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It’s probably reasonable to suggest that all of the big three games consoles – Sony’s PS3, the Microsoft Xbox and the Nintendo Wii – all have their own strong points. Different gamers will have their own personal favourites and it’s pretty much a waste of time to try to persuade them that one of the other consoles is any better.
A lot of households today will have more than one, and very possibly all three, games consoles. Not to mention the various mobile consoles like the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS. It’s quite common these days for games consoles to also see use as blu-ray disc or DVD players.
However, ignoring the almost pointless discussion regarding which console is “best”, it’s probably reasonable to suggest that the Nintendo Wii is the most sociable of the three available consoles. Whereas the Xbox and PS3 are often to be found in teenager’s bedrooms, the Wii is more commonly found in the family living room. The Wii has less processing power than the other two consoles and has much simpler graphics – more cartoon like in general. Even so, it is more often the Wii that can be found wired up to the big flat-screen TV in the living room.
One important factor in this is the fact that the Wii’s motion sensitive controller means that, even though the graphics may be simpler, it’s more difficult to follow the action on a small screen TV when you’re jumping around all over the place. The other thing is that it’s easier and more intuitive to learn games on the Wii. It’s so easy that even adults can manage it – so it’s a lot easier for all the family members to take part in the fun.
One of the consequences of all that jumping about when playing Wii games is that more space is required to play the Wii than the other consoles. This also makes the living room a more attractive choice than the typical teenage bedroom, where you would be tripping over discarded clothes, half eaten pizzas and empty juice bottles. The physical side of playing games on the Wii is a good thing. It means that there’s a certain amount of exercise involved when playing Wii games. Mind you, you should be careful and take it easy at first. It’s all too easy to wake up with a sore arm or stiff legs after an evening playing Wii Sports for the first time.
The tendency for families to have their Wii console in the living room could go some way to explaining the success of the black Wii. Nintendo went to the dark side and released a black Wii console in Japan in the summer of 2009. It was launched in Europe in time for Christmas 2009. It turned out to be an extremely popular choice with many gamers – possibly because it matches the TV, the cable box, the DVD player etc. – better than the white version.
Tags: computer games, games consoles, gaming, hobbies, nintendo wii, video games