Plenty of Wii news, and why I don't usually post about it

All the sites are blogging like mad at Nintendo's possibly worthy feet.

Although I continually praise Nintendo and Microsoft well above Sony, some readers might wonder why I rarely say anything about the Wii. Am I pondering what you're pondering? Probably not.

The truth is, I don't feel the need to say anything about the Wii. I know I'll love it, just like I loved the Gamecube and DS (I wasn't a GBA fan though). Undoubtedly, it will complete my gaming rig with a non-competitive and different style of game play when I'm so inclined to enjoy such.

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An Xbox 360 already graces my home (well, DemolitionNinja has one, too), so of course my interest is high in it. As for the PS3, I've gone at lengths at times to show my distaste for Sony. But the games bring me to play their consoles, so I get "slightly conflicted" inside when required to practice futility use a Sony product. The "dark side", Sony is.


Anyway, the Wii looks fantastic to me. I was expecting more of a $199 price-tag instead of a $250 one. It's likely to be worth the price of entry. It's a miracle that a console, after a few generations without, is finally coming WITH a game again. Sure, the Premium 360 came with Hexic, but that hardly shows off the system. I don't even like sports, but Wii sports appears entertaining to me.

The $5-10 pricepoint for retro games seems to be modeled after XBLA's pricing (sans the ridiculously priced Bankshot Billards 2). That's okay with me to a point. Without "achievements", I have no motivation to play these games on the Wii. Emulators I've had for years can take care of that, even on my PS2.

It's an intelligent move by Nintendo to use the standard SD flash memory instead of other over-priced alternatives (Memory Stick Pro Duo, I'm giving you the evil eye). Microsoft and Sony could learn a thing or two from that.

Metroid prime isn't coming out until next year, which makes me cry on the inside. I love that game, and it is the "prime" reason for my Wii purchase (apologies for the pun, I couldn't help it). No launch titles grab my attention, except I do raise a slight eyebrow towards Warioware and Zelda. The potentially paltry selection will probably leave me waiting until later to purchase a Wii console.

I wonder if retro Nintendo games will use Nintendo Medals or something to mimic achievements. Sony wwill have Entitlements and Microsoft has Achievements. Assuming the related stats were provided via webservice, I wonder if anyone will create something to COMBINE all the gamescore/achievements together into one supreme gamercard. Ridiculous dream, right?