Look, I'm not ''anti-Nintendo'', I like 'em. Been playing various Nintendo consoles and handhelds for quite literally 20 years. Hell, if you count the coin-op ''Donkey Kong'', OVER 20 years.
I quite understand their urge to respond to the challenge that micro and $oft (face it, gates boo-hooing about having too much money is just too funny. I can help cheer him up, all he has to do is write a check for a million or two and send my way) presented them with the xbox 360 (did you know that micro and $oft LOSES MONEY on EVERY xbox 360 they sell? They are using the ''razor blade'' strategy that has worked quite well for printer manufacturers. Sell the console/printer at a loss, and make it up on the software/ink cartridges).
The one thing Nintendo can be faulted for is their tendency to be ''too japanese'' such as the tendency to include a 'ninja' character in RPGs. This dates back to ''Donkey Kong'', in Japanese the word for ''stupid'' and ''donkey'' are the same word. In their rush to the US market Nintendo merely did a word-for-word translation of the name of a wildly popular video game in Japan and ''Stupid Kong'' became ''Donkey Kong''.
The video game was became a huge hit in the US despite the odd name. Nintendo figured ''Hey, if the Americans have no problem with the name Donkey Kong, neither do we''.
This is demonstrated again by the Nintendo response to micro and $oft's challenge for home videogame supremacy. They have named their new 'super' video game console Wii (pronounced as ''whee''). I wish I was kidding you, but I'm not:
http://wii.nintendo.com/home.htmlFrom what I've seen so far it looks like a something I might like to buy, but the name could wind up being a MAJOR mistake for Nintendo.
Here come the jokes:
''Hey! Check out my whee!''
''My whee is awesome!''
''Would you like to play with my whee?''
And that's just a sample. If Nintendo
continues to fail to understand American culture they will join Atari and Sega on the island of misfit videogame companies.
I can see it now; ''Legend of Zelda, for xbox 360!!!'' and ''Super Mario World for PlayStation 3!!!''.
But it's not too late, they have not yet began to offer the ''Evolution'' (the original name for their xbox 360 killer) but if they debut the ''Evolution'' in November '6 (as they are planning to do) with the ''whee'' name they are TOAST!
It doesn't matter how good (or not) the hardware or software is, this bizzare name will kill off Nintendo as a console videogame maker.
But at least they can hold their own in the handheld videogame market...
posted by YIH @ 10:09 AM on
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