ÂÂ
Nintendo has been no stranger to getting people off the couch. Between Wii Fit, Wii Sports, the pokewalker from Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver, the Pocket Pikachu, and more, people have been moving with Nintendo devices for a while now. The new 3DS actually has a pedometer built right in, allowing people to use the 3DS as an exercise device. Nintendo has a new feature built into this thing, a pedometer, and is rewarding players with Game Coins. These coins are apparently cross-game currency that can be spent in many ways, as long as a game supports it. Pretty cool indeed.
Earlier, speculation thought that these Game Coins were Nintendo’s response to Achievements. It doesn’t look like that’s the case, but it does seem like an interesting service all the same, sort of like a fusion between the pokewalker and Ubisoft’s Uplay service. While I can see this pedometer become integral to gameplay in health and fitness games (imagine a calorie counter that rewards you with stuff for the game points), I certainly suspect Pokemon will utilize this feature. Additionally, since data can shared between users with Nintendo’s StreetPass and SpotPass feature without the cartridge being in the device (or with the device even being on), rewarding people for walking out and about with their 3DS is a good way for these features to be used.
While I can see some initial benefits for the Game Coins, I would really like to see them be used for substantial rewards, and not just for fitness games. If developers really thought broadly and made some cool applications of Game Coins, we could see a very satisfying reward system.
