One of the more innovative gifts this year has got to be the Nintendo Wii which promises to take social gaming to a whole new level with its motion sensing controller. But will it end up on the scrapheap with such failed innovations such as the Virtual Boy, or will it rise to glory defeating the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Lets take a closer look…There is little doubt that console gaming isn’t really the most inspiring thing in the world - the controller, the nexus for all user interaction, has remained relatively unchanged since Sony released the dual-analog controller for the original Playstation back in the late 90’s. Yes, Nintendo tried something slightly different with the shape of the N64 controller, but you can’t get away from the fact that aside from Wireless connections, the biggest change in controller between the console generations has been the colours of the buttons! Instead the focus has been on graphical horsepower, with new consoles being able to push more and more pixels in order to make games look more life like and immersive. Enter the Wii…Sporting something which is more akin to your TV remote, the Wii-mote is fully motion sensitive. The benefits of this are immediately seen in the console’s menu interface - no messing around with the analog stick trying to use an on screen keyboard, this is real point and click simplicity, and it works really well. (Although apparently not as well during the festive period!).The bundled Wii sports game is quite fun, especially with a few friends round, everyone can take turns at taking swings at virtual baseballs and throwing virtual bowling balls. Like the Gamecube before it, the Wii is an excellent social console, with Nintendo’s homegrown game lineup well suited to the social setting.

So, whats bad?

Like all novelty items, that novelty has to wear off at some point, and too be honest, that is what has happened with the Wii. Don’t get me wrong, its very innovative and a great use of technology, but after a while it just gets boring… especially when the realisation dawns that most of the launch games are just Wii Sports remakes with better graphics, or ports from other platforms with rushed modifications to leverage the controller.Also, the Friends system is horrendous when compared to something like Xbox Live - each console/user has a 16 digit friend code (rather than the friendly nickname used in Xbox Live), and thats not all, apparently every game has its own separate friend code. Its a bit confusing who would design such a system without realising that asking users to exchange several separate numbers, which are longer than the average phone number, is actually not a good thing at all.

Which console will win?

Too be honest, dispite its failings, I think the Wii will do well - this much is already evident in the tremendous launch day sales - but its ability to beat the novelty factor lies in the hands of game developers. The initial line-up fails to satisfy, but thats not to say that in 6-12 months time there won’t be some killer games, especially as developers learn to take advantage of the innovative control mechanism. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. (more…)