buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Nintendo

Wii’s pricetag…

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… and other things that make me happy.

I don’t post a lot of the news that other sites pick up before me (I try not to blog from work too much) but when I read the announcement of Nintendo’s pricing for the Wii, I couldn’t stop smiling. I had to post something! At less than 250 bucks, Nintendo hit one out of the park. That price is the proverbial sweet spot for gamers.

I did read a rumor earlier this week, though, that Nintendo was ready to announce a $200 price point, but after Sony announced their ridiculously overpriced PS3, Nintendo held off and went with the $250 price. That’s just a rumor, but it makes sense, from a business point of view. Fricken Sony!

The only thing I’m worried about now is if the Big N can meet the demand. They say the want to sell six million units by next March, but if they had that many ready by Christmas, they would sell every single one of them. And then half of them would be on eBay the next day. I also worry about price gougers retailers bundling the Wii with all manner of unnecessary crap. It’s already being done with the DS Lite, and I after what we witnessed with the 360, I see no reason why it won’t happen again. All of this adds up to some serious frustration, come launch-day. That bothers me, because I refuse to “pre-order” and I’d rather not wait out in the cold at 11:30 at night outside of Best Buy to get my Wii.

I just want to get my Wii on, is that so wrong?

Riight

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Okay, I have resisted the “Pun Siren’s” call long enough. I don’t really know what to say about The Nintendo Wii. I could join the internet meme and say funny things that rhyme with “we” but I just won’t do it. But I did talk to some Nintendo fans about the new name and Wii just don’t buy it. Surely this is a joke. That can’t possibly be what Nintendo is going to call their next (and possibly most fabulous) console. That just isn’t riight.

Speaking of memes, Simon mentioned an E3 predictions meme. My one and only prediction is that Zelda Twilight Princess will not be a Gamecube game. I predict they will announce that it is going to be a Wii launch title. Complete with collector edition sword and shield Wii controllers. And a weekly visit from the neighborhood bully to kick your butt because you bought a console called “Wii.”

That’s what he’ll say as he delivers his pummeling.

Opera and the DS – surf the web!

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This is the coolest news I’ve read in a while: Opera (my personal browser of choice) is building a browser for the Nintendo DS.

In Opera’s agreement with Nintendo, Nintendo DS users will now be able to surf the full Internet from their systems using the Opera browser. The Opera browser for Nintendo DS will be sold as a DS card. Users simply insert the card into the Wi- Fi enabled Nintendo DS, connect to a network, and begin browsing on two screens.

This is very cool news, just in time for the DS redesign! Right now, the article only mentions users in Japan, but I can’t see any reason why we can’t expect this here in the states. I can’t wait!

Just the fun ones, please

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B000A2R54M-01-_AA_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpgOver the holidays last year, I had lunch with some of the guys I game with. As we ate, our conversation drifted to the topic of video games, as it is often does. We’ve been gaming together for almost four years now, so we’ve had a lot of “interesting” gaming sessions, ranging from some serious Mario Kart Double Dash matches to almost coming to fisticuffs over a game of Turok: Evolution, of all games. (We had banned the use of the Dark Matter Cube but someone couldn’t help himself and used the cheapest weapon ever to win a death match. It wasn’t a pretty sight.) For the most part, though, we’ve had some great gaming sessions. No matter how competitive we are, Nintendo games in particular seem to bring out a heated, but relatively friendly, competition. No punches thrown, just some serious trash talking.

We moslty talked about Super Mario Strikers, a game none of us owned but all had played. We all gushed about how fun it was and how easy it seemed to play. It’s nothing more than a simple street-style game of soccer with a Mario flair but it’s downright fun. What was it about such a simple game that made it so appealing?

Later that week, I took my Gamecube to work for some lunchtime gaming. We hooked it up to the projector in our conference room and threw down, Nintendo style. We started off with a little Pac-Man Vs. which is the best use of the GBA-GC link I’ve played. Take the simplicity of Pac-Man and then add in multiplayer and you’ve got a sweet party game. We then moved onto some Mario Kart: DD and finished up with Mario Power Tennis. Two of us had played most of these games and the other two hadn’t. It didn’t matter. All of them were easy to pick up and play. Our Mario Tennis matches took a few minutes to get everyone up to speed, but after a little while we were volleying, smashing and saving like pros. It was good, serious fun.

All of these games had something in common – they were either published or developed (or both) by Nintendo. They all have fantastic mutliplayer modes. They’re simple and easy to learn but complex enough to have an element of strategy and discovery. To put it simply, Nintendo just makes fun games. More specifically, Nintendo makes fun party games.

Even their actual “Mario Party” games are great, even though not everyone agrees. Just look at the reviews for the past few Mario Party games. The argument could be made that this particular franchise is getting long in the tooth. But I think that misses the point. The reviewers may give Mario Party 7 a low score and justify it by saying “it’s more of the same” but that doesn’t capture the whole picture. The reviewers have probably been playing Mario Party since it was an N64 game. Most casual gamers have not. So they don’t care if one of the mini games in MP7 is derivative of a game from MP4. It doesn’t matter. It’s fun, no matter how you play it.

So what is it about Nintendo’s games that make them fun? I think Matt at Press the Buttons was on to something when he was trying to explain why he was describing the Game Boy version of Mario Tennis. “So it’s like Pong,” was the common reply when describing a video game version of Tennis. Is Pong fun? Thirty years ago it certainly was. So is the actual game of tennis. A digital version of a fun game – it’s a no brainer.

But that’s discounting the Nintendo/Mario angle. They’ve distilled the basic mechanics of a particular game and make it accessible through simple controls. Sometimes it seems like you can’t be “bad” at Nintendo games. Other people may be better than you, but sucess is usually easy to come by. Are the games artificially easy for the sake of enjoyment? I don’t think anyone who’s played a Super Mario game would agree with that they’re “easy.” Fun? Yes. Easy? Not everytime.

Is it nostalgia? I definitely think that plays a big part in my enjoyment. Most “older” gamers (come on, I’m only thirty!) grew up with Mario and Luigi. So this is like playing with old friends. The familiarity with the characters, their idiosyncrasies and nuances are what we look for everytime we boot up a Nintendo game.

We’re seeing this all over again with the Nintendo DS. Nintendo makes great games that are fun to play for the casual gamers as well as the serious gamer. Will it happen with the Revolution? Will the simple game play continue? Is it a new shift in gaming overall?

I sure hope so.

Redesigning the DS

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Man, I come into work this morning and check my feeds before starting the day and gaming sites are abuzz with the quiet announcement by Nintendo, presenting the redesign of the Nintendo DS (from Nintendo’s Japan website. Here’s the Google Translation). Unfortunately I don’t have time to really dig deep into this, since I’m at work, but I must say I both excited and a bit disappointed. Excited because it looks shiny. Disappointed because the redesign doesn’t seem like that much of an improvement. Being the gadget whore that I am, I’ll probably figure out a way to get one of these anyway. I do like the iPod-white, so it’s got that going for it.

I didn’t notice (and didn’t take the time) to find out if this is States-bound. I would assume that it is. Can anyone confirm that?

More to come later.

We have seen the Future…

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… and the Future is Nintendo.

It may just be me (or the fanboy in me), but it sure seems like there is a lot of good press for Nintendo lately. Where to start? First the DS is going like gang-busters. The games and units are flying off the shelves. There’s a lot of reasons why, and Tim Rogers at Next Gen looks at some of those reasons. It’s quite simple why the DS is burying the competition – it’s the games, stupid! Sure, the PSP has that sa-wheet looking screen, flashy looks and sleek design, but there’s no games! If I wanted a portable video player (which the PSP does great) I’ll get a new iPod. For games, it’s the DS. I haven’t booted up my Xbox or Gamecube in almost a month because I’ve been DS’ing. It’s great stuff.

The Revolution is gaining momentum, as well. A lot of sites are already discussing the possible interface for the online component of the Revolution. There also seems to be a lot of buy-in and excitement from game developers for the new controller. I’ll say it again – if the new Zelda game can be enhanced with the new controller, I can wait. Release Twilight Princess with the Revolution. Even if they say they’re not going to do it, I would be an instant system seller. The Revolution seems to be on the cusp of something big. The Big N is aiming for a Thanksgiving release. It’s imperative that they have tons of units available. None of this “supply shortage” shell game. Just get systems into gamers hands.

I think the best stuff I’ve read lately was CNet’s interview with Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime. Read the whole thing. Reggie doesn’t pull any punches and talks some serious smack. Observer the name taking:

The DS is outselling PSP across the world. The DS is also generating huge buzz in the blogosphere. The fact is, we have a number of not only worldwide but even U.S.-centric million-unit selling games, and Sony doesn’t.

And

We will sell more units than Xbox 360 did here in the United States in our launch window. I mean, in December, we sold more GameCubes in the United States than Microsoft sold 360s, and Revolution will do better than that.

I believe the kids say, “Oh snap!”

Finally, the guys at FiringSquad (for hardcore gamers!) seem the most optimistic about the future of the Revolution, going as far as saying:

Nintendo is poised for a coup. As someone who not so long ago was dismissive of what the company can accomplish, I today firmly believe that they’re capable of taking the #1 position from Sony.

Nintendo for the win? I sure hope so.

(links from all over – Joystiq, Slashdot Games, Evil Avatar)

It’s quiet in here.

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There’s been a lack of content around these parts the past few days but I’ve got a legitimate excuse. Here at buttonmashing.com, we like to talk about video games. I come at the topic from different angles – how the media portrays them, how they are used and abused by politicians, and how much fun and enjoyment we gamers derive from them. The last point means I’m actually playing games. Unfortunately, my gaming time has been squeezed out by Real Life Duties (RLD®) lately so I’m at a loss to discuss any recent gaming sessions.

I also blog about sports and blogging in general, but since OSU football has ended and nothing earth-shattering has happened in the Sphere-o-Blogging, I ain’t got much there, either.

Nevertheless, I do have some ideas floating around in the draft-ether. Some will materialize. I’ve been thinking about Nintendo and the games they make (they’re fun!), various “handles” or gaming nicknames I’ve used (and what they say about me), music and video games (but not what you think!), and others.

Stay tuned!