Game consoles: Which is best for your family?

By Jessie Atkin

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Three major video game companies reign supreme on the American market today: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.  If you're looking to purchase one, here's the down-low.

The latest consoles include the Wii, the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360, respectively.  

The Wii recently revolutionized the gaming industry with its motion sensing remotes.  Rather than using classic arrow keys or a joystick in a game to move a character or an arrow, players move and point the Wiimote itself instead.  There are certain games where the arrows or a joystick can be used for movement (such as Super Smash Brothers Brawl) but generally, games for the Wii try to incorporate its controllers’ unique capabilities.  

The distinct capabilities of the Wii have opened up completely new markets for video games.  Previously, many games were often male oriented, particularly toward adolescents, the Wii is marketed as a family friendly system, and it is.  

Every Wii system comes with one game, Wii Sports.  Wii Sports is not just some cheap packaged item thrown in with the console to entice less-educated consumers.  It's one of the most simple and engaging Wii games. You can play baseball, bowling, boxing, golf, and tennis all by swinging or flicking the Wiimote in much the same way the real sports would require.  There are no tricky button sequences to memorize for game play, immediately making the Wii console accessible to kids as well as grandparents.

With Wii Sports, Guitar Hero, the recent addition of Wii Fit, and the ever expanding array of Mario related titles (Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Party 8, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and others) Nintendo seems to be cornering the recently expanding family market in video games.  That’s not to say that Nintendo Wii does not appeal to the more experienced gamer as well.  With sports games such as Madden NFL 08, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, plus games including The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid Prime 3 Nintendo offers plenty of options.  

Despite the Wii revolution, Microsoft’s Xbox 360  remains a popular console.  Beyond exceptional graphics and being the only host platform for the Halo game series (a set of science fiction first-person shooter games), Xbox is also known for having the best online/networked gaming.  That means, among other things, you can play certain Xbox supported games against players from all over the world through a simple internet connection.  Wii and PlayStation also have internet connections (Playstation’s Network is scheduled to continue updating), but Xbox Live is known for being the better connection (particularly because of the online capabilities available with Halo 3). Xbox and Wii provide instructions on their separate Web sites as to how to get each console online.  

The Internet connection aside, Xbox and PlayStation 3 have one feature that the Wii does not (as of now).  Both the Sony and Microsoft systems play DVDs. (The PlayStation 3 plays Blu-Ray discs as well as HD-DVDs).  Though this is not an issue in some households (as a DVD player may already be in residence) DVD capability does make a nice package for college students who take a gaming console to school.  Having to drag only one television add-on instead of two can make a difference.  

Both PlayStation 3 and Xbox  are compatible with headsets for player-to-player interaction during certain game play.  Again, however, not all games are equal.  Halo is known for supporting better pair-ups (when the game searches for another online player of similar rank to play either with or against you in the game).  Xbox live can filter pairings by best connection, your language, or simply look for the quickest connection.  Other games, however, force continuous restarts of the search before any compatible match can be found (which can be rather frustrating).

At the moment, many Wii games only have limited features when it comes to online play, plus, there are currently very few games that support online play for Wii in any way. The Wii internet connection though, does give users the opportunity to download games from the Wii Shop Channel .

The realm of video games is expanding.  It's no longer just a plastic gray box nerdy adolescents obsess over in the family basement.  With new consoles, new games, and new innovations, gaming is becoming nmainstream.  Video games are another tech connection, blurring boundaries and shrinking the planet, one button click (or wrist flick) at a time.