2008 Woodie Awards
Nintendo Revolution and Game Boy Micro
Japanese gamemaker hopes to regain momentum with new systems.
Jonathan Takiff/Knight-Ridder Tribune
Issue date: 10/7/05 Section: Life & Times
- Page 1 of 3 next >
THE GIZMO: Nintendo Game Boy Micro, Nintendo Revolution.
In his keynote address at this year's E3 videogame conference, Entertainment Software Association President Douglas Lowenstein put out the challenge for software and hardware makers to "think outside the box" to conjure up new products that broaden the "core" audience (males age 12 to 35) for electronic gaming.
Clearly that message has been heard loudest by the gang at Nintendo, now calling, "Play me, please," to any and all comers with two enticing new products.
SMALLER IS BETTER: Freshly landed in stores is Game Boy Micro, a cute-as-a-button (and not much larger) portable system that adults won't feel foolish using _ if they can wrestle it away from the kids.
Available in sleek black and silver finishes (with swappable, screen-protecting face plate overlays), Micro borrows its high-tech look and dimensions from mobile phones, measuring just 4 inches wide, 2 inches long, 0.7 inches deep and weighing a scant 2.5 ounces.
This device fits easily in the palm of your hand and hardly makes a bulge in a shirt pocket, though if you wanna flaunt it, there's a loophole to hang Micro on a lanyard around your neck.
While I've gotta put on my reading glasses to enjoy it, the 2-inch LCD color screen is the brightest, sharpest and fastest-"refreshing" that Nintendo has ever put in a portable system. Game action should stay in focus with most of the 700 or so Game Boy Advance titles that play on the little thing.
Being a retro-gamer, I've been having fun the last few days with "Mario Pinball Land" and the Sonic-endowed "Sega Smashpack," as well as "The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap" and one of those fanciful fighting "Dragonball Z" titles.
The essential control buttons (a four-way "D" pad plus "A" and "B" buttons and top-mounted left and right shoulder buttons) flank the screen, providing the most comfortable, least fatiguing operation my hands have experienced with a portable system.
In his keynote address at this year's E3 videogame conference, Entertainment Software Association President Douglas Lowenstein put out the challenge for software and hardware makers to "think outside the box" to conjure up new products that broaden the "core" audience (males age 12 to 35) for electronic gaming.
Clearly that message has been heard loudest by the gang at Nintendo, now calling, "Play me, please," to any and all comers with two enticing new products.
SMALLER IS BETTER: Freshly landed in stores is Game Boy Micro, a cute-as-a-button (and not much larger) portable system that adults won't feel foolish using _ if they can wrestle it away from the kids.
Available in sleek black and silver finishes (with swappable, screen-protecting face plate overlays), Micro borrows its high-tech look and dimensions from mobile phones, measuring just 4 inches wide, 2 inches long, 0.7 inches deep and weighing a scant 2.5 ounces.
This device fits easily in the palm of your hand and hardly makes a bulge in a shirt pocket, though if you wanna flaunt it, there's a loophole to hang Micro on a lanyard around your neck.
While I've gotta put on my reading glasses to enjoy it, the 2-inch LCD color screen is the brightest, sharpest and fastest-"refreshing" that Nintendo has ever put in a portable system. Game action should stay in focus with most of the 700 or so Game Boy Advance titles that play on the little thing.
Being a retro-gamer, I've been having fun the last few days with "Mario Pinball Land" and the Sonic-endowed "Sega Smashpack," as well as "The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap" and one of those fanciful fighting "Dragonball Z" titles.
The essential control buttons (a four-way "D" pad plus "A" and "B" buttons and top-mounted left and right shoulder buttons) flank the screen, providing the most comfortable, least fatiguing operation my hands have experienced with a portable system.