Wii!
I’ve been a big fan of Nintendo ever since the original Nintendo Entertainment System. After the NES, I had a Super Nintendo, and after missing out on a generation, I got back into gaming when I bought myself a GameCube. I never understood why the GameCube didn’t sell very well, when I thought it had a lot of great games. I’ve never played a better, more enjoyable racing game than Mario Kart: Double Dash. And compared to the XBox and PlayStation 2, I felt that the GameCube controllers were the most comfortable and easiest to use. But apparently most gamers felt differently about the GameCube, and about Nintendo as a whole. Nintendo was in need of a change, which started out small, but ended with a big Wiiiiiiiiiiiii!
The first sign of the reinvention of Nintendo, I think, was the release of the Game Boy Advance SP. I had the original GBA, which was pretty awful in comparison, so I was very anxious to get my hands on an SP. It was at this time when I remarked that I thought Nintendo was (or was becoming) the Apple of video games. Then came the DS, which was very weird and different at the time of its release, and took a long time to catch on. When Nintendo upgraded to the DS Lite, it was even more clear that they were emulating Apple’s stylish designs. And the DS was the perfect test drive for what was to come.
When early details about the Wii, at the time code-named Revolution, started coming out, it was met with the same skepticism that DS had experienced. I myself was rather skeptical, but as a die-hard Nintendo fan, and one who managed to get himself a Wii shortly after its launch, I have to say that I think it’s fantastic. Nintendo’s decision to focus on innovative gaming instead of the latest and greatest specs was not only brilliant, but also necessary. With Microsoft’s entrance into the video game consoles a generation earlier, the field became a little crowded, and Nintendo had to differentiate itself from the competition in order to survive. It couldn’t win if it played the same game as Microsoft and Sony, so it went in an entirely different direction. The result? The Wii has been an enormous success: