My soon-to-be step daughter craved one for Christmas. My taxi driver on New Year’s Eve regaled me with tales of her daughter staying in for the night with hers, along with a bevy of mates and plenty of booze. My work buddies spent the festive season playing with theirs and my fifty-something female friend has finally got her hands on one too. I’ve got two and my little sister would love to have her own which she needn’t share with our brother.
The Nintendo Wii has got to be the most female-friendly games console ever to have gone on sale, with the possible exception of its stablemate the DS. The Wii seems to have it all – the silly name, the small size (so unlike the threatening bulk of the po-faced and high-priced PlayStation3), the innovative control system and games that make people laugh rather than want to shout at the screen or shoot up suburban shopping malls, or so the Daily Mail would have us believe. Nintendo has even created a convincing fitness title that’s makes working out not only less of a chore but even, whisper it, something entertaining.
The Wii has captured people’s imaginations and is showing them that video games can be relevant to anyone. Sure, the graphics are terrible and, even now, two years after its launch, games developers are only just beginning to explore the possibilities its control system has opened up for them.
The only fly in the ointment, other than the inevitable stock shortages that have become the unfortunate hallmark of any successful piece of hardware, is the ad campaign that flooded the nation’s bus shelters, billboards and TV screens in the run up to Christmas. Impressive in its scope and in the amount of cash that Nintendo threw at it, the sight of the Redknapp’s larking around playing Mario Kart and seeing Ronan Keating and sprogs having a family moment in front of their Wii made me shudder. And on the DS side – Girls Aloud claiming they spent their time on tour playing Nintendogs? Do me a favour.
Forget paying through the nose for unlikely celebrity ambassadors next year – instead, spend the money on getting more Wii Fits shipped (they’re still as rare as hen’s teeth and I know 10 people who’d like one) and invest in making some great games with universal appeal. The Wii could be the device that turns gaming from a past time seen as child’s play into a leisure phenomenon that will change the way women live. Viva la revolution.
No Wii-fit for me. I want real games, not to be nagged into health by some computer-aided trainer. Wii-fit has been banned from my home – bleugh!
I have a Wii and an Xbox 360 – apart from the “World of Goo” download last week, my Wii has remained dormant for most of the last three months. That’s because there’s been nothing worth buying.
The Nintendo shelves are full of depressingly awful, misjudged shovelware.
Dont even get me started about that music thing… (shudder)
Agree the Wii is changing the way women live and moving it from child’s play to a ‘grown up’ and socially acceptable activity. My issue is with the ad campaign. It is cheesy, contrived and lacks any idea that will provide a foundation for the brand. The product is why the Wii is flying off the shelves. Nintendo need an insirational creative idea that understands what women care about. One that doesn’t make me want to reach for the sick bucket everytime I see it.