Nintendo Okie

If you listened to the podcast this week then you know I received an Xbox 360 for Christmas, well a week before Christmas actually, but it was essentially my Christmas present.  Now that I, for the first time, own two consoles from the current generation at the same time it’s definitely an interesting experience and I thought I would share my thoughts on that experience with you.

First off, let me say the two machines offer completely different experiences and for that reason I am very glad that both machines exist.  The Wii offers more family friendly affair while the 360 is aimed at the more hardcore gamer.  If you scour message boards for more than five minutes you’ll see that type of gamer that I’m talking about.  Everyone crying out for hardcore experiences wants what I call the 3 B’s of hardcore gaming; Blood, boobs and booms.  You’ll also realize that most of those people crying out for that experience aren’t old enough to purchase those games.  I’ve discussed my thoughts on what makes those hardcore gamers, so I won’t get into that now.

I will, however, say that the experience on 360 has some advantages over Nintendo’s console.  The first being the online experience.  From the moment you turn on the box, you know what everyone on your friends list is doing.  Sometimes it’s a welcome thing.  Someone may be in the middle of a game you feel like playing that game with them.  Most of the time though, I don’t care to know that LordofEvilDarknessDeathandDestruction666 (not a real name) is watching Man vs. Food on Netflix.  It was nice to be able to see that my brother was online playing a game and I was able to hit him up, get invited to the game and we were off. 

The next experience that Microsoft has over Wii is visuals.  There’s no denying the fact that the picture I see coming from my Xbox on my 42” LCD TV is better than what my Wii has, in terms of fidelity.  Wii just can’t do the same things that Xbox can in that department.  The ability to see every detail of your character and to be able to read the paper that your character is holding is definitely an eye opening one and I really wish Nintendo would do something in that department. 

That being said, I will always champion gameplay over graphics.  I want my game to be fun more than I want it to be pretty.  Nintendo holds that candle with ease.  Playing Nintendo games is just that, you’re playing a game.  You’re not trying to live out the fantasy of being the one man army that’s out to save the world.  You’re saving a princess from a 10 foot tall dinosaur while jumping over walking mushrooms and shooting fireballs from your fingertips.  You can’t deny the fact that you’re playing a video game when you’re playing on Nintendo’s console and that’s something that should never be forgotten.  Video games are a form of entertainment.  I want to be entertained and have fun more than anything else. 

The one thing I have been utterly addicted to in the three weeks I’ve owned my 360 is 1 vs. 100.  I am a total game show whore and the amount of time I’ve spent playing that game is not something I’m proud of.  I’ve played for at least an hour every night since day 1.  Nintendo does have its share of trivia games available on WiiWare, but while TV Show King is AWESOME (/sarc) it just doesn’t hold a candle to 1 vs. 100.  It’s quite nice to be able to sit in a party with three other friends and share answers, but at the same time have friendly competitions over who can answer the fastest and just talking about whatever you want. 

Nintendo is also the more family friendly console.  This could just be because I’m not a 17 year old kid anymore.  I’m nearly 30 now with three kids, but video games have shifted from wanting the latest and greatest in visuals and story to just being able to sit on the couch with my six year old son or 11 year old daughter and have fun plowing through a level in the latest Mario game or blowing up the Death Star in Lego Star Wars.  Video games have become the first form of family entertainment in our house.  Weekly Mario Kart tournaments and sword fighting competitions have replaced watching Spongebob as the primary from of visual entertainment in our house.  While there are a few games in Microsoft’s library like that Nintendo really has the monopoly on the family market. 

Achievements are also a big deal for me, but not for the reason that they are for the majority of people out there.  I like to challenge myself and games that have achievements whether in game or for points on Xbox get played more than others.  I like to use those lists to see what the developers have deemed some of the more challenging parts of their game and test my skills to see if I can achieve those goals.  My wife is more of an achievement whore than I am.  She’ll play any of her games to full completion, achieve expert scores on games like Diner Dash for every level and get every trophy before she’ll finish a game and move on to the next one.  If Big Fish had a gamer score then she’d have a very large one.  I don’t care about the number, though.  I think it’s a silly thing to play a game to get a bigger e-pene that, in the end, won’t matter and won’t benefit anything but personal ego. 

Microsoft and Sony offer a completely different experience from that of Nintendo.  Both experiences are valid and benefit gaming in a big way.  Families like to have fun, children like to have fun and thirteen year old boys like to have fun.  They all do it in different ways.  No one way is right or wrong, nor is it a better experience than the other.  While I do run a console specific site I am not a platform fan boy.  I’m a fan of the Nintendo experience, but I’m a bigger fan of gaming on the whole.  I want gaming to succeed because without it we would lose a very valuable form of entertainment.  Every console brings something unique to the table and I don’t want any of them to fail.  They all have target audiences whose needs are being met.  I prefer the family friendly Nintendo approach to the 3 B approach of the other two, but I also enjoy shooting dudes in the face sometimes.