Nintendo’s Lifestyle PR campaign falters in UK

Arena is a really good mag. The standard of its journalism is outstanding when compared to Esquire and GQ, with whom I am sure it compares itself.

And compared to Maxim - every characer they print, including the page numbers, is pulitzer award prize standard.

But on this one they are considerably wide of the mark. Really, balding middle-aged men who have no clue about video games, and only play them in a prone position while semi comatose should keep the f**k away. Problem is sad s**t journos like that can rarely resist attending anything to which they are invited, including the opening of a toilet seat.

Well, wasn't that a s**t article Notice the lack of question mark.
One concern I do have about the Wii is that it does not create a 3D "grid" in your room like I initially thought. There was a really great article written about this in a tech site right after E3, where the writer highly praised the Wii but mentioned this problem, but said it may still be "the final big secret" to be revealed.
Anyway, I can`t wait for the machine. If I play it was much as my DS then it`s a real winner.

Arena is a pretty good mag i don't think it's low circulation at all.

My question is though...
What were they doing? Jumping around like monkeys ?
I can't think of any other way this would get you tired...

unless you're the perfect slob and even driving a fly off your nose gets you tired...

never read arena, but ive had close shaves with rags of its ilk.

it sounds to me like some anaemic middle aged life-style journo without a clue about what makes a good videogame got lumbered with the games section that week.

he probably got his rocks off being 'the black sheep' too

Well, I for one completely agree with this article in Arena and quite frankly SPOnG, I'm little disappointed in your journalistic integrity to suggest that their piece was 'poorly written' just because their opinion differs from your own. It was a well written piece that for my money makes several apt points about the new supposed 'SUPER' console.

Before any of you Nintendo fanbois jump in, note that I have actually played the Wii extensively (yes that's right, hands on, not with my hand down my pants sniffing through IGN - and quite frankly SPOnG - propaganda). The system has issues. Several in fact with only a few raised in this article.

Bottom line, the system is far from the godsend everyone is making it out to be - I even found the wand to be slightly laggy and unresponsive. Mario felt very disconnected & I found myself longing for a traditional analog controller within minutes, Zelda was a joke and Wii tennis makes you feel like a total prat within seconds of playing. The term 'gimmick' springs to mind.

At any rate, by all means, if this console is exciting to you then go out an grab yourself one soon as they hit. I love this business and have been working in it for many years now & nothing pleases me more than to see it thrive. Articles like this one however piss me off as there's no reason to bag someone's opinions just because they differ from your own & especially when they are 100% valid.

but if something is known by you without bias to be unequivocally good, then someone in 'arena' says it is bad, its time to 'bag' them. '
bag them good.

Umm no - you see that's actually what they call 'fascism'...

ripping someone for talking out of their arse is not fascist dear fellow

Agree with you 100% there.



But they are not 100% valid. Arena is wrong on many levels, the piece is badly written not because the grammar and spelling are poor, but because the underlying research and assumptions are.

The magazine has a monthly feature in which it trashes holy cows (Reputations Reassessed, I think they call it). It prides itself on being a contrarian, and an original thinker.

We pride ourselves on saying what we think, whether it agrees with or goes against the common consensus. If you think we are spouting propoganda, that's fine. If it ever happens to my knowledge though, I'll be walking away from SPOnG.

Our final position on this is we are right, Arena is wrong. We welcome your opinions, but there is no chance of us chaning our minds. Wii've seen it, touched it, played it, felt it. And now we want to buy it.

It's a ray of light for the industry, an opportunity to try new things, a chance for creativity. If you're going to write it off because it's not perfect... fair enough - but Arena got basic facts wrong... they also stated that they prefer to play game laying down and in a semi-comatose state. Please forgive me if I don't take their opinion too seriously.

BTW. I buy Arena every month - I ENJOY it, but I don't ascribe it much credibility - it's editorial IS well written, and enjoyable, but it's often inaccurate.

Firstly, let me just say I'm a fan of SPOnG - I only have time to visit two or three gaming sites each morning with SPOnG always being the first. If I didn't respect SPOnG's opinions and candid no bullshit tell-it-as-is coverage, I wouldn't have bothered to express my concern with this particular piece...having said that, I feel I need to justify to you why Arena's article DOES actually make 100% valid arguments.

1) The physical issue

There's no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a factor when it comes to Wii gaming. Having spent so much time with the system yourselves, can you honestly tell me that your arms weren't getting tired just one hour in? My arms were ready to drop after an hour of the Wiimote demo: Obstacle Course (which I actually found to be the most engaging thing on the system) and don't get me started on games like Red Steel. Gamers WILL NOT be able to endure extended sessions of Wii playing unless they drop the unique control system and play a game that uses a traditional pad (which you can then enjoy in all it's SD glory on your shiny new HDTV - you didn't need that kidney anyway).

2) The ‘big TV’ issue

How can you not see that this is an accurate argument? The Wii uses a sensor bar to tell the console where the wiimote is in relation to the screen, as well as feedback from the wand itself, so how can you say that the screen size won't make any difference? Say you're playing on a 34cm TV and you need to shoot something in say Duck Hunt that was on the left hand side of screen. You won't have to move the wiimote nearly as far as what you would if you were playing on a 50" screen. You will have higher control fidelity on a larger screen - unless they make it so that you need to stand a certain distance from the screen depending on it's size which would just plain suck. I'm sure the Wii will have some sort of TV screen size calibration so it can adjust for this accordingly.

3) The space issue

Whilst playing Mario Tennis I actually slapped someone in the back not 10mins into my session and I had a heap of space available. I was swinging that thing like a baseball bat. There's no question in my mind that several games on Wii will be very cumbersome to play in some peoples playing spaces.

So based on my experiences with the Wii, Arena's comments were valid and true. I should note also that I've never actually read Arena before & therefor have no bias towards or against them. I'm merely judging their piece on what was written.

I mix my gaming with sessions at the gym, mountain biking and skateboarding.

This is not an issue, it's an opportunity for all those lard-arses who do nothing but sit in front of a screen to get of their backsides and get a little fit. It won't take much. And it'll save them from an early coronary.

But you don't have to make your first Wii session a marathon, and if you have any friends or family you won't get a chance to spend too long on it.




I've played Wii on a large screen and a small 32" screen now, The calibration seemed to take care of both equally well.




At E3, Erica and I played tennis side by side on the Nintendo stand. It was RAMMED. Absolutely chokka - but we managed. True, you need a bit of space, but the idea that everyone plays games only in a bedsit that is is rammed to the gills with Final Fantasy models and precarious piles of manga books..

Scalextrix takes a bit of room, a train set takes a bit of room, kids have always needed a bit of room...

Here's what Adam thought of it all when he attended the same event that made the Arena writer stamp his feet and stick his lip out.

For most people, 32" is not small.

14" is a small TV - does it work on that?

Oh, come on, a 28" TV costs £139 in Comet. And I'm sure you can find something cheaper on the Internet.



In all honest, I haven't played it on something so small, but the sensor bar is about 20 cm long - so I can't see why not. But clearly, you won't be able to stand or sit 12 feet away from a screen so small, but people don't tend to anyway.

Well here's my two pence worth.

I respect Arena's opinion but i really feel its one based off of fear of the new kid on the gaming block. Nintendo are gonna change gaming again (while keeping older styles of games too, a fact this guy doesn't even mention, this isn't good journalism) and this guy is scared of change.

He also fails to mention the fact that the games industry is still in a state of flux, and sorely in need of that magical guiding Nintendo touch again. Sony and MS aren't pushing things forward enough to justify consoles as much.

Touching upon his concerns:
The physical aspect is a godsend in a world of dissappearing green spaces to play on outside for kids. For adult you can now burn calories while having fun, much more fun than any gym will ever give you.

The tv issue I believe is irrelevant since I'm sure Nintendo will cover this one by letting the Wii do the work. Perhaps it will auto detect the screen size when you switch it on, in a similar way some games ask for a 50/60 hz option before you play.

As for the space issue, I doubt this will be a problem at all for NIntendo, since the average japanese gamer has far less house lliving space than us. We are very lucky indeed.

If the Arena dude wants to know, he should be objective and wait for launch day. Otherwise just buy a PS3 or 360 instead.