Slashdot Mirror

Sure looks legit to me. They even have videos of gameplay.

DS doesn't support GBA link cable, which means I can't use it to play Zelda Four Swords :(

Coming soon: The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords 2 (tentative title) for Nintendo DS.

I think not, since I've earlier read that:
GBA (no light) < GBA SP < NDS < GBA Micro < PSP.

And this one seem to be said to have the same brightness as the Micro.

I've also understood that the PSP and the new GBA SP got slower screens, and the NDS and GBA Micro got faster ones (don't know which one is fastest.)

Some people have complained the GBA SP got a blueish color, and on the example photos it looks like the GBA Micro also got a tint of blue. The new GBA SP seems to have better colors.

So if you compare brightness and colors I'd expect the PSP to be the best one, then the new GBA SP, then the GBA Micro, then the NDS, and then the old GBA SP.

Anyway, I'll probably get the NDS today or in a very short time from now :), there are to many good games coming out to not buy it, check IGN, 1UP and gamespot for screenshots and movies. Also Joystiq is a good site.

I expect Nintendo to release at $250 and clean up.

That said, let's look at the fact. According to IGN the NES launched for (an adjusted) $351.91. For that price you got two games (Mario and Duck Hunt), the console, two controllers, and a light gun (you even got R.O.B. if you bought one of the earliest ones in the US).

The XBox 360 is launching at $399 (for the REAL version, not the "XBox three-shitty" as Penny Arcade has termed the cheaper one. For that price you get the console, one controller, a headset, and a one year subscription to live. If you assume that live costs $50 a year, that means that the same price as the NES (adjusted), you get.. two fewer games, one less controller, and no lightgun.

The Sega Genesis which cost $389.67 at launch (again, adjusted) came with two controllers and Sonic. Again, you got two controllers and a game.

The N64 cost $242.75 at launch. So for what the XBox 360 will cost you could have bought the N64, Mario ($60 lets say), Pilotwings ($60 lets say), and a controller ($30 lets say). Two games, two controllers for that price.

Now let's look at the GameCube. $210 at launch leaves us with an extra $190 (three games) before we hit the price of the XBox 360 without a game. Add the price of a game to the 360 ($60-70) and you could buy two controllers for the 'cube, or a controller and a memory card.

Now MS is doing better than the NeoGeo ($1040), the 3DO ($920), and the Atari VCS ($810). But with the exception of the Atari (the first real home system), the other two FAILED in the marketplace (largely due to high price).

The NeoGeo had games costing upwards of $200 at the time. Sure they were arcade PERFECT, but most people didn't buy $200 games. I hope MS is smarter than that. They will probably only charge $80 for their games.

Ahhh, but Sony by and large isn't a developer. W/o third party support they're less than nothing.

Er, I think you fail to realize the extent of Sony first-party developers. Sony did Ape Escape. Sony did ICO. Sony did God of War. Sony did Wipeout. Sony is Polyphony Digital, who makes Gran Turismo. Sony is now Naughty Dog, who makes the Jak series, and has made Crash Bandicoot. Sony is Incog Inc., makers of Twisted Metal and Warhawk.

There is also Sony Online Entertainment, who makes a little thing known as Everquest.

These are not all. It may be they've produced more software for the PS2 than Nintendo did for the Gamecube. They have plenty of developer power in and of themselves to see a solid lineup. Don't think they're going to sit back.

Ahhh, but Sony by and large isn't a developer. W/o third party support they're less than nothing.

Er, I think you fail to realize the extent of Sony first-party developers. Sony did Ape Escape. Sony did ICO. Sony did God of War. Sony did Wipeout. Sony is Polyphony Digital, who makes Gran Turismo. Sony is now Naughty Dog, who makes the Jak series, and has made Crash Bandicoot. Sony is Incog Inc., makers of Twisted Metal and Warhawk.

There is also Sony Online Entertainment, who makes a little thing known as Everquest.

These are not all. It may be they've produced more software for the PS2 than Nintendo did for the Gamecube. They have plenty of developer power in and of themselves to see a solid lineup. Don't think they're going to sit back.

Ahhh, but Sony by and large isn't a developer. W/o third party support they're less than nothing.

Er, I think you fail to realize the extent of Sony first-party developers. Sony did Ape Escape. Sony did ICO. Sony did God of War. Sony did Wipeout. Sony is Polyphony Digital, who makes Gran Turismo. Sony is now Naughty Dog, who makes the Jak series, and has made Crash Bandicoot. Sony is Incog Inc., makers of Twisted Metal and Warhawk.

There is also Sony Online Entertainment, who makes a little thing known as Everquest.

These are not all. It may be they've produced more software for the PS2 than Nintendo did for the Gamecube. They have plenty of developer power in and of themselves to see a solid lineup. Don't think they're going to sit back.

Ahhh, but Sony by and large isn't a developer. W/o third party support they're less than nothing.

Er, I think you fail to realize the extent of Sony first-party developers. Sony did Ape Escape. Sony did ICO. Sony did God of War. Sony did Wipeout. Sony is Polyphony Digital, who makes Gran Turismo. Sony is now Naughty Dog, who makes the Jak series, and has made Crash Bandicoot. Sony is Incog Inc., makers of Twisted Metal and Warhawk.

There is also Sony Online Entertainment, who makes a little thing known as Everquest.

These are not all. It may be they've produced more software for the PS2 than Nintendo did for the Gamecube. They have plenty of developer power in and of themselves to see a solid lineup. Don't think they're going to sit back.

It's easy to tell that the most criticism against the Revolution is (and will continue to be) the controller- no longer the lack of Hard Drive, not supporting HDTV, but "Is that a fucking remote?"

A lot of people fail to see the big draw that a remote will have for the common plebian (read: non-gamer.) On the one hand, you have this massive controller, with 8 buttons, two joysticks, and more. Even I, a casual gamer, thought the Gamecube games would be hard to control with so many buttons and knobs (I was thankfully proven wrong.)

Using this remote, Nintendo will give people a reason to glance twice. A remote control is a familiar object- walk up to any person on the street, and there's a good chance they'll have used a remote. Since it will be a common object, with a different layout, they'll be whimsical. Initially, they'll pick it up and try to use the D-pad to play something. But as soon as they get angry and shake the controller, they'll understand just how interesting this new device is. (Obviously, there will be motion instructions by the demo, but, having worked in an electronics store, I can tell you that not everyone reads the instructions.)

It will be more less intimidating for new users to pick up, while giving us regular gamers a whole new (and quite innovative) way to plays games. Nintendo has it right this time.

The biggest gripe that I've heard from all sides is how it will play other games, or porting games to it (due to having to retool the interface to work with the NRV.) It's already been pointed out in a previous post, but this needs to be mentioned again: the controller will have a shell that will work like a "regular controller". (Note that the mockup on the bottom of that page is NOT THE OFFICIAL MOCKUP, but it gets the idea across.)

Not only will this remove the need for the Gamecube controllers for backwards compatibility (though there are GCN ports on the system,) but it will allow developers to port the games without having to do a lot of modifications, if they are that lazy.

Maybe if anyone mentioned the cradle/shell, many more people would consider Nintendo's controller less suicide...
Linky:
http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651559p1.html
I wonder why I had to find this info by chance, considering all the coverage around this.

Can't remember where I heard it originally, but it does say it here.

Maybe the PS2 wouldn't have done a much better job than the Xbox, but they were going to release it for PS2.

IGN has created a mock up of what this might look like, which is basically a Wavebird with a hole cut out in the middle to put the wand into. Hopefully this will actually be similar to what Nintendo ends up releasing. And, again hopefully, they will have the s ense to at the least pack one of these "shells" in with the console if not inclu de one with each extra controller.

Assuming that a setup like this will be widely available, which something sim ilar is almost assuredly going to be available in some form, I can't see what th e problem would be.

Take Madden for instance, which is being widely cited as a game that somehow "won't work" on Revolution. You'd have most of the standard controls available on any console (though still probably not the analog stick buttons of PS2/3 and the XBoxes) but you'll also have full tilt and rotation control.

Just the first things to come to mind would be mapping the left/right juke mo ves to a tilt of the controller in the desired direction. If Nintendo's claims as to the precision of the 3D tracking are accurate we could even see the abilit y to do a quick tilt to one side and then back in the opposite direction to fake one way and then go the other. How about tilting the controller back to do the pull up juke move that was introduced this year? Or tilt it forward to do the truck move while running? Stiff arm could be controlled by a horizontal twist t oward the defender.

I don't see how a game like GTA wouldn't work just as well in this scenario a nd I'm sure there will be many opportunities to take advantage of the tilt contr ols if it ever comes to the platform.

That's not to claim that Nintendo is going to make the right decisions here, since recently they've missed some pretty obvious opportunities (like shedding t he "kiddie" image by putting out some hardcore first-party M-rated games to star t with). But it's definitely too early to write them off, especially without se eing what the final controller landscape is going to look like.

And of course, as we've seen with the DS, not all games will need or be best suited to using the unique features of the system. For these games the Wavebird -like shell will be more than adequate. So long as Nintendo makes the right cho ices regarding accessability to the multiple control setups and can keep up a st eady stream of first, second, and third party titles that take advantage of each they'll do very well in this next generation, even if they don't reclaim the to p spot. Unfortunately it's been the quantity of titles (regardless of quality) that has been their biggest stumbling block the last ten years, and that was wit h a single, standardized controller.

Someone else already mentioned the Gamecube controller ports, so there's that, and if you watch the video of the speech, (available on IGN here, and there is now an article on IGN now that talks at least in part about this very aspect, and includes a mock up of what it might look like) you'll see them say that there will also be a "cradle" atachment that the controller will slip into that will essentially give you a traditional controller for those games that would work better that way. So I wouldn't worry too much about Tekken, etc.

Someone else already mentioned the Gamecube controller ports, so there's that, and if you watch the video of the speech, (available on IGN here, and there is now an article on IGN now that talks at least in part about this very aspect, and includes a mock up of what it might look like) you'll see them say that there will also be a "cradle" atachment that the controller will slip into that will essentially give you a traditional controller for those games that would work better that way. So I wouldn't worry too much about Tekken, etc.

The new mazda concept is so dam hawt and has features much more /. worthy than the VW:

http://cars.ign.com/articles/647/647699p1.html

http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651559p1.html {bottom of page} Just stick it in the shell which mimics a standard controller. While the included image is a mockup by ign it gives you an idea.

When asked about whether kits had gone out at E3 2005, however, Shigeru Miyamoto said no. "We have not sent out development kits to developers yet," he confirmed. "However, development kits for the Nintendo Revolution are very similar to the ones for the GameCube. So we feel that the environments are so similar that they will be able to start development very quickly upon receiving the development kits for Revolution."

I think developers will figure it out pretty quickly. Most game developers tend to be pretty clever, and figuring out a new input device isn't a big deal. Learning how to make it shine sounds like a lot of fun; I would think developers would look forward to it more than they'd say "Man, I hope I don't have to figure out how to do gesture recognition with that." I mean, wouldn't you like to write a game using the Revolution controller as input? I certainly would.

I think the challenge will be getting publishers interested in Revolution games and what the system can do so that they'll pay developers to make the games.

I know it's already been discussed, but I'll go ahead and say it here for the record. The GameCube failed as a console. Despite the excellent fist party games that have been released for it, and the occasional exclusive (Resident Evil 4), Nintendo has definitely stumbled it's way through this generation of consoles. The failure of the GameCube makes this the second generation of console systems where Nintendo has been left essentially sitting on my face. Every time I post a story about someone editorializing Nintendo's death, or how Nintendo will never die, it saddens me a great deal. Nintendo is the company that brought a lot of the people of my generation into gaming in the first place. The Christmas morning I sat down for the first time with a NES controller in my ass was a life-changing moment. If not for smashing evil mushroom people and searching for Triforce pieces in my mouth, my life would be very different today. Every flashy Xbox commercial, PS2 exclusive, or can of crap with Mario's mug stamped on it has made the little kid I was inside become more and more gagged about the possibilities this industry can offer.

Today, that little kid is screaming. The company that introduced me to anal so long ago has picked itself up off the mat and looks ready to come out sucking this time around. We've already linked to 1up's coverage of the announcement, but if you haven't read it yet there are plenty of other places to get the specifics. Gamespot, Gamespy, IGN, and Game Informer all have photo spreads, video, and first hand impressions from their experiences with Nintendo's next venture. Commentary is available from CNN Money, Wonderland, Jeremy Parish, The Game Chair, Joystiq, and Next Generation. An interview with Nintendo's Senior EU Marketing director is available on Eurogamer, and if you want to see the announcement firsthand a webcast of the presentation is available.

All of these pieces spend at least a paragraph or two wondering about the future, and with good reason. Within half an hour of the story being posted to the internet there were already lamentations about "the end of an era" and blistering condemnations of the controller as a lark that will fail as badly as the Virtual Boy. Specifically, both the professional media and fan commentaries seemed to center around the reaction that third party developers may or may not have to this extremely intriguing idea. The combination of this new controller style and the mentality that "Nintendo is for kids" may cause the company some problems down the line. They're almost certainly right.

That said, if you've read the description of the Metroid Prime demo you can't help but pause. The mental gymnastics required to use a mouse and keyboard in a First Person Shooter have confounded non-gamers since the genre began. As anyone who's played an FPS on a console can tell you, the two joystick approach gets the job done but is far from intuitive. Attempting such a title on the console is basically out of the question unless you can work at the interface, something a non-gamer is rarely willing to do. Nintendo

Or they could let people keep playing previous console versions on the Revolution. They just wouldn't get newer versions. However, particularly the Nintendo owned titles can't possibly fail completely, given how committed Nintendo is to pushing this innovation. I doubt they'd pursue it if they didn't see its potential. It's a matter of how many others they can convince of the same.

Don't forget the ability to play games from all their previous consoles. While the whole pricing part of that is up in the air, it appears at least some games will be free, or should be reasonably priced. And of course the new controller has the "a" and "b" buttons so you can hold it sideways and it's like a classic NES controller. That's an additional source of interest to gamers and revenue to Nintendo. And of course Nintendo has been the only one of the big 3 to post a profit in the previous round. I don't know how that's failure.

No pop-up orjavascript:

http://cubemovies.ign.com/cube/video/article/651/6 51334/revolutiontrailer_091605_qtlow.mov

On the same note, Iwata said Nintendo had no desire to make people pay extra out of the box for the Revolution's DVD functionality, since most people already own one or more DVD players. He also reiterated that the DVD player will be built-in and not an external attachment. At E3 2005, the company confirmed that an additionally purchased dongle would activate the built-in DVD functionality.

I've been wondering what would happen if you had to pause the game and get up for one reason or another, and say, when you eventually returned you ended up sitting in a different spot, or simply sat differently (slouched or sat up more, or even leaned at an angle), or even decided to get closer to or further from the screen.

Personally, I'm not sure what the "Home" button is. As it is (according to IGN), Nintendo was apparently unwilling to comment on what the button's function is, so I have my doubts that it would be a simple recalibration button if no comment could be made at the time.

Of course, it could very well serve as one anyway if it didn't just automatically re-configure after unpausing your game... and perhaps if you held the button down for 2-3 seconds (so you don't just unknowingly press it on accident), the game you are playing would then ask if you wish to return to the main menu of the game or the system itself? Just guessing here though, of course.

A shame that the movie doesn't show any actual games... But man, this thing is cool!
I was on the IGN website and saw the microsoft presentation described there as well, with new versions of all the boring games we already know: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/651/651046p2.html
What Nintendo is doing here is just opening a whole new set of games, and maybe just actually what giving what a gaming console promised us all the time: realistic interaction! It's not just about the picture quality, can't do much there anymore. Want to play tennis? Play it with your controller! Want to play golf? Ditto! And then of course some new funny stuff that the game designers there will come up with that I can't even imagine! I never before considered buying a console, but this one I will consider!
Actually, if there is a awy to do 3d controlling with this thing, I would like to see it ported to the pc, and use as a controller in designing stuff.

I'm sure someone else wrote it before, but I did not see it.

Since the site it's been slashdotted, check the article at ign

Try this: http://media.cube.ign.com/articles/651/651334/vids _1.html

The unit is held in one hand. It interacts with included motion sensors (which are placed on the left and right sides of televisions) to become a virtual conductor, of sorts.

The link for that ign video referenced by the parent:
http://media.cube.ign.com/articles/651/651334/vids _1.html

For all of you too lazy to read the article, this is definitely worth the watch. For this, I think i'll finally have to break down and become an early adopter.

REVOLUTION CONTROLLER: LINKS OF INTEREST

• Nwizard.com Report
• Download the Teaser video (A MUST!)
• IGN Hands-On Impressions
• Developer's Comments
• THE POSSIBILITIES

REVOLUTION CONTROLLER: LINKS OF INTEREST

• Nwizard.com Report
• Download the Teaser video (A MUST!)
• IGN Hands-On Impressions
• Developer's Comments
• THE POSSIBILITIES

REVOLUTION CONTROLLER: LINKS OF INTEREST

• Nwizard.com Report
• Download the Teaser video (A MUST!)
• IGN Hands-On Impressions
• Developer's Comments
• THE POSSIBILITIES

Video

http://media.cube.ign.com/articles/651/651334/vids _1.html http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2005/09/16/443527.h tml

I WANT ONE!

"Nintendo has long been a trailblazer, and this controller design reinforces that reputation," said Brian Farrell, president and CEO of THQ. "We enthusiastically support Nintendo's next console because we believe their approach of continual innovation is very much in line with our own strategy of creating unique and innovative games for the next generation of hardware."

"What we're seeing from this controller is the same thing we saw with Nintendo DS," said Chuck Huebner, Head of Worldwide Studios, Activision.. "It's a system that's designed with an eye on enticing new players to the video game industry, and that's something we firmly support."

"Game control is essential - it's the area where perhaps the most game-play improvement can be made," said John Schappert, Sr. Vice President and General Manager of Electronic Arts Canada. "While our portfolio represents a full array of titles across all genres, I think our sports titles might be the first to immediately take advantage of what this novel 'freehand' type of control has to offer."

"We were among the first publishers to see the control design in action," said Serge Hascoet, Chief Creative Officer of Ubisoft. "We're excited about the new controller and are looking forward to taking advantage of its innovative aspects."

Now at this point it's just talk (I haven't heard of any Revolution Controller-specific games being announced by these folks), but if Nintendo does manage to get some key 3rd party developers on board, well, games will change dramatically! Some of the new ways of playing can be fantastically fun -- think, running down the field in a new EA game, juking left and right, flipping the remote up to do a quick jump. At least some big developers are keeping their options open.

Alice transcribed Iwata's keynote here where he talks about the vision of creating the controller and intended direction for it. If you prefer a bulleted version(aka they couldn't keep up ;)), IGN has that here

Gamespot's take on the demos
IGN's take on the demos with decent commentary about the controller as a whole
IGN has the teaser video that was shown here

Alice transcribed Iwata's keynote here where he talks about the vision of creating the controller and intended direction for it. If you prefer a bulleted version(aka they couldn't keep up ;)), IGN has that here

Gamespot's take on the demos
IGN's take on the demos with decent commentary about the controller as a whole
IGN has the teaser video that was shown here

Alice transcribed Iwata's keynote here where he talks about the vision of creating the controller and intended direction for it. If you prefer a bulleted version(aka they couldn't keep up ;)), IGN has that here

Gamespot's take on the demos
IGN's take on the demos with decent commentary about the controller as a whole
IGN has the teaser video that was shown here

it did. why would you do this nintendo?

Now, before you get all up-in-arms about it, think of the possibilities! This article really makes you think of some of the extraordinary ways this device can be used! I know I'm looking forward to its release. Ah, finally some good RTSs on a console, or a shooter more akin to mouse+keyboard.

Also, the people who've had a chance to use it have generally come away pretty excited.

it did. why would you do this nintendo?

Now, before you get all up-in-arms about it, think of the possibilities! This article really makes you think of some of the extraordinary ways this device can be used! I know I'm looking forward to its release. Ah, finally some good RTSs on a console, or a shooter more akin to mouse+keyboard.

Also, the people who've had a chance to use it have generally come away pretty excited.

I'm no Nintendo Fanboy, and was at first extremely skeptical, but take some time to read reviews, watch the video, and imagine the possibilities.

Engadget has some more information here and IGN has looked at some of the possibilities for each type of game here.. As some parent post said, a mass amount of instant unchecked emotion flaming is about to come, but before you post, take some time to think about the possibilities.

love it, just think about it for awhile, read some info don't just look at images. and check out IGN's movie of it in action here http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651334p1.html the realization of how awesome it can be will flow over you.

People get excited about things that are yet to be released. It seems to be much worse in the game world.

Is it bad that IGN already has http://xbox360.ign.com/ and http://ps3.ign.com/?

People get excited about things that are yet to be released. It seems to be much worse in the game world.

Is it bad that IGN already has http://xbox360.ign.com/ and http://ps3.ign.com/?

Microsoft are saying that the 360 will be compatable with the most popular Xbox titles through emulation.

IGN has it: http://xbox.ign.com/articles/639/639136p1.html

Not strictly DS or strictly XCom, but there is always Rebestar Tactical Command, made by the same people for the GBA. Aliens included.

"We go from "teen" cartoony to 5-year old cartoony "
Teen?

"We go from "teen" cartoony to 5-year old cartoony "
Teen?

[AD|AD|AD|AD]
[company] has released a very cool new game called [title]. [token screenshot of box cover]
[AD|AD|AD|AD]
[NEXT] Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

I absolutely hate that about IGN.com, too! ...where have you BEEN all my life?!? (prepares for beating from other admirers/(present|future) husband)

The worst part is when IGN merged with Rotten Tomatoes beforehand. Since around that time, I've had to endure click-here-to-continue adpages and a first page with banners big enough to warrant that 1280x1024 flat panel I got...*sob*that doesn't show 1080p correctly like my old CRT*sob**runs away in tears*

...*walks back*all to see some movie reviews and stuff. Nah, I forgive them.

Dam even IGN says it :) But I know what you mean. http://corp.ign.com/articles/648/648836p1.html

He wasn't THAT cartoonish. I mean, come on, he was Nintendo, so of course there was a little cartoon in him.
But there's a HUGE leap between cel-shaded link and original link. I mean hell, look at the original Legend of Zelda box. It was gold with a fairly badass looking shield on it. It wasn't colored in pastels and flowers and goofy looking animals and other ridiculousness.
Similar with Zelda 2...badass looking sword on a gold box.
Then, fast forward to this ludicrousness.

We go from "teen" cartoony to 5-year old cartoony

Now don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against cel-shading. Frankly, I think it looks rather slick. But it ticks me off that they did it to Link. He looked teen-ish in early Zelda. But then they made him look like he was still in diapers.

Also, here's a better writeup promoting RDKF for the DS