I finally understand what Nintendo is trying to do...
 

Nintendo has been saying that the Wii will get people who aren't gamers into video games. I never really gave this much thought until this past weekend. I was visiting my parents for the 4th of July and my dad saw me playing Brain Age. He asked to try it and, literally within 30 minutes he was asking where to buy a DS Lite. If the Wii can achieve that kind of "hey, that looks fun!" success, Nintendo will have scored a major coup.

I have that problem with Live Arcade and all the women in my family when I'm home for a long weekend. Not one of those females are gamers, but you can't peel the controller out of their hands during a tense game of Hexic, Geo Wars, or Feeding Frenzy.

My wife is that way with Zuma and Feeding Frenzy. She is the one wants the Wii because of the old NES games that will be downloadable.

I've noticed ALOT of adults asking for Brain Age at my store and we are usually sold out.

My dad, my brother and I are currently in a heated battle for the lowest time on the Calculations X 20. My brother is in the lead with 12 seconds - my dad and I are both at 13.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/DSC00843.jpg

:p

Here I am on 15. Time to top myself probably..

wow, nice pic flair, my best is 16. I can do better if I try harder, I know I can do it! I'd have to agree with the OP, I got my whole family hooked on Brain Age for DS, including my mom when I was home a few weeks ago, she's never played a game in her life! It was actually pretty tough to get her to try it at first though I knew she's like it once she tried it, she doesn't really use a computer either so she's really hesitant to use anything that involves technology, but the DS doesn't have any complex buttons or anything, she's been writing her whole life, so she can use a stylus. I think one of the biggest draws for non-gamers for the Wii is that the controller doesn't look like a "controller," I've read more than a few articles and the consensus among most people who don't game is that they look at typical modern game controllers and all the buttons and think it is too complicated (or the games are). But with the Wii you can just wave your hand, point and press a button to control the game, same with the DS, just touch and write on the screen.

2 of my non gamer friends are addicted to the Sudoku puzzles for my DS and bought DS Lites just for that (since then they've also bought animal crossing, trauma center, nintendogs, and new super mario bros.)

Funny thing also, I was playing Sudoku on Brain Age at the airport last weekend and at least 2 people came up and asked me "is that the DS Lite?" "That's sudoku right? Thats awesome!"

Nintendogs is crack for girls. My friend's girlfriend is staying with him for the summer before she goes back to school. He got a DS and I asked him if he was going to get Nintendogs. "No, my girlfriend probably won't like it."

A day later he's calling about how she won't let him play any games.

:lol:

I've noticed that too, but found the cost for an xbox/live setup cost prohibitive for these new gamers.
The DS lite is only a $130

Since I picked up my lite, my wife, sister, a friend and mother have purchased them after trying Brain Age, Tetris and Animal Crossing. The games are great but when they hear it's only $13... they buy.

I have to agree. I have both my wife and sister hooked on the DS since I bought it last month. So much so, I've had to cut my brightness back to 1 so that there is some battery around when I finally get to play. :lol:

I got them both hooked on Brain Age, and my sister(23) with Pac-N-Roll, Tetris, and Magnetica as well. I'm thinking about picking her up one for Christmas.

Does she like pink? You could be a kick ass brother and import her this bad girl: http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-...n-70-1gl8.html
http://image.lik-sang.com/images//la...noble-pink.jpg

:lol: I know. She isn't into pink though. I think she is past that age point.

It helps that the constantly air ads during the TODAY show every morning.. telling you to get your adled brain back in shape. lol

About time someone realized that the people with the most disposable income (and can afford these systems) aren't parents in general but ADULTS. Getting the adults hooked opens the door for getting them to purchase games for the kids more easily.

Of course, I have gotten tons of adults hooked on Donkey Konga. Who else but a bachelor with tons of disposable income like me could afford FOUR bongos. -eek-

Its definitely a wise strategy for them. Even though the GC sold relatively poorly, they still made a profit on it as nearly all their big first party games sold over a million copies, with some selling several million (like Smash Bros and Mario Sunshine).

That audience will still be their for them. Now with the Wii with it's unique controller, pick up and play games, and the virtual console (which I think has even wider appeal than the arcade games on the 360 as nearly everyone had one of these old consoles where a smaller group of gamers was super into the arcades) they have a great chance of pulling in millions more.

Adults who were never into games, and especially older gamers that didn't like 3D games and quit playing will be much more likely to pick up a Wii over a 360 or PS3. Even more so when you factor in the $250 or less price tag compared to $300-600 for the competition (really $400 or $600 if you discount the respective tard packs).

damn. you are the man!

^ no doubt. My wife kicks my ass at BA. Her top is 12 seconds I believe, with me trailing at 16 seconds. I can't even touch her calculations X100. Her top on that is right around the 1:00 minute mark. She has the top 3 spots and I can't even touch it.

Calculations x 20 is too dependant on what questions you get. The more 4s and 10+ numbers you get, the higher your time will be. Calculations x 100 at least gives it more opportunity to even out.

Agreed. I've had a few rounds where I was doing great but the DS didn't recognize my 4s. Balls.

I get that a lot with 4s. It thinks I write a 5. Must be the way I write my fours. I especially hate it during Sudoku when I'm going for a best time. I write 4 and click "zoom out" real quick and damned if it didn't put a 5 in there. My wife and I stay pretty close on those, so it is especially annoying.

Sidetrack - My fastest on there is just over 6 minutes on one of the "basic" ones. I thought I'd gotten pretty good over the past few weeks since I learned and starting playing Sudoku so yesterday I bought a "Monster Sudoku" book. Instead of the 9x9 grids, they are 15x15 (1-9 + A-F all in one line). Wow. I spent over two hours on one puzzle and still wasn't even close to being done. That is a brain bender if anyone is looking for something more difficult.

Most problems with the 4 are if the L part doesn't intersect with the vertical line. Over-extend the horizontal part of the L part, and you should be fine.

My main complaint about 4s in regards to calculations x 20 is that it takes too long, because you have to lift the stylus. That makes it take much longer than any other digit.

I never had a problem with my 4s, but I start at the top-left and make it in one motion. Once or twice I had it think it was a 9, but only if I was really sloppy.

it kills me on my 5's. it does the same thing on the syllable count one as well, and that one gives you almost no time to correct a mistake

There's an age limit to liking a color?

I do my eights with two loops and it often catches the first one as a zero. :(

That's nothing. Beat this!

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/image...1152302041.jpg

:D

I'm not sure if it's consistent, but I remember trying out simply writing the "L" part of the 4 without the other line, and it would recognize it as a short-hand I guess.

I quickly had to learn to switch to the figure 8 style. I used to do two loops as well, but the figure 8 works so much better.

Re: Pink
Well she hasn't been into pink since she was in single digits so for some people I'd say yes.

Good tip on the '4' spainlinx0, I'm going to have to try that one.

It's true. At some point game companies pretty much ditched that age group--for instance, when I was a kid my mom was just as into Galaga as I was. Every time we went to the arcade (pretty frequently back then, in the '80s when they were all a quarter), she always had to play that at least once. In fact, she's still probably better than me at it.

So it's nice to see a return to arcade-style gaming from Nintendo. I hope they're successful with it. Of course, I still want my long, in-depth RPGs, though.

p.s. I write my 4s bottom-top-left-right because I'm awesome.

My wife's developed a new nightly ritual. Put baby to bed, go down to bed, play Brain Age for a little while before going to sleep. She's a big brain age fan.

Then again, she's a gamer of sorts, even if she tends to pick up games briefly and drop 'em or just play multiplayer games like Mario Kart. The only game I've seen her finish to date (and she says the only one she's ever finished) is the first Jak & Daxter.

I finally got 11 seconds today! woo hoo!

I've never seen a console have this effect.
I buy one... play Brain Age, Mario, Tetris and Animal Crossing.
Wife hogs is so much, she is forced to buy one with Animal crossing.
Mother, (huge Mario fan) buys one and Mario, Brain Age and Tetris.
Sister buys one for Animal Crossing after seeing me play it.
Friend across country buys one after realizing it's the reason why I'm not on Xbox Live anymore.
Wife's Parents, interested in Brain Age and sudoku, and never playing video games ever, pick one up with Brain Age, planning on getting Big Brain Academy and Zoo keeper.
I check out my mom's birthday list yesterday... what's at the top? 3 DS games.
I'm told my dad, not a avid gamer, has been picking up the DS quite often.
Amazing.

Now if they can do this with the Wii, then they will really be on top again.

The problem is the motion control on the games.

As someone who tried many of the games at E3 I can say that while it would seem
easy and fun, using the motion controller will become a chore all too fast. And the
older the player, the faster the novelty will wear off.

In my work as a strategy guide writer I receive numerous e-mails from adult gamers
and the #1 thing that is mentioned is that their hands just don't perform like those
of their kids (and when you look at those even older, they write that they CAN'T
perform all the tricky moves due to not being as nimble). IMO Nintendo should make
sure all games allow the option for a standard controller to be used (and pack one
in with the system), otherwise the control is just going to further alienate these
players (which I do not believe are a minority).

Sure the controllers seem fun initially, but imagine a gaming session of a few hours
or more where you have you continually wave your arms around/tilt back and forth.
Their claims of anyone being able to use it in moments may be correct, but for how
long will they want to play?

Just my opinion.

I think the games that require you to wave the controller around like crazy will be games you pick up and play for a little bit, not games you play for a "few hours."

Older gamers etc. probably aren't going to want to game for long periods anyway, hence the popularity of pick up and play games like Brain Age etc. noted above.

But I agree with the point and I do have my reservations about the controller. But I also figure many games that use it will be like metroid and only require you to move your wrist to aim etc, rather than waving it around wildly like in the videos (I figure that will end up just being a gimmick for the most part).

Echo sentiments exactly.

You haven't even mentioned Nintendogs.....

All the games at E3 (from the orchastra game to Mario to Metroid to Zelda)
required you to use the motion control. And not to threadcrap, but many
things seemed tacked in just to make you do so (twirling the controller to
give Mario the power to travel through a warp...)

Right, but who's going to buy a Wii for a 5 minute spurt here and there.
Those folks would easily be placated by the DS or some other handheld.

You'll be surprised at the amount of things they tacked in to make you
have to use the motion elements :)

I didn't say the motion elements as a whole would be a gimmick, but rather having to swing the controller around like mad....i.e. Wiisports.

That's far different than something like metroid where, from what I've read, you can play by just resting your arm in your lap and making fine movements with the wiimote.

There are a lot more motion elements that will make you move your arms
and such than things that you'll be able to perform from your lap (that
sounds strange doesn't it ;)) . Granted not much will cause you to move
about wildly, but there are a lot of pointing at various spots on the screen
which requires arm movement, twirling/rotating and other requirements.
Very few of the games (Tony Hawk is the only 1 I can think of off-hand),
would you be able to use the motion controllers acurately in a fashion you
would a standard controller (ie; resting in your lap).

While I call attention to the fact that some may not enjoy more than a
short gaming session, in Nintendo's defense, why make a system that relies
on motion control, yet make it so you barely use it (ie; minute motions from
a lap position)? My answer to this would be to use it as an option, not
something mandatory.

I finally understand what Nintendo is trying to do...

Apparently MS does now to... the MS Gamefest Keynote seemed to echo Nintendo's stance verbatim. They discussed how the industry can't grow by selling to the same people over and over. They have to branch out and attract new gamers. :lol: Sounds familiar.