The problem with these console eulogies is that they're prone to what Wikipedia editors call 'recentism'. Like the N64 and GameCube before it, the Wii seems doomed to be remembered by some for the gaming drought that blighted its final two years of existence - during which time the only game oases to lap from turned out to be horse riding and fitness-sim cesspools.
Not us. We prefer to look beyond the cold dead eyes of Mel B and Jillian Michaels and remember the Wii as it was in the bloom of youth - a sprightly, idealistic young console witha brilliant blue mouth and an anarchic desire to shake the gaming landscape up forever. In its six short years of existence, the console aptly codenamed the 'Revolution' would go on to do exactly that.
Nintendo's Revolution got off to a stalled start at E3 2005. "We gave you DS. A new Game Boy. And new games to play on them," began company present Satoru Iwata at the climax of Nintendo's media briefing. "And now you say, you want a Revolution? Well, wegot one!"
With those bold words, Iwata fished a mysterious black box with a cheeky blue gobhole from his dinner jacket (this being before his 50 percent paycut, of course - Iwata appeared at this year's E3 wearing a potato sack). The crowd whooped in that really professional way games journalists do, but once the euphoria died down, it was unclear why, exactly, anyone was whooping.
I Wanna Whoop U Up
It was the Wii U reveal in reverse; the controller was the key to Revolution's magic, but it missed the flight to LA. Without its rudder, the good ship Revolution was forced to meander into vague waters. We knew it was no bigger than three DVD cases (whooping) and you could download old games onto it (witchcraft in 2005, hence: more whooping), but nothing concrete.
Once the dust had cleared, pundits clamped their whoopholes and once again donned their sceptical hats - would this fabled new controller really be different enough to revive Nintendo's fortunes? Early mock-ups from internet wags with too much free time included a trackball and a controller which split into two halves. Even these bizarro controllers would appear conservative when Nintendo gasped us into submission with the real deal at that year's Tokyo Game Show...
U Really Got Me Going
It's impossible to get across just how radical a concept the Wii remote was in 2005. Touch-screens were still in their infancy, Kinect was but a twinkle in Peter Molyneux's eyes and, bar a failed Microsoft experiment in the mid-'90s, motion-controlled gaming was exclusively the domain of the arcades. But although the idea was as alien as one of the aliens from the film Alien, the sleek design - modelled after the ubiquitous television remote - was comfortingly familiar.
To see it was to know immediately how it worked - and to know how it worked was to obsess over its giddying world of play potential. Within seconds of the remote flashing up on the projector, the Nintendo Gamer office was ablaze with grown men and women hopping around desks and chairs, swinging anything even remotely rectangular around like golf clubs, katana swords and Wispa Gold bars (this was during the bleak 2003-2009 Wispa Prohibition Era, remember). Erstwhile editor Mark Green even went as far as to scribble a few buttons on a banana with a marker pen in an attempt to get a 'feel' for how it handled. Many teeth were lost that evening, either way.
We had fun though, and that's really the main thing you should take away from this issue - we're only just entering the really exciting stage of the Wii U waiting game. Just as we spent the second half of 2005 replanning our living room and chucking our sofa in a skip to make room for Wii, now too begins our rigorous muscle-building regime so we'll have enough strength to hoist Wii U's gargantuan slab of delight in the air when the new console hits stores.
As anyone who has had the pleasure of unwrapping a brand new console on Christmas Day will attest, however, the anticipation doesn't in any way outstrip the unbridled thrill of powering-up a new console for the first time. We can still remember quivering in awe like tiny ducklings when we first fired up the office Wii. That blue ring of light could have been an angel's halo; that health and safety warning screen could have been a scripture from Yahweh himself.
Loving You Is Easy
That magical first session is a defining moment in the relationship between you and your console. It's vital you pick your first game carefully, so you and your console get off on the right foot. Just as you wouldn't go to Wimpy on a first date (er, would you?), you don't want to gather your mates/love interests/lawyers round to marvel at your cutting-edge piece of technology for the first time, and then greet them with a face full of Super Fruit Fall.
For Wii, the choice was simple. Wii Sports was the quintessential 'first game' - no other launch game before or since has encapsulated what its console was about so succulently andaccurately. It was the perfect showcase for Nintendo's 'disruptive' hardware - open, accessible and intuitive, yet still packed full of Nintendo magic. Even our grandmother wanted a go - not bad, considering she didn't even want to be in the same country as us while we were swearing our way through our first Xbox 360 title, Perfect Dark Zero.
Despite high hardware sales, low software attachment rates meant that the bulk of the Wii's kookier titles emerged in the first two years of its existence. Between the room-trashing madness of Elebits, the B-movie horror of Necro-Nesia and the, erm, ducks-in-biplanes nirvana that was Wing Island, the Wii's launch window was packed full of unique games that couldn't possibly have existed on any other format.
Despite the creative success of these titles (well, some of those titles *glares at Necro-Nesia*), the lion's share of the mainstream games they shared shelf space with were shoddy, poorly-made and poorly-optimised. The iffy likes of Far Cry: Vengeance quickly hit customer confidence in third-party titles, and as sales slumped publishers soon became ultra-conservative with their output. It was avicious downward spiral that eventually evolved into what scientists now call the 'Jillian Michaels Vortex'.
Nothing Compares 2 U
Perhaps then, the legacy Wii leaves behind is one of accrued wisdom. A new controller - orthodox where it counts, but with a screen full of undiluted innovation smack-dab in the middle - will allow bite-sized snacks such as Chase Mii to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with quality ports of games such as Batman: Arkham City. Ports that won't just be as good as their Other Formats counterparts, but even better, thanks to a liberal sprinkling of Nintendo magic.
What game are you going to tear open first on that fateful morning when the forklift truck dumps your Wii U controller into your living room? Will you define your new console by playing the definitive version of Assassin's Creed III with the curtains drawn, or will it be Vimto and giggles all round as you christen it with a Chase Mii party? Either way, an old friend will be looking on with pride. Its component cable may no longer be plugged in, its sensor bar long since consigned to the back of the telly. Its case may not be as white as it once was, and the flap may be long gone. But through it all its mouth still shines blue, baby, blue.
Banned
Nintendo's most successful home console retires to the attic ,but what is it's legacy
Originally Posted by Topps
(GT: Mojo Red) = Defiance & Bioshock Infinite
= Tiger Woods 14
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Nintendo's most successful home console retires to the attic ,but what is it's legacy
