Earlier this morning Nintendo introduced the Wii U, the successor to the Wii. Think of the Wii U as a sort of DS and Wii hybrid, combining touch and motion controls, with an on-screen HD gaming experience.
We were lucky enough to get some hands-on time with a collection of Wii U game demos and time with the tablet controller; here are our impressions.
Wilson joins us on the show, Max Headroom style from the CNET office in San Francisco. Tune in to the first half where we grill him about his loyalty to the East Coast and why he refuses to take showers in the office. We also have a couple stories in the rundown about teens asking Yahoo about Osama Bin Laden, a Nintendo 3DS augmented reality icon, a Japanese kissing machine, and yet another privacy breach from the already befallen Sony PlayStation Network.
The 404 Digest for Episode 812 Japanese engineer creates Facebook kissing machine. Dude tattoos Nintendo 3DS augmented-reality icon on his arm. Yahoo search trends prove teens don't know Osama bin Laden. Sony hacked again. Episode 812 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read moreSo, I got a Nintendo 3DS roughly three weeks ago, ahead of the officially released one that's now in stores everywhere. Nintendo's handheld is in the wild, and while I've used mine a fair amount, I'm curious how those not in tech journalism feel about the product.
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the 3D effect on the 3DS, but I wondered whether 3D would be a gimmick whose appeal faded quickly. Much like any shiny new gadget, there's a quick fascination period that tapers off pretty fast, especially if you're the type (as I happen to be) who plays with a lot of gadgets over the course of any given month.
Several weeks in, here are my observations.
I (almost) never use the stylus. The DS' chief appeal, along with dual screens, was its touch element. The 3DS still has a stylus and a lower touch screen, but the stylus is tucked away in the back behind the display, instead of easily accessible on the side. Maybe this was a wink of acknowledgement on Nintendo's part, because so far I've barely used touch. Why? Because I'm too busy staring at that big 3D screen, that's why.
The addition of a great analog pad also means I'm far more likely to use physical buttons. The 3DS is an immersive portable experience, and I'm far less interested in pulling back and tapping away with a stylus. I think most 3DS games will make little to no use of that touch capability, except in cases like Super Street Fighter IV, where virtual lower-screen buttons are simply pressed with a finger.
If you were following along with our live blog this morning, you know the big news: the Nintendo 3DS is coming March 27 for $250. But what about the games? A dozen or so titles were ready for some hands-on action this afternoon, and we got a chance to play the majority of them. Nintendo also showed us some of the built-in software that'll be on every 3DS, including the Mii Maker and AR Games.
The following titles will see launch-day or launch-window releases, between March 27 and E3 2011, according to Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime.
Mii Maker Miis are coming to the 3DS, and the Mii Maker app is preinstalled to allow for their creation. Better yet, the front-facing camera can be used in tandem to help make the process a bit more accurate. When we tried it out, the resulting Mii was a bit insulting, but after a few minor tweaks it actually did resemble our photo. Creating Miis from scratch is just like the Wii experience we're all used to.
AR Games AR Games (augmented reality games) will use a Nintendo playing card to manipulate the world through the 3DS' cameras. We had some time with a simple target-shooting game, and the effect is pretty impressive. Even better, the game requires the player to move around the virtual play space as well, adding a whole new dimension to the experience.
Steel Diver Once a tech demo, Steel Diver is getting the full game treatment at launch on the 3DS. Players control a submarine by using touch sliders that control height and acceleration. Torpedos can also be fired at oncoming obstacles, but the section of the game we played focused more on avoiding colliding with the ocean floor.
Kid Icarus Uprising After about 10 minutes with Kid Icarus Uprising--the very game Nintendo debuted the 3DS with at E3 2010--we're anticipating that the control scheme might be this title's biggest hurdle. We played two parts, one that felt like an on-rails shooter, the other a sort of modified third-person action segment.… Read more
Nintendo's been battling for control of casual gamers, especially when it comes to family-friendly entertainment. At the top of the heap are the "Wii" games, aka Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit, and the latest, Wii Party. Featuring the sometimes-overlooked Miis, Wii Party avoids any sort of physical fitness agenda in favor of casual group fun. We played Nintendo's latest in the comfort of our own homes, and have come back to tell the tale.
Scott: Virtual board games and endless minigame compilations have been inundating the Wii's software library, but Wii Party's formula is a little different. It's a series of game shows and virtual board games, at heart a sequel to the long-lived Mario Party games. Up to four players roll dice, jump around spaces on various boards, and compete in minigames to advance. My wife happens to love the Mario Party series. Every time I ask her to join me in some game-playing, she requests Mario Party 8, which I dutifully drag out of its dusty box. Mario Party 8 on the Wii happens to be some fun--but it's slow, and has letterboxed graphics. Wii Party freshens up the look and has a collection of 80 minigames that feel more streamlined and simplified, but very much in the vein of Mario Parties past.
There are also a number of game modes in Wii Party, tailored for play length (5 minutes to over an hour), number of players, and play style. A new two-player 5-minute game that feels like a condensed version of The Dating Game is a great and somewhat romantic little time-waster, but it's too short. The board-game-style experiences are more elaborate, but aren't quite as complex or as competitive as in Mario Party. All the Miis on your console--plus some added extras--gets shuffled in across the entire Wii Party experience, just like they do in Wii Sports and Wii Fit. It's fun, but it's not something we haven't seen before.
One of the most innovative new wrinkles in Wii Party comes from a series of room-immersive games that use the Wii remote's built-in speaker.… Read more
How closely does your Mii resemble the real you?
I ask only because it seems that police in Japan decided to dispense with the services of a sketch artist--who knows, perhaps he was too temperamental--and used a Wii to create their own impression of a man they wanted to question.
The Mii feature on Nintendo's Wii video game console allows you to create your own avatarish persona on games such as Wii Sports. So the wise policemen in the Kanegawa prefecture apparently decided they could swiftly create a Mii of a man who may have been involved in a … Read more
It's always nice to see a company making progress, and Mii Stor is no exception. The last time we visited with the company, it was offering a 4GB thumb drive for $19,000
Now, thanks to the advancement of technology, it has upgraded the line with a model dubbed "Ice" that has more capacity for about $29,000, according to Luxurylaunches--capacity for diamonds, that is, of which there are 456. (The previously cited "Snow" version had a mere 96 stones.) It's also made of platinum, as opposed to the low-rent 18k gold of its … Read more
This flashlight may cost $1,500, but there's a potential for 15 minutes of fame every time you turn it on.
The MII Flashcam is both flashlight and video camera rolled into one matte-black aircraft-grade aluminum body. And there's nothing tacky about it: It features a high-resolution Sony system, a 1.5-inch color LCD, and 1GB of RAM while storing up to 60 minutes of your favorite takes and audio, according to Northland Security Products. The uber-light won a Cygnus Public Safety Group Innovation Award at the annual conference of International Association of Chiefs of Police in Boston … Read more
Up until this weekend I hadn't really been too excited about seeing the upcoming Simpsons feature-length movie. That was until I laid my eyes on the film's Web site.
Like most other movie marketing sites out there, it's full of a lot of Flash with bouncy navigation and a nearly unbearable amount of sound effects. There are the usual mini-games (both of which I might add are quite enjoyable), and links to the movie's MySpace profile (it is Fox, after all). The real gem however, is the Simpsons avatar builder--a piece-by-piece character maker that lets people … Read more
We're sure it happens to you all the time: When you're out for a weekend cruise on your 23-foot yacht, things can get so boring. There's only so much water one can take, after all.
So when you tire of plodding along at 55 miles per hour on your luxury Frauscher Lido, you can check your e-mail with the on-board system installed by Mii AG (no relation to the Wii so far as we know). The digital specialist, as Luxist describes it, has outfitted the Austrian-made vessel with a 15-inch display, a keyboard and a Bluetooth mouse, … Read more
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Christina Milian and the gadgets she loves
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