The *Something* Killed the Gaming Star...

So... Like Mr. Bridges, I'm going to save the personal introductions and get something I want to say over and done with.

The Wii.

It's been a mixed blessing for Nintendo, hasn't it? For the first time they're leading the field amongst the big three, with Microsoft a Close-Second by cornering the Boy's Toy and Multi-Platform Market and... Well Sony's new tubby baby has been chugging along at it's own pace, having weighed itself down with surprisingly empty and shallow ploys, considering how bulky it is. And from the massive (in scale, not size) Cock-Jousting, it's clear that the PlayStation brand is hell-bent on leap-frogging itself technologically over the nearest cliff, possibly taking the market with it.

But with this supremacy comes division. The release calender for 2008 left the Hardened Fans split. Myself amongst them.

The one half was filled to the brim with people, led by a number of quite visible figures within the Gaming and Fan-based Medias, complaining that, woe-is-me, the precious company that they'd supported through the bad times had forgotten about them by focusing on their newly found casual market, and had no proper 1st Party Games for them to be content with.

The other side, and quite rightly too, gave the first bunch a heavy dose reality and pointed out that there had been numerable titles coming out, from the relatively Smashing (...I'll get my coat *shame*) Super Smash Bros. Brawl to the more obscure and overlooked Wario: Shake Dimensions as well as numerable others, and that what these unhappy bunnies were experiencing was merely a bad case of 'Second Child Syndrome': irrational jealousy of all the extra attention given to the new arrival(s).

So, you think they're right? 'Cos I think, playing both Devil's Advocate and Smug Boffin here, that while both sides have points, neither have hit the nail on the head. The whiners have jumped the gun and pretty much unjustly bit the hand that feeds them, not realising if, in the current economic climate, we'd had another Gamecube, there'd probably be no more Nintendo to complain about; Where as the rest have, quite frankly, got their rose-tinted blinders on and need to man up and call the relevant sh*t out because, if we don't, we're going to get walked over.

Here's my point:

Yes, we are getting those first-party titles that we want. Yet the only reason we get the volume complaints IS because of Nintendo's focus on the Casual Market.

It's all in the DEPTH.

When I look at the current generation of Nintendo Franchises, and then at their Gamecube-based counterparts, there's a number of glaring backward steps. It's as if Nintendo think that because they've got a brand-spanking new and 'innovative' control system, they can stop pushing themselves to make better games and move into remaking cut-down versions but with refined control...

I'm sorry, but no... I've seen this type of thing before. Who's got the biggest processing power, who's got the brightest bloom, who's got the brownest mud... Now who's got the most intuitive way to simulate jerking off whichever see-you-next-Tuesday Slimy Executive type who keeps pushing this type of thing?

Not for me.

If there's no depth to a title, it's played in a week or a weekend and suddenly it's two months before the next title out, and even then it's not one you instantly jump for...

I think the point is, saving myself more than enough for a dozen more columns, is that we as fans need to start looking for those enthralling, deep and atmospheric experiences and challenge Nintendo to challenge us... And not by just upping a difficulty curve in the AI.

Double Dash to Wii, Melee to Brawl, even Sunshine to Galaxy. Look at them and tell me that on some level the generational shift hasn't left us short changed. Look at any title... Go on. That's my challenge. And here's another, there is an exception that proves the rule. Name the title and tell me why, and you'll earn yourself a genuine 'The Nerd Blog' No-Prize*1.

In my next entry, I may or may not be discussing what the cause of this short change may be, and why it signals the industry moving in completely the wrong direction, as well as revealing that exception, and in the future possibly detailing what should be done with said franchises in something that may well become a regular feature on TNB...

'The Fanboy Knows Best...'*2

*1 - No-Prizes are fictitious and based solely on glory and perception only.
*2 - Title, as with most things on this site, are libel to change.