Page 10 ARTS & LIFE The Clarion September 22, 2006

Wii will, will rock you!

By BJ Wanlund takes full-size discs as well as the Staff Writer smaller Cube discs. The biggest feature, one that will Welcome to part one of sifting have IT scrambling, is Wi-Fi online through the next-gen console hype. support. There will be no online I will begin with the least expen- games right at launch, but you can sive home console, and conclude buy stuff off of the Wii Shop with the most expensive home Channel. Wi-Fi is a touchy issue console. for the IT folks, but here’s the fun First up, the Wii: The Wii is part: WiiConnect24 is a service $250, and will launch on Nov. 19th, that gives you constant updates 2 full days after Sony’s uber-ex- to your games! Also, this feature pensive PS3 launches. But what’s eliminates those nasty load times. included, I hear you say? The Wii Here’s the cool part for everyone, will have the first real pack-in game including the environmental folks: at launch since the Super when in “sleep mode,” the Wii , and , a col- consumes the power of a single lection of really cool sports games. light bulb. Amazing! So, IT, get All will use the Wii’s unique con- cracking on the best way to imple- troller. The games include baseball, Image courtesy of nintendo.com ment Wi-Fi on campus, especially tennis, boxing, golf, and bowling. Wii release date: November 19, 2006 in the dorms! Yes, bowling. Now, where do I pre-order? Now, some launch games! There Blockbuster in Brevard has a pre- are 25 in all, led by the newest Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for are superficial, as game play is order list, and there are only 3 Legend of Zelda game, Twilight DS comes out, whichever happens king. An ATI-developed GPU people on the list so far. Yours Princess. Excite Truck’s controls first. You may get DS Demos means backwards compatibility truly is one of them. So why should be familiar to anyone who downloaded to your Wii, but don’t with all Nintendo Gamecube titles. should you pre-order now? Be- ever played on the old count on playing DS games on the This is a step up from the XBOX cause you can get up to $100 or NES. There’s also Madden NFL it. 360. So, if you like Mario Kart more off the price of the Wii! 07, a sequel to the Nintendo DS Now that we’ve gone into se- Double Dash, you will like the Wii, When you pre-order, the least you game. vere detail on the software, let’s as all the Gamecube games you will pay at launch day is $150. At launch, you’ll be able to go talk hardware. IBM’s “Broad- know and love are backwards-com- That, my friends, is cheap! onto what is known as the Wii way” CPU will power the Wii, patible right out of the box. Also, Shop Channel and buy NES, Su- while an ATI co-developed GPU there is no DVD playback, but per NES, and N64 games, going will power the Wii’s graphics, you have a bajillion other DVD for $5, $8, and $10 a pop, respec- which will not be much better than players as it is, right? No big loss tively. But the sneaky folks at the Cube’s. Regardless, graphics there. And, a slot-loading CD drive Nintendo are using Wii Points, so NES games are 500 points, SNES games are 800 points, and N64 games are 1,000 points. It’s un- clear which games will be left out, but right now, we do know that Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 will be available, and, most likely, Super Mario Broth- ers. If you were planning on getting Twilight Princess for your Cube, don’t. It’s been delayed till Dec. However, the Wii will be back- wards-compatible with the Gamecube. There is Nintendo DS connectivity, but we don’t know what said connectivity will be just yet. We will know more when Pokemon Battle Revolution (tem- Photo courtesy of nintendo.com porary title) comes out, or when Legend of Zelda, Twighlight Princess gameplay