I plan to buy the system for my son.

My son is twelve, and he doesn’t have a portable game system yet.  He has the Xbox, but he doesn’t have one that he can take with him when we go out of town.  I thought about getting him one of the portable ones for Christmas last year, but he ended up saying he wanted a ton of games for the TV system he already has, so that blew the gift budget.  I kind of wish that the Nintendo DSi was going to be out before Christmas this year, but it’s not going to be out until next spring.  We are going to buy Nintendo DSi for him for his birthday in June, so he should be pretty happy about that.  We’re just hoping it’s not going to be like the Playstation releases where a hundred people line up at the store for four units and 96 people leave angry.  We don’t want to deal with that, so we’re looking where to buy Nintendo DSi ahead of time, then maybe we’ll have some options if we need them.

I like to really check out major purchases before I buy, and the $180 they are talking for the price on the Nintendo DSi system certainly qualifies as a major purchase in my opinion.  So I’ve been bouncing around on the internet for several weeks now, ever since I heard that the new one existed.  I really wanted to check it out and make sure that it is going to be worth the money.  So I’ve been reading every single Nintendo DSi review I can find, and weighing the positive stuff I’ve been reading against the bad stuff.  I’ve found a few comments about the music function that have made me give this some extra thought, but I’m not sure just how big a deal it is.  Something about the music file format being different that a regular MP3 player, but I’ll have to do some more research on that.  It doesn’t really matter, I don’t think, because he doesn’t have an MP3 player anyway, just his CD player.

One of the things that helped me decide to buy Nintendo DSi is that it has a digital camera built in.  I have a digital camera, but when my son goes to football games, sometimes he asks to borrow it.  I’m always worried about it getting broken, and the built in camera and SD memory slot in the DSi will solve the whole problem.  He can just take his game to the football game and take pictures on his own camera.  This way, it will be his own device that he will have to be responsible for and I think he will take better care of it that way.  So between the portability and the built in camera feature, I’m ready to buy Nintendo DSi for my son.  I’m a little nervous about it because it costs more than I’m used to spending, but I’m pretty sure he will like it a lot.

What is WiiWare? It is simply Nintendo’s downloadable content service for the Wii. It is basically XBOX Live Marketplace, but for the Wii.

When Will it be Released?

WiiWare is set to debut in mid-may. There is still no news on the exact pricing plan Nintendo will have. But we will not have to wait very long to find out.

There are some video games that get released for the XBOX 360, PS3, or both but don’t get released on the Wii. There are a couple of these games that I think would be really fun on the Nintendo Wii, and because of the great control scheme, would be a blast. Lets start with Fable.

Not only is Fable one of my favorite action RPG’s of all time, but it is also one of my favorite games of all time. It is fun, and the quests are unique and interesting. I also love the items and weapons. It has been shown that these types of games, *cough* Zelda, work great on the Wii. The controls are fun, and interactive. This is a Wii game I would no doubt buy. Fable 2 is coming out and I would love to see it on the Wii.

Another great game I would love to see on the Wii is Microsoft Simulator X. Because this is a PC game, and owned by Microsoft, the chances of it coming to the Wii are slim to none, but it would be sweet if it did. The controls would be really fun, and would work perfectly with the Wii.

If you had your druthers, which non-Wii game would you bring to the Wii?

Nintendo is winning the war for the best video game company and video game systems. Before you start arguing with me, lets take a look at the sales statistics shall we?

Wii Sales Statistics

Japan: 4.94 Million | America: 8.71 Million | Others: 6.38 Million | 20.03 Million

DS Sales Statistics

Japan: 21.76 Million | America: 20.85 Million | Others: 23.58 Million | 66.2 Million

XBOX 360 Sales Statistics

Japan: .56 Million | America: 10.52 Million | Others: 5.43 Million | 16.51 Million

PS3 Sales Statistics

Japan: 1.79 Million | America: 3.59 Million | Others: 3.9 Million | 9.29 Million

PSP

Japan: 8.02 Million | America: 11.38 Million | Others: 11.03 Million | 30.43 Million

Thanks to VG Charts for the stats. Now those are some pretty impressive numbers. First lets talk about the portable market.

Portable Gaming: Right now, there are really only 2 contenders for the portable gaming market, the PSP and Nintendo DS. For the sake of this discussion, I will not be including Gameboy Advanced. By looking at the numbers above you will notice that the Nintendo DS has TWICE the number of systems sold versus the PSP. That pretty much shows how Nintendo dominates in the portable market.

Home Gaming: This battle is a little closer, but not by much. As you can see from the stats above, the Wii comes in first with 20.03 million units sold, the XBOX 360 comes in second with 16.51 million units sold, and the PS3 trails way behind with 9.29 million units sold. The Wii dominates both systems in sales. Plus, the Wii was released one year LATER then the XBOX 360.

So, now we may ask ourselves, why is Nintendo Winning? There could be many reasons for this.

1. Price: Nintendo systems are affordable. The Wii and DS are about half the price of its competitors. This allows a wider variety of people to purchase their hardware.

2. Target Market: This is probably the biggest factor in Nintendo’s comeback. Not only are they targeting the hardcore gamer, but they are targeting women, baby boomers, senior citizens, and the overweight. This has never been done before in gaming, and so far is paying off. With best selling games like Wii Sports, Brain Age, and Wii Fit.

3. Control Scheme: It is revoultionary. You can swing a back, cock a gun, throw a football, and race all with one little masterpiece called the Wii Remote. Its applications are endless, and when everyone sees the control scheme, they immediatly want to play it.

Whatever it is, people are swarming onto the Nintendo bandwagon. It is one of the biggest comebacks in gaming history. They have risen to and above their former glory. One thing is for sure, I don’t see them backing down anytime in the near future.