IGN Converage of the Nintendo Revolution.
Nintendo believes that technology alone cannot advance videogames, which is why it plans to take Revolution into a dramatic new direction.
This is true. The thing is about the size of a CD-ROM drive, which isn't really very big. However, in a fit of stealing ideas from Sony, because they were tired of getting their asses kicked, Nintendo announced one feature that makes me want this thing: it is 100% backward compatible.
What do I mean 100%? I mean, this thing will play every single game ever offered on any Nintendo console anywhere ever. Apparently, Nintendo has built in a software console emulation system into Revolution, allowing you to download from Nintendo (I'm waiting to see the prices before I get TOO excited) ROMs of all games for all previous systems, INCLUDING the GameCube, to be played in software emulation on the Revolution.
If it works and is affordable, that makes this system a must-buy. I doubt seriously that it will replace anyone's PlayStation 3, but it will certainly sit next to it in the entertainment system.
Now, the downside of all this is that Nintendo is being very, very hush-hush about the actual hardware capabilities of the system. Their marketing guy told the G4 interviewers that the controller would be something that would be able to play all the previous games, with all the different controllers, and added "imagine what that would look like." Of course, that doesn't help at all. I have no idea how much hardware they're really going to be able to cram into the thing, it really is amazingly small. If they would have stuck an LCD screen on it, I would have said it was a fat handheld.
If the Revolution has the hardware to back up their hype, this could be a really cool system. But I don't really know how many more Mario games I'm going to be willing to play, when I can get the same games but WITHOUT Mario on the PlayStation 3. This one, it seems to me, is really good for kids and people with kids, but for now, I'm holding off until I learn more about it.
