This is an excerpt from the a NY Post article abiut the Nintendo Wii

April 15, 2007 — WITH its revolutionary motion-sensitive remote and relatively low price, the Nintendo Wii has become a smash hit compared to last year’s other console behemoths, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Now that it’s finally possible to get your hands on the Wii, we set out to find the best new games for it.

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More About: Nintendo, Wii

This is a video of someone Playing WOW with a Wiimote

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Third-Party accessory manufacturer Datel will now be selling Wii products very soon. The first is the WiFi Max, the Max Memory 1GB SD Card and The Trans Memory

Datel WiFi Max for Wii

Take your consoles online – wirelessly…

So you have a Nintendo Wii or an NDS (original or Lite). If you’re lucky, you have both! You also have a broadband internet connection for your PC. But you don’t have a wireless network. What’s the easiest, cheapest way to take your consoles online and compete with gamers from all over the world? Simple – WiFi MAX for Nintendo Wii and DS/DS Lite!

WiFi MAX is your ticket to the exciting world of online gaming, and it couldn’t be simpler to use. Just plug your USB WiFi dongle into your internet-enabled PC to create a Wireless Access Point. You can then connect to the internet and play online-enabled multiplayer games with DS and Wii gamers from all over the world. Just the thing if you don’t have a wireless router! Best of all, WiFi MAX supports up to five ‘local’ DS gamers at a time, so you and your mates can all play online at once with no loss of speed!

Don’t forget, there’s more to the Nintendo Wii’s online service than playing games. You can also download additional material such as new levels, skins, artwork and even retro games! That’s right – Nintendo is gradually making its back-catalogue classics for old Nintendo machines such as the NES, SNES and N64 available to Wii owners through the Virtual Arcade service. And with WiFi MAX, you can download them through your broadband internet connection! Just think what you’ll be missing out on if you don’t take your Wii online…

As WiFi MAX operates on the Wireless G standard, it’s five times faster than an ordinary WiFi connection, and if you use our USB cable and dongle stand (supplied), you can position your dongle to maximise WiFi range. If you have other WiFi-enabled devices capable of using the internet, such as laptops or PDAs, you can take them online with WiFi MAX too. It’s the ultimate device for internet surfing without a WiFi router!

Datel Max Memory for Wii

MAX Memory 1GB SD Card is the ultimate memory solution for use with your Nintendo Wii. You can store gamesaves, images, music, downloads and more, safely and securely.

As every console gamer knows, you can never have too much memory space to store your gamesaves. Luckily, you can cram on a huge amount of data onto a 1GB card – enough to preserve all your gaming glory! Best of all, MAX Memory 1GB SD Card comes preloaded with some bonus Powersaves for the greatest Wii titles. These are gamesaves with built-in cheats which harness the power of Action Replay, the world’s best-selling game enhancer. Give yourself Infinite Lives, Infinite Health, All Levels, All Weapons and more!

MAX Memory uses high quality, solid state flash memory chips, so it’s extremely reliable and won’t let you down like some low-quality flash solutions. Its 100% secure digital technology means you never lose data.

Datel 1GB Trans Mem For Nintendo Wii

Wii 1GB Trans•Mem gives you a massive one gigabyte of data storage for gamesaves, music, pictures, downloads and more. Featuring both SD and USB connections, Trans•Mem will fit into your Wii’s SD card port and also your PC’s USB port, allowing you to move data between your computer and your console.

With Trans•Mem, you can exchange data downloaded with your Wii with your friends from all over the world. Just transfer it to your Trans•Mem card, unplug the unit, insert it into your PC’s USB port then email whatever you like to whomever you please. It’s so easy!

No other accessories are needed. Built-in USB means there’s no Need for a clunky card reader, a dedicated adapter or specialised software. It’s the ultimate plug and play device. And best of all, if your Wii’s drive is filling up but there’s nothing on it which you want to delete, you can archive material you’re not presently using on your PC’s hard drive. Just move it across and delete it from your Wii, then when you need it again, move it back. Wowzers!

Source

This is an excerpt from the Review of the Nintendo Wii Need For Speed: Carbon by 1Up

Previous Need for Speeds have dramatically changed the way we look at racing games. Most recently Underground moved the needle on presentation, and Most Wanted revived the gameplay ideas that made Hot Pursuit 2 so beloved. While Carbon is peppered with clever little ideas, ultimately it falls victim to EA’s insistence on annually iterating the franchise. It refines previous ideas but lacks that big “wow” factor we’ve seen in the past. It’s thoroughly, thoroughly competent and shouldn’t be overlooked, but it really is “Need for Speed Again.”

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More About: Review, Nintendo, Wii, Need For Speed: Carbon

Reggie had an interview with USA Today about the future of the Nintendo Wii. You can read the interview below

Q: What made Nintendo try to do something dramatically different with the Wii?

A: Our focus is interactive game play, a whole new way to play, that puts fun back into this business. It allows everybody to pick up and play and isn’t focused on the core gamer.

Q: The Wii seems to emphasize the controller, not heavy attention on graphics. Is that by design?

A: That is exactly by design. Our visuals for Wii will look fantastic, but in the end, prettier pictures will not bring new gamers and casual gamers into this industry. It has to be about the ability to pick up a controller, not be intimidated, and have fun immediately. The trick is being able to do that, not only with the new casual gamer, but do it in a way that the core gamer gets excited as well.

Q: Microsoft has made the comment that people can buy an Xbox 360 and Wii for about the same price as a PlayStation 3. Would you mind terribly if that happened?

A: I’d much rather have the consumer buy a Wii, some accessories, and a ton of games, vs. buying any of my competitor’s products.

Q: A few years ago, Nintendo made a conscious decision to lie low when Microsoft introduced Xbox Live and began promoting its subscription online gaming service. In retrospect, does that look like a good decision?

A: I wasn’t here. What I can tell you is the way we’ve approached online play now is really with a view to the masses. With Nintendo DS (a dual-screen handheld player), for example, we offer free Internet play in a wide-ranging series of games. Our focus is getting as many consumers to enjoy that online experience as possible. And we’ve done that.

Q: You’re not pursuing a subscription model?

A: We view online gaming as essentially an enhanced way to enjoy the gaming experience and drive more sales of hardware and software.

Q: How do you extend your online strategy to Wii?

A: It’s the same premise. We will offer online-enabled games that the consumers will not have to pay a subscription fee for. They’ll be able to enjoy that right out of the box. The Wii console is going to be Wi-Fi enabled, so essentially, you’ll be able to plug it in and go. It won’t have hidden fees or costs.

Q: What is your plan for getting folks who aren’t normally interested in video games to try the Wii?

A: We need to get the consumer to admire what we’ve done. We need them to say to themselves, “Wow, this new Wii console by Nintendo is really interesting!” And they need to try it. They need to get bought into the proposition.

Q: Your background is in marketing. Without divulging competitive secrets, can you characterize your marketing plan?

A: It’s going to be massive amounts of hands-on activity, as well as showcasing exactly how Wii games are different. We’re going to create advocacy. We’re going to make it so that everyone who tries the Wii experience talks to their friends and neighbors. It’s going to be a really provocative sight to be seeing teens and 20-year-olds and 40-year-olds and 50-year-olds talking about how different this experience is.

Q: What can you tell us about timing and price?

A: We’re well on our way to sharing all of that information with our retailers and our licensees. We’ll be sharing that information publicly later on.

Q: Can the Wii take Nintendo back to the top of the mountain?

A: Our goal is to have as many teens and young adults as we have 40-plus-year-olds excited about the platform. We’re trying to expand this business here in the U.S in a way that it really hasn’t been expanded … for the health of this industry.

Q: Sounds like you’re more focused on new customers and not necessarily taking share from the other guys.

A: The interesting thing is if you do expand the market, you do both. You grow the category, but you’ll also dramatically increase your market share. As an example, Nintendo DS in Japan outsells all of our competitors by a factor of five to one. We are so far in advance of our handheld competitors that they’re not even on the map. That’s all based on a market expansion strategy. And that’s what we’re looking to do with home consoles.

Q: How do you handicap your competitors; what worries you most about them?

A: Our competitors are both going down the same path. Both believe that more and more performance with a higher and higher price tag are their keys to success. So what do I see? I think our two competitors will trade share between them, while we go off and grab share in a completely different way.

More About: Reggie, USA Today, Nintendo Wii

Ti the creators of the ‘Hollywood GPU’ for the Nintendo Wii spoke to GameDaily and had the following to say:

“I think what you saw [on Wii] was just the tip of the iceberg of what the Hollywood chip can bring to the Nintendo Wii.

The team that worked on this chip also worked on the Flipper chip that was in GameCube, and they’ve been working with Nintendo for a very long time so there’s a great chemistry with the two teams working together.”

“I really don’t think that it’s about the [specs]; I think it’s about the innovation that it brings to the table—the motion-sensing, the always-on capability, which is really cool too—the fact that the chip is powerful enough and responsive enough to be there at a moment’s notice, and I think that’s pretty cool for the average gamer…(about 360 and Wii GPU)

They’re different chips for different platforms and different uses. I don’t think it’s a fair comparison to put them on a chart [to analyze]. That’s not what it’s all about… I think if you focus on the capabilities that the chip will have for the average consumer, with the amazement and wow factor, I think that’s the value that we bring.”

Source: GameDaily

More About: Hollywood GPU, Nintendo Wii, Wii, Wii GPU