My dad recently decided that he wanted to buy a Wii - more or less completely out of the blue, and when I came home from University for Easter he’d managed to buy one (after being on a waiting list for a couple of weeks). I’m surprised at how highly they’re demanded at the moment, especially when you compare it to the abundance of Playstation 3 units readily available at their launch. Wii seems to be a really resounding success.

After playing on it for half an hour, it’s clear to see why. Differentiating themselves and moving away from the standard games console market was a great decision by Nintendo, as they simply couldn’t have competed with Sony and Microsoft with a generic console. They wouldn’t have the following, game titles or economies of scale the other two can benefit from and it would have been a tale reminiscent to the Sega Dreamcast.

The Wii is refreshing, original and addictive. It’s really fast to start using it, with a well designed interface and straight forward controls - literally point and click. He bought the console with Wii Sports, Wii Play and a Sonic game. So far the Wii Sports blow the other two away, with the perfect combination of pick-up-and-playability, with some finer touches when you become more adept at a sport.

It really is a great interactive and fun console, with multiplayer also succeeding immensely because of the physical nature of control. Nintendo have done something amazing and really turned around their future with the Wii - it’s a great idea, executed in a near-perfect way. Go have a play with one and I’m sure you’ll agree!

I went paintballing today with a few friends, and found that it wasn’t as good as people said it was. We went to a place called ‘Go Ballistic’ in Elland (they have an informative website), which was conveniently close to home. We went for the morning, from ten till half twelve. One of the main problems with it was that it was so expensive! It cost well over £30 for the morning.

Although the actual running around shooting part was pretty good fun, there were quite a few flaws :). The masks were really cheap, and steamed up regularly. Three guns I tried at various parts of the morning had problems with them. One of my mates was thrown out for the morning because he tried to adjust his mask in a ‘live’ area - althought it was slightly his fault, they could have at least given him his money back.

Another pain was that although the paintball area had lots of different scenes and scenarios (e.g a huge fort, a burned out tank etc) but we didn’t get to use any of them. They kept us on these two basic setups, even though we’d been there for three hours. Let’s just say it really isn’t something I’ll be doing again in a hurry. Especially if I can’t get a discount!!

My sister desperately wanted a PS2 for her birthday this year. I bought her a game called SingStar. It consists of a couple of microphones which connect into the PS2. You then sing along to some popular songs, and it scores you based on how good you sound. It’s really clever.

But, what came with the microphones interested me most. It’s a converter which changes two microphone inputs into a USB port. Out of interest, I plugged it into the Mac. Hey presto! Two audio inputs - perfect for plugging an audio mic or guitar into GarageBand. It achieves the same as a Griffin iMic (without the audio output).

You can pick these up for next to nothing on eBay - Often, you can buy the converter and two mic’s for as little as £10.00. For those of you in need of a cheap USB microphone input on your Mac, this is perfect.

I’m not really a games console fan, and I don’t play many computer games. However, of all the games consoles I’ve tried (most of them) I have always been intrigued by the Xbox. I liked the addition of a hard drive, the ability to store MP3’s on it, and I think Xbox Live was a great idea. According to T3, there is some new information circulating about the next generation of the console:

Rumour has it Microsoft has at last decided on a name for its next-generation super console: the Xbox 360. The US firm apparently finalised the name after deciding against calling it Xbox 2, believing it could sound out of date compared to Sony’s forthcoming PlayStation 3. Even though Microsoft has yet to officially announce the name, a reliable source claims to have already seen packaging designs featuring the Xbox 360 logo.

Additionally, the source confirmed the Xbox 360 will ship with wireless controllers and that two versions of Xbox 360 will be produced – one with a hard drive, one without. But gamers choosing the basic machine will be able to add a hard drive at a later date, without having to unscrew the case to get inside the machine. Instead the hard drive is said to simply plug in to the top of the console. We’re not sure what it will look like or indeed how it’ll work, but it sure sounds exciting.

Think Secret has just posted an article detailing a new release of the iPod Mini which is expected sometime in the next couple of weeks. Apparently, the update will include a 176×132 colour TFT display.

The updated iPod Mini may also include a larger capacity hard drive, either 5 or 6gb in size. This should help Apple to stay ahead of the competition in this market, and continue the innovation which is increasing their market share every day. The colour screen is apparently an update which will be happening across the board over the next year or so, with new releases bringing a colour screen to every type of iPod.

I suppose I would be interested to know what exactly it will be which makes the iPod photo so special once this is the case. If I was to upgrade to the photo, it would have been because of the colour screen. The ability to store photos on it doesn’t really set it apart from the other iPod line really - I imagine that it is a feature which not many people will use. All will be revealed!

So, if you are wanting to upgrade your iPod Mini when the new ones are released, I’d put your old one on eBay now. As soon as these new ones are released, selling prices on there will plummet.

A classic video game character is a definite rarity. Sonic the Hedgehog was one of Sega’s biggest achievements, and I have fond memories of playing on Sonic late at night at my uncle’s house when I was around seven. I discovered an interesting article on Sonic at 1up.com.

If there ever were an example of the power of a likeable character coupled with strong marketing, this would be it. When the game industry gets it right, it really gets it right (see Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, or Pokemon). It starts with a fun game and becomes T-shirts, hats, lunchboxes, sneakers, cartoon shows, and eventually even breakfast cereals. A good character, with the right marketing behind it, is capable of more than just massive sales; it’s capable of a revolution.

The year was 1990 and Nintendo was king of the world. It had a platform, the NES, firmly entrenched in 25 percent of all U.S. homes. It had yearly gross sales in the billions, and usurped Toyota as Japan’s most successful company. It released Super Mario 3, the best selling video game ever, which grossed more than $500 million in America alone. (By entertainment industry standards, this was second only to the revenue generated by the movie E.T.). Nintendo was unstoppable.

Just for a moment, try to put yourself in the shoes of Hayao Nakayama, then president of Sega. Nintendo’s NES had essentially just trounced the Sega Master System console in every territory except Europe (where Nintendo has never been strong) and, for some reason, Brazil. Nakayama knew that his only chance was to release the next generation Sega Genesis as early as possible before Nintendo came along with its Super Nintendo. Counting on Sega’s dominance in the arcade market, the Genesis was essentially a scaled-down version of its arcade hardware, making it easy for Sega to port several of its classics there.

But well aware that Sega couldn’t steal mindshare with arcade classics alone, Nakayama posed a challenge to his entire company: come up with a mascot for the company, one that could star in a game that would show off the power of its new system and sell over a million units. Nakayama wanted a universally-recognized character that could personify his company. He wanted a character that was to Sega what Mickey Mouse was to Disney. He wanted a character that would put Sega ahead of Nintendo.

He got exactly that.

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