Nintendo Touch! Generations Campaign

Nintendo has kicked off its innovative Touch! Generations campaign in the UK with the launch of a dedicated website, showcasing - in its own words - “A range of Nintendo DS software that offers unique new ways to play - for anyone!”

The site goes on to tell the user that they can, “...be a doctor or a lawyer, make music, live a virtual life, learn to be a dog trainer or even train your brain to keep it young - anything is possible in Touch! Generations.”

SPOnG has had a quick shufty over the site, and it pretty much does what it says on the tin – with detailed descriptions and examples of Nintendogs, the Brain Training titles, Electroplankton, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Phoenix Wright, Trauma Center and Tetris DS.

The home page picture also displays a good example of the wide range of potential people who might want to get involved in Touch Generations – a cheeky young lad, a dork in a suit, a MILF, a cool ‘muso’ type, a girl with cracking norks, Graham Norton, a yoga teacher and another girl with a come hither smile. It would seem all the above types of people will soon be playing DS, whereas before they would have been (in order) scrumping apples, updating Excel spreadsheets, doing adult websites, playing guitar, teasing boys, being gay, relaxing and teasing boys.

It also has a quick personality test so that you can find out what kind of 'Touch! Generation' person you are. If you never even suspected that you were a Touch! Generation person, give it a go. It seems we’ve gone from Baby Boomers to the Me Generation to Generation X to Generation Y, and now to Generation Touch! according to the sociological buffs at Nintendo. Or something like that. Check it out for yourselves by clicking here.

And lo and behold, it turns out that SPOnG is a ‘creative genius’. Thankyou Nintendo, your approbation means the world to us. Although we don’t want to buy Electroplankton thanks, as we’re too busy playing Metroid and waiting for New Super Mario Bros.

Some of the questions in the test, it must be said, are a little bit ‘leading’ (as is the nature of these things), such as:



Err, none of the above?

What is perhaps most noticeable about the site, is the fact that the overall look and feel of the design is very conservative, especially for Nintendo. SPOnG supposes this is all part and parcel of their strategy to attract non-gamers, plus more women and older people who would be instantly turned off by a typical videogames minisite.

We’ll be trying to get a few words in edgeways with Nintendo UK’s top brass to find out a little more about the Touch! Generations campaign and how they plan to roll it out in the UK. And we’ll be letting you know more as soon as we get it from the horse's mouth.