Wii/Revolution - 3 Years Later

[The Ghost of RubangB]

The Wii's revolution is that it taught the rest of the industry that new ways to play is more important than the same old games with new clothing on. The revolution really began with the DS, which let you play some games with the traditional buttons, some with the touchscreen, and some with the microphone. Then the Wii kicked things into gear by letting you play some things with the traditional buttons and joystick, some with gestures, some with tilting, and some with IR pointing. But then they showed that you can play some things with the balance of your body. Then they enhanced the accuracy of the motion sensing before anybody launched their first motion controller. And now they're working on a vitality sensing device that we still know nothing about.

The tilting controls have given us Mario Kart Wii, Kororinpa, and BIT.TRIP Beat. The gestures have given us games like Wii Sports, No More Heroes, and MadWorld. The IR controls have given us games like Metroid Prime Trilogy, Elebits, and Sin and Punishment 2, and even IR platformers like Lost Winds. The traditional controls have given us games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Games that dabble in all these control schemes come out super-amazing like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy. Or you get oldschool platforming with a dash of tilting and a sprinkle of shaking and you get New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the official game of the forever. So I'd say that the revolution has happened to gameplay, to disruption, and to marketing.

And getting Wii Sports on Oprah, Ellen, Colbert, cruise ships, in physical rehabilitation clinics, in convalescent homes, and played live on the Oscars, that was its own revolution as well. Thanks to Nintendo, we're not nerds anymore. Now we're happy families who like to exercise.