As video game star and “ace attorney” Phoenix Wright would say before a packed courthouse, “Hold it!” Fresh evidence suggests that innovative ways to play video games motivate new gamers, and not just the usual suspects. If you have yet to investigate the latest interactive entertainment trends, summertime gives you the perfect opportunity to get in the game.
Nintendo’s groundbreaking gaming interfaces and controls, designed specifically for new video game players, are driving our industry onward. Exciting original titles, such as Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day and the lawyer-adventure series Phoenix Wright for Nintendo DS, feature unique ways to play games via voice-recognition, touch screen and motion-sensing technologies.
Portability, accessibility and universal appeal make picking up these video games a simple and rewarding step for first-time players. Reaching these new gamers, however, represents a huge leap forward for the video game industry.
Parents and even grandparents now look to video games for top-notch entertainment and family fun, as well as ”getting off the couch” and maintaining mental acuity. With new audiences and new ways to play, interactive entertainment is gaining serious credibility in the court of public opinion.
At Nintendo, the business of fun is still serious business. From lawsuits to intellectual property issues to global piracy matters, we regularly tackle complex legal issues to protect our consumers and ensure continued business success. Fortunately, our exciting video game content makes avoiding the “all work, no play” trap a breeze.
Other companies are taking notice and taking advantage of video games’ appeal. In a great testimony to the power of video game entertainment, New York law firm Kaye Scholer scored high-profile praise with its inaugural Wii Sports Tournament.
In a colorful Wall Street Journal blog called “Wii Are Kaye Scholer Summer Associates!”, the exuberant title is the entire point of Peter Lattman’s submission. He asks, “Hey summer associates, which activity appeals to you most? A) Summer Associate Research Challenge; B) Eighteen holes at Winged Foot; C) A boozy cruise around Manhattan; D) Nintendo Wii Tournament of Champions.” If you answered “D,” he exclaims, “you should be working at Kaye Scholer in New York!”
Using a “conference room normally used for closing billion-dollar merger deals, Kaye Scholer hosted its inaugural Wii Tournament of Champions.” Forget fancy dinners. Fire up a Wii to woo your firm’s future partners. You may find recruiting more rewarding than ever!
For those of you unable to get your hands on the elusive Wii, still flying off store shelves across the country seven months after launch, look no farther than Nintendo DS for your video game fun. With its “Touch Generations” products, branded as such to indicate software titles that anyone can pick up and play with little or no video game experience, DS features an incredibly diverse range of video game entertainment options.
A cornerstone of Nintendo’s “Touch Generations” brand, Brain Age heralded a major shift in interactive entertainment. It put the video game industry on notice that Nintendo was reaching beyond core gamers and expanding the video game market to include non-traditional groups such as women, adults and non-gamers. Throngs of baby boomers, first-time players and long-time gamers have snapped up Brain Age and asked that all-important question: What is your DS Brain Age?
No matter how many cases you may have tried, once you put your brain on trial, the verdict may surprise you. A series of mental exercises, ranging from reading famous literary passages aloud for speed and accuracy to word memorization and counting, will determine how nimble — or tired — your brain really is. Fortunately, through repeat play, you can overturn that judgment time and again as your scores improve. Appealing, indeed.
With your DS Brain Age in check, take some time to enjoy the video game world equivalent of a refreshing summer lemonade with a legal twist: the Phoenix Wright adventure series for Nintendo DS. Both Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Justice for All appeal to players’ inner Perry Mason.
Having passed the bar, but not yet passing muster in court, Phoenix Wright makes his courtroom debut in Ace Attorney. Players must guide Wright through the still-mystifying legal process while navigating a tangled web of evidence and an eccentric cast of characters in order to bring killers to justice. Courtroom drama ensues as perfectly timed objections discredit witness testimony or proceedings stop on a dime as players prompt Wright to reveal the key to crushing opponents’ cases. Legal twists and turns will keep even the most seasoned lawyers on their toes.
Keep in mind that to make the brilliant observations and deductions required of an ace attorney, you will need intelligence in spades. Since Nintendo has the perfect tools to sharpen any lawyer’s best weapon — her mind — look for Wii Degree: Big Brain Academy, out now for Wii, and Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day, released on DS in July. By upping your fun and intelligence quotients, these games give everyone more reasons to jump on the mental treadmill and onto the video game bandwagon.
The unique game play experiences found on Nintendo systems make a compelling argument — beyond a reasonable doubt — for video game entertainment this summer. Quick escapes on Nintendo DS packed right into your briefcase? A Wii gaming getaway from work at work? Games that offer an opportunity to feel younger and wiser? Nintendo rests its case ... for fun.
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Jacqualee Story is executive vice president for business affairs for Nintendo of America Inc.
