Idiot's Guide to the Revolution

Is that just a fancy way of saying this is a simple toy?
It's true, Nintendo has this unshakable image of being a family-friendly company that makes kiddy games. But to outright call the Revolution childish is insane. No one accuses Pixar's family movies of catering to kids but not adults. Nintendo operates in the same way, appealing to anyone who's looking for a solid game to play. With the Revolution you'll still see plenty of impractically-sized guns blowing chunks out of people and lavish landscapes ripe for exploration, but they'll share space with Mario and his undeniable fun-for-everyone outings. Don't act like you didn't waste hours of the day with old Nintendo systems. And even if you didn't, you'll be able to catch up with a grab bag of classic games tucked away on the Revolution.

So does it play all the old games or something?
Well, the Revolution can hit the Internet right away using Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection. Once online, you'll have access to downloadable NES, Super NES and Nintendo 64 games. That's 20 years of gaming goodness on one machine. Right now it's referred to as the "Virtual Console." There's no set price for the downloads or even a concrete list of which games are coming, but expect some serious old-school gaming,like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past,to make a big-time return.

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.