A: When you can hear the whine of the “hardcore” echo throughout the Internet.

Former 1-Up staffer and open Wii-detractor James Mielke was among the earliest to offer opinion, resnarking, “Breaking news: Yet another Nintendo console that’s impossible for anyone other than Nintendo to make money on.”  Then came the prophet Pachter, who stops short of flat-out ridiculing the mystery technology simply on the grounds that Apple didn’t put it out first:

My guess is that Nintendo has figured something out that is either very cool and advanced, or is a gimmick, and until I see it, I really won’t know. What’s interesting to me is that Nintendo is so bold. It seems that if 3D on portable devices was easy, Apple would have beat them to it.”

- Michael Pachter, 3DS will need more than just 3D (Computer and Video Games)

Funny to pump up Apple’s dedication to innovation the same day it photocopied a page from Nintendo’s 2008 WiiWare playbook by adding a “gifting” option for aps and games.

But I digress.

The effect here is not unlike the knee-jerk outcry over the Wii which lead to GameSpot’s gem of an “april fools” joke.  Or the countless declarations of the original DS being DOA next to Sony’s PSP back in 2004.

Nintendo, it seems, is once again on to something.

That something is the 3DS, announced via press release this morning.  And it’s exactly what you secretly hoped the name implied – a 3D portable gaming console.  Even more interesting: the device won’t require 3D glasses or a bulky red visor.  (Shout out Virtual Boy, I see you!)

Details on the inner-workings of this modern marvel are slim-to-none, so I won’t bore you here with uneducated and baseless conjecture (for the curious, please see every other ’core-service blog on the web).  Worth mentioning however, is that the 3DS will be backwards-compatible with all previous DS and DSi software.

Now, given that the rest of the 3DS knowledge pool is quite shallow at the moment, just why is it that industry professionals and faux-analysts have been so quick to dismiss the device?

Guys, as irritating as all the rhetoric is about making players “smile” and games being about “fun” (sacrilege – I know), there’s little to deny it’s validity.  What makes an interactive interesting is not how many polygons its parent machine can push, or the crispness of Kratos’ kilt.  Instead, consumers have always been swayed by that simple, but oh-so-elusive, “wow” factor.

That sense of wonder which accompanied millions the first time they swung a TV-style remote and saw the little guy on screen do the same thing.  Or the first time a virtual dog came running to them after “hearing” their actual name spoken aloud.

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co., Ltd. and one of the original minds behind lovable cream puff Kirby, has continued to stress the importance of being able to consistently impress “surprise” upon players.  With each major new step since his installation as president in 2002, Nintendo has sought to make good on that commitment to its consumers.

The 3DS points to a continuation of this ideology.  Furthermore, the portable’s launch date is so far off that today’s announcement can only objectively be seen as preemptive, much like the early unveil of Wii MotionPlus a year before release and E3 2009’s peek at the Wii Vitality Sensor.

So guys, try and lighten up.  At the very least, you won’t have to eat crow if this whole 3D thing turns out to be the next big thing in portable gaming – much like the simple touch screen interface of nearly 6 years ago.

Images Courtesy of Flickr (faseextra and shadows44)

Now if this is the first you’re hearing about Tron: Legacy, that’s quite all right: the movie doesn’t hit theaters for another 9 months.  But the not-so-secret truth is that Disney won’t allow you to live much longer without knowing about its big holiday tentpole.

Maybe you saw the oddly hypnotic trailer before Alice in Wonderland this past week.  Maybe you live in San Diego, where a real-life Flynn’s Arcade popped up last year.  Maybe you’re heading down to Disney World soon, where you’ll catch a glimpse of the newly reskinned monorails, made out to look like the dueling light cycles of the original film.

Or maybe you simply stumbled across this post.  In that case, Disney may have already won.

80’s gaming junkies, brace yourselves.  The next 2 hours of your lives have been claimed:

There are fifty-six references are littered throughout all this pixel-crisp chocolate.  Fifty-six.

I admit, I’m only oh, 12 or so in at the moment (just what is that cat with the 24k over its eye – all I can think of is Rockin’ Cats) but this is something I fully intend on leaving up in the background over the next few days, like some digital jigsaw puzzle I can tinker with in the middle of the night.

Some are easy (Asteroids, pssh); some are more difficult (seriously, the cat); but what’s ensured is that many an old-school classic will be conjured up in your mind as you plow through all 56 prompts, from Golden Axe to R-Type.

Taking a step back, it’s hard not to marvel at the effort that went into this thing –  from the lush, pristine pixel artwork, to the creative and purposeful scattering of dozens of video game puns and allusions.  This little puzzle goes beyond mere marketing prattle and into the sacred realm of actual substance.

In other news, I just found a man I assume to be Dig Dug himself in the corner next to the floating Double Dragons.  The crowd seems pleased at my progress.  (Again, any help with the cat would be greatly appreciated.)

Tron: Legacy hits theaters December 15.

Again, supposed to be.

Meet Move.  Move is suffering from an identity crisis.  He wants to be different, I mean look at the spiffy round bubble-hat he’s sporting.  Move is rather partial to that fancy little hat.

But then along came his on-again, off-again crony Subcontroller to cramp his style, “Man, now everyone’s gonna think we’re just like those other two guys, Wiimote and Nunchuck.  He even has the better name.  Who were you even named after anyway, Subcontroller?”

It’s been 4 years since the Wii usurped the common idea of the video game as a passive experience – solely about buttons and thumbs, muscles and guns.

It’s been 4 years since the Wii first hit stores, packaged with the fresh and original Wii Sports – and yet, today Sony can’t think of a better flagship product to showcase its motion knock-off than the hideously named “Sports Champions?”  What is this, the Vii?

So at last, here comes Sony, with the Wii Sports remake nobody asked for, complete with the sword fighting game found in its sequel, Wii Sports Resort.  But let’s give it the ol’ Sony spitshine; why not make it even more ‘accessible’ by featuring utilitarian 300-style gladiators as opposed to funny little people with goofy cartoon versions of players’ faces?

Not to mention a game called GhostSlayer does the same thing, with the same aesthetic, and it came out 2 weeks ago.  On WiiWare.  For six dollars.

And then there’s the even more identical Rage of the Gladiator, which drops next week.

Guys look, I’m not communicating this way for the sake of being a complete ass.  I’m writing this because the whole charade feels like an insult from Sony, a company which many of us – myself included – have supported in the form of U.S. currency for the better part of a decade.

Here they’ve taken a 4-year-old concept – which they’ve berated for just as long – and are only now telling the public that it’s a great idea, simply because it’s on their home turf.  It’s like they’ve suddenly shown up to the bar we’ve all been partying at for years with nothing but a crusty old case of Pabst Blue Ribbon under one arm, looking to convince everyone to move over to their party instead.

Screw that. Though Nintendo has dropped the ball periodically in getting quality motion games to market, Sony has shown absolutely no desire to even attempt something new with Move.  Instead, this whole Move idea just reeks of obligation.  They never wanted to get into the motion category, they were forced.

Is this really how you believe the interactive medium will advance?  Is this what innovation looks like to your R&D department?  And for that matter, what are you even paying those crooks for – poking inside a Wii Remote and calling it a day?

Consumers are smarter than this guys.  If you’re going to jump on the motion bandwagon this late in the game, you better bring something new to the table.  Sure, Microsoft’s Natal may still be a bit on the buggy side, but at least it tries to be something a little different.

Maybe there’s something I’m missing hidden under all the pretense of “precision” (a claim which no motion controller can truly lay claim to at this point in time).  Maybe there’s a big hit coming out that isn’t “Sports Champions Fit” or “Sports Champions Play.”  For the sake of Sony and its shareholders, I sure as hell hope so.

Images courtesy of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Money Times

The recipe for Hipster Ambrosia – otherwise known as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

An unfinished cut of the big-screen adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s offbeat comi-gaming pastiche has been making the rounds as of late – with an early edit popping up in Las Vegas last month and another in Jersey this past Wednesday.  So far word is that it’s good.  Real good.

I was excited to read along with the lucky reviewers, vicariously indulging in all the faithful and clever notes Wright has managed to wring from the sublime source material.  From the 8-bit Paramount intro, to casting Superman–nouveau himself, Brandon Routh, as Vegan-powered Todd Ingram, the entire production overflows with care and appreciation.

But as I continued to read some comments off the “Twitter” all the kids and news anchors are going on and on about these days, it dawned on me: the hipsters might hijack this film.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was amazing…hipster-indie sin city”

Scott Pilgrim vs The World was unbelievably good. So stoked I saw it before it’ll be cool to like that movie. Remember this tweet hipsters!”

In my own myopic way, this worries me.  I’m not much of a comic fan; I hadn’t read one of any sort for the better part of a decade (aside from a weekly jaunt through the Sunday Funnies, natch).  But when I caught wind of Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life back in ’06, I couldn’t help but be drawn to this story of a humble video game-loving Canadian and his posse of slacker band mates.

From the awesomely apropos rival band “The Clash at Demon Head” to each of Ramona’s exes leaving behind precious coins after falling to Scott – the video game references in the Scott Pilgrim series are indeed profuse, yet thoroughly tasteful.  No simple feat for a category that easily loses itself in nonsensical Internet memes and an obsession with the noun “fail.”

The fact that O’Malley is able to integrate his video game heritage so seamlessly into his work (at more than one point Scott and Ramona travel through ‘subspace’ – a Super Mario Bros. 2 send-up – to quickly move between scenes) without resorting to scores of clichéd gaming tropes, makes him a standout in the field.

Hipsters, I beg you, please don’t make this movie one of your cheeky identifying quale.  I already gave you Craig Ferguson and all my plaid button-downs from junior high.  If you have any semblance of humanity left in you, please just let me keep Scott Pilgrim.

Look, I’m a fair person; I’ll even barter with you.  You can have all my pogs and even my collection of heavy-duty rubber slammers from the early 90’s.  They must be worth some points on the irreverence scale by now, right?  I mean the 90’s are bound to be in vogue again any day really.

Regardless, whether I get my way or not, I’m just happy to hear Scott is making such an exceptional transition to the silver screen.  It’s a far cry from the days when someone at Buena Vista got so confused by video game adaptation they thought Luigi was shorthand for Leguizamo.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World hits theaters August 13.

Images courtesy of Acme Comics, Wit War and Angry Zen Master

You don’t need to be able to understand Japanese to grasp how incredibly cool Nintendo and Good-Feel Inc.’s Rittai Kakushi E Attakoreda really is.

At first, the gameplay of Rittai Kakushi E Attakoreda seems to point to a standard hidden object pursuit, but this one comes with a cunning new twist.  Instead of hunting for your Waldo on a static 2D image, you’re required to physically look up, down and around corners to uncover hidden bounty – in this case, the letters of a specified word.

By simply detecting shifts in the DSi’s camera position, the game adjusts its angle of the on-screen image accordingly.  No iPhone-esque accelerometer required – just an incredibly clever use of existing DSi technology.  The resulting effect is akin to having a peek inside a giant diorama in your hands.  Kind of like a science fair in your DS.

The best part?  It’s not just some proof-of-concept demo (like Johnny Lee’s equally awesome Wii remote head-tracking idea), it’s finished and ready for takeoff next week at the DSiWare shop.  Again, if you live in Japan or have an imported DSi.

Oh well.  At least we have Photo Dojo to look forward to for the time being.

Highlights from today’s leg of the tour included a peek at a few heavily anticipated works-in-progress, such as Nintendo’s own Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Capcom’s Monster Hunter Tri.

However, the bulk of the morning was dedicated to Nintendo’s release strategy for the first half of the year.  The prognosis?  If you’re an enthusiast Wii owner, 2010 is shaping up to be the best year since 2007 for the console:

- Monster Hunter Tri (April 20)

- Super Mario Galaxy 2 (May 23)

- Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (June 2)

- Metroid: Other M (June 27)

This adds up to superfecta on par with 2007/08’s Prime-Galaxy-Brawl-Kart combo for the enthusiast player – that same vocal lot who bemoan each move Nintendo makes as being intentionally neglectful of their finer tastes.

In fact, today’s entire program could be seen as a gesture of good will, tailored specifically to this type of player.  For today was very much an under-the-radar affair, a calculated move by the company to specifically grab the attention of gaming journalists, while avoiding the traditional press – which tend to have a greater presence at industry showpieces such as E3.

Because when E3 comes around and the media is indeed watching, the focus will shift to the company’s Vitality Sensor – a mysterious device Nintendo hopes will make a Wii Fit-sized impact on the expanded market.  It’s an effort by the company to recognize the two distinct halves of a market in transition – with the expanded audience on one end and the today’s traditional player on the other.

For now though, it’s the enthusiast’s moment to shine in the world of Nintendo.  Will today manage to satiate, or will the general consensus return once again to scornful Nintendo come E3 2010?  Perhaps tellingly, the release dates for all of today’s aforementioned heavy-hitters seem to share one thing in common -

They’re all due out right around E3.

Images Courtesy of IGN and Lochal Archade

Not too shabby for a 384 kilobyte game, wouldn’t you say?

The information comes by way of download and mobile tracking firm FADE (Forecasting and Analysing Digital Entertainment), who released their annual report detailing the top WiiWare and Virtual Console sales and trends late yesterday evening.  The report is particularly unique (and also quite handy) due to the current dearth of information on download sales figures across the interactive industry.

Topping the digital charts in North America for 2009 is 1990’s Super Mario Bros. 3, which managed to net Nintendo another $5M in pure profit last year (the game sells for 500 Nintendo Points, equivalent to $5.00).  Following closely behind was 2D Boy’s excellent WiiWare release, World of Goo, which added another $4.8M to its coffers in 2009.

To put this accomplishment in perspective, New Super Mario Bros. Wii tallied 1.4M units in 2009, making it the year’s 10th best-selling game in North America (this, despite being released in the middle of November).  Super Mario Bros. 3 – with its 1M paid downloads across the year – would almost certainly have found a seat at the top-20 table, if not the top-15.*

The claim would still stand even if one were to include the digital content of competing online storefronts, such as Xbox Live Arcade, whose top-seller for the year was EA’s Battlefield 1943 – a game which saw an estimated 830,000 downloads in 2009, making its volume still less than good ol’ Mario 3.

Stare at these numbers long enough and the mind starts to ponder: is this a sad reflection of an industry in creative peril (which already relies heavily upon sequel after sequel; remake after remake; year after year) or is it that Mario just knows how to sell the goods?

Many in the video game industry would be very quick to justify with the latter and move along, giving it not one second of extra thought.  However that would be foolish; to say that a game sells just because of a character, and to bitch and moan when their product fails to do the same, is terribly naïve.

Brands can and do die.  Witness one Sonic T. Hedgehog.  Once a celebrity of the 16-bit era, he is now the Lindsay Lohan of the gamespace – popping up every now and again to remind us that he’s alive and didn’t O.D. on amphetamines, though no one really cares.

Mario’s greater lesson is that complex games aren’t always to the benefit of the player (and the market, which he controls).  Instead, we find that 100 GB doesn’t always hold something as special and creative as 3 megabits used to.

*NPD Group releases annual data only on the top-10 best-selling games per year.  Anything below this threshold can only be considered speculation.

Images Courtesy of Wikipedia and  Level Select

NBA Jam

The 2-on-2 hoops classic was the perfect antidote to any given Street Fighter hangover.  It became a ritual of sorts for my brother and I, desperate to play as Jordan, to test out a new combination of initials and birthdays each time we were at the arcade.

My enthusiasm for b-ball lived – and later died – with this game.  But what a time it was:

My Knicks were stacked with superstars going shot for shot with the Bulls during Jordan’s peak: Ewing, Oakley, Starks [who could forget “The Dunk”?].  But more important, Jam was there to help ease the pain – many a night would be spent punishing Pippen and Grant to soothe the rage after yet another New York letdown.

NBA Jam was a phenomenon – so much that I can’t truly explain it to those out there who weren’t around to experience it.

But here’s a second chance.

NBA Jam Wii is on fire

NBA Jam is making a comeback on the Wii later this year, and it could be awesome.  It fact, it needs to be.  Because sports games have become downright unmanageable over the last decade – alienating more and more players by the year with increasingly cumbersome controls and stacks of time-consuming menus to navigate.

Sadly, in this misguided attempt to achieve a sort of realism on par with the constantly-evolving visuals, all essence of accessibility is lost.

But a game like Jam so beautifully merged the fictional and fantastic (scorched nets, gratuitous fouling) with the simulated and authentic.  It was built on a foundation unashamed to be a video game, even while tracing the imprint of a ‘true’ game.

The biggest indication of Jam’s aspirations for authenticity came from the game’s incredible digitized graphics.  Never before had the visuals of a sports video game been so detailed that you could make out the very player on screen -

Reggie Miller really looked like Reggie Miller; Larry Johnson really looked like Grandmama; Horace Grant really had those awful goggles.

Even the presentation was top-notch – with cherished announcer Tim Kitzrow calling the shots and a TV-style scoreboard popping up after every basket.

This level of detail was simply unheard of at the time.  But fascinatingly, Jam didn’t accompany these cutting-edge advances with bulky, simulation-like gameplay to match.  Instead, Jam was quite content to march in step with it’s Arch Rivals roots.

The game of video b-ball simply hasn’t shined since – not in 1996’s quasi-sequel Hangtime; not in NBA Street; never.

Details are still light, but we do know that NBA Jam Wii is going to be faithful to the original [just look at those heads!] and that backboards will most definitely shatter.  And maybe – if it’s really faithful – a certain current president will even get an include as a hidden character:

Images courtesy of Old-Wizard and The Fun Ones

We expect Nintendo’s Revolution, based on its price and immense catalog of downloadable games, to be the market leader by 2010,” Runte told GameSpot News. “Nintendo is going to be one heck of a competitor for the gaming pie, and from the looks of it, I think they are going to get a rather huge slice.”

- Ike Kidd, April Fool’s: Analyst: Revolution will take lead in 2010 – GameSpot.com

It was just too easy back then.

In 2006, Nintendo was an easy target.  The current generation of players seemed weary of their unsophisticated and innocent content – especially in a post-Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid world.

Instead, Sony came into the previous decade as the biggest name in the biz, with few able to imagine their throne being usurped by anyone, let alone Nintendo of all companies – not even Sony itself.

Maybe that ugly black Xbox would take a slice of the delicious gaming pie chart; but Nintendo?  Not likely.

So when Wii’s predecessor, the GameCube, trailed behind both the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s original Xbox in the early millennial console race, it all but confirmed the imprudent conclusion that Nintendo was a dinosaur of a different era, on a slow march toward extinction.

And for some commenters, 2010 couldn’t come soon enough:

OMG HAHAHAH!!!!111!1!!!  And to think i believed this for a second!!!  OMG!!  Good job GameSpot! This was nice!”

- NFunspoiler

April 1=Worst day ever!!!  The internet is filled with this crap!”

- kubebot

‘Nintendo is going to be one heck of a competitor for the gaming pie and from the looks of it, I think they are going to get a rather huge slice.’

I thought I was going to wet myself after reading that.”

- firebird23

But at least one soothsayer foresaw the irony of the ‘joke’:

I think this is hilarious! But I think it would also be funny if it did come true. Just think, we’ll just sit back and remember that this April fool’s joke came true and laugh long and hard. At least I will, although I do have a twisted sense of humor.”

- sonic86

Hindsight reveals the only real error in the piece – that it would only take Nintendo until 2008 to become market leader, and not 2010.

For this find, I credit the archives of enigmatic strategy analyst Sean Malstrom.  Malstrom, whose corner of the Internet plays host to one man’s war against dimwitted game journalists and commenters everywhere, has been observing Nintendo since early 2005.

Now, this article hasn’t been dragged out of the great Internet time capsule to help stoke the fan-war flames – instead it should be used as a cautionary tale for those who think they are gifted with the absolute understanding of what makes games ‘work.’

So then, care to take a shot at 2020 anyone?  Anyone…?

BYTES:

- The digital decade approaches; analysts predict downloaded content may outpace disc sales by 2020.

- Nintendo’s advantage: use the old to bring in the new – ease the online-adverse into the download realm by offering games nostalgic players already know and love.

- Major hurdle: Virtual Console’s relative poor awareness; growing need to target nostalgic players directly.

—–     —–     —–     —–     —–     —–

“So Anthony, how’s your Wii doing?”

He grunts.  Guess that one still hasn’t gotten old.

“Sitting above my TV collecting dust,” he says, sliding the orange into his Blue Moon.  “I haven’t turned that thing on since Smash Bros.”

Right, Super Smash Bros. Brawl – a favorite among nostalgic Nintendo fans and 2008’s fourth best-selling game, behind Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit.

“That’s what they need to do, update the old action games,” he lectures between swigs.  “Like make a new Contra, but keep it simple, not like the PlayStation ones.”

“But Ant, they already did that.  You can download it.  There’s even an old-school Castlevania, too.”

“No I mean for real, not on the DS or something.”

“No, really they did.”

And on it goes for twenty more mintues.

. . .

It occurred to me after this argument – one in which we somehow ended up fighting over whether or not this season of Lost will live up to the hype – that Nintendo has a problem on their hands.  One that’s bigger than reforming the video game axis every six months with a new gadget or game: basic product awareness.

Not for the heavy-hitters, of course.  People know a hotshot game like New Super Mario Bros. Wii is out there – over 8 million people to be more precise.  No, the issue rests with the bulging libraries of the Virtual Console and WiiWare download platforms – games which continue to be treated like second-class citizens by Nintendo, even as the archive crossed the 500 mark last month.

Although there is no clear consensus on exactly when, most analysts agree that download content will outpace disc sales sometime in the next 10 years.  Simply put, the download sphere is gaining momentum by the year, making the Wii Shop Channel no longer just a novelty sandwiched between the Photo and Forecast Channels.

- BORN AGAIN GAMERS -

With 60 million consoles sold as of November 2009, it’s a commonly held belief that Nintendo has captured a new and expanded audience of interactive players with the Wii.  Less discussed is the supposition that Nintendo has been successful in recapturing players who hung up their controllers long ago.

Considering the success of its fan-service rich Super Smash Bros. franchise with long-time players like Anthony and 8,999,999 others, it’s safe to say this premise holds some weight.

And it’s this segment of resurrected players which hold the key to Nintendo’s triumph in the digital store war.  Because while each major console sports a digital storefront of some kind, from the PlayStation Network to Xbox Live Arcade, none offer the comprehensive library of classics that 25 years in the industry nets you.

The Virtual Console could very well be the company’s Trojan horse; a sly and seemingly harmless entry point to the online world.

- PUMP UP THE VOLUME -

The problem is that most of these Wii owners aren’t clued in to the trove of digital treasure buried inside their consoles right at this very moment.  How can you blame them – where is the promotional push?  The reliable release schedule?

A simple marketing boost would be an excellent start.  A specialized campaign targeting this segment could include kitschy updates to some familiar, yet awesomely outdated television commercials – like the totally badical Zelda rap:

[this is what rap must've been like before rhythm was invented]

Or perhaps Nintendo could highlight a collection of Virtual Console games with a single-page ad in non-enthusiast magazines.  Even better, they could advertise the game’s instant accessibility through the Wii console and low-low starting price of $5.  (What could be easier!)

Second, start setting generous, but concrete dates for download content.  Right now the system is set up so that we North Americans are left befuddled right up until 12:00 P.M. each Monday.  An easy solution is to revive the old-school Nintendo Power methodology of setting an estimated month of release.  That at least narrows things down to a palatable 4 weeks. (Seriously, Cave Story, what’s up with you?)

Finally, one piece Nintendo is getting right is their weekly update schedule.  Having a firm date to check for content each week is something of a staple across the media industry.  From movies popping up on a Friday to CDs and DVDs hitting stores on a Tuesday – we all seem pretty comfortable with having a routine of sorts in place for these items.

- ON RESTAURANTS AND REWARDS -

To its credit, Nintendo has been showing some fortitude in the online arena as of late.

Last year the company began a Japanese-only promotion which rewards players for assisting friends in connecting their Wii consoles online.  Gifts range from download currency to access to Nintendo’s entire first-party Virtual Console catalog.

Other Eastern-exclusive programs include a deal with McDonalds, which sees the “restaurant” offering exclusive free content to those who bring their portables to participating Mickey D’s.

Closer to home, Nintendo has recently started airing a 15-second spot for Pokemon Rumble, the WiiWare exclusive released last November – a first in North America for a game unique to the service.

This recent slate of initiatives seem to point to a company which is starting to show some concern for its online position.

Still, while Nintendo is currently working toward rectifying its online transgressions, the company has some ways to go in its efforts to surpass the 50% – 60% connectivity rate of the global online leader, Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

And with approximately only 35% of Japnese Wii owners connected to the Internet with their consoles, it’s a considerable gap to bridge.  Time will tell whether or not Nintendo chooses to capitalize on the potential of its Virtual Console and what it could bring to both longtime and renewed fans alike.

Images Courtesy of Wikipedia [1], [2], [3] and List of the Day