Fatlo.af

I, am a geek. This is no secret. I’m not unveiling some secret found written in l33t in the dead sea scrolls or something.

Now that, that’s out of the way, I want a Wii.

Nintendo have been on the back foot for some time, since other companies realised that the market they were pimping themselves out to could support a couple of other entries they’ve always been the mainstay for child-like entertainment, not the bastions of graphic violence, sexual innuendo and depravity we all know and love.

For the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) there was the Sega Master System, for the SNES (add Super as a prefix) there was the Sega Mega Drive, for the N64 there was the wonderfully mediocre Sega Saturn. In amongst all this there was also the Jaguar and the 3DO but they were so awfully bad that whatever dignity you had left after purchasing one normally went to buying a whole lot of sleeping pills or some steel wool to cleanse yourself of the dirty feeling.

Up until this point, it was a two horse race, Atari had retired to the stables a while before for a wheatbag and a lie down but the inventors of the Walkman decided to enter into the fray with the Playstation. This subsequently dethroned Nintendo as the king of the console, abdicating in favour of their crosstown Japanese rivals, Sony. If this was West Side Story there would have been synchonised dancing, sleeveless well groomed men and faux fighting. Sega was reduced to the jester, plotting for revenge in the near future.

Then, just before the turn of the century, Nintendo tried again to regain its apparent throne with the Gamecube. Sony hit back with the PS2 and Sega decided that it was man enough to eat at the adults table by bringing the Dreamcast along for show. Now, with 3 players in the proceedings, the biggest pretender of them all, Microsoft was feeling left out and decided that making a PC look like a games console was the way to go with the massively hackable, high loss making black console the size of a small bar fridge, the XBox.

Even with the 7th generation of console’s prostituting themselves about for the opportunity to see if you “want a good time”, the PS2 is still king. Microsoft hasn’t bankrupted itself and Nintendo, while shattered with the lacklustre response to the Gamecube, is back with a heavyweight.

There’s so much choice now, I could buy an Xbox360, a PS3, PSP, DS, DS Lite and now a Wii if I was that way inclined. It all comes back to being a geek, if its something different, inherently cool or just plain looks fun, it will be bought. The Xbox360 and the soon to be released PS3 are plain consoles, nothing out of the ordinary except for the lack of cables coming out of the box to your dirty little hands as you struggle to maintain your sweaty composure during an intense session of Project Gotham or Fight Night.

The Wii is different, not only is it a mildy childish name which makes the hardiest of geeks giggle at the name, it has a cool controller. Not only is it wireless, its also motion sensitive. Not just a bit of a tilt here or there for fun, full motion in all its glory. You want to hit a golf ball 300yds in Tiger Woods 07? You swing your arms in the same motion you would if you were playing badly outdoors. Playing tennis against the worlds best? Swing the Wiimote like a racquet and experience the exhaustion normally only felt when standing up from your desk.

Of course, you don’t have to do with wildly dramatic motions associated with the sport but where’s the fun in that, there’s already been some reports of broken tv’s because of over zealous players and a dodgy strap. They were probably breaking a sweat as well.

The Wii looks fun, I reckon that will be what I buy for me to enter my admission into the 7th generation of consoles.

Bring on Wii Sports.