If You cant beat em… Join em !

 

 

I've always considered myself to be a “hardcore gamer”. I don't even mind being called a “fanboy” towards my favorite console of choice. So it always bothered me when Microsoft pushed so hard to be come the Family gaming console.

From the newly packaged Arcade unit, to the Family Game Night Advertisements on Xbox Live as well as Xbox.com, I just kept saying to myself “Not me , not my console”. I always felt it was just a cheap and desperate attempt to steal some Buzz away from Nintendo and the Wii and it was. I just didn't like it.

Now I'm not anti Family Gaming or anything , but I felt that there was a system out for that and my 360 just needed to worry about my needs not the needs of my 4 and 9 year old sons. Isn't that why I purchased a Wii so “the family” has something to play ?

This years E3 made it perfectly clear that not only Microsoft, but Sony as well are not sitting back when it come to the motion controls. I was very impressed with Project Natal in its early stages. As far as Sony's double fisted ‘Wii like remotes’ it just makes me think “what were they thinking” ? (That's the Fanboy in me)

So motion controls are part of the future and are here to stay it seems. Nintendo did a great job pulling this off with the Wii and capturing the casual crowd as well as bringing in the non-gamers such as the moms and the aunt and uncles.

So that's were the family crowd should be on the Wii.. Right ? My kids, they play with the Wii all the time right ?  Wrong ! My 4 years old son proved to me how wrong I was to feel that my “hardcore console” couldn't be a family machine. He likes the Wii, but doesn't get the waggling part of the whole thing. Instead he can figure out how to use the Xbox 360 controller and its 10 buttons. For that matter even my 9 year old son prefers Master Chief over Mario. Go figure.

I downloaded several demos for my 4 year old son such as The Bee Movie, UP, Shrek The Third and Monsters Vs. Aliens just to name a few. After seeing the movie and playing the demo he was hooked on Monsters Vs. Aliens. So I wasn't sure If I should buy it for him on the Wii or just get him the 360 version since he was already playing that one form the demo.

Well I bought the 360 version and he's doing very well with it. Turns out the game has coop and makes it a blast for my two sons to play together or it even makes fun for myself or my wife to jump in and play with him as well. Turns out that a lot these game geared towards the younger crowd have coop and make great for ..uh…er…. Ah “Family game nights”.

So do I feel that my Hardcore only Xbox 360 is a great place for the whole Family to gather around and and have some fun ? I most certainly do. I think Microsoft and Sony both share the same third party licensed titles that are geared towards the younger audience and make for great family titles with coop play. Both companies have a lot ground to make up, but in the mean time I guess if you cant be em …..Join em !

-TX