Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime contributed a column to CNet's News.com, in which he discusses the "technological divide" growing between those who can afford and understand expensive, complicated equipment and those who cannot. He suggests that there is in fact a way to cross this divide, and serve consumers on both sides. Avid followers of Nintendo should know what he suggests: a low-cost device that innovates and creates new markets.

He then proceeds to describe the Wii as simple and accessible enough to appeal to people who aren't willing to commit to complicated new developments-- the way cereal bars appeal to people who enjoy eating food but have no time to cook a full breakfast. We respect that there seems to be an actual strategy behind the Wii, and we recommend reading this column to see it laid out in very logical terms.

Reggie recently sat down and talked with Newsweek, claiming that their will not be any new game drought on the Wii, something that a lot of folks claim killed the GameCube. Seeing as how many purchase Nintendo systems for Nintendo-created games, this is the greatest worry facing the Nintendo consumer and with delays on Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, many are fearing this to be the case. Reggie puts those fears to rest, however (or, at least, attempts to):

NEWSWEEK: Let's look at first-party software for a minute. As evidenced by software sales, gamers who purchase Nintendo platforms do so primarily to play Nintendo-developed games. But from the Nintendo 64-era on, Nintendo has a history of repeatedly delaying key titles, creating long droughts between the AAA games for which its fans bought the hardware. For example, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, your flagship title for the Wii, is in fact a long-delayed Gamecube game that has been moved over to the Wii, as has Super Paper Mario. So how can you assure gamers that are considering a Wii--keeping in mind that they've heard such promises before--that they won't endure the same droughts between AAA first-party titles that they suffered on the Nintendo 64 or the Gamecube?

Reggie Fils-Aime: The way I answer that question is with three very real examples. First, Zelda: Twilight Princess, on Wii, is arguably the best game we've ever made. Period. It is fantastic. It's been essentially made, from the core essence of that game, to be perfect for Wii. And yes, while its development started as a Gamecube title, the fact is the Wii version plays fundamentally different. A consumer can buy the Wii version and the Gamecube version and have two fundamentally different experiences. Now certainly, the Gamecube version of Zelda is fantastic. But the Wii version of Zelda is without peer.

The second example I point out is Metroid Prime 3, which is a from-the-ground-up creation of Metroid for the Wii system. That title is going to come out early in 2007. That will give us fantastic momentum coming off of the launch, and will certainly be an example of how there will be no new game drought for this system.

The third example I would give you is Mario Galaxy, another from-the-ground-up Wii game that we are strategically timing the launch to make sure that we continue driving momentum through 2007. So N'Gai, how do I answer the question, "Will there be no drought," and "How will we make sure that there are fantastic titles for Wii?" The answer is Zelda, Metroid and Mario. Which is a pretty darn good lineup.

So are you willing to make a "Read my lips" pledge right here?

I thought I just did.

All right. I'll be checking in with you when these titles actually ship.

[Chuckles] Exactly.

[Via Codename Revolution]

When the big man speaks, we listen. And yes, we're referring to the deity that is Reggie Fils-Aime, standing atop his mighty pedestal after supplanting Zeus for the title. He was recently on Spike TV's GameHead, speaking rather generically about the Wii. But, as you may have guessed, there was a diamond in the rough: the news that the first multiplayer online Wii games will be announced in Q1 2007 and start shipping in Q2. Finally!

We're a little disappointed that online didn't come right out of the box; God knows some games really could have benefitted: Madden 07, Call of Duty 3, and Red Steel certainly could have used the boost. Still, at least a smidgeon of online functionality is coming quite soon, with the ability to trade custom levels in Elebits via the magic of the internet intertron. That's its new name. Thus have we spoken, and thus it is so.

[We don't normally steal our sister site Joystiq's pictures, but this one was just too good.]

During a video interview with Reggie Fils-Aime, CNET's Rich DeMuro grilled the Nintendo president about the upcoming console. Turns out, we should expect no mystery announcement, no major new bomb, basically nothing more until the launch of the console. Reggie wants to dispel all rumors that the company is planning a major announcement pre-launch. For the most part, we're thankful, because the roller-coaster ride has near caused a coronary in us already. We just want the console already!

[Thanks :P!]

It's been awhile since we've heard from Reggie following his big promotion and in his latest chat with Game Informer, he confirms that the mystery flap on the front of the Wii will house the SD Card slot. In stating this, Reggie says that the SD Card is the only "announced" memory medium, so it's quite possible that Nintendo has another system up their sleeves.

As for WiiConnect24 and micro transactions, Reggie sees this as digital delivery for smaller content for games, such as exclusive items or news headlines. In the interview, he says that this will be available to third parties, but is not something that will be forced upon them.

During a roundtable discussion at E3, Peter Moore discussed mostly his console, yet managed to take a second to say a thing or two on the Wii. In discussing the possibility of purchasing a Wii upon release later this year, Peter called upon Nintendo ass-kicker, and subsequent name-taker, Reggie Fils-Aime to hook him up with a free unit.

"Well I hope my friend Reggie [Fils-Aime] sends me one, I don't know. [laughs] Look I was there when Iwata-san pulled out that thing. I was there in the front row in Tokyo... and I said [to myself] "You've got to give 'em kudos for trying." And I'm literally going to go over there tomorrow and try to find Reggie or find Perrin [Kaplan] and I think Mario's the game... if you've got to play one game it's Mario. I'm sure I'll get one. Right now I'm trying to get my Brain Age down [laughs]. Look, it's not partisan; I love what Nintendo is doing."

So even though a little bit of that comes off as condescending, which you can't blame me for assuming as I wasn't there and only have text to work with, any press is good press, no?