Nintendo: Ready to Start a Revolution
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While gamers lined up to buy the meager supplies of Xbox 360s last Christmas, I shrugged and bought a new video card for my computer. To me, getting the console has all the appeal of buying my favorite DVDs all over again in Bluray format. There’s only one next generation console that seems particularly revolutionary.
With my bias out in the open, I’ll admit that Microsoft and Sony have done a great job assembling fast processors and graphic hardware. They push visuals whenever they release a new system. But the same game in more colors and higher definition is unfortunately still the same game, whether played on Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 or PC. I’m sure there will be some great titles that come along, like Oblivion, though I won’t need an Xbox to play them.
While I was pretty apathetic about the Xbox 360, Nintendo now has my full attention. They’re promising a new kind of system that will offer a more unique gaming experience, unlike (and also not competing with) other next-gens. Nintendo is letting the details of the Revolution system out slowly. The next glimpse into the Revolution will be the E3 gaming conference in May, but there’s a lot of good information and speculation out there now. After growing up on NES and SNES games, this is the first time I have been looking forward to see a new game platform.
What’s so special about this?
To start with the basics, Nintendo wants to build a system that is small, quiet, and approachable. It doesn’t want to build a gaming PC with 3 cooling fans buzzing and an overheating power brick that doubles as a foot stool. Sitting next to other next-gen systems, it’s tiny.
Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo Revolution
Game systems have been getting larger and larger over the past few generations, and it’s nice to see one that’s the size of a stereo component again. While cutting down the size, the system still does most of the things that gamers expect of the next generation of consoles, including support for 4 wireless controllers and online play. It may not have a lot of high definition support, but it will work in at least 480p.
The things that make it stand out are more interesting, though. The cool things are about 3 fold: backward compatibility with 20 years worth of games, an amazingly different controller, and an ability to interface wirelessly with Nintendo DS portables. Nintendo promised more details at E3 this year, which may mean more unexpected surprises.
Next: The Unique Revolution and the Hardware Behind It >>
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