vita.  With a touch screen, a touch pad, dual analog sticks, and a powerful gaming system inside.  

Now I’ve already was a huge fan of the PSP when it first came out and I took it everywhere.  I remember watching “Kill Bill” while waiting in line to see “Star Wars”, playing “Hot Shots Golf” on the way to Disney World, and hacking the firmware to do all the neat things that Sony didn’t want me to do.  Before the system could really take off, my brother broke it and as you know, I couldn’t afford to replace it.

With this in mind, I am quite excited about the Vita, silly name aside.  Of course I’ll never be able to afford it at $250 for the WiFi version and $299 for the 3G with AT&T service inside.

So how was the Sony Conference?

To me, it seemed a little safe and the innovations behind the Move controller do not seem as incredible as what is happening with Kinect right now, but overall, it was about games and Microsoft seems to have lost that fact.

Tomorrow, I will attempt to give my lengthy first impressions of Nintendo’s newest console: Wii U.