(Wii from Google Images)
Remember a time when you wish you could live out a fantasy? Like doing what the hero of the game you’re playing is undergoing? Well, that time is now long gone. Since the creation of the Wii by Nintendo, we are all one step closer to living in a world of make-believe.
A few years back, we’ve all witnessed the frequent mentions of Sony and its new innovations in news all around. Back then, it was evident that Sony was boss, while Microsoft and Nintendo struggled to follow suit.
However, come 2006, that all changed because of Nintendo’s launch of Wii.
Because of its ground-breaking wireless controls, its universal games for all ages, and its comparatively affordable price, the Nintendo Wii is one of the innovative crazes that changed the world of gaming.
First, the ground-breaking wireless controls is an innovation in itself. Nintendo revised the traditional gaming controller into what looks like a short, chubby, wireless remote control. This Wii Remote, which is usually paired with another odd-shaped controller called the nunchuck, has some kind of sensor so it knows where a person is aiming it, how fast the person is moving it, and other information. With these kinds of controllers, people can immerse themselves and be the character of the game by moving themselves in order to move their virtual character. Because of the intense interactivity involved, we believe that this is the ultimate precursor to the mainstreaming of virtual reality.
Aside from the ground-breaking wireless controls, another innovation about the wii is how Nintendo was able to target and bring together different kinds of people—the young, the old, the gamer and the nongamer—through its universal games. Aside from the usual, intense graphic fantasy games that hard-core gamers usually play, the Wii offers games for the ordinary non-gamer. Such games include the Wii Sports, an interactive game wherein users can play (and we mean really play—not just press buttons) mainline sports like tennis, boxing, etc, and the Wii Music wherein users can learn how to play instruments and jam with friends. Because of such games like Wii Sports and Wii Music, the Wii actually develops one’s skills and talents. Who would have thought that video games can make us more productive? Really, Nintendo made sure that we could integrate our lifestyle into a virtual world and at the same time, bring personal experience into technology.
Lastly, another wonder about the Wii is its affordable price. Wii can go for as low as P16,500 or less. With all the interactive revolution and personal experience that the Wii brought into our real life, who would have thought that it would cost even less than other gaming machines? Surely, there must be some marketing magic involved that we do not know about. Anyhow, we’re not complaining. But one thing we do know is that it’s not about how much labor or capital you can get to create a grand endeavor such as the Wii, it’s about how much ideas and imagination you can have to turn fantasy into reality. Nintendo showed us that.
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