Nintendo Van Tour

I have fun at work I can assure you, but not as much fun as the folks at Nintendo. How do we (BestStuff) find out about all of these great products and services to review? We leave luck to heaven of course, or in Nintendo's case, they outfit a real nice RV with flat screens and comfy seats and drive up to the front door and say, "Can you come out and play?"

Nintendo entered the video game market in 1983 with the first home video game system. The games were cool in 1983, but not like today. There has been a subculture created by the video games of today that absolutely amazes me. When a video game system becomes the loss leader, game developers only have the sky as their limit. What makes them so much fun today is you actually can play a real opponent, which makes game play today extremely competitive.

The Nintendo products in this rockin' RV were the Nintendo DS ($129.99), Game Boy Advance SP ($79.99), Game Boy Micro ($89.99), and Nintendo GameCube ($99.99). (I found these prices online at your favorite retailer.) I was hoping they would pull out the Revolution as a sneak peek, but it looks like we will have to wait patiently until 2006. The two best game systems in this lineup from Nintendo are the Nintendo DS and the Game Boy Micro.

The Nintendo DS now has Wayport-enabled McDonald's restaurants to support its wireless capabilities with WiFi connections. As of November 14, 2005, there were 6,000 McDonald's hotspots supporting this WiFi; you should check the list of locations (www.NintendoWiFi.com) before you promise the kids they can play with their Nintendo DS at McD's. It should be plug and play with no set up on the machine itself. Now if McDonald's could upgrade their interiors from hard plastic seats to comfy coffee house styles there might be a reason to hang out for a while and play.

The Game Boy Micro is the best product for gaming on the go. I suggest you save your cell phone for conversations and get the Game Boy Micro. The amount of games that are available for the Micro amazes me. The built-in lithium rechargeable battery for this little thing (4" x 2"; 0.7" thick, 2.8 ounces) is sure to provide you with hours of play. Additionally, there are many aftermarket products available so you can personalize your Micro, and if the screen gets scratched, pop on a new skin.

by Rick Deckbar