Welcome to the Thursday edition of the UFie Gaming Corner! Below the block, I've got all the info they released today about the Wii.
Discussion of any and all types of gaming are welcome here - console games, PC games, pen and paper games, board games, it's all on the table.
If you mention or link to a game that other people might like to find later, please toss it in the Online Games or Download Games diary as appropriate. (And of course, head over there periodically to check out what's new!)
Daily news links and an archive can be found in the diary, and if you want to manually browse recent Gaming Corners, this link to the UF Toolbox will allow you to do so - just use the "previous cartoon" and "next cartoon" buttons to switch days.
If you have a topic you'd like to see covered in the Gaming Corner, or an article I ought to check out, feel free to email me at Ravenlock (put the little at symbol thingy here) inbox (put the little dot symbol thingy here) com. Time permitting, this will be posted daily, but anyone who wishes to cover it on a day when I'm being slow is of course welcome to do so - just copy the TLP from the previous day. :-)
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Well, here's the skinny.
- Launching on November 19th
- Price tag of $250
- Wii Sports and One Wiimote/Nunchuck Included
- Extra Wiimote is $39.99, Nunchuck is $19.99
- All first party games will be widescreen
- 30 titles available by year's end
- No online titles at launch; Pokemon will be online in Japan on December 2nd
- 30 “legacy” titles will be available at launch for the Virtual Console, at the following prices:
NES Titles - 500 Wii points or $5
SNES Titles - 800 points or $8
N64 Titles -1,000 Wii points or $10
- The Mii channel will be the Wii's online personlization service. Users will have a customizable avatar, profile etc. "Miis" are little 3d avatars you can create with a character editor.
- Opera web browser is NOT built in as previously reported (by Opera, I think...), but will be purchaseable as a download.
I have mixed feelings about all of this. As a re-born Nintendo fan who was re-captured by the DS, I've been really looking forward to the Wii, and I still am, but I'm disappointed in the price of the controller. And the fact that Opera isn't bundled, since I'm pretty sure Opera has said publically it would be.
The entire point of this system, according to Nintendo, is to get people together. Play games together. Get the family playing 4-player Wii Tennis, that sort of thing. It's what they base their commercials around. Their whole marketing scheme relies on the premise of communal gaming.
Yet if you want to have 4 fully functional controllers, the price of the system goes up to $430. That is not a bargain. Sure, it's cheaper than getting a 360 with 4 controllers, but the 360 doesn't proclaim itself as the affordable system focused on social, in-person multiplayer gaming.
I'll still pick one up, if I get to try it at EB/GS/wherever and like the controls as much as I think I will. But I'll only be able to get one extra controller (for Meghan), and probably won't be getting it at launch, what with so many good DS games out now and on the way keeping me busy.
Off to Pittsburgh tomorrow and for the weekend, so there may be no gaming corner from me until Monday. Feel free to post one if you've got news. :) |
