Six Reasons Why You Need a Revolution

5) It'll have Wi-Fi out the box

Nintendo has notoriously kept its hat out of the online ring for some time now. That all changed this past fall when Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing: Wild World and Tony Hawk's American Sk8land hit the shelves. Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection brought Mario and crew to the net and gamers are eating it up. Now it's the Revolution's turn.

There'll be no add-ons to buy to get the console online. The PS3 will also do this, but can it offer motion controlled Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros. to the entire online community? Nope. And taking Nintendo online could also mean downloadable updates to the classic and contemporary titles, like a holiday-themed Super Mario Bros. 3 or a new dungeon for the latest Zelda sequel.

Above: Mario Kart: millions of online matches played on DS. Sure to show up on Revolution.

A central hub, a la Xbox Live, will take center stage with the next generation of consoles and Nintendo, finally, will not be the online exception. As evidenced by the "Home" button on the Revolution's controller, Nintendo's planning something big with this console, and delivering all its storied franchises to the net is a big deal to even the most casual of gamers.

Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.