Wii Scary

I own a Nintendo Wii. Unlike many people, I didn't spend hours in line waiting for it. I was lucky. I went to the local target that I knew was going to get 70 Wii machines and waited an hour before opening to ensure that I got my machine.

There is little doubt that Nintendo is making money on the console itself, unlike Microsoft and Sony. Even if Nintendo was not making money on the console itself, they would have made money on the number of games alone that I have purchased for the device.

1) Wii Play
2) Rayman's Raving Rabbids
3) Zelda
4) Sonic and the Secret of the Rings
5) Excite Truck (which I use as an MP3 player sometimes)

Virtual Console Games
1) Mario 64
2) Sonic the Hedgehog

Accessories:
1) Nunchuck Controller
2) 1GB SD card (not nintendo)

Perhaps that isn't enough, but a number of titles upcoming and out already are on my list of games I want to get. There is a FPS (First Person Shooter) that comes in Rayman's Raving Rabbids that has totally turned me on to the idea of a FPS for the Wii - a full one. Rayman's only let's you control where you fire like some arcade shooters, where I am from the Castle Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom 2 generation - and yearn for full control of motion.

Soon, I'll have my choice of an Alien Syndrome FPS and Metroid Prime Hunters for Wii will be coming out soon.

Not to mention that I've gone totally Japanese and own three Nintendo DS devices - one for me, my wife and my 4 year-old son. My favorite game has to be Big Brain Acadamy. It is hard though, to neglect Elite Beat Agents and New Super Mario Brothers.

So, for the Wii, I can't wait for Big Brain Acadamy. I'm even thinking of getting a Pokemon game or two - as long as there is a way to inter-operate between the Wii and the DS. I think, with a little work, a motion sensor and WiFi connection, the Nintendo DS could even be used as a controller for the Wii.

This would be a combination of two great worlds. Motion sensing controlling and touch sensing. I could imagine a game where you are playing by waving your DS around (hopefully with a strap of some sort) and then quickly struggling to scribble on its screen or do something on the DS screen.

Anyway, my thoughts for the moment on the Nintendo. I think they will do well against their competitors.

Elite Beat Agents - Nintendo DS Game

There are some games that are produced for Nintendo gaming systems that are incredible.

Elite Beat Agents is a fun game for anyone that enjoys music. You really can't tell from the package just how much fun it is to play this game.

You might have to get over the cheesy story lines that go with each mini music game, but they are so cheesy that you can't help but laugh sometimes.

In essence, there are destination where you need to dance with your Nintendo stylus with the music and the beats in the measure that the game shows you on the screen. There are a few variations to what you need to do to hit the bit (or up-beat) or dance with a long section of music.

Hey, and you can't knock a game too much that has Men at Work's YMCA on it!!!

But I do have some problems with game play, the opening tutorial and content.

The opening training/tutorial section doesn't take you through the experience very well, in fact the only thing you'll really know how to do is the spinning you do for bonus points.

Game play is great! If you have a really good sense of timing. There are two levels of game play, but I think they get things a bit wrong on the lower level of game play. Specifically, they reduce the number of times you have to tap the screen to the beats, but this doesn't necessarily make it easier.

I suspect the answer to both of my points is to have a tutorial mode, where you are hitting on the beat for the most part, like we do when we're just bopping around to music or something to get in to the habit or style of playing and listening to the music.

Please NOTE! The game asks you to listen to it, I suggest you do what it says! If you play the game watching the circles closing in on the circles, you are sure to miss a lot of beats.

My 4 year-old son loves this game, but he can't play it. There is no child mode which would be incredible to have. I'm sure he'd be in to this for hours trying to get everything just right. Now he just gets frustrated and wants to watch me play it.

I'm hoping that they get more titles like this - perhaps Elite Beat Agents 2, 3, 4 or different themes and music. Once they have the primary engine down (and they do, game play works flawlessly) it should be a simple matter to port more music over and the comic art intros and action shouldn't take too long to create.

It is an opportunity for a lot of rich content that shouldn't cost a lot to make, but that I think people would be willing to pay for.

At least I would be willing to pay for it.