WiiBits

Gizmodo has several good shots up of Wii accessory prototypes (I don’t believe the designs are officially final yet) including the Zapper shell for your Wii-mote. The Wii-mote docks into the barrel using the port on the bottom that usually connects to the nunchuck. The Zapper shell adds a trigger and an analog stick to the top. The rumored Duck Hunt 2 should be big blast of nostalgic fun.

I wonder how functional it would be for first person shooters since you really only have easy access to the analog stick and one button. Is the zapper intended to be used only for classic light gun games such as Duck Hunt? The gun is nowhere to be found on the E3 floor so no one has been able to try it out.

Also be sure to check out the photo of the classic controller shell, should be great for playing all the Virtual Console games.

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The New York Times has an excellent article up previewing this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, the upcoming Wii and PlayStation 3 consoles, and the future of the gaming industry. The authors seem very high on the direction Nintendo is taking…

Nintendo’s apparent lead in development reflects a fundamental difference in how the company is approaching this next generation of systems. While Microsoft and Sony have been pushing to give their systems as much sheer graphics and computing power as possible, Nintendo has focused more on developing innovative games. So while Wii games may be a bit less graphically dazzling than those for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, they will be more individually distinctive.

The next eighteen months will be critical to the entire video game industry. Can Nintendo and Sony’s new hardware meet expectations and can they produce enough units to meet demand? And can all three next-gen systems release games that will create excitement with the average consumer? We’ll find out a little more this week.

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A Time Magazine reporter was able to spend some time with the Wii and had the chance to play Wario Ware and Zelda: Twilight Princess using the wii-mote. Not much news, but it’s good to get some confirmed game titles and a few morsels of information with e3 just a couple of days away. The full article should be online soon is available now.

Update: Link updated to point to the full article and added image showing old people using magical wii that doesn’t need to connect to a TV. A clue to a possibly completely wireless Wii?

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Gamasutra gets some responses from game developers and other industry folks on Nintendo’s announcement that their next generation console would be called the “Wii.” In general, it’s not good…

It’s telling when a product name needs a 150-word explanation. It clearly doesn’t stand on its own, and I have to think Nintendo was anticipating a somewhat puzzled reaction in the way they packaged it. Perrin Kaplan’s comments to Chris Morris over at CNN Money also attest to that, where she states that the name was revealed prior to E3 so it wouldn’t distract from their game announcements. You never want the product name to distract from anything…

- Meelad Sadat, dir. of business relations, High Moon Studios

Should be interesting to see how Nintendo handles the controversy at E3, they’ve got to get the media to move on and focus on the games. Will they have an announcment so big people will stop talking about the name?

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1UP.com has a detailed story up covering all the details of the Wii that we already know. They cover the system itself, the games, and the speculation on what we still don’t know. Not much of it is confirmed officially by Nintendo but it’s well circulated info that should be on target.

The most interesting bit is this teaser near the end of the feature:

Miyamoto and Iwata have hinted at a final secret for Wii that has yet to be revealed. And while we don’t have all the details, we’ve heard that what’s in store is exciting indeed — secrets of a rather revolutionary nature, with some rather cool implications for gaming. Needless to say, we’re looking forward to E3.

According to users on Digg, the story originally was even more bold. 1UP originally stated that they knew what the secret was and it was “revolutionary.” Were they just talking out of their asses or do they really know something they shouldn’t? Though we don’t know everything, we seem to have most of the Wii’s details so what other big news could Nintendo reveal at E3? I guess we’ll find out in a week.

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