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Hands-On With 'Mario Kart,' 'Wii Fit' -- Nintendo's Sunniest Seasonal Line-up Yet

Posted 3/25/08 9:00 am EST by in mario kart, Miis, mtv news, Wii, Wii Fit, Wii Wheel


Mario Kart Wii(Below is part of my latest GameFile column about my recent hands-on and feet-on with "Mario Kart" and "Wii Fit". For the full thing, check out MTVNews.com.)

Game demonstration events run by Microsoft and Sony still consistently feature much more macho Xbox 360 and PS3 entertainment than the kind of stuff at Nintendo's showing last week. The centerpieces of their lineups are usually first-person shooters or action-combat games. Instead, a visit with new Wii games has me asking questions like: "What's this penguin mode here?" (It was a "Wii Fit" balance game that dresses a Wii owner's Mii avatar as a penguin; requiring the player to tilt the penguin's ice floe so he or she can catch fish.) Only at a Nintendo event am I wondering if the female characters parking cars in the middle of the track in the "Mario Kart Wii" Coconut Mall race course can also be based on Miis of friends and relatives. This is console gaming at its sunniest.

Nintendo isn't shy about this kinder, gentler lineup of games. This is the style of Wii game showcased at last year's E3. It's the style of Wii game set for the spring, games designed more to make you laugh or improve your digestive health than to grit your teeth.

Check out the rest of this column at MTVNews.com.

Old Man Totilo Takes On 'Wii Fit' With Mixed Results

Posted 3/19/08 2:44 pm EST by in Wii, Wii Fit


wiifit_age_281.jpgYesterday morning, my editor Stephen Totilo and I got to play "Wii Fit" and "Mario Kart Wii" at a Manhattan hotel.

Or rather, I got to watch Totilo play those games.

See, when there's a videographer on hand to record the events, there's only a limited amount of time for actual playtime. So I gave up my chance to play for the good of the blog, and therefore, the people (besides, it's not the first time I've given up playing a game for the good of others).

I was able to get the observer's perspective, which is probably good to understand, unless you plan on playing the family-friendly "Wii Fit" alone in your cave.

Since Totilo is a seemingly healthy 31 year-old, and he had just come from the gym that morning (he claims he goes twice a week, with one night of karate), I expected him to do pretty well.

But you know what? I was wrong... Read More...

The Making Of 'Wii Fit' -- The Complexity Of Creating Simplicity (GDC 2008)

Posted 2/21/08 10:41 am EST by in GDC, Japan, nintendo, Wii, Wii Fit


wiifit_281×211.jpgSan Francisco -- With "Wii Fit" already out in Japan but still months away from release in Europe and the U.S., throngs of GDC attendees lined up to attend a talk by one of its developers yesterday afternoon.

Takao Sawano, Deputy GM in Entertainment Analysis and Development at Nintendo, talked about his work developing the Wii Balance Board peripheral for "Wii Fit" in a session titled, "'Wii Fit': Creating a Brand New Interface for the Home Console."

The hundreds of people in the audience listened attentively as Sawano-san spoke in his native tongue (English speakers used headsets connected to a translator). He talked about how "Wii Fit" came to be in the first place, the features of the software and the possible future implementation of the Wii Balance Board as a new controller.

As simple as the design looks, creating "Wii Fit" was not an easy process. When Sawano-san was tasked with creating the hardware for Shigeru Miyamoto's vision, he thought, "We'll sell a few, but there's no way that this will become a hit product." However, after overcoming major design challenges with the Wii Balance Board, over 1.4 million units have been sold in Japan since its December 1 release.

Some highlights from the talk include:

  • Miyamoto had planned "Wii Fit" long before the Wii's launch.
  • Early prototypes of the Wii Balance board included rumble and a connection to the Wii remote.
  • The program includes a Body Test, where you can measure BMI, weight and your "Wii Fit" age quickly and easily without inserting the disc. After the first time the game is inserted it will install the "Wii Fit" channel via the game disc.
  • In the Aerobics section, you can choose running courses that don't require use the Wii Balance Board; instead the player holds the Wii remote in hand or in pocket and runs in place. You can be joined by another person with a second Wii remote. New content will be added "to keep players coming back for more."
  • Also in Aerobics, players can change to the TV and the speaker in the Wii remote still counts for you as you exercise and watch TV.
  • "Wii Fit" is slated for release in Europe on April 25 and in North America on May 19.

Read on for the details...

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The No-More-Solo-'Zelda' Theory -- Nintendo And The End Of Single-Player Gaming

Posted 11/5/07 10:08 am EST by in 3DS / DS, GameCube, guitar hero, Metroid Prime 3, Mini-Games, multiplayer, nintendo, Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, Top Entries, Wii, Wii Fit


What if I was wrong about Nintendo? What If a lot of us were?

As a reporter my job is to ask questions, observe and share my findings. In the process I develop an understanding of facts, a sense of the patterns I see. Sometimes, though, I realize what I think I've figured out is incorrect.

That's how I'm feeling about Nintendo these days. I'm ready to chuck one of my main ideas about the Wii. I see a different pattern than I used to, a new understanding, one that suggests a much more radical aspect of the Wii than I had previously considered.

My old Wii idea: Nintendo's console is a party console, destined to by full of party games -- mini-games. Hence this blog's running tally, in the right hand margin of total mini-games on the Wii.

My new Wii idea: Nintendo's console is a party console, destined to mark the end of Nintendo-crafted single-player game designs. I fully expect the next "Zelda," the next "Donkey Kong," even the next "Mario" role-playing game to be designed in such a way that at least two players will be able to enjoy the main game mode simultaneously.

I've got sales figures, analysis of old games, advertising hints and more to back this up. Let's see if you agree.

Read More...

Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan On Apple Comparisons, The Company's New Gaming Calendar, And The Missing 'September Surprise' (Part 1 of 2)

Posted 10/22/07 8:09 pm EST by in 3DS / DS, Delays, halo, Nintendo 2007 Holiday Summit, People Who Really Like Nintendo, Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, Wii, Wii Fit


Nintendo's Perrin KaplanA couple of weeks ago I interviewed Nintendo's vice president of marketing in the U.S., Perrin Kaplan. I've talked to her quite a bit but have seldom formally interviewed her.

She's not a bad person or anything. She just has a reputation for so-called Jedi Mind Tricks (aka not really answering questions).

Still, the 15-year company veteran must know plenty about what Nintendo is up to. And with news of her end-of-2007 departure from Nintendo hitting the morning of our interview, it was a good time for us to chat.

What follows is the first of a two-part interview, conducted in a hotel in San Francisco, a few floors below the demo suite for Nintendo's gameplay summit.

In Part One, she and I talk about how Nintendo is re-thinking its release calendar, what Wii consumers are really buying, where the missing "September Surprise" went, whether the Wii jackets are the result of lawsuits, and much more.

Part Two will cover recent criticisms from the gaming press that the Nintendo Seal of Quality doesn't work, her thoughts on "Smash Brothers" vs Xbox Live and the most interesting moments in her career.

Read More...

With My "Smash Bros." Dreams Crushed I've Upped My Achievement Goal to 20,000

Posted 10/16/07 4:36 pm EST by in Cipriano Achievement Thermometer, Delays, Smash Bros. Brawl, Wii, Wii Fit, Xbox 360


sandbag.jpgThis was not a good week for me. The only really good thing I have to say about my achievements quest this week is that my Xbox didn’t die.

I ended up with a meager 240 points towards my overall goal of 10,000, which, doesn’t matter now since the reason I was doing this was so that I could focus on “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” when that came out. And now that game is delayed until February. This change is forcing me to not only reexamine my quest, but also my station in life.

How could a merciless God let this happen?

Early last week when the release date on the Smash Bros. Dojo changed from December 3 to T.B.D., and the release date for Japan was changed to January 24, 2008 I held out hope that the game might still come out this year. My rationale was that “Wii Fit” would be released in the states in January, and Nintendo would still want to have a strong release in December, that release being “Smash Bros.” So I thought. Apparently, like so many other things in my life, I was wrong, and the date was pushed to February, 10 2008. While everyone was trying to console me with the fact that Sonic is now definitely in the game -- and that it gave me more time to get 10,000 points -- that’s not exactly how I saw it.

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E3 ‘07: Feet-On Preview - ‘Wii Fit’ and the Wii Balance Board

Posted 7/14/07 5:19 am EST by in nintendo, Previews, Review, Wii, Wii Fit


wiiboard.jpg

Some might consider the biggest announcement from Nintendo this year to be Wii Fit, and the Wii Balance Board; Nintendo certainly thinks it is. It was easily one of the biggest surprises of E3, and it might leave a lot of gamers wondering if it's right for them, and the answer is simple -- it just may not be. I was able to spend a few minutes getting a bit of a workout atop the board, and as amazing a piece of hardware as I thought it was, I can completely see how there are gamers out there that are just a lot more comfortable sitting on the couch. And that's OK, the Wii Fit isn’t really for them (although they might stand to lose a bit of weight while gaming – I sure can). From the time I spent with the game it’s really easy to see that Wii Fit is a great piece of software, built on top of an intriguing piece of hardware – the Balance Board -- but don’t you remember the Power Pad?

Read More...

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