Twenty years ago we bought our son a Nintendo. That was the last time I felt up-to-date on the game system world.
Today gaming isn’t just for kids anymore. It’s for kids and adults of all ages; it’s for fitness, eye-hand coordination, relaxation, sports improvement, strategy-development, cooking and much more. I recently asked my 21-year old daughter to give me some insight into the current world of gaming. Here are her descriptions of the three competing gaming companies and her comments on each.
Nintendo:
- Japanese Company
- Translated from Japanese to English, Nintendo means “leave luck to heaven.” (Potential Jeopardy question.)
- Product evolution is Nintendo (NES), Super Nintendo (SNES), Nintendo 64, GameCube (GCE), Nintendo Wii (pronounced “we”) which was introduced in 2007 as the world’s first interactive gaming system.
- Handheld players evolved from Gameboy, Gameboy Color, GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy SP, to Nintendo DS (Dual Screen.)
- Least expensive systems.
- Most famous game of all time from any company is made by Nintendo: the Mario series.
- Add-ons include the cross-bow and the steering wheel.
- Comments: More family-oriented; games are colorful and happy. The Wii took the company from competing on graphics to competing on interactivity. My favorite games because there’s never been much blood.
Sony:
- Japanese Company
- Product evolution is PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, introduced in 2006.
- Widely recognized as the gaming system with the best graphics.
- More premium systems can play older version games.
- PlayStation 3 has a Blu-ray high definition DVD player.
- The handheld player is the PSP (PlayStation Portable.)
- Comments: I never had a strong attachment to this player; I watched my brother play but never wanted to play myself. I think the games available are limited.
Microsoft:
- US Company
- Product evolution is XBox and the XBox 360 introduced in 2006.
- The XBox 360 has a DVD player and an HD DVD player can be added.
- Music can be uploaded from CDs and can be listened to regularly or instead of game music.
- MS introduced the Halo series, which is a first-person shooter game and is one of the best-selling games of all time.
- The system allows play by Internet with players around the world.
- No handheld is currently available.
- Comments: Cool that you can play your music through it, but I despise Halo because of its violence.
Now go impress your kids, your grandkids, your neighbors’ kids, and that new doctor you just hired.
