Nuon: The Little System that Could
Okay, the Nuon is not a gaming playing machine par-se, it is actually a DVD playing machine that lets you enhance your current DVD movie, but it also manages to play games.
Nuon isn’t designed to take on Gamecube, X Box, PS and Sega head-on, it is geared towards the masses with an image of a DVD player, but can also play games. From a gaming point of view, it’s not what the average hard-core gamer would want, or even the casual gamer. Some of the titles in the Nuon’s lineup include Merlin Racing, Tempest 3000, The Next Tetris DLX and Freefall 3050 A.D. Since then, Monopoly, The Game of Life, Breakout, RC de Go!, Bust-a-Move 4 and Space Invaders 2001.
Now we can focus in on the DVD playing aspect. So far, there are two Nuon-equipped DVD players (one by Toshiba, and the other by Samsung). It comes with a controller, Interactive demo disc, Ballistic (puzzle game), and all of those wires to connect the thing to your TV. Movies with Nuon enhanced capabilities will begin shipping around 2001, with no titles mentioned. The Nuon DVD player is also sharper than regular DVD players. The company who makes the Nuon, VM Labs, announced that Bedazzled will be the first DVD player to have Nuon specific content, which will include commentaries, production still-to-final comparisons and an interactive chapter index.
Okay, so I bought a Nuon. Now what do I do with it? Simple. The “enhancements” that were mentioned include a zoom feature (you can zoom in on live or paused video). With Action Capture, you can strobe effect of 9 consecutive frames that keep playing until you pause (this does not include sound, by the way). You can switch DVD features through a menu instead of a button on your remote. Another “interesting” feature can also be found on Windows Media Player 7. When you play an audio CD, you can choose from 12 different lighting effects/patterns that will boggle your mind.
All told, I really don’t see the point of a Nuon. I mean, if you want a stand-alone game machine that would just be a waste of your money. And if you like DVD’s, anything on today’s market should satisfy you. Or if you want a DVD/Game Machine all-in-one, look no further than the PS2 to satisfy your needs.