First of all, anyone who says girls and video games don’t mix is sorely mistaken. Anyone who says girls aren’t as good at video games as guys are is also equally mistaken.
Now, I’m not speaking for all girls, because I do have girlfriends who can’t make it past the first lumbering Koopa in “Super Mario World,” but for all those nonbelievers, I will defend to the death that there are girls out there who are good at, nay, are excellent at, the art of video gaming.
Now that I have that out of the way, I hope you’ll take me seriously here, or at least pretend to, while I gush about the most exciting development of the video gaming world in recent years-the Nintendo Revolution.
Revolution is a work in progress by Nintendo and the official successor of the GameCube. Though, as confirmed by Nintendo at E3 2005, Revolution is only a codename. It could end up being the official name of the console, which happened with the Nintendo DS, but as of now the final name has not been selected.
With all the hubbub about the sleek and sexy Playstation 3 and its head-to-head release in spring 2006 with the Xbox 360, it seems that a lot of consumers aren’t paying enough attention to this new development.
I could be biased, though, growing up on Mario and Zelda; I am a true blue Nintendo fan. Though I own the Playstation and Playstation 2 and have played Xbox on more than one occasion, I haven’t found a system yet to beat the simple majesty of the Super Nintendo, and I am therefore much more excited about the Revolution than the new Sony and Microsoft developments. Since acquiring a GameCube, it’s become apparent just how dated some of the SNES games seem, but I’d still be willing to claim that it’s the greatest system of all time.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata discussed the Revolution at the pre-E3 2004 Nintendo press conference, stating that the codename represents exactly what the new Nintendo will be-a gaming revolution. In a world where better graphics have come to be associated with better games, Iwata said, “It won’t simply include new technologies. Today’s consoles already offer fairly realistic expressions, so simply beefing up the graphics will not let most of us see a difference.”
So what else is the Revolution going to offer? Here is where it differs and rises above the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Iwata explained that to use technology to boost processing power, as the other companies’ consoles are doing, power consumption is increased, leading to a more expensive console with more expensive games. The technology applied to the Revolution will lead to a more power-efficient, affordable and faster console.
The price has not been set, but expect somewhere in the $200 and under range, something college students are sure to appreciate in the wake of the prices of the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, set at $400 and $300 (no frills)/$400 (the works), respectively.
My personal favorite attribute of the Revolution is that it sports USB ports and will be able to go online via Wi-Fi connections and download software from the Internet, including NES, SNES and N64 games in addition to GameCube games, for which the Revolution will be backward compatible. They have yet to announce which games will be available, but have said that theoretically they could offer every game ever made for those systems.
The prospect of being able to play my favorite games, which now exist only in dilapidated cartridges that play, or sometimes choose not to play, in my wheezy old SNES, is thrilling. Playing “Zelda: A Link to the Past”-my favorite game-like-new, or being able to finally own “Chrono Trigger,” is this video game nerd’s dream come true.
So, regardless of whether you can take this girl seriously or not when it comes to video games, I hope you’ll be celebrating with me in mid to late 2006 when the Nintendo Revolution is finally released. Luckily, the spectacularly beautiful “Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” is being released earlier in 2006 for the GameCube, so I’ll have something to occupy my time with until then.