The Nintendo Revolution: A Revolution In Gaming

Nintendo is a name that conjures a lot of fond memories from most of us. Immediately, we remember the days of yore when the super team of brothers, Mario and Luigi, jumped from platform to platform across an enchanting land to save an unnamed princess kidnapped by the turtle-dragon named Bowser. Or who could forget the magical world where a young warrior named link harnessed the tri-force power to save the princess named Zelda? It’s amazing to think that we experienced these things two decades ago when 8-bit gaming was king and Nintendo was ruling the roost in this home entertainment genre.

Though the Nintendo Entertainment System’s immediate descendant, the Super NES, was widely embraced by the gaming public, the next incarnations only met lukewarm success at best. The Nintendo 64, aptly named because of its 64 bit processing power, never really caught up with the then emerging Sony Playstation. The Gamecube also ailed to capture a sizable market, with competition from the Sony Playstation 2 and Microsoft’s Xbox.

But a return to the glory days is in order, and the next generation Nintendo console is upon as. Appropriately named as Revolution, Nintendo’s latest foray in platform design is bound to be its greatest. Indeed, it promises to bring forth a revolution in gaming, as it guarantees that you won’t only enjoy quality games, but you will also experience a change in how you play games.

Before we go to the technical specs of this wonder machine that will be available for retail in late 2006, let’s discuss the most obvious change… the controller. Now, we’ve all grown accustomed to the usual directional pad being on the left side, and the buttons being on the right side. In recent consoles, we were also introduced to shoulder buttons and analog controls. But the Revolution’s controller is a back-to-basic innovation. Sounds like an oxymoron? Read on. The Revolution’s controller is shaped like a remote control… yes… a remote control for a TV, a DVD player and the likes. There’s no analog control, but the directional pad remains, and it is now positioned on the upper part of the controller. There are three buttons on the lower half. The way it is designed, you would have to hold the controller like a fishing rod. But in some games, as Nintendo did say, you could hold the controller horizontally and play with it like the NES controller of old.

Amazed already? But there’s more! The Revolution’s controller is completely wireless. This means that there is no need for those cables that can become unruly at times. And there will be applications when the built-in sensor in the controller would be put to good use. Think of gun games without having to buy a light gun, or a tennis game using the controller as a racket!

Not much is known about the specs of the Nintendo Revolution. What is known this early, though, is that the CPU is made by IBM, the graphics would be powered by ATI, and it would be backward compatible to all the games for all the consoles that Nintendo has released so far. Yes, all the consoles, including the N64 and the Gamecube!

The disc slot can accommodate DVD movie discs, and you could play the same upon purchasing a special attachment device. Broadband connectivity is also promised, as well as wi-fi, allowing for fast online play and content download.

With all that is known about the Nintendo Revolution, it seems that it would compete very well with the other next generation consoles. It doesn’t put a premium on cutting edge features, but this could work for its benefit. With a slim (half the thickness of the Playstation 2’s original release) casing, the Nintendo Revolution is poised to be the most affordable of the coming hardware systems. And it will be backed by Nintendo’s stable of exclusive properties with games like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Donkey Kong.

I hope you enjoy this information as well as your new Nintendo gaming console.