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At E3 in 2004, as the DS was being introduced, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata gave a speech announcing officially that work on the "Nintendo Revolution" was well underway, and that when we see it, "we will be excited because we will experience a gaming revolution".
At E3 in 2005, we were introduced to the main hardware of the Revolution system. The demo unit was smaller than the smallest computer - barely wider than a DVD, barely longer than a DVD case, and barely thicker than a deck of cards. On top of that, company president Satoru Iwata claims the final product will be even smaller! As with the Nintendo DS, the Revolution will be WiFi-compatible right out of the box. An online network will connect gamers all over the world seamlessly, and unlike XBox Live, Nintendo's online plan will be free. Launching with the console will be an online sequel to Super Smash Bros. Details on this and more online games are said to be revealed in the coming months.
Hardcore Nintendo fans are sure to love the Revolution as players will be able to download NES, Super NES, and Nintendo 64 games over the online service. Whether these will be free or not remains to be seen. The system will also be backwards compatible with the Nintendo GameCube - a first for Nintendo consoles. A small panel on the top of the system opens up to reveal GameCube controller ports and memory card slots, and the Revolution's self-loading DVD slot will somehow center the smaller GCN discs to play.
While all this so far sounds quite exciting, Iwata has still not delivered on his promise of a "gaming revolution" with the Revolution hardware. Even more promises are being thrown around that the SOFTWARE will be where Nintendo innovates, but really, this is not something new for Nintendo. However, no details on the controller yet, and rumors consistantly point to analog gyroscopic control. If this is made the primary feature of the Revolution, Nintendo still has something very hot on its hands. We could indeed see a reinvention of online gaming, backwards compatibility, and analog control.
