Nintendo Dossier: The PSWii

Sony has decided to unveil their latest and greatest invention yet! Deemed the PlayStation Wii, this motion controlled game system (complete with sub controller) will launch alongside a sports game. This brilliant move is unheard of in gaming. Sarcasm aside, Sony wants you to pick up Move - but is it all that different from the Wii?

Before we begin, allow me to dispel something - although I am the Nintendo Editor, I am not super biased to Nintendo, nor am I a raving fanboy. Truth be told, I own a PSP, and Resistance 2 is one of my most frequented games. The Sly Cooper series is absolutely fantastic, and I got my RE5 fix with Sony, not Microsoft. I just find Nintendo more interesting, and as such, focus on it.

That said, part of me is a little angry at Sony right now. Sony Move, the new name for Sony's highly original wand, is a blatant rip off. Despite that, Nintendo had its other controller models stolen in the past (although, the prongs of the 64 thankfully were never adopted by anyone else), and still come out on top. But the ludicrous sub-controller is where things start getting into new territory. It's the nunchuk, through and through. The actual design is a controller approximately half the size of the Wii Rem- Sony Move Controller, with a nice fancy analog stick for movement.

Kind of impressive, seeing as just a year ago Sony had this to say about Nintendo,

"Microsoft owns the office; Sony owns the living room; and Wii owns the closet."

Interesting, considering the business shift is adopting more than just the control style. In fact, at the Game Developer Conference, Sony revealed their own version of Wii Sports (complete with Table Tennis found in Wii Play and Wii Sports Resort). It's really insulting they couldn't come up with something a little more original. Again, I stress that this is not a Nintendo fanboy upset. This is a consumer.

Gaming should be about constantly raising the bar in new directions. Sony mastered the graphics and other features, while Nintendo took two massive leaps of faith in the Wii and DS. Yet here we are with Sony emulating it almost identically.

However, I give the company credit. Obviously, the hardware will be superior. No clunky Wii Motion Plus addition; it should be 1:1 controls right off the bat (even though that is still well behind Nintendo). There's no doubt in my mind that Sony can do great things with the product, but I'm calling it "too little too late."

For those of us that own a Wii (which is my grandma, my neighbour, my boss, my cousin, my elected representative, etc.) there is no reason to switch over to Playstation. Sure, some prettier graphics and perhaps slightly more refined controls could be incentive, but what am I going to play with my kids? Resistance 2 just doesn't work that well, while a bout of New Super Mario Bros Wii is great fun regardless of who is playing.

That's why the consumer in me is upset. I really wanted to see Sony's blatant theft have some meaning to it - to force developers to consider all the systems different. I am sure some will flip over to the PS3 for the fantastic $100 addition, to face less competition from the console itself (Nintendo makes the best games for Nintendo systems, hands down).

That doesn't stop Nintendo from making and releasing great games like Mario Kart Wii, Twilight Princess, Wario Land Shake It!, or any of their impressive New Play Control! titles. And considering much of the Third Party market has already forsaken Nintendo, it doesn't really shake things up. What we're seeing is something to get more money out of the hands of PS3 owners, the smallest share of the market.

Which leaves me with a few words of advice for Sony. First, it isn't a one on one fight between you and Nintendo. Microsoft is still very much so a player in all of this, and I'm sure they'd gladly see Nintendo wipe out its competition in multiple markets to take on a challenger that only competes against them on one front. Secondly, this is Nintendo's game. Many people still call video games Nintendos, even though the brand isn't theirs. It'd be like the Big N coming into the HD/Bluray war back in the day. Finally, start making Sports Champion Resort, the PSWii follow up to Wii Sports Resort. I still can't get my fill of the game!