Nintendo taking control

With the successor to DS launching in the UK tomorrow we're taking time to think about how Nintendo is engineering its own success but at a cost.

A lengthy but worth reading feature has appeared on Edge Online today examining the success of exclusive games available for Nintendo Wii. At its core, however, the article can be summed up in two words: great controller.

The same can be said about Nintendo DS, but with even more intriguing gadgetry built in to the latest DSi model. Pre-orders for DSi are said to have doubled this past week as more people get to hear about what the new handheld brings, not least a camera that boasts motion sensing and face recognition capabilities. The DSi ‘experience' promises to be exciting, but just think for a moment about what you're getting.

If you've seen the screenshots of games taking advantage of such wizardry, you'll know how basic to the point of abstract it all looks (see picture). And this begs the question, yet again, about how much visuals really matter when enjoying games. Stuff like this makes a mockery of the scrutinizing of Xbox 360 versus PlayStation 3 renditions of the latest games such as Resident Evil 5. If people are happy playing peak-a-boo with bunnies does it really matter that the water is shinier on Xbox?

But while Nintendo is capturing the imagination of a broader audience with a handful of in-house titles such as Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Brain Training and Professor Layton, the traditional or ‘hardcore' gaming crowd is feeling increasingly forgotten.

While Nintendo Wii and DSi do indeed offer unique gameplay experiences, the dumbing down of franchises from Zelda to Dead Space to appease a casual crowd means that keen gamers will always need another console to fulfil their needs. And for this reason we must continue to applaud Sony and Microsoft for keeping the gaming faithful happy while hoping that Nintendo's social experiment soon matures.