Playtesters say 'Wii' to console war question

Sleek and small
Beyond the Wii controllers and the unique tweak they bring to the gaming experience, guest gamer Evan Boyle, 16, said he also liked the machine’s svelte shape and size. (We’ve seen novels thicker than this little baby.)

“The PS3 is huge,” Boyle said. “With the Wii, it’s easy if you want to bring it somewhere.”

Meanwhile, the old school gamer in us found the Wii’s Virtual Console a big bonus. We like the fact that by using the Wii’s online capabilities we’ll be able to download classic video games (for a fee) that were originally played on some of the early Nintendo machines (the Nintendo 64, NES and Super NES consoles as well as the Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx16).

Among the 30 downloadable titles that will available by Christmas time are classics like “Mario Bros.,” “Donkey Kong,” and “Sonic the Hedgehog.”

What we didn’t like
Compared to the PS3 and the Xbox 360, the Wii is, simply put, not a particularly powerful machine. And where this becomes most noticeable to the average gamer is in the graphics.

The Wii just can’t compete with the visual splendor that pours forth from the PS3. In fact, games played on the Wii look like they're being played on nothing more than a slightly souped-up GameCube.

Most of our guest players didn’t seem to mind so much. Still though, for us game reviewers it was something of a disappointment. The PS3 and the Xbox 360 set the standard high, and once you get used to living in that kind of luxurious visual world, it’s hard to go back.

And speaking of technological oomph (or the lack thereof), it’s worth pointing out that — unlike the PS3 and Xbox 360 — the Wii doesn’t play movie DVDs, high definition or otherwise.

It’s also important to note that the Wii’s motion sensitive controllers are not perfect. While playing the game “Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz,” for instance, there were times when both the adults and the kid gamers struggled to get the controller to work correctly.

And though the boxing game got high marks for fun, here too it seemed the controllers didn’t very accurately detect the motion of the player’s movement.

Though the initial offerings look good, only time will tell how successfully game makers will be able to integrate the new controller’s capabilities into the playing experience.

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