PC Magazine’s Lance Ulanoff was skeptical in the beginning, but he now believes that Nintendo’s newest home console, the Wii, could be “the best consumer electronics product ever.” He talks about how the Wii is physically small and appealing, that gameplay is simple and intuitive, the motion control is satisfying, and the graphics aren’t overkill – they’re adequate. In addition, the best part is that he parallels the Wii’s success to Star Wars.
There’s a scene in Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (originally released as Star Wars in 1977), when Luke Skywalker is being trained by Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi to use a lightsaber. Ben tells Luke to “use the force” and “let go of your conscious self and act on instinct.” This is what Nintendo obviously did with the Wii. Instead of trying to one-up the competition, it took a moment to imagine a console system that would appeal to everyone.
Ah, the analogies. You know, Nintendo also “unlearned what [they had] learned” in terms of simply improving graphics and adding more buttons every generation.
Ulanoff finishes by comparing the Wii and its penetration of the market to the business model of the iPod. Will we really see 35 million Wii units in the US by 2012? It’s not out of the realm of possibility.
