Nick Hide
Nick has been playing videogames for 20 years. He believes games are as valid an art form as music or film. They are interactive sculptures capable of profound emotional impact, so it really annoys him when games come out where you can mug old women.
Tuesday 30 January 2007, 5:24pm
Looking forward to 2007: Wii
When we got the Wii in the office just before Christmas, I was as keen as everyone else -- I gave myself muscle strain with the boxing. And Zelda was lovely, although I didn't have time to get into it. But I haven't played any Wii this year. Not because I think it's a stupid novelty, but because there aren't any other games worth playing. Yet.
Nintendo's got to prove that the Wii is a real console this year, with games that continue to appeal to a wide range of people and continue to provide interesting new experiences through innovative control systems. The safest way for the company to do that is through its existing franchises, easing us into a new way of playing with familiar characters.
The most obvious candidate is Mario, the most famous computer game character in the world. Super Mario Galaxy is due in the first quarter of the year -- I'm betting it will be close to the PlayStation 3's European launch on 23 March. According to my muchachos at GameSpot, who played it at E3 last year, it's beautiful and the controls and gameplay are wonderfully intuitive. Check out some of the videos on YouTube -- it looks pretty special.
Nintendo's other big hitter still to get the arms-waving treatment is Metroid. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is also set for release this quarter -- Nintendo could well be preparing a double whammy on PS3 release day. Can't find a PS3? Can't afford one? Here's a console at half the price with two stonking new games out today that you can actually buy! Sounds good to me. Metroid should be a good test of the Wiimote's suitability as a light gun -- again, my pals at GameSpot had no gripes. More YouTube coverage here.
Other interesting titles include the more mature Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, due in April, Super Smash Bros Brawl, due later in the year, the tasty-looking snowboarder SSX Blur and Prince of Persia Rival Swords, both due in March. GameSpot has a cool trailer for PoP here.
Articles by Nick Hide
Test-driving NASA's Moon-landing simulator
Crave Our colleague at CNET News, Daniel Terdiman, has used NASA's Moon-landing simulator and written a long piece about how awesome it was. We're not at all jealous
Survey: Asus laptops more reliable than Apple, Sony
Crave US warranty firm SquareTrade has researched laptop failure rates and found that Asus is the top of the pile. Bad news for HP though
CNET UK's games console reliability survey: 60 per cent of Xbox 360s have broken
Crave We commissioned a survey of UK gamers to find out how reliable the different consoles have been. The results don't reflect well on Microsoft
Intel settles with AMD for $1.25bn
Crave The rival chip manufacturers have settled their bitter legal disputes in a massive deal that also sees them sharing patent rights for the next five years
OpenOfficeMouse has frankly preposterous 18 buttons, joystick
Crave With 18 buttons, 63 profiles and an analogue joystick, the OpenOfficeMouse by WarMouse is set to be the most customisable peripheral ever. And the most insane, by some distance
EMI Abbey Road Live: Instant gig recording
Crave The major label has announced a new service that will sell recordings of gigs, mixed and mastered at the gig itself, and sold to fans as they make their way to the car park
Sony BDP-S760 Blu-ray player: Super bit-mapping reality enhancer
Crave Sony's new top-of-the-range Blu-ray player, the BDP-S760, is jammed full of exciting new features such as Wi-Fi Internet access and multi-channel headphone mode
Nokia Booklet 3G hits US: Hands-on verdict
Crave Nokia's Booklet 3G netbook has arrived in the US and our chocolate-voiced NYC colleague Dan Ackerman has one in
