14 DAY TRIAL // The Nintendo Wii is a hugely successful console, thanks to its innovative controls, which are now adapted by its main competitors, and to its huge library of titles, even though most of them aren't of a very high quality.
However, one of the major drawbacks of the console is that it doesn't have the power of its main rivals, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. This has manifested in graphics similar to the last generation of consoles and to games that aren't extremely pretty to look at.
But now, it seems that the lack of power of the Wii has manifested in a troublesome thing, as the recently announced New Super Mario Bros will not feature any online cooperative play, limiting itself to the local four-player one.
The title, which is a Wii remake of the original Super Mario Bros platformer that caught the world by storm in the early days of gaming, will allow up to four players to run through classic side-scrolling worlds. The roles of Mario, Luigi and two Toads will be available for selection, but, sadly, the players will need to be in front of the Wii, as the online capabilities will not exists.
The reason it that, according to legendary Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the title has hit the limit of the Wii's processing power. He adds that tackling the limits of a console is something every developer strives to do, and that it has been a deciding factor in titles ever since the 8-bit age.
Will this make Nintendo accelerate the development of a new, more powerful console, possibly the Wii HD? Nothing is for certain, but, if a side-scrolling platformer has hit the limits of the small console, then other titles that will arrive on it will have a tough job managing to use the limited power of the Wii.