Graphic By: Tony Padgett

When Nintendo debuted its new controller last year, many people were shocked and perturbed. For those of you who have never seen it, the main part of the controller looks nearly identical to an old NES controller. It has an additional big A and big B button (as well as the old small B and A buttons), a new power button and a home button (similar to the 360's guide button?) that should allow gamers to get all nostalgic when playing old NES games on Wii. What else is different about the controller? Well, it's held vertically, not horizontally like an old NES controller. It also has a motion sensor that will become important in some of the new games and, of course, the infamous nunchuck port.

Nunchuck port? Perhaps the unique feature, the controller will allow you to attach different additional controller peripherals to the controller. And no, we're not talking headsets here. One of the touted nunchuck pieces is the analog stick (with two additional buttons) that will be used in many of the games. This will effectively make it compatible with the Nintendo 64 games the system will also support. And, of course, the controllers are wireless.

Beside the new controller, you may be asking yourself, "What the hell else has Nintendo got up its sleeve?" Well, Wii has a surprising number of great selling points that I believe will give it a good edge in the upcoming console wars. Does it have dual HDMI output for two HD TVs? No, it may not, and it doesn't even support high definition resolution. That's right; it's going to output good old standard-definition resolution. Sounds kind of crummy, right? Well, for those who actually gave the GameCube a try, we know that Nintendo can do amazing things with their systems. Even with the Game Cube not being the most powerful current-gen system, it had some of the best looking games currently made. It's hard to imagine any games looking crisper and clearer than Metroid Prime or Resident Evil 4 (GC version) on an SDTV.

Another ace in the hole is that Wii supports emulation not just for the NES, SNES and N64 but the Turbografix 16, Genesis and the Master System. It wouldn't be too surprising if they also supported Atari as well. A Wii owner will be able to go online with the system and download new games for the classic systems as well as possibly purchase a disc containing many classic games. While many people have been using emulators on the PC for their classic gaming needs, or perhaps using GameTap, emulators have never felt the same as having a NES controller in hand.

With its powerful emulation abilities alone, Wii should be a major hit. However, not all gamers really care about old 8- and 16-bit games. So what will be in store as far as new games on the system? From the few games that have been seen in magazines and on the Internet, we should be seeing a lot of games that will be truly interactive. Using a motion-sensor control, the player theoretically will have much more control over the character and feel much more involved in the game. The only major title that we have any information about so far is Ubisoft's Red Steel. Red Steel is an FPS game that looks like it belongs on the 360, and will feature support for the motion sensor. How do you play an FPS with this weird control setup? So far, those who have tried it state that it's amazing, incredibly intuitive and even more accurate than using a mouse and keyboard.

In Red Steel, you can not only use guns but swords as well. Never has an FPS (besides Oblivion) done swordplay as well as Red Steel. One of the controllers will act as your sword arm (as well as gun arm), and when you move that arm, the sword will likewise move on the screen. And it's not all just visual; it's actually useful. You'll be engaging enemies where you must use your sword and can initiate special attacks by moving your sword in particular patterns (kind of like in Black & White). The controller also gives FPS games another unique perspective; you can actually fire your gun where you're not looking (unlike normal FPS games where your cross hair is the center of vision) and possibly fire over a barrel behind you. Plus, you can rotate your gun depending on the rotation of the controller, so you can gun down mobs gangster-style if you want. If Red Steel is any indication of the uniqueness and level of quality in future Wii games, we should see Wii do quite well.

Overall, the possibilities of the system are staggering. Can you imagine a Zelda where you actually get to control the sword, bow and boomerang? Or, perhaps, where exactly your shield is position? Survival horror games could be brought to a whole new level as well as other quirky games like Pikman.

As much as I am looking forward to getting a Wii, I am slightly disappointed that they will not be moving to HD. Nintendo's executives made the decision to stay in the SD analog world because most people in the world don't have HD TVs, and to add in support for the HD will raise the production costs considerably. By choosing to not support HD, we should see the price point for Wii to be under $300, perhaps even at $200. That alone will be enough to clear out Wii inventory quickly, since not everyone can afford the $400 bucks for a 360 or the possible $500-plus for the PS3. As far as online support, Nintendo, keeping up with its usual secretiveness, is keeping quite about its support for online play. Overall, Wii isn't a competitor to the 360 or the PS3; it will be in a class all its own, and with what promises to be an extremely broad and vast library of games, it should become an all-around winner.