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Wii Chess

21 December 2007 13:55 PM | Last modified: 13:58

How do we make chess more popular for a wide audience? A very logical method is to start with kids. And what is occupation no. 1 among today’s youngsters? Of course, gaming. So it could have been great news that Nintendo’s latest Wii game is called “Chess”, potentially one big worldwide advertisement for the royal game. But alas, we have to agree with Wired: it’s just ugly!

Wii is a home video game console by Nintendo that tries to compete with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3. A distinguishing feature of the Nintendo console is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and can detect acceleration in three dimensions.

Wii Chess is currently in development by Nintendo and set for release on 18 January 2008 in Europe. Apparently they’re trying to widen their audience, and want to incorporate those who are fed up with playing double agent or shooting zombies. And we have to admit, after viewing the promotional video, we really can’t wait.

Comments

5 Responses to “Wii Chess”

  1. Michel on 21 December 2007 14:44 PM

    Peter, je zegt dat ze zich er met een jantje-van-leiden vanaf maken? Ik lees verder in het artikel niet meer terug waarom je dat vindt.

  2. peter on 21 December 2007 14:47 PM

    Zegt de video niet genoeg? Ik vind het ronduit lelijk.

  3. Michel on 21 December 2007 14:55 PM

    Volgens mij geeft de video de vele mogelijke instellingen. Er zit er vast wel eentje tussen die je mooi vindt.
    Maar misschien vergis ik me. De stukken die naar de zijkant van het bord vliegen is idd ook niet mijn idee bij een schaakcomputer…..

  4. Bert de Bruut on 21 December 2007 15:23 PM

    Schaakboksen zou meer iets zijn voor de Wii

  5. Player_3 on 21 December 2007 16:38 PM

    Knowing Nintendo and their type of games, it will appeal to children and weaker players, not that there is anything wrong with that. Windows Vista also has chess. I play it on the highest level on a over-clocked 3ghz conroe cpu and beat it every time - weak. I imagine >2200 players won’t be interested.

    The question, would it be good for chess? I’m not so sure, at least not the chess we know, competition, chess stars, theory, blitz & lightning, etc. Would the Nintendo & Vista players cross over to chess tournaments? I believe only a small percentage will but it could mean tens of thousands of new players entering the chess world every year. On the other hand, it could also mean thousands of 1500 players leaving chess for Nintendo Chess, lol!!!

    I distinctly recall Nintendo releasing a version of Chessmaster for their older consoles years ago but recall no chess boom from that, or maybe there was a boom, the pre-dotcom_bust days.


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