Nintendo's Wiittle problem

For the longest time, I was thinking that it was just me. But more recently, I'm starting to realize that I'm not the only one.

I think Nintendo's got a real identity crisis on their hands, and I'm afraid this could quite literally be the last straw in the bid to consider Nintendo a big-time player in the gaming industry.

Not quite a year ago a member of a gaming forum posted simply, "The Wii is fail, man." They went on to complain about the system and it's lack of solid titles. I read that and kind of reeled back. The Wii is not fail! It's innovative, it's got Mario Galaxy and Smash soon, and it's affordable! And it's selling units!

Well, about a year later, I just about agree with that post 100%.

I haven't turned on my Wii in months. I'm a HUGE Smash bros addict, and anticipated Brawl more than almost any game since Half-Life 2. However, even it has lost it's luster with me. I blame not having the frends/family near by to play together with like I did when Melee came out (*sigh, growing up). But Smash is an excellent game. Unfortunately, nothing else on the system can hold my interest right now.

Granted I am primarily a PC Gamer. That must be said up front. But Right now I'm gaming exclusively PC because it's got games that I love. Wii has failed to hold my attention.

I was watching Nintendo's E3 press conference and it was actually almost embarrassing. It was if they were pointing at the hardcore crowd and laughing at them, heralding their casual games and mass demographic spread as the future of gaming. Wiimusic just topped the cake for me. That was what they had to show off? A game that lets you 'play' instruments based on body movements (read: simply controller waggling) and not requiring any true input from the user? good lord, what has Nintendo done to themselves?

Weezer's mention of his own disappointment towards Nintendo on the post E3 topic finally set me off. I'm not the only one that feels completely let down by the company.

In the past when I've defended the Wii I always fell back to their first party games in the pipeline. Smash, Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario, Twilight Princess, Mario Kart, Metroid. But wait a second, all of those titles are sequels/follow ups to old franchises. Nintendo has yet to firmly establish any new franchises. The typical rounds are getting old, it's time to move on.

And now that those titles are out (and all arguably good games), what's left? Animal crossing Wii looks fun, but let's be honest. What else is there? I was hoping E3 would give us big things to look forward to.

And the future lineup looks absolutely bleak.

And on top of that, the games we have been promised are all more of the same mini-game Wiimote wagglin' garbage. A new Raving Rabbids game? Wii sports on the beach? Seriously? More titles we can enjoy for about 20 minutes and then be bored with it because we've seen everything?

Reggie was quick to point out that Wii had sold the most systems and enjoyed the biggest library of games (or perhaps it was fastest growing library). That's a completely moot point when the majority of those games are shovelware. Everyone's been quick to cash in on the 'for casuals mini-game fest' titles. I look at the library of Wii games and it almost disgusts me how much garbage exists there.

The 3rd parties certainly aren't helping. Mini-games aside, all they do is rehash old gameplay, or create decent games with terribly tacked on motion controls. Seriously, just put some time into the controls and it turns out great. The Godfather is an excellent example. But so many games put in motion simply because they feel the need to. It's a quick cash-in, and it produces games that suck.

There's just not much for the serious gamer crowd. That's why I haven't turned the system on in months. Wii's online abilities are pathetic, their obssession with privacy and online protection is almost insulting. It's taken them almost 2 years to implement voice chat. The games are constantly pointed at the casual crowd. And with Nintendo's conference at E3, can you blame the devs for going this way? Nintendo is trying their hardest to make their system the laughing stock of the gaming industry. They've been quite successful with this.

Maybe Nintendo should just fold and stick to creating first party games, much like Sega did years back. Yes, they're selling systems - lots of systems. But for every grandparent or 6 year old that's getting the system, there's many more serious gamers that are letting their little motion controlled white boxes collect dust. I fear that if Nintendo doesn't shape up their objective with this system, gamers will be quick to abandon them.