Andrew Wallace joins us once again for a look at Nintendo!

Article By: Andrew Wallace

2 years into this “next-generation” of home consoles a few revelations have been made quite clear to enthusiast gamers. Arguably the most startling for this group is the paradigm shift of Nintendo and its subsequent abandonment of its loyal fanboy army. They appear more interested in moving to the grandma and soccer mom audience with their friendly white-boxed Wii.

While most gamers like the idea of an expanded audience in theory, the reality of it is not as pleasant. In practice this means that the new and prettier installments of their beloved franchises get ignored in the wake of a torrential downpour of mediocre mini-game collections and gimmicky accessories. Throughout the internet this outcry is heard loud and clear. Gamers are begging for Nintendo to return to the glorious days of yesteryear where Mario stuck to plumbing and Starfox stayed in his Arwing.

The problem with this whining is that if you take an honest look at Nintendo, this isn’t a new direction for them. The difference is that this time, they’ve actually been successful.
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In what is perhaps the most significant Virtual Console release in months, the Turbografx-CD classic Ys Book I & II has landed on the Wii’s Virtual Console service.

Ys Book I & II (TurboGrafx16 CD-ROM, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone-Mild Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points): Ys Book I & II chronicles the first adventures of Adol Christin, a young, red-haired swordsman on a quest to unlock the secrets of an ancient kingdom. As Adol, you search the island of Esteria, gathering clues to unravel the mystery of Ys. Fight monsters that lurk in caves and towers with physical or magical attacks, and use your brain to make your way through dangerous areas filled with traps. In Ys Book I & II, the first titles in the Ys series were put together as a single TurboGrafx CD-ROM. They awed players with their gripping story lines accompanied by fully orchestrated soundtracks, wonderful voice acting and amazing special effects. Don’t miss out on your chance to experience this wonderful piece of gaming history.

For those of you unfamiliar with the greatness of Ys, our good friends over at PCEngineFX have put together the following video of the incredible intro for the game.

That shit blew my 14 year-old mind.

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Okay, rather than point to the link I’m just going to post the whole thing here. You can find the article at The Times Online

First came the joystick. Then came the motion-sensing Wii remote. Now get ready for another radical and rather unsettling leap in video games technology: thought control.

Satoru Iwata, the president and chief executive of Nintendo – which is expected to sell about 25million units of its successful Wii video games console this financial year – has no doubts about the next gaming boom. “As soon as we think something in our brain, it will appear within a video game,”he told The Times in an exclusive interview.

“You’ll probably need to wear some kind of hat or helmet or something.”As far-fetched as it sounds, Mr Iwata’s claim – which brings to mind the plot of Craig Thomas’s bestselling 1977 novel Firefox, about a mind-reading Soviet fighter aircraft – is already coming true: the world’s first thought-controlled game is expected to be launched by the Sydney company Emotiv by the end of this year.

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