What's Next For The Nintendo Wii?

One of the interesting, new developments with the Nintendo Wii system is the Mii Channel. The Mii system allows you to create 3-D avatars on your Wii system. Nintendo is launching an online Mii Channel that will allow users to share these avatars and vote on them. Wii users love the ability to create avatar models of themselves, their friends, and families to take part in traditional video game roles. The increase in video games allowing users to manifest as their own Mii is also sure to increase. As users can save their Mii on their Wii system and use the same avatar to play different games, it is also hoped that this system will advance to allow the avatars to enter into other online virtual worlds. The future for this system has a lot of possibilities for video game players. An advanced Mii system will first have to incorporate better design tools and graphics for the avatars.

Users will want to spend their time to create avatars with all of the characteristics they need to enter and play the video games. These avatars should also be able to incorporate their own tools or gadgets from game to game, or platform to platform. Having the avatars able to be customized in this manner, different avatars with various configurations of features, accessories, spells, and so forth can be saved on the game box like the Wii. If the Mii avatar can be made to apply in a wider variety of game applications, including online MMORG environments, then it will be an interesting success.

The worry is that allowing avatars to carry gadgets from other systems in games that were not designed for them could completely change the game itself. But the advantages of having an avatar with all of the attributes, accessories, and additions one wants ready, before entering the game's environment to participate is clear. The ability to carry acquisitions found in one game by the avatar into another game is also interesting. A lot of new possibilities for video game development exist in the further expansion of the Mii avatar on the Nintendo Wii gaming system, and into other platforms.

The Reason For Wii's Success

When video games first began, there was this huge explosion of excitement. Everyone was interested and wanted to see "the next best thing." There was no avoiding the presence of this interactive medium. You'd walk into your local restaurant, only to find huge line-ups for that next game of Donkey Kong, or Pac-Man. Video games were the new kids on the block. They were new, fresh, fun and exciting. In the early to mid 1980's, the video game industry was experiencing a crash. Was it the beginning of the end? As it turns out, fortunately that was not the case. A newcomer in the industry, Nintendo, was responsible for releasing the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), that essentially single-handily revived the entire industry. Although Nintendo is over a century old, video games in particular were a new venture for them, so there was a lot of skepticism. That skepticism was quickly silenced once they released their first game console, with the globally recognized game mascot, Super Mario Brothers.

This one game alone was responsible for putting the industry back on the map. One of the reasons for the game's huge success is not solely catered to the characters cute personality, but largely due to the fact that Super Mario Brothers, in and of itself, was a revolutionary game. There was nothing like it at the time. It was a whole new wave on interactivity, and thus a new generation of gamers were born. Back in the early days, there's was one particular element that all games had in common: Ease of use. Games were fairly easy to pick-up and play, and as a result, this allowed a large number of people that were interested in the medium to give it a try. As time went by, games naturally evolved. At the same time, as games started to evolve more, so did the complexity of playing them. Historically, all video games were presented in two-dimensions (2-D). In the mid-90's though, we were introduced to games that now leaped to the third (3-D) dimension. As a result, a whole new dimension of complexity, if you will, tagged right along with it. Although games being in 3-D may have had some affect on the "ease-of-use" factor, a large part of games becoming too complex had to do with the natural progression of the game controllers. Essentially, the tools that gamers use to control what's happening on-screen.

As a result of this, people that used to play and enjoy games, all of a sudden turned their backs on it. Not because they weren't interested, but more because they simply couldn't handle the difficulty levels that were now presented before them. If you do some research, you'll find that this increase of difficulty was also reflected in the sales, or lack-of industry growth. The amount of people that used to play video games were all of a sudden decreasing. This put the industry in a sort of frenzy. There was one company though that really showed their concern - that company was Nintendo. It was around 2004 when Nintendo stated they felt the industry needed to change, and so procedures were taking place to make those changes happen. The result: Both the Nintendo DS and Wii. You'd almost have to be living under a rock in order not to hear of those systems. Their success thus far is simply unprecedented. But why is that? The answer is actually quite simple - those two systems are really easy to use. In a way, they go back to the basics of when games could be played by anyone. The DS uses a touch-screen as it's interface, and a stylus as it's "controller." Yet, this combination really works, and it's evident by the sales reflected by the system. The Wii on the other hand is motion-based, with a controller that looks like a, get this, T.V. remote! Who doesn't have and uses a T.V. remote? Nearly everyone does, and thus the reason why the Wii remote was developed the way it is.

The Wii's interface makes playing games easy again, looking no further then the latest sales generated by the system to prove this point. The brilliant thing that Nintendo did was use the latest technology, but in a way that simplifies the process so anybody can use it. In other words, cutting-edge technology that's easy to use. Brilliant! Industry analysis shows that after the release of Wii and DS, the industry started to expand again. People that once stopped playing games, started to play again. Even more importantly, people that never touched a game before, were all of a sudden getting involved. It seems now, that the industry as a whole, is working on expanding the market, reaching people of all ages and nationalities. A goal, where one day, people will look at video games as a legitimate form of entertainment - a medium that can proudly stand next to other forms of entertainment like movies and music. Rest assured, that day will come! Andre Garcia has been involved both directly and indirectly with the video game industry for many years. For more information, you can visit his website on all the latest Video Game News, reviews, previews, tips, contests, and much more.

Nintendo Wii : Extreme Gaming

Nintendo Wii is a specialized gaming console that is currently available in the market. Sony Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 are the other two gaming consoles that have made life a lot easier for a whole generation of avid gamers.

The Nintendo Wii is a specialized gaming console for several reasons. It is a video gaming console launched by Nintendo. People with an active interest in gaming as well as others having a casual approach to the same prefer the Nintendo Wii. An intuitive control is a part of it, which is making the gadget immensely popular among people from different sections of society.

An innovative motion sensor is a part of the Nintendo Wii; the best part about this motion sensor is that it can detect motion in three dimension. Through this sophisticated remote, intuitive control is achieved in this console..

Bluetooth technology is used to translate the specific movements of a player's body onto the screen in the Nintendo Wii. A player in the different stages of game play, does not need to press buttons to make the necessary moves. This feature of this device makes the gameplay more interesting; the fun quotient of the different games go up by several degrees due to the incorporation of the best facets of innovative technology.

Overall, the gaming experience becomes more passionate. Developments that are taking place in the virtual world of different games become more real. Simplistic games with straightforward game play become more interesting. Virtual becomes real and people feel that they are actually playing the game. So, the next time you are thinking of unwinding after a stressful day's of work, you know what to do! Just enjoy all your favorite games in the Nintendo Wii and see how the time flies away. The experience of playing on the device would surely be one that you would not forget for a long time to come.

Nintendo Wii – Wii for Victory!

Starting with its unconventional name to its innovative controller, the Nintendo Wii comes loaded with every unique feature to make it a stand apart gaming console. The device has been a huge success amongst the gaming fraternity, and such is the furore the makers of the celebrated Xboxs and PSPs fear a run for their money.

Measuring 8.5 inches long by 6 inches wide, and being less than 2 inches thick, the Nintendo Wii comes with sharp, clean contours, with an Apple like glossy white finish. Which means, it not only makes a stylish appearance but also is quite compact. Another appreciated feature of Nintendo Wii is its angled plastic stand. With this, the gaming console can be oriented horizontally or vertically (something that the big player Play station 3 and Xbox 360 fails to deliver).

The Nintendo Wii comes with a set of impressive controls. They are designed to suit both left handed and right handed players. The controls include a Wii Remote and a Nunchuk--a joystick-style controller that connects to the remote for additional game control. The Wii Remote works for games within a radius of about 30 feet and functions as a cursor-type pointing device within about 15 feet. Also, the remote offers a great tactile feedback. The Wii Remote also contains a control for adjusting force feedback, a built-in speaker, a wrist strap, and four blue LED lights that indicate which player/controller number you've been assigned.

Downloading games from the online world is like a breeze, and the user friendly interface makes the experience of Nintendo Wii more pleasurable. A noteworthy feature of this gaming console is its "sleepless" WiiConnect24 service. Through this, the console automatically downloads information, even when it's on standby. Another feature worth a notice is its Virtual console. Here, gamers are allowed to download and play games from past consoles such as the Nintendo 64, NES, Super NES, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx16. Nintendo will offer 12 classic console games at launch, including Donkey Kong (NES), SimCity (SNES), Super Mario 64, Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis), and Bomberman '93 (TurboGrafx16).

Nintendo Wii is a gaming console for the masses. It is easy to understand, easy to use and quite affordable. So, for first time gamers, this console would sure prove an addiction.

Nintendo DS Review

The Nintendo DS was a long anticipated handheld console, and no one knew what to expect. Nintendo has controlled the handheld market for a long time, but had been slimming in the general console section. And with news of the Sony PSP, could Nintendo still stay on top?

Holding the Dual Screen may be a little awkward at first, just like the GameCube controller is at first, but once you play for a bit it gets very comfortable, though people with bigger hands may have trouble pressing the R and L buttons, as I have had multiple times. The free demo you get with a Nintendo DS may be fairly short, but it's easily worth the price tag ($0.00). There are three training challenges you can do (Regulator, Survivor, Morph Ball). Out of the box you can do wireless multiplayer, which is very fun, but does get slightly repetitive with the choice of only 3 maps, all of which are fairly small. Remember the Nintendo 64? Well, the graphical capabilities seem to be around that, if not slightly better. The textures can seem a little dodgy at times, but the characters, effects, and objects are nice enough not to want to gouge your eyes out.

The DS launch brought a lot of debating. Games were lacking, Sony fanboys were bagging it out, and generally, as I said before, no one knew what to expect. The Nintendo DS is a solid handheld system and has a bright future.

Nintendo Wii – Intuitive Game play Guaranteed

The Nintendo Wii is a video gaming console introduced by Nintendo. As a matter of fact, it could be compared to other gaming consoles such as the Sony Playstation 3 or the Xbox 360. Some people may prefer these other gaming consoles over it. However, the this console comes with its own set of advantages that make it a “must-have” among avid gamers.

For one, the controller of the Nintendo Wii is very impressive. Bluetooth wireless technology is used to translate the movements of a player's body directly onto the screen. This is quite an improvement over other gaming consoles, wherein users have to press buttons in order to initiate the desired changes. The game play thus becomes more engrossing and intuitive with it, which is the purpose of video games in the first place.

One could say that the gaming experience has become more passionate with the Nintendo Wii. The Wii remote is one of its kind. The remote is quite slim and looks more like the remote for your television. The remote is connected wirelessly with the console. In addition, innovative motion sensors are a part of this sophisticated remote. This sensor can distinguish movement in three dimension.

With the Nintendo Wii, one can relate physically with the virtual world. With this gaming console, even a game with simplistic game play becomes more interesting and engrossing. Players feel as if they are actually playing the games which make them more fascinated with this gaming console.

It can be said that this device has given an altogether different dimension to video gaming. Thanks to the intuitive motion control system, players using this gaming console can make the most of their leisure time. Playing a game with the Nintendo Wii is a great way to de-stress and wind up after a hectic day's of work.

Burn Wii Games - Copy & Make Wii Backups The Easy Way

To Burn Wii games or not to ? That's the question. The Wii is increasing in popularity, and as such there is a huge demand for games. Even worse, games are expensive, so what happens if you scratch the disc or something? Read on to find out how to burn Wii games that you can use as a backup.

Okay now before you get into this, it's update yourself on the copyright laws in your area. In most places, it's legal to burn Wii games, as long as you own the original, and that the copies are for your personal use only, IE as backups. This is the most common law, but please check it out in your area all the same - there are no Wiis in jail, so you don't really want to end up there right?

First of all, it's not possible to do any copying or anything with the Wii itself, so you'll need to use your computer, and you will need a specific kind of DVD Drive in order to get it working. You need one of the LG-816 series, most notably 8161b, 8162b or 8163b. There is plenty of information about these on Google, so perform a quick search if you need to, and if you are having trouble finding the drives you need to burn Wii games, check Ebay, you can usually get them there.

You need to make an image of the disc before you can burn Wii games, so in addition to the DVD drive, you will need to install some software called .net Framework 2.0, and Raw Dump 2.0

The first thing you need to do to burn Wii games is to put the game you want to burn inside your LG dvd drive. Once it's in, open the Raw Dump file (should have been created after installation) and double click on the rawdump.exe file to get the rawdump program fired up.

Once rawdump opens, you will get a dialog box. Click the button that says Start Dump, and you will soon be ready to burn Wii games. The next part of the process is largely about patience. Due to the size of the files on a DVD, you will need to wait quite a while for the dump to finish. Waiting time will vary due to computer spec and hardware etc, but it can be anywhere between 1 hour and about 5 hours, if you have a slow computer.

Once it's finished, you should see a new file in the rawdump folder, an ISO file, with the same name as whatever game you copied. An ISO file is simply a perfect image of what was previously on a disc. You'll get familiar with these files if you intend to burn Wii games as a habit.

The last two parts of the process are probably the simplest thing you need to do when you burn Wii games. First of all, once the dump finishes, right click on the new file and choose Properties. What you are looking for here is the size of the file. ALL Wii game ISOs are 4.7 Gb in size, which is the same size as a blank DVD, so you can see that the image dump has picked up everything. Anything different from this and you will need to begin again, as it's not possible to burn Wii games if the ISOs are the wrong size!

Once you have the right size, all you need to do to perform the actual burning of the Wii games is to get your preferred burning software, start a new project, and instruct it to burn the ISO image onto a brand new blank DVD. This part can be a little finicky, and if you use low quality discs you'll find you have problems with unreadable games etc.

In order to play the Wii games that you burned, you will either need to get your Wii fitted with a modchip, or use one of several SD card modifications. Tutorials for both of these can easily be found on the net.

As you've seen, if you've an urge to burn Wii games, it can be done, but be aware of your own local laws and regulations. Check out the links below to see where you can download free games.

Comparing The Playstation 3, Xbox 360, And Nintendo Wii

Finally, they’re all here. The Xbox 360 has had the next generation gaming market to itself for a year. Now its two competitors, the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, are here. No more speculating about speed. No more guessing about memory. Now we can take a look and see exactly how they stack up compared to each other.

Let the console wars begin again.

Price

The PS3 has two configurations much like the Xbox 360. The PS3 comes in a $499 version that comes with a 20 GB hard drive and a $599 version that comes with a 60 GB hard drive; Wi-Fi; and memory stick, SD, and Compact Flash slots.

The Xbox 360 has two configurations. It comes in a $299 core version and a $399 version that comes with a 20GB hard drive.

The Nintendo Wii is the cheapest of the bunch with just one configuration that costs $250.

Processing Power

The Playstation 3 comes with its Cell processor. It’s a PowerPC based core that runs at 3.2 GHz that also have seven DSPs that run at 3.2 GHz. This configuration can do about 2 Teraflops.

The Xbox 360 has a Custom IBM PowerPC processor. This processor also runs at 3.2 GHz. However, Xbox went with a true 3 core processor compared to the one general processor of the Cell and seven additional DSPs. This configuration can do about 1 Teraflop.

The Nintendo Wii includes its Broadway processor, a PowerPC based processor running at 729 MHz.

Disc Media

Part of the reason the PS3 is so much more expensive than the Xbox 360 is because the Sony decided to include a Blu-ray drive on the system. The drive can play both Blu-ray movies and regular DVDs. The Xbox 360 comes with a DVD player and an HD-DVD add-on is planned. The Nintendo Wii uses a DVD drive; however, the system will not work for playback of movies, just Nintendo games.

Backwards Compatibility

The Playstation 3 is just like the PS2 was. You’ll be able to play both PS2 and PSone games on the PS3. Nintendo is taking things a bit further. Their system will be compatible with the Gamecube games and also the Gamecube controllers since the two systems use very different controllers. Not only that, but the Wii will also have the ability to download games from the original Nintendo (NES), Super Nintendo (SNES), and the Nintendo 64.

Sweet Features

If you want high definition gaming, then the PS3 is the way to go. It comes with a Blu-ray drive built in and can output in 1080p. Although the PS3 controller may look familiar, it’s had some updates. The controller is now motion sensing so in some games you’ll be able to move your character or fly a plane just by moving the controller.

The Xbox 360 was built to work with Windows XP media center. If you have a computer that already has media center on it, you’ll be able to view pictures, videos, and even recorded TV by using your Xbox. You won’t need to put your PC in your living room to take advantage of having a Media Center PC.

The Nintendo Wii decided to completely change the way gaming controllers are built. In the past, one controller was always held with both hands. The Wii’s controller looks more like a TV remote control than a game controller. It has a built in motion sensor so, for example, to swing a sword, you simply move you hand just like you were really swinging a sword.

Hopefully this review has helped you compare the three next generation gaming systems. Each has its pluses and minuses, and feature that are unique to it. Ultimately, your decision will likely come down to which system has the games that most appeal to you. And that is a decision that only you can make when deciding on a system to buy.