Countdown to Wii - T (minus) 7 Days

[bamthedoc]

T (minus) 7 Days

Hard job? I guess that's one way of putting it

Red Steel Hands-on Preview By Russell Frushtick

As the very first game announced for the Nintendo Wii, Red Steel had a pretty huge amount of buzz surrounding it going into E3 last May. The game would be the poster child for convincing the world that Nintendo's console wasn't just for the kiddies, with mature, GoldenEye-style gameplay and graphics. Unfortunately, the build at E3 was clearly not ready for prime time. With control issues and visual miscues, Red Steel was one of the few disappointments on Nintendo's show floor.Flash forward to a couple weeks before the Wii's launch. Sensing that folks didn't give the game a fair shake, Ubisoft held an event in NYC to show off the near-final build of the game. We felt it was our duty to give it another shot. Here's what we came away with after about an hour.The game starts off in a restaurant in Japan. You play as a yakuza bodyguard who falls for the boss's daughter, and at the start of the game you're sitting down for a quiet meal. The first time you take control the game, you'll have time to get used to the controls. Pointing the Wii-mote allows you to look around. It doesn't require very much movement at all, so you can rest your hand on your lap and just use your wrist to see all around you. The nunchaku handles movement and the actions of your off-hand, so by flicking it you can reload, open doors and reflect attacks.Clearly, this isn't going to be a nice night out, though. A rival gang quickly attempts to take out your boss, and it's up to you to rescue him from certain death. The first few levels are a frantic race through a hotel, blasting away at guys in stairwells and kitchens. Incredibly, the controls took almost no time to get used to. In a matter of minutes, we were aiming and locking on to enemies for easy headshots. The zooming feature is especially cool, as all you have to do is move the remote towards the screen. The Wii will sense that you're getting close and zoom your view in on the appropriate target.After some fierce gunplay, we ran into our first boss battle, which showed off the swordplay in the game. Using a sword is as easy as swinging the remote, but a lot of enemies will require more strategy than mindlessly hacking away. Oftentimes you'll have to reflect an attack (by shaking the nunchaku) in order to find an opening in their defenses.The gameplay was definitely reminiscent of GoldenEye, with an emphasis on action rather than exploration. We were definitely impressed by the graphics, which don't look nearly as ragged as they did at E3, and actually look much better than some of the other Wii launch games. Looks like we won't just be playing Zelda come November 19th.

Source


Now I'll answer Jenny's question. The X-Box 360 was in excruciatingly short supply. There will be more Wii systems available than there were 360s, and the Wii is anticipated to not keep up with demand!

Wii Shortages Expected - 28.10.06

With a target of having 6 million units good to go between launch and March 31, 2007, Nintendo is still expecting Wii will fall short of filling its demands.

The word comes from Nintendo’s Yoshihiro Mori, who said the company is well on track to reach the 6-million production point. The problem is, he also thinks demand will be higher.

With the pricing point, the draw of the Wii-mote and what is expected to be a fairly good, and affordable, launch line up, Mori is more than likely correct. Add to these things the fact the PS3 won’t really be a factor during the all-important holiday season due to already known console shortages, and the prediction seems more like a forgone conclusion.

Wii ships Nov. 19, but the initial launch day allocations are already sold out in many markets. The PS3, which is also sold out, launches Nov. 17.

In the meantime, Microsoft’s looking to unload about four million consoles, so a shortage there is not likely.

Source

As you can see there, Nintendo is expecting to have 6 million by the end of the year, but that is still projecting a shortfall on demand! With barely 4 million each of the PS3 and 360 expected between now and the end of the year, it's only the Wii and PS3 analysts are worried will fall short on supply to reach the demanding public. The fact that somebody you knew was able to pick up a 360 just a week after launch is quite rare.

 

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