[Wii] Official Nintendo Wii thread

That's a pretty high price for classic games, compilation packs of 10 games usually goes for around $20 in stores. They're really milking them for all they can...

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Originally Posted by Technophile

Maybe they'll have a cheaper pricepoint in the states? Those dollar amounts were merely converted from the yen prices that they anounced for Japan only so far right?

Yes, but it's pretty doubtful they'll change the price for an online distribution system. Chances are they'll do a pretty direct currency conversion.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'd be slightly surprised and annoyed if it releases for more than $200 in the US. I'll wait for the official US price before I pass any judgement. Did they say what's included with it as far as games, controllers, etc. yet?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Mo0

Nintendo press release.

This is official word. Unfortunately, it's in japanese, so here follows a babelfish translation.

Because the Nintendo Co. corporation, December 2nd this year (Saturday), 25 and 000 Yen (consumption including tax desired retail price) with the country the new amusement machine "Wii" which creates the electronic amusement experience inside completely new home to sell, we inform. This Wii which we sell (pronounces "ウィー") or less is included in substance set. * Wii itself × 1 * the Wii remote control strap it is attached, × 1 * ヌンチャクコントローラ × 1 * Wii private AC adapter × 1 * Wii private AV cable × 1 * Wii itself private stand × 1 * Wii itself private auxiliary plate × 1 * Wii private sensor bar × 1 * センサーバースタンド × 1 & single three dry cell battery × 2 Furthermore, overseas, it is the schedule which in the next few days is announced from the respective local subsidiary company in regard to sale schedule and price.

Here's the Engrish to English translation for those that want to get the easy to understand version:

Releases on December 2nd, 2006
25,000 Japanese Yen

Package includes:
The Wii console
Sensor bar
Horizontal stand
AC adaptor
AV cable (composite, most likely)
Wii controller with two triple A batteries

Can't quite make out some of what it says though, I'm not sure what "auxilary plate" refers to except for maybe an "alternate faceplate" ala the Xbox 360.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Mo0

2:09 a.m. EST [update 11]: Gemaga reports 3,800 yen ($32.31) cost for the remote, 1800 ($15.30) yen for the classic controller, and 1800 ($15.30) yen for the nunchuck attachment.

Huh...the remote and nunchuck attachments are sold SEPARATELY? Yikes, that's pretty expensive, $45 for a complete controller...

Quote:

Wiiスポーツは、野球、テニス、ゴルフ、ボーリング、そしてボクシングの５本セットで4800円。
Wii Sport
- Baseball
- Tennis
- Golf
- Bowling
- Boxing
4800 yen

Uhh...that isn't the complete lineup, is it? What about DUCK HUNT???? PLANE???

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Technophile

I guess the higher price is to be expected considering that Wiimotes have a lot more going on than the other next-gen console's remotes.

I figured the Wii controller itself would be less since it didn't have things like analog button inputs (or as many of them for that matter), most of the motion sensing is handled by the system and sensor bars themselves. Especially the nunchuck attachment...it's just an analog stick, two digital buttons, and an accelerometer. $10 seems like it would be more practical for it.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Are those the only 4 that will be available at launch? I thought they were going to have 6-10? Pokemon is certainly a surprise...but is it going to be fully online?

FELIPE NO

Oh yeah...Metroid Prime 3 was definitely a confirmed launch title, why would they drop it? I don't think that report was accurate, whereever it was from.

Oh, and I hate to be a pot calling kettle black, but perhaps we should wait a little while between individual posting and cover several topics in each post rather than little comments here and there that would drive this thread to 10 pages before they even reveal any games for the system.

Originally Posted by Mo0

I don't think Metroid entirely counts as first-party, considering it's developed by Retro Studios. Can't remember if they're second or third party, but they're definitely not first-party.

Retro is first party, they are wholely owned by Nintendo. Much like Bungie is owned by Microsoft, and is therefor first party.

Originally Posted by Infernal Monkey

For America, yeah. The GC Metroid Prime titles were released months after America and Europe in Japan.

Hmm, that might explain it. Sucks for the Japanese...

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Well, what a...quirky set of games. I'll have to wait and see which are worthwhile, a lot seem like kind of throwaway budget games (which I guess wouldn't be bad if the Wii sees some cheap titles). Still a few interesting ones that stood out, also a few seconds of Resident Evil were shown (unfortunately it looked like it was just CG or tech demo footage and didn't show any actual gameplay at all, just a pan of a few backgrounds).

Also:

http://wii.com/jp/

Looks like there are room/channels from that picture, maybe something like an online lobby? It also shows the "avatar making" process for your character (used for games like Wii Sports). Also, I'm sure that wrist strap will come in handy when you try to chuck your controller like a grenade.

Originally Posted by Lukage

And what came before it...Sadness? THAT looked nice.

No, Sadness supposedly is in black and white and has no on-screen menus, neither of which describe that game.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well, this is going to take a bit to digest and gather all the facts that have been released today. But here's my opinion on what I've gathered:

The price pretty much sucks. $250 without any games (not that I'd personally care if Wii Sports is packed in or not), given what the system is, is rather high and doesn't exactly push that "susbstantially lower price than our competitors" intention, especially if there are any bundles coming up for the Xbox 360. Also, the fact that many features such as the web browser must be purchased separately also hurts it's "percieved produce value". But honestly, the additional controller prices are just ridiculous. $60 for a complete controller?

Metroid Prime 3 I'm disappointed to learn was pushed back to 2007. That was pretty much going to be THE big exclusive first party launch title for the Wii (sorry Twilight Princess, your battered and beaten twin is still being kept on life support on the Gamecube). And I did get a chuckle at delaying the Gamecube Twilight Princess...AGAIN...except now it's coming out after the Wii version even though they already said it would be available the same day. And the removal of DVD playback option. Man, Nintendo must've taken a page from Sony on how to break promises. Now I'm worried that the "hook it up to your monitor" line was a lie as well...

Region free is good. I personally won't have much use for it, but it will still be nice for those that import and should the situation ever arise. Also the photo/movie editing/weather channel/local news/etc. features are handy, although not exactly what I'd call critical *waits for Microsoft to follow suit in an Xbox 360 firmware update and for Sony to quickly slap it onto the PS3*. Most of the games however look quirky, simplistic, and relatively inconciquencial, with only a few standing out as being more than your typical impulse arcade game. The majority of the "serious" games probably won't come out for a year or two, when developers figure out how to use the controller efficiently.

Resident Evil Wii sounds kinda cool. Sounds more like a "Resident Evil Survivor with RE4 controls", but that could be a good thing in this case. Except I was REALLY hoping it was actually going to be the telling of the fall of Umbrella with all the characters banding together and taking them down, etc. This looks to be more of a "greatest hits" album of Resident Evil scenarios.

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Originally Posted by AcerBandit

Separately sold controller parts are a crime to both consumers and developers if it's the only option.

Yeah, anyone else think that the Nunchuck attachment is going to become the Wii's equivalent of the Xbox 360 harddrive? Developers can't even guarantee that everyone would have the attachement for multiplayer games, so they might forgo using it altogether. I'm really starting to get worried that "pointer-only games" will become as common on the Wii as stylus-controlled games on the DS: they'll start using that feature exclsively simply because it's THERE, not because it works better that way. The fact that developers can't count on every playing having the analog stick attachement just makes that all the more likely.

Originally Posted by Infernal Monkey

Ooh, Europe gets WiiPlay as a launch title (the game comes with a Wii controller packed in). WiiPlay includes Duck Hunt, Table Tennis, some.. weird Kuru Kuru Kururin style game where you move your custom characters around a maze and other stuff.

THAT'S where they moved Duck Hunt to? Ugh, I thought it was supposed to be part of Wii Sports. It was the only game in the pack that even would've even been worthwhile playing. And...when does that game come to America? Might as well just pick it up since the controllers are just as expensive as it anyway. Actually, here's a dumb question...if the game+controller costs as much as a controller...why wouldn't you just buy the game/controller combo and sell the game instead of buying a full controller separately?

Also, to clairify: The Wii is not region-free. Nintendo's first party games for the console are region free (at least to start), but the console itself still has region locking. It seems there's been a bit of confusion on this:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=19686

Quote:

Nintendo UK has admitted that the Wii console is region-locked after all, despite comments from Nintendo of America to the contrary.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Actually I just thought of something: does anyone else think it's ironic that the Wii is the only system this generation that COULD have benefitted from multiple pacakages to choose from, yet it's the only one that DOESN'T offer that? I mean really, the Xbox 360's core/premium pack screwed up developers since they can't count on everyone having a harddrive, the PS3's low priced pack probably can't be upgraded to the HDMI port (leaving early adopters screwed out of HD blu-ray playback later on), yet with the Wii...they could've EASILY made a "Wii core pack" with just the console and controller for $200, and a "starter pack" for $260 or thereabouts that include an extra controller and Wii Sports. It's like the only package the US is getting is the "high end" one without an option to buy a lower end one. Then again, Europe is just getting screwed, so I guess we should be at least a little thankful.

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Originally Posted by avanent

Wii gives the developers the right to choose if their game is region free.

But that's how every region locked disc-based system has been. Developers could choose if they wanted Xbox and I think PS2/Gamecube games to be region locked, it's just that most of them didn't. The Wii is no different, but like the Xbox 360 quite a few developers seem to be making their games region-free.

But with that, it means that the chance of Gamecube games not being region locked on the Wii is extremely minimal.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by chaofan

As for the Wii controllers, the reason why they may be expansive may be because of the technologies incorporated into them. Gyroscopic technology isn't exactly everywhere now... is it?

It does not use gyroscopes, it uses an accelerometer, which is an extremely inexpensive piece of hardware.

Originally Posted by Darkcomet72

Can someone fully explain how calibration of the controller is supposed to be done? The more I read into things, the more confused I become. Apparently I'm not pointing at the TV, and sensor motions are the exact same no matter the size of the TV?

OK, basically, forget about the TV. It has nothing to do with detecting where you're pointing or anything. The Wii senses where you're pointing the controller entirely through the sensor bar. It doesn't matter where your TV is, to the system the sensor bar is the only thing that sees where you're pointing with the controller. No calibration or anything is needed, it simply checks where you're pointing in relation to the middle of the sensor bar: direction, distance, etc, and then uses that information to check where you're moving the pointer. Think of the sensor bar as functioning like the middle of a TV does to a light gun.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Darkcomet72

That certainly makes sense. Does this mean that if you strafe the controller while pointing it in the same direction, that the cursor doesn't move on the screen?

If you're pointing at the exact same place relative to the sensor bar, it *shouldn't* move the cursor. So basically, if you point at the sensor bar and move around it, your cursor will stay in the middle of the screen in the game. But it depends on if the game takes into account the position of the controller and such, the accelerometer in it can detect relative movement, and I believe there's something where it triangulates where the controller is in "3d space" between the console and sensor bar, but unless those things are used for the game it probably won't affect your on-screen cursor.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by speculative

Where have you heard this? Rayman: Raving Rabids is a cross-platform title, so gameplay on different platforms should be roughly uniform for the most part. Perhaps they threw some Wii-mote minigames in their for Nintendo specifically?

From the sound of it, it was supposed to be a platformer more or less, but then they saw the remote controller and decided to just turn it into a bunch of minigames to show it off (can anyone say tech demo?). It sounds like the gameplay more or less consists of minigames stringed together:

Quote:

Nintendo Magazine asks: But from the start, you proposed to make a mini-games title?

Adrien Lacey (game designer) replies: No, at the start, we wanted to make a classical platform. And then when we received the development kits for the Wii, we saw what was possible to produce. We had too many great ideas for a party game that would take advantage of all that (Wii controls I assume)! We resorted to a box into which everyone slid an idea. Next, we separated those ideas that were feasible and those that were not…

NM asks: But these are not like the mini-games in WarioWare that only last a few seconds…

AL replies: No, and rightly so. Rest assured, there are some events that are very short, around ten seconds or so. But in certain events, like the Doom-style event, the combat portions or courses last several minutes! In addition there is a scenario in which events are linked together, in order or succession (a progression).

Taken from here: http://gamesweb.wordpress.com/2006/0...-a-party-game/. And also this:

Quote:

“The game is comprised of two principal modes. First the story mode, which is organized into fifteen days. Each day, you begin in your cell. At the start things are very sinister! From your slammer, you can enter the Rabbit Arena, where you wait for the events. You can attempt five mini-games each day – four events and one boss encounter. Depending on your rate of success, the rabbits will congratulate you and offer objects of comfort for your cell. You can unlock amusing bonuses such as tacky costumes and disco music! When in the second mode you can replay the mini-games freely, either playing by yourself, or multiplayer!”

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Slayer X

That's what I'm looking forward to with the Wii. Games that are epic and your cahracter is limited by YOUR attributes, not some statistical attributes, that would be a Next-Gen interface to me

Doesn't that kinda take away from the whole "getting away from reality" thing in games? I mean generally you play a game to pretend you're some big, strong, never-tiring hero that can take a thousand bullets and run around with 500 pounds of equipment on him and never break a sweat. If you had to make all the swinging motions in Devil May Cry with the controller, the player would get tired long before Dante ever would. In fact I doubt most gamers could even get through a single level before falling dead of a heart attack...

Originally Posted by Cheezeman3000

The only current-gen example we have of this type of gameplay mechanic can be found in DDR, where, if you're not in shape, you LOSE. Horribly.

And the Eyetoy. If you want a real workout (literally) there's always Eyetoy Kinetic.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Omnislash124

Dude, you're a genious. Download Vitual Console games onto the Wii. Transfer them onto DS, and play Virtual Console games on your DS. That really would be awesome. Does the DS have internal memory to store the games? If so, how much memory does the DS have internally?

Not much, the only way it would work is if they loaded the entire game into RAM, and then as soon as you turn off the system it would wipe it and you'd have to redownload them. Unless Nintendo releases an official flash/memory card for it ala the PSP. Also the DS wouldn't really be able to emulate any system past the SNES, although since the controls wouldn't really work for something like N64 games that's not much of an issue anyway.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by sprouticus

I just noticed that the guy screwed up my preorder and reserved me 2 ExciteTrucks and no classic controller... I need to head back to get that shit sqauared away now.

Err, why? I doubt they're going to run out of preorders on classic controllers before you get back there, in fact I'm not sure why anyone would need to preorder accessories or games since they always have craploads of extras at launch (sometimes they make more games than there are systems available, oddly enough).

Originally Posted by nazpyro

Glad I'm not the only one who failed at pre-order day. ;_;

I guess I also have a question about the classic controller, that may have been asked/answered in this thread... basically: why would I need/want one? Just for a more traditional feel? To play old games? Do some Wii games need it instead of the Wiimote? Eh?

Pretty much just for Virtual Console and Gamecube games, although I don't know why you'd use the classic controller for Gamecube games when you could just use Gamecube controllers for it. A couple Wii games support the classic controller such as Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Dragon Ball Z, but there aren't very many.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by sprouticus

Allow me to bold the important words for my rebuttle-

Don't most stores let you cancel a preorder whenever you want? I've never heard of them refusing to refund money (or at least give back credit) on preorders, even if it's on the day you're supposed to pick it up. I mean if they let a guy transfer 8 Red Steel preorders into a Wii preorder I don't think they'd give any trouble removing an Excitetruck...

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Just a heads up: if you were planning on getting the Component cable for the Wii, looks like you'll only find them online, at the price of $29.99 (plus shipping plus tax).

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

I'd like to hear how the Virtual Console works when you got the time. Are there any extras included with each game, or is it pretty much bare bones? Also, I heard that for 16:9 TVs, the game image is stretched and you have to manually fix it yourself.

From what I've seen: no extras, but you do get a manual for the games that you can read on the Wii. And yes, none of the games are designed or formatted for widescreen so you'll have to switch it to 4:3 yourself.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Slash

I remember reading, I think in the instruction manual thingy, that you shouldn't use rechargeable batteries...

Huh, looks like you're right, never heard about that before:

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/wiisafety.jsp

Quote:

Use only alkaline batteries. Do not use lithium ion, nickel cadmium (nicad), nickel metal hydride (nimh), carbon zinc or any other non-alkaline batteries.

Do not recharge the batteries.

FELIPE NO