Nintendo’s warming up for E3 2006 and has the following to say:

Introducing… Wii.

As in “we.”

While the code-name Revolution expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that seperates videogame players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games… and each other. But you’re probably asking: What does the name mean?

Wii sounds like “we,” which emphasizes the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.

Wii has a distinctive “ii” spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people playing it. And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of videogames that sets it apart from the crowd.

So that’s Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because it’s really not about you or me. It’s about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything.

Now, before you jump on the bandwagon and say it’s a stupid, silly name, allow me to provide a counterargument, because it’s really not as bad as wii might think.

By deciding to name the Revolution the Wii, Nintendo declared that it doesn’t care about creating a name that would be really pompously “cool.” And that’s good. If Nintendo had tried to come up with a “cool” name, it probably would’ve failed miserably. Take, for example, Microsoft’s Xbox 360. It’s supposed to sound cool and distinguished, but really, adding “360″ to a previous name is in no way novel. Names that were supposed to sound cool often end up sounding completely cheesy.

Furthermore, although the name may sound ridiculous (and there will be an abundance of puns derived from it), if you step back and actually take a look, good, clean and simple brand names often look silly. Google and Yahoo! are both pretty silly names. Even the iPod’s name sounds a bit unappealing at first glance. Regardless if Nintendo had named the Revolution anything else, I’m sure everyone would still be up in arms about it– not because they don’t have anything “better” to name it, but because any highly anticipated new name (the Playstation 3 doesn’t qualify as a new name) is going to get some bad rap somewhere, and making it easily “punnable” doesn’t help the situation much.

And why not keep the name “Revolution”? Well, that was never the name to begin with. Revolution had always been given the status of a code name, just like Dolphin was the Gamecube’s code name. There’s no doubt that many, including me, think Revolution would be a good name, but Nintendo’s staying in the right direction by choosing something that’s simple, clean, and generally more universal than most other brand names.

Compared to some other new names recently (cough MacBook), Wii isn’t so bad at all. MacBook is okay, actually, but it’s just that pronouncing it (and reading it) is extremely jarring. It’s those k’s. Makubuku. Four syllables. Wii. One syllable. Much easier. Simpler. Nicer.

Everyone should get over it. It’s not such a bad name at all. It’s going to be the target of many jokes, but who cares? It’s simple, and Nintendo gets its message across easily with it.

Last Easter, something was missing. Our church’s annual Easter carnival disappeared while we were forced to hold mass at St. Paul… but now it’s a made successful comeback. And I thought it was great. It’s nice seeing everyone brought together on this wonderful occasion being happy and having a good time. Maybe one could even go so far to say that this Easter made up for last year’s gap.

On another note, although each celebration of Easter is the celebration of the resurrection, it always leaves different impressions for different people. For example, every Easter means a lot to those newly baptized into the Church. For everyone at our church, it was our first Easter at the new building, and it was indeed good, probably very meaningful to many.

Every Easter isn’t “just yet another Easter”. It’s always the celebration of the same thing, but they’re all different.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. =)

Oh wow. Just a few days ago, the first information about a Nintendo Revolution launch title was released. The front page article of the May issue of Game Informer is all about Red Steel, a first person adventure game of sorts.

The player uses the new Revolution controller as both a katana and a gun.

The game will take full advantage of the Revolution’s unique motion-sensitive controller, along with the “nunchuku” attachment… It has been confirmed that the game will be extremely immersive (e.g.: twisting the controller while handling the gun causes the gun to twist as well). Players can push objects to use them as cover by pushing the controller forward. Pulling the controller backwards reloads the gun. You can also lob grenades in a more realistic fashion, with underhand or overhand, employing the controller as the thing you ‘throw’.

And some other very cool things of note from the same Wikipedia article:

It has been confirmed that the game will have multiplayer-Split screen multiplayer with traditional death matches. They didn’t talk about Nintendo Wi-Fi (NDAs). Full details haven’t been revealed yet. Revolution works by placing a small sensor bar either above or below any TV. You can stand at any angle and not lose any accuracy. You can even take your controller to a friend’s house and instantly start playing without syncing up the controller. “Perhaps most impressive is the fact that although split screen reduces the amount of onscreen space you are playing in, you don’t have to make smaller movements -you can gesture as wildly as you want, and it won’t interfere with the other player’s onscreen quadrants.

The game will reportedly place less influence on killing the enemy and a greater influence on defeating him/her and convincing them to join you rather than to join the main villain, Tokai. Recklessness will be strongly discouraged by a unique system that adds ‘freeze points’ for accuracy/efficiency while using your weaponry.

Supposedly this game will only be one of around twenty launch titles. I really want a Revolution.

You may also see scans from the Game Informer article.

You should see some other coverage at, for example, one of the first places that shared the Game Informer news. The aforecited Wikipedia article has quite a bit of info as well. I don’t think my article on this blog about this game does it justice.

You may also see my original article about the Revolution in general, which I wrote almost a year ago.