Nintendo Wii Pros & Cons

[solitanze]

I didn't know where to post this, but here it is.

 

Nintendo Wii Wins and Losses (By Matt Casamassina):

 

Every time a 50-plus-year-old stands in line to preorder a new Wii console, a Nintendo executive gets his wings. Look up in the sky now and you might see a few of them soaring around, giggling. Don't try to feed them, by the way - it's dangerous.

 

Clearly, the company that Mario built has with its looming videogame platform tried something completely original and both gamers and non-gamers alike are taking notice. Three years ago, the mere concept of a new game machine that didn't speed down the bigger-and-badder horsepower avenue might have seemed unlikely at the very least and financially irresponsible at the very most, but the Big N has done it, and we're all excited anyway. Not because Wii delivers a quantum leap in graphics, because so far that hasn't been proven true. No, you're lining up and in some cases your dad is lining up because the system presents a completely fresh way to play.

 

Wii has a lot going for it, including the fact that - unlike GameCube, which was very similar to competing systems - it's totally unique. People will not confuse its strengths or weaknesses. But has Nintendo executed on every move correctly with its new platform or has it missed some opportunities, too?

 

I'm not going to waste your time by detailing all the obvious points, from a sleek design and a more affordable price tag to the lack of high-definition functionality. These are all valid wins and losses and we've touched on them countless times before. Today, I've put together a list comprised primarily of what I consider Nintendo's current big Wii-related wins and losses - developments that have just recently been announced, confirmed, or previewed, as well as moves the company should be making, but hasn't. So without further ado…

 

Win: The Media's Reaction to Wii

No doubt about it, Nintendo has the media on its side with Wii. Mainstream and specialist press alike have written an overwhelming amount of positive articles about the new console, which can only bode well for its still-in-the-making image. In a recent IGN editor roundtable, nearly every writer on the panel, which consisted of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 staff, too, agreed that Wii was on track to have an amazing holiday. Some even pegged it as the big winner of the year. Meanwhile, pubs from CNN to USA Today have listed the console as a hot item for the holiday. Many of these same outlets have downplayed the arrival of PlayStation 3 and instead praised Wii. Nintendo gambled big with its new machine, as it is unable to output the pretty high-definition visuals of competitors. But so far, media of all kinds have zeroed in on and trumpeted the benefits of the machine's new controller. This is free publicity of the best kind for Nintendo and combined all this support is sure to have a bearing on sales.

 

Loss: Inability to Demonstrate Vastly Superior FPS Controls

When Nintendo first unveiled the Wii remote, every gamer who had ever played a first-person shooter before jumped triumphantly into the air. The promise of the pointer is vast where FPSs are concerned, as it should be possible for players to simply point and shoot in a manner not unlike a mouse and keyboard configuration. However, although several big Wii games fall into the first-person arena, none of them have nailed the control scheme. Call of Duty 3, Far Cry, Red Steel and Metroid Prime 3 all forego a fixed reticule setup in favor of a small bounding box. When gamers aim and their reticule leaves the invisible box, the screen begins to turn. This control method is hardly ideal for fast-paced first-person shooters and therefore the promise the Wii remote opens up for the genre remains largely untapped. That noted, Retro Studios' latest revision of Metroid Prime 3 has made significant advancements in maneuverability and we look forward to future refinements.

 

Win: Wii Makes Toys "R" Us Hot List

Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 didn't. This is an easy one to shrug off, but the simple truth is that a retailer like Toys "R" Us has been a good predictor of big-selling items, such as Elmo, for example. Wii is the first videogame console in history to appear on the company's holiday hot list. Why didn't PS3 make it? Maybe because it's too expensive. Maybe because it's an extension of an existing hardware philosophy. But the official line from Toys "R" Us is that Sony's new system is "really geared to a savvy gaming enthusiast," while "the Wii system appeals to young kids as well as adults." Whatever the reasoning, uninformed buyers oftentimes look to Toys "R" Us to help them make their holiday shopping easier and the fact that Wii will be spotlighted at the nationwide retail outlet is a major coup for Nintendo. This can only have a positive effect on sales of the system.

 

Loss: Nintendo's Inability to Get Press Early Wii Hardware; Magazines Miss Deadlines

We're about a month away from launch, we've got 30 games to review, and we're still twiddling our thumbs as we wait for Nintendo give us a means to play its software. We're frustrated. So imagine how the heads of outlets that require long lead times to produce - your various magazines, in other words - feel. For many of these publications, it's too late. There's no way for them to accurately include Wii reviews in their holiday issues. That boat has sailed. And it's becoming increasingly more difficult for online outlets to get the job done right, too. With some 30 games to review before launch, we would even now have to play and critique a game per day - not an easy task when you've got titles like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess to consider. Third parties, meanwhile, have bombarded us with early code, but we can't do a damned thing with it. And to add insult to injury, even Sony - which has a measly 400,000 PlayStation 3s to go around when its console debuts - is already hooking press up with hardware so that they can prep previews and reviews in advance. Nintendo, what the hell is going on?

 

Win: 1 Million Wii Systems at Launch; 4 Million through December

The Big N knows full well that its new hardware is going to be a hot holiday item and it has every intention of capitalizing on the fact. Microsoft debuted Xbox 360 with a miniscule amount of systems. Sony is set to do the same with PlayStation 3. But Wii will kickoff in America on November 19 backed by a whopping one million units and a steady flow of more shipments. By the end of the year, approximately four million Wiis will be available around the globe and the chances are extremely strong that they'll all go sold. Nintendo has delivered a lowball estimate of six million Wiis available by March 2007, but insider reports suggest that as many as 12 million pieces of hardware could be available by that time period. If all goes as planned, in less than six months the Wii console could have penetrated a good chunk of the videogame market to become a major competitor.

 

Loss: Decidedly Un-Mainstream $250 Price Tag and Expensive Controllers

For a console that was promised as "small, quiet and affordable," Wii will only debut at $50 less than the basic Xbox 360. But even that price point is deceptive, especially since the system ships with the multiplayer-centric Wii sports, but includes only one Wii remote and nunchuk. Buyers who want to enjoy Wii Sports Tennis for four will need to spend an extra $39.99 per Wii remote. Three Wii-motes will add another $120 to the $250 price tag for a grand total of $370. Don't get us wrong - even with all these accessories the Wii is still cheaper than a stripped PlayStation 3 - but when you tack on the cost of additional Wii-motes, there's simply no way Wii is "mass market friendly," as some Nintendo executives would have us believe.

 

 

Win: Wii Sports in the Bundle

Those pesky (but awesome) Wii remotes will set you back a pretty penny, but at least Nintendo will ship Wii with a game included. Actually, depending upon how you look at it, Wii Sports could be thought of as five separate titles. Of course, we're talking about Wii Sports Bowling, Baseball, Golf, Boxing, and Tennis - all very different from each other in the way that they are played. This is a very important pack-in not only because it adds value to the bundle, but also because these games effectively introduce new Wii buyers to the system's fundamentally different controller. Without them, newcomers could really run into some problems, especially since Nintendo is hoping to tap into the elusive non-gamer crowd. Imagine, if you will, that grandpa's first experience with Wii is the complex Twilight Princess or maybe even Metroid Prime 3. We'd be willing to wager that he wouldn't be coming back for more very often. Wii Sports immediately showcases the benefits of the new system and simultaneously encourages purchasers to get their multiplayer game on.

 

Loss: One Month Out: Where the Eff is the Advertising?

Nobody is likely to dispute that Nintendo is onto something with its new generation console. But just because the hardcore crowd knows this to be true doesn't mean the rest of the world knows it, too. The Big N seems content to avoid pre-release hype and let word of mouth sell Wii units. When I drove into work today, I saw three billboards for Sony's PlayStation 3. Not tiny, hidden things, either, but major, freeway-engulfing billboards meant to be seen by tens of thousands of drivers during their morning commute. I see links on the Internet to PlayStation 3 commercials, which have apparently begun airing on network television. And what about Wii? I'm lucky if I can find a POP display in a retailer. Sony may not have the supply to meet demand this holiday, but the company at least knows how to generate that demand. GameCube, which launched in purple of all colors, was practically unmarketable. But Wii is one of the slickest and coolest videogame consoles ever designed. The Big N should be in the middle of a nationwide marketing blitz by now. Wii should be all over city billboards and in commercials between episodes of Heroes and Lost, too. So where is it? If Nintendo has a plan, it's not sharing it - with anybody.

 

Win: Wii Channels Concept and Interface

I'm going to be completely honest and admit that I really wasn't expecting much from Wii's user interface. GameCube had a simple and stylish enough setup, but it was also very basic, and Nintendo has stressed repeatedly that its new system would be focused on games. For these reasons and more I just didn't think the company would try for something to rival Microsoft's blade system for Xbox 360. So when Nintendo finally unveiled Wii Channels, I was floored. Not only is the interface a gorgeous, sleek white to match the console, but the concept goes above and beyond what I was expecting. Having glimpsed some of the Wii Channels and played with a few more, I can tell you that I like it better than anything else out there - yeah, even more than 360's blade and definitely more than PS3's uninspired PSP clone of a menu interface. In my mind, Wii Channels successfully blends functionality and design. You can get the morning news and weather as soon as you turn on your console and then you simply point and click to go shopping, to play classic games, to modify your Mii personas, or to jump into a GameCube or Wii game. It's all immediately accessible and laid out in an intuitive, pleasing manner. Never in the history of a Nintendo console has its interface been a selling point, but I'm nearly as excited to explore Wii Channels as I am to play some of the Wii launch titles.

 

Loss: Keeping Zelda a Secret

For the first time in Nintendo history, its new console will launch with an epic Zelda game. Everybody from Nintendo's high-ranking executives to its dedicated play testers has, in fact, described Twilight Princess as the greatest Zelda game ever made. But is it? I couldn't tell you. I've played what equates to two levels, and only portions of those. For a game that is supposedly more epic than any other Zelda offering before, we sure haven't seen much. I think this is a huge missed opportunity. Fact is, whether the Big N wants to admit it or not, the majority of people buying a Wii this holiday will be doing so for Zelda and not Wii Sports. And yet right now most of us are going on faith. If Twilight Princess is more than 40 hours long, minimum, would it really crush the experience if we were all allowed a deeper glimpse into the game before we plunk down our hard-earned cash to play it? Come on, Nintendo. Throw us a bone.

 

Win: The Launch Lineup

In a huge win for Nintendo and Wii, the system will debut on November 19 with more than 20 games and will add another 10 to that roster before the end of the holiday season. Sure, some of these are throwaway ports, but there are also quite a few gems in the bunch, some of which are completely exclusive to Wii. Of course, Nintendo will have Zelda, Wii Sports and the surprisingly addictive racer Excite Truck. But Ubisoft will have some hits of its own, including the hotly anticipated first-person shooter Red Steel and the mini-game-fest Rayman Raving Rabbids, both of which are very ambitious and take full advantage of Wii's remote. EA will have a very well made rendition of Madden NFL 07 designed to work intuitively with the Wii remote. Atlus will have an original version of Trauma Center - again designed for Nintendo's controller. And SEGA will have Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, which is - you guessed it - created exclusively for Wii. In addition, companies like Activision will have solid ports of titles like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Call of Duty 3. Nothing to scoff at.

 

Finally, there will be approximately 30 Virtual Console titles ready for download before the end of the year, and another 10 coming every month afterward. With such titles as Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., Bonk's Adventure and Toe Jam & Earl all coming in the very beginning, we certainly can't complain. And if Nintendo really wants to bridge the gap between old and new, it will release titles like Excitebike and Excitebike 64 to coincide with launch titles like Excite Truck. Nintendo's back catalog is bigger and more acclaimed than any other and it continues to be a major draw.

 

Loss: One Final Gripe, But Why Wasn't this Included?

Nintendo, we can forgive your decision to forego participating in the "high-definition era," which will at least this generation belong to Microsoft and Sony. But seriously, PlayStation 2 had an audio optical out six years ago. Six long years ago! Why doesn't Wii at least include this hardware upgrade? It's not as if you can play the "nobody wants it or needs it yet" card. Everybody is already using it. We suspect that Wii is without an optical out because the console was built to fall in line with the architecture of GameCube, which supported analog audio and Dolby Pro Logic II. That being true, there's really no legitimate excuse.

 

Source: http://wii.ign.com/articles/739/739662p1.html

 

Its very unfortunate that the negatives outweigh the positives...

[BlueStar]

However, although several big Wii games fall into the first-person arena, none of them have nailed the control scheme. Call of Duty 3, Far Cry, Red Steel and Metroid Prime 3 all forego a fixed reticule setup in favor of a small bounding box. When gamers aim and their reticule leaves the invisible box, the screen begins to turn. This control method is hardly ideal for fast-paced first-person shooters and therefore the promise the Wii remote opens up for the genre remains largely untapped.

 

How long have I been saying that for!

[Teppo Holmqvist]

Its very unfortunate that the negatives outweigh the positives...

 

Negatives? Wii is strong on three most important categories; controls, games and hype. If you value Zelda previews and optical audio cable more than having good games and new control scheme, well, more power to you. BTW, I give 3.9 of 10 for your comment.

 

Here is my other complains about this article:

 

Mainstream: It's pretty hilarious to say that 250 dollars isn't mainstream, when normal mainstream people are willing to pay twice than that for latest cellphone, iPod or TV-set.

 

Advertising: Too early advertising just wastes money and can even make your customers jaded. Furthermore, advertising will lost its power completely if you do it for too long time without having product to sell. Plus Nintendo has done advertisement in form of articles. There has been various positive hands-on articles about Wii on most important US magazines, and they probably generate more hype flashing Wii logo during popular TV-show could.

 

Vastly Superior FPS Controls: No matter what you think, Red Steel and CoD3 have vastly superior controls to dual analog setup. And ironically Cassamina himself has also praised CoD3's ja Red Steel's controls. Raising controversy for controversy's sake.

 

Zelda previews: Bitching about Zelda previews is also bit stupid, as it has so much fucking hype around it that they Nintendo doesn't simply need to do anything.

[Librarian]

well he has a point with their slowness getting the games out to be reviewed

1 month to go before release in the states and they havent seen one finished game yet..

[Strange Cookie]

Call of Duty 3, Far Cry, Red Steel and Metroid Prime 3 all forego a fixed reticule setup in favor of a small bounding box.

 

Said fixed retice setup would even be less ideal. How would you turn 180°, let alone 360°, without getting couterintuitive? Either you would have to literaly turn you Wiimote around (Try aiming when the Wiimote is pointed towards you) or the setup would have to be so sentivive that moving the Wiimote to the left or right would enable to turn full-circle. This would sacrifice a lot of accuracy, not even mentioning the burden of having to move forward while facing left.

 

This setup works wonders on PC, because you can "unattach" a mouse. When you want to turn further to the left but you're at the side of your mousemat, you can simply lift your mouse and reposition in in the center of the mat, without moving your onscreen reticle . With Wiimote, this is not possible, unless they allow you to "unattach" the Wiimote by holding a button. Needless to say, this would get very clumsy.

 

Just hold a remote in front of your telly, and imagine playing a FPS with said setup. Now try turning 360°. Something isn't right. I prefer the setup developers now use. Well, I prefer the sound of it, since I have yet to play on a Wii.

 

Anyway, feel free to prove me wrong!

[Teppo Holmqvist]

Anyway, feel free to prove me wrong!

 

You are pretty much spot on as designers have clearly stated turning to be problematic.

[Cube]

Yea, UbiSoft and Red Steel experimented together about FPS controls - the one in MP3 and Red Steel are the best ones that work.

[The Peeps]

Said fixed retice setup would even be less ideal. How would you turn 180°, let alone 360°, without getting couterintuitive? Either you would have to literaly turn you Wiimote around (Try aiming when the Wiimote is pointed towards you) or the setup would have to be so sentivive that moving the Wiimote to the left or right would enable to turn full-circle. This would sacrifice a lot of accuracy, not even mentioning the burden of having to move forward while facing left.

 

Exactly. It's much better to have the 'invisible box' turning method.

 

I can see what he's saying with Zelda but I like the fact that Nintendo haven't revealed all that much about it. I'll be able to find out things for myself and be shocked and amazed at the dungeons and scenery. If everything was revealed I wouldn't be able to look away.

[Nintendork]

Pro - it is cheap in all respects. More exclusives.

Cons - it is not HD or surround sound.

 

Cons outweigh the benefits but I'm simply not in the position to afford anything else.

 

I don't care about marketing, better products always generate word of mouth that warrants it.

[Teppo Holmqvist]

It's interesting that some people value HD-TV and surround sound support more than actually having good games. But oh, almost forgot. You had already said in virtual console thread that you aren't going to buy Wii, so you are just spamming forums with your crap.

[Strange Cookie]

It's interesting that some people value HD-TV and surround sound support more than actually having good games.

 

Too true... A real shame.

 

Make no mistake, I have a Xbox360 and HDTV and lovin' every HD-pixel of it, but it's a "nice-to-have" rather than a "need-to-have". I played Ocarina of Time on N64 (the antithesis of HD) on a small telly with mono-sound. Even when I play it today with the same setup, it still stands its ground. As a test, I recently switched my Xbox360 to SD. You really do notice the difference... for about 30 seconds and than you just play the game.

 

No resolution should ever make or break a game. It's not as if a crappy game gets a gameplayboost in high-def. Nor can a low resolution hide a classic.

 

I too would have liked HD-support, but I am honestly not losing any sleep over it. Zelda in 480p or 720P? That boomerang still looks mighty sweet to me!

 

...

 

My, I'm whining! I must be getting old...

 

Now get of my lawn, you lil' scoundrals!!

[Nintendork]

You had already said in virtual console thread that you aren't going to buy Wii, so you are just spamming forums with your crap.

 

Suck my balls.

I said I wasn't buying a European version.

And also, that virtual console stuff is a rumour- half of the sources are currently saying it's true- the other half are saying bullshit.

 

Under the assumption that the Wii will be region locked for VC titles then I won't be buying a EU Wii.

 

And if I can't improt and play VC games from other territories in my own house then I won't be buying one of them either. Until it gets all mod chipped up.

 

Don't act like you know shit about me or my opinions regarding HD gaming and he Wii, because you don't.

I love Wii. But fact is- there are games that will be shit on Wii because they are not in HD.

 

 

And if you read the first part of my post, I said the games are a pro. Dick.

[PioRow]

I thought that article was pretty spot on in many areas and came out vastly in favour of the Wii.

 

The advertising should be kicking in now. A lot of people dont know about the Wii, just raising awareness is a key function of advertising. Hopefully nintendo will start in the next 5-10 days and launch a ad campaign.

 

I dont think the lack of reviews is a huge issue, the net will be filled with Wii reviews days before the console launches. Granted most magazines wont have reviews for the consoles release but as long as they get reviews out for the christmas issues its not a problem.

 

The lack of hands on zelda playing doesnt bother me and I dont think it should bother anyone else. Its pretty clear its going to be a good game, dont need to worry on that front. Whether it turns out to be a all time classic, only time will tell. If nintendo showed vast amounts of the game it would spoil it for a lot of people. I am glad that zelda details are scarce, makes it more interesting and fun playing the game once it is released.

 

Finally the lack of aoptical out. I agree with the article. I cant belive they couldnt include this. Optical out comes on a £15 dvd player! Its a must have feature. DPLII is nice but its 2006, optical out should be standard.

[JetSetWilly]

Vastly Superior FPS Controls: No matter what you think, Red Steel and CoD3 have vastly superior controls to dual analog setup. And ironically Cassamina himself has also praised CoD3's ja Red Steel's controls. Raising controversy for controversy's sake.

 

I'm sorry but unless you have actually tried this out (have you?) I just don't see how you can possibly say this. I have not read one single hands-on preview that states unequivocally that FPS controls on Wii are better than dual-analog.

 

I don't recall dual-analog being a problem when I was blasting through TimeSplitters 2, why are people so down on it? Wii touted itself as the new home of FPS. A bold claim, that has yet to be proven.

 

FWIW I think there's very little to dispute in Matt's article, people just don't like to hear that sort of stuff is all.

[Nintendork]

Finally the lack of aoptical out. I agree with the article. I cant belive they couldnt include this. Optical out comes on a £15 dvd player! Its a must have feature. DPLII is nice but its 2006, optical out should be standard.

 

My only plausible theory on this is that Nintendo didn't want too much space being allocated to high quality sound..if developpers are pressured into making better sounding games on DVD then it might hinder the game's quality and size. It also lowers development costs no doubt.

 

Personally if the PS2 can manage it in several great games then the Wii should be able to.

 

But it is about accesibility. My guess is that less then a quarter of people would take advantage of it. I only know 1 person in real life with a surround sound setup.

[Teppo Holmqvist]

I have not read one single hands-on preview that states unequivocally that FPS controls on Wii are better than dual-analog.

 

Quote from Gamespot's CoD3 preview:

 

Aside from this difference, the game played like you'd expect. All the core mechanics are the same here as in the PS3 and 360 versions--the difference is merely in how you interface with the game. Luckily, horizontal and vertical sensitivity adjustments were available in the build we played, so we could fine-tune the aiming to our liking, and afterward, we found the actual shooting gameplay to be more satisfying and skill-based than when played with a standard analog thumb stick. With the more flexible aiming, it became more realistic to switch to iron sights and squeeze off a quick headshot to take out that soldier just barely peeking over the barrier. We're looking forward to getting more time with this and other Wii games to get a better feel for this sort of unique FPS gameplay, which seems to approximate the feel of mouse aiming on the PC.

 

http://www.gamespot.com/wii/action/callofduty3/story.html?sid=6159455&page=2

[JetSetWilly]

From 1up's COD3 hands-on:

 

Aiming is slightly trickier than movement, simply because it requires a bit more accuracy. You press A to look down your gun and B to fire, and while it works just fine, we did fine ourselves taking longer to line up perfect headshots than on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions due to the sensitivity of the controller. It'll be interesting to see if this speed gets quicker after we spend more time with the game, since we only had about 30 minutes to test it out and we still felt a bit slow at the draw for long-range shots by the end of our session.

 

It feels a lot more intuitive to press a button to throw a grenade than to press a button, pull your arm back, and throw your wrist forward in a straight line, after all.

 

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3154249

 

From 1up's latest Red Steel hands-on:

 

The problem is that I didn't feel like the Wii Remote aim was going where I wanted it to go all the time. At certain moments it zipped around from one side of the screen to another when I thought I was holding the remote pretty still.

 

An attending PR person thought a background light in the already pretty dark room might be messing with the Wii's sensor bar, which tracks the controller's movement. With the light off and the room totally dark, the aim problem was significantly improved. The aim still didn't feel as accurate as I expected, though.

 

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3154498

 

So, who do we believe? Doesn't sound vastly superior to me. Maybe the COD3 developers have done a better job than Ubisoft. I think my point still stands though, it is not proven that Wii FPS controls are better.

[Teppo Holmqvist]

So, who do we believe? Doesn't sound vastly superior to me. Maybe the COD3 developers have done a better job than Ubisoft. I think my point still stands though, it is not proven that Wii FPS controls are better.

 

1UP does have anti-Nintendo bias, and most of their writers are same idiots that write EGM. This is why I would take everything that they say with grain of salt, especially when there lots of positive hands-ons from same event.

[Librarian]

oh yes it will be wastly superior.. and if you don't stop the heresy you will be excommunicated and probably burned at the stake.. any time now

[Teppo Holmqvist]

oh yes it will be wastly superior.. and if you don't stop the heresy you will be excommunicated and probably burned at the stake.. any time now

 

I don't know if this is sarcasm or not.

 

...my opinions regarding HD gaming and he Wii, because you don't.

 

Well, you clearly stated how only cons that Wii has that "it is not HD or surround sound". And you also clearly said that these two "cons outweigh the benefits" that Wii has. No matter how you read it, these two quotes basically mean that you put surround sound and HD-resolution over everything else. And no, great graphics don't mean HD. HD means only bigger resolution, nothing else.

 

And how I don't know what you think about Wii? You have posted for long time in Revo-Europe's forum. Most your Wii post's have been negative. Why I can't draw conclusions from that? Or are you simply stating that you post negative messages just for fun and without believing on what you say?

[mike-zim]

my major thought on advertising is dont advertise till after release. there is enough demand for the console already. i want mine at launch. after that advertise to ensure the demand can be kept at a respectable lvl.

[Patch]

I thought that article was pretty spot on in many areas and came out vastly in favour of the Wii.

 

The advertising should be kicking in now. A lot of people dont know about the Wii, just raising awareness is a key function of advertising. Hopefully nintendo will start in the next 5-10 days and launch a ad campaign.

 

The article was pretty good and accurate. However, I would strongly disagree with the advertising and lack-of-review negatives. How many adverts can you think of that advertise a product before it is out? How many times have you seen an advert for Kellogg's SuperFibre with the tagline 'Coming Soon'? The only other similar example I can think of is advertisements for films that aren't out yet. Even so, they usually come out a week before release.

 

And so what if you can't review a game before it's out? Big whoop! This smacks more of a journalist who is having a hissy-fit more than anything else.

Word of mouth and hands-on is 100 times more influential than advertising and reviews combined.

 

And going off on a tangent - Adverts for Playstation3 are a complete waste of time and money. Everyone but everyone knows there will be a Playstation3and there's nothing sufficiently new about it to warrant grabbing people's attention.

[DCK]

Good article, it pretty much sums it up.

[Pit-Jr]

Nintendo's advertising is usually more of a deterrent than a boon.

 

Use that money to buy up prominent and eyecatching shelf space at only the biggest retailers and forget the print/online/tv advertising. Its useless. Better yet, spend it on making more AAA games that validate the Wii's purchase

[Cube]

Nintendo's advertising is usually more of a deterrent than a boon.

 

The DS Adverts pasted all over Sheffield are quite stylised. I expect them to be replaced with Wii ones soon.