Is Wii Worth It? 3 Reasons Why Many Say, “Yes!”

3. Its cheap

At $250 with a game included, Wii is an incredible value. For the price of a Wii, more controllers, and a few games you’d just barely hit the premium base price of its competitors. Games, too, are cheaper at a $50 MSRP.

And, tho some would have you the believe that the Remote & Nunchuk are an expensive controller combo, I’d like to see you outfit a 360 controller or a SIXAXIS with the tech innards of the Wii controllers. Did it cost you less than 10 dollars to add a speaker, internal flash memory, and an IR transceiver? (…not to mention a rumble motor for the SIXAXIS) I didn’t think so.

2. Its important

SLATE.COM said recently: A good book or movie provides a vicarious experience. A good game comes much closer to being experiential—to actually approximating the real thing. The Wii, Nintendo’s new console, takes gaming a giant leap forward in this journey. Like nothing else I’ve ever played, the Wii comes closest to achieving the grail of gaming: a home virtual-reality machine.

Being the gateway to full-on VR is reason enough for us nerds to snap one up…but, remember: your mother doesn’t care about Virtual Reality (or videogames, for that matter). Yet, the same massive percentage of the population that usually choose books over games is whom Nintendo hopes will make up the bulk of Wii users. What does this mean to you?

Simply put, anyone who has ever used a remote control will be ready to enjoy videogames with you. Finally, wives, mothers and little neices, grandfathers, and all those who are tech-averse in your family (or circle of friends), will see why you spend time and money on this stuff!

On top of all that, the controller is ambidextrous, (equally ergonomic for righties and southpaws) further diminishing an excuse to avoid joining the fun. Speaking of which…

1. Its fun

This the main reason you need a Wii system. Nintendo’s motto during E3 ‘06 rings ever true: playing is believing. I would tack onto that statement “at home” or “with friends” because Wii distinguishes itself as a must-have item when in your natural environment.

What exactly makes Wii so much fun is quite intangible, and therefore hard to quantify or describe. One thing is certain, Nintendo has given EVERYONE something to be excited about.

That excitement has “infected” developers, the media, and fans of gaming. They describe Wii, or present it in playable form, to others around them with rabid enthusiasm…enthusiasm that is absolutely contagious.

I think that developers having fun making Wii games is what contributes to the inexplicable fun-factor. Their passion comes across quite tangibly to the user, even if its just a subtle touch to make a game more intuitive and easy to grasp. You really have to play it to “get it”.

Nintendo garaunteed a product that has a little something for everyone in the family. They promised a system you would want to turn on everyday. They wanted to make a system that could play every Nintendo game ever made.

They delivered.

NY Times No like…PS3

 The New York Times, spent some quality time with the PS3 last week and didn’t come away too impressed:

The article starts out by addressing Howard Stringer (Sony VP):

“Howard Stringer, you have a problem. Your company’s new video game system just isn’t that great. Sony blithely(huh ?) insisted that the PS3 would leapfrog all competition to deliver an unsurpassed level of fun. Put bluntly, Sony has failed to deliver on that promise.”

Christopher Grant, managing editor of Joystiq, added –”It’s really not the all-star showing they should have had at launch. Sony is playing catch-up in a lot of ways now, not just in terms of sales but in terms of the basic functionality and usability of the system.”

The short of it is that SONY promised the world with the PS3—The Cell Processor was supposed to cure Cancer and you would have fun doing it ! The 1080p graphics were supposed to be like looking out a newly washed window! They promised 4D graphics….I’m not even sure what 4D means….though I think I visited the 4th dimension once after a late night with a bottle of tequila.—Sony you have failed to deliver….and for $600 bucks I could buy alot more tequila !

Ninja Style, Samurai Style

I just found the greatest fight-scene ever after a casual search on YouTube. I’d been hunting for the episode of Samurai Jack that featured an insane sunset-fight-on-rafters between Jack [a samurai] and a nameless Shinobi [a ninja].

Apparently it was the innagural episode of the 4th, and last season, airing sometime in June 2004. The whole episode is quite incredible, but the ending is particularly poignant.

I will tell you no more about the fight scene. Watch it here. Now. And make sure to resize the YouTube mini-screen for best quality.

For those who know nothing about Jack, below you’ll find an excerpt from his Wiki-entry:

Samurai Jack was an American animated television series created by animator Genndy Tartakovsky that aired on Cartoon Network from 2001 until 2004. It is noted for its highly detailed, outline-free, masking-based animation style, as well as for its cinematic style and pacing, unusual in today’s cartoons. The plot is frequently stopped to allow for the building of tension before combat or for the sake of humor; it is also not uncommon for episodes to be almost entirely free of dialogue.

Big $….no whammies !

Credit Suisse, an ultimate non-fanboy (if they chose wrong, they can stand to lose a lot of money), has decided to upgrade Microsoft’s (MSFT) stock.Credit Suisse cited Microsoft’s improving position in digital entertainment as a key reason why they chose to upgrade the stock to “outperform” from neutral; Credit Suisse expects Microsoft stocks to improve by 20%. Digital entertainment — officially known in Microsoft as the Entertainment and Devices Division — includes the Xbox 360.

PS3 production is slipping….

Apparently ,Sony missed the 400,000 goal for US launch; many analysts predicted they only reached half that amount. To add insult to injury, some analysts expect Sony to only make roughly 10% of the original 4 million promised by year’s end. YOINKS !

Many analysts are convinced that Sony may fail to ship more than 200,000 by year’s end. Other analysts think Sony made 200,000 for launch and will struggle to match that number over the next month.

The conclusion of the matter ,everything having be heard is—Get a xbox360/wii combo !