Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Future

Nintendo's competition in 2010 is becoming more intense since now they have created there own motion control to the table. Xbox with Kinect and Playstation with the Move. Nintendo came prepared since in E3 unvailed the big guns. The Legend Zelda Skyward Sword with Wii Motion plus accessory, Metroid the Other M, Donkey Kong Country Return, Goldeneye 007 Wii, Kirby Epic Yarn. Finally the Nintendo 3DS. A handheld supporting 3D cabilities wthout the need of 3D glasses. With this Nintendo brought back Kid Icarus. Kid Icarus was a Nintendo Entertainment System game, 20 years since seing Kid Icarus long time, and being able to play on 3D makes it even better for old fans. So will Nintendo keep leading the videogame industry, the future can only say. YES duh!!!!

Wii would like to play!!

In November 2006 Nintendo regained the lead in videogames sales. Nintendo launched the Nintendo Wii. The Nintendo Wii was unique and great. The top thing that helped sell the Wii was it motion control abilities. Nintendo was the first to have motion control capabilities. Nintendo promoted this so much the Wii included a sports game "Wii Sports". Unlike it's competion it didn't have HD visuals but that didn't matter in the competition. The Wii could also play gamecube games. Internal Memory capabilities was limited (512 mb) but you could buy and sd card for more memory space. The Nintendo Wii also have WiiConnect24. What this does is receive and send messages to the Wii's message board, make updates to the system, and have access to the Wii Shop Channel. What the Wii Shop Channel basically does is let's you buy past games from third parties and Nintendo. You buy them through the Virtual Console. You can also buy modern games from Wiiware.This games are not retail games which means they are cheaper. You buy games through buying point cards from a retail store. This cards have a code and you input the in the Wii Shop Channel. Another thing the Wii had was the ability to make what you say avatars called, "Miis". The Mii's could be used in games such as Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Sports Resort.

The Wii also has a variety of channels which are downloaded through the Wii Shop Channel. The most important are Nintendo , Check Mii Out, and Internet Channel.  The Nintendo Channel gives videos which show us games available in the Wii Shop Channel, or retail games. It also gives us information on the games. You can also download demos to a Nintendo DS through it. The Nintendo has a program called Nintendo Wii which tells information every Monday about games for Nintendo handhelds and consoles. The Check Mii Out Channel helps share Mii creation from all over the world. The Internet Channel is and internet browser  supported by Opera.
Now let's talk about the games. Nintendo did not launched only with Wii Sports, Nintendo brought great games to the board. Super Paper Mario, Metroid prime Corruption, and The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. Zelda was supposed to be a GCN launch only but with the release of the Wii it went multiplatform. Nintendo with this game delivered what the fans were waiting for , dark, human like not cartoony Link. Motion controls made the game better. In 2007 Nintendo brought back it's mascot Mario. this time Nintendo send Mario in to space to once more save Princess Peach from Bowser. Many people this is the true sequel of Super mario 64.This was one of the greatest graphics for the Wii. Nintendo also brought the first Mario racing game that could be played online and with motio controls. Mario Kart Wii.

Nintendo was criticized that it motion controls weren't very accurate. In the E3 conference of 2008 Nintendo showed off the Wii Motion Plus. This accesorie does below the Wii Remote were the Nunchuck is suppose to go. The Nunchuck could be inserted below the Motion Plus. The Wii Motion Plus perfected the Motion acuracy. In 2009 it was released with a game to show off the Wii Motion plus,"Wii Sport Resort". Wii sport resort is a combination of sports into a game. The game includes swordplay, bowling, golf, ping pong, basketball and many more. One game that was developed especially for the Wii Motion plus was RedSteel 2. This game basically was a third person shooter and sword fighting game. Wii Motion plus is now being use to develop one of Nintendo's greatest game series The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword. This game is obligatory to use Motion plus accesorie.


Wii Motion plus isn't the only accesorie Nintendo has. It also has one very important accesorie called Wii Balance Board released with Wii Fit. The balance board captures full body movement. This helps you be more fit and makes your exercise more intense since you use all your body.

What is in stored for Nintendo for the future.......

Gamecube

In November 18,2001 in Northamerica the Gamecube was launched. Unlike it's predecessors this time the gamecube did't lead the videogame market. It was small and it was a cube.That wasn't the problem. It had many. First the disc. Unlike XBOX and PS2 the Gamecube didn't use regular DVD's it used mini-dvd's. This was a problem in the market since it couldn't play DVD's. It supported Broadband adapter and Modem adapter but it lacked games to play online. It had a cool featurethat you could connect your gameboy's game in the gamecube with the Gameboy player but it wasn't enough to top the market. Many third companies seeing the succes of PS2 and Xbox abandon Nintendo and went to work with them. The gamecube didn't make Nintendo's years. It had great games but that wasn't enough. For me some of the games weren't the best in the series. Return of Super Mario Sunshine. Terrible voice acting, sure the game was good but it wasn't great like Super Mario 64 was. The Legend of Zelda Windwaker; some people say it was great but for me it was good to play but not to play twice like past games. First cartoonish Link, it was a child it wasn't fun, too easy, and the worst part "sea travel". Unlike Ocarina of Time and the past games, Windwaker took place on the sea 40 hours on the sea not fun. This is just my opinion. Now for the good. The GCN was not all bad, it had great games. Mario Kart Double Dash, Luigui's Mansion, Metroid etc.
Some people say that one thing that affected GCN was that it wasn't launched with a Mario game instead it was launched with Luigui's Mansion. For me Luigui's mansion was great but for some it was bad.

Mario Kart Double Dash was great because you could control 2 Nintendo characters at the same time and race against other was great. the music was great and the gameplay was great too. In the end Gamecube didn't lead the game industry, but soon Nintendo will launch a ne console. Wii would like to play.

Project Reality

By 1993 Nintendo became interested in Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI).  Nintendo became interested because the company's work in 3d graphics. Nintendo thought another way to sell more videogames was 3d. Project Reality was created. By 1996 and 1997 the Nintendo 64 was released. 64 is due to the 64 bit CPU. Nintendo once again lead the market in videogames. But the Nintendo 64 wasn't perfect it also had problems. Nintendo had problems with it cartridges. Nintendo 64 was the last console to use cartridges.  The cartridges had space limitations, designers struggled to put lots of information into the cartridges. They had to use tricks to make good graphics and lots of information. The Nintendo 64 had one major component called the RAM. Nintendo was the first to implement an unify memory subsystem instead of having different banks for CPU, audio, and video. Nintendo 64 had 4mb of memory and with the expansion pak 8mb. But enough of this let's talk about games. Although Nintendo had a limited library of games (387) competing agains Sony which had (1100) Nintendo still won the game competition. Nintendo won due to it had the most aclaimed games. Super Mario 64, this was the top selller for Nintendo, The Legend of Zelda: ocarina of Time ( quoted by some as the greatest game ever made), and finally Goldeneye 007. Super Mario 64 became a hit because Mario evolutionized to 3d and a whole new adventured, and it was simply great. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time was great the land of Hyrule in 3d, a new adventure with Link. This time also The Legend of Zelda went deeper into the story, bigger world, bigger bosses, greater puzzles, greater everything. Finally Goldeneye 007, some people say it is he best third person shooter ever created. Some say it established the foundation for thrid person shooters. Well Goldeneye was the first multiplayer third person shooter and it was simply great. Nintendo 64 was great but soon a new era of consoles will come... 

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Between 1990 and 1993 in North America, Europe, South America, Nintendo launched the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. This system was the second console Nintendo released. This was Nintendo's 16-bit video game console. It had greater graphics and better sound than the NES. Nintendo brought  it's great titles like the Legend of Zelda, Mario, and Metroid. Nintendo lead the videogame competition in this era of video game consoles, but Nintendo had a tough competition against Sega's Genesis. This was Sega's home console. Nintendo had problems because of Sega's mascot Sonic. Unlike Mario, Sonic was fast, a teenager and it's enveiorment  was more colorful. Mario like Sega  said "Mario is old". Although Sonic rising Nintendo lead the competition. Mario wasn't the only videogame Nintendo had. Nintendo had The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Punch-Out.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Nintendo Entertainment System

In 1983 Nintendo released The Family Computer (Famicon) in Japan.In North America was called Nintendo Entertainment System. Some of the most popular games for this console were Metroid, Super Mario Bros., and for me the most important The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo with this system Nintendo revolutionized games and created the foundation for games today.

Videogames origins of Nintendo

In 1974 Nintendo started making videogames. In 1977 they released in Japan the Color Tv Game. They released 6 different consoles each with different games. Around this time they hired Shigeru Miyamoto ( game designer). In 1975 Nintendo released the arcade game EVR racer and many more but had little succes. It wasn't until 1981 with the release of arcade game Donkey Kong designed by  Shigeru Miyamoto. Donkey Kong introduced one of the most important videogame characters, Mario. Unlike now Mario at the time wasn't a plumber, he was a carpinter. The game Donkey Kong was simple and fun. All you had to do was climb stares dodge barrels and rescue the girl from the gorrila, Donkey Kong, simple. Donkey Kong to the present day is still played. Played for fun or for holding world records. 

( Shigeru Miyamoto)

Friday, August 27, 2010

Origins

Nintendo meaning '' leave luck to heaven'' wasn't always the famous videogame company we all know today. In 1889 a card company called Nintendo Koppai was founded by Fusijiro Yamauchi, in Kyoto, Japan. The cards they made were Hanafuda cards. In present day they are still making cards. Between 1963 and 1968 Nintendo took new ventures including taxi cab company and love hotels. Eventually these all failed.