Nintendo Wii Fanboy

With the possibilities of cooperative gameplay in some surprising titles, we reflected on the lack of decent co-op found in gaming today. Certainly, executing a flawless plan with a buddy in, say, Gears of War (sorry, we couldn't think of a decent example on the Wii) is gaming nirvana, but far more commonly implemented competitive modes give a lasting edge to games for years; just take a look at the brilliant Super Smash Bros. Melee, or, you know, any popular FPS in the last decade.

With that in mind, where would you rather your game go: co-op or competitive? Where should gaming companies focus, and is there any demand for strange hybrids of the two, such as the compelling The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures?

"You n00b sunnuva bitch," said the legendary knight 3494-5541-9771. "Pwnage ... is inevitable."

"Hah!" said his adversary, 7111-9463-2931. "If you wish to grok your princess once more, you'll taste the fury of my skillz!" He raised his arms high in the air. "363171-765491, I summon thee from the shades of hell! Rise forth and rock this bitch!"

The ground shook, and from a spewing chasm came the beast, hideous and deformed. 3494-5541-9771 stood his ground. No creature would keep him from his princess. He dodged a 7612-8113-4353-1919 and drew his 1913-1564-8328, shining in the darkness. With one deft blow he severed the 363171-765491's head, and leapt toward 7111-9463-2931.

"Boom--" shouted 7111-9463-2931, raising his staff. The two collided--

"HEADSHOTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!"

And all was silent. 3494-5541-9771 had won. He sheathed his 1913-1564-8328 and approached his beautiful princess, 654232-918811. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Did you ... did you pwn him?"

"I did, fair princess."

"Well done, knight. And now, your just reward..." She slowly began to disrobe...

"Wait," she said suddenly. "Do I have your Friend Code?"

"What? I don't need your friend co--"

"Sorry, sweetie," said 654232-918811, donning her gown once more. "No code, no multiplayer." She walked away.

"I ... but ... FRAK!"

(Seriously, Nintendo. This crap is ridiculous.)

- DS Lite: 133,325 22,480 (20.28%)
- Wii: 75,759 23,176 (44.08%)
- PSP: 24,850 6,653 (21.12%)
- PS2: 12,872 1,362 (9.57%)
- PS3: 11,948 2,572 (17.71%)
- Xbox 360: 2,900 63 (2.13%)
- GBA SP: 654 179 (21.49%)
- Game Boy Micro: 617 105 (20.51%)
- Gamecube: 167 88 (34.51%)
- DS Phat: 146 56 (62.22%)
- GBA: 26 14 (116.67%)

[Source: Media Create]

Friend codes, shmf ... shmiend ... point is, whatever. A minor inconvenience, we say! Hah! Bearer of good fortunes, Matt C. has this to say in his holy scripture mailbag feature, revealing "[Online is] coming, guys - Pokemon Battle Revolution kicks it off in the near future, but in the next six months you're going to start seeing a wave of third party games that take Wii online, too. Developers have had the online SDK for months now and the next wave of titles will incorporate it."

Goodness me, we're excited. The longer the developers have had the development kits, the better chances of getting some decent multiplayer going on. Even if these titles suck, the more online experience Nintendo has before Brawl (and possibly Prime?), the better. Friend codes be damned, I'll enter a million digits if it means kicking the crap out of all of you with Icarus. Oh yeah. Wii Game Night is so going down.

Based on a report by UK Channel 4's tele-text service, Gamecentral, the single friend code system that works differently than the DS per-game code and has been speculated to be the way Nintendo is going on the Wii is getting some support.

Gamecentral is backing up these claims, citing that players can look forward to having one individual friend code and not be forced to remember codes or look them up on a per-game basis.