Wii Woes:

So, Iwata says the Wii has stalled, huh? No kdding! Today, Nintendo, I want to teach you a little history lesson. And, amusingly enough, you will end up learning from yourself! Here we go:

If one reads the full history of Nintendo (a Gamespot article, and a great one at that), a philosophy of Nintendo becomes quite apparent: Gameplay first, graphics last. Nintendo has always developed high quality games for its systems, as well as getting well known third party developers to do the same. Reading the history of Nintendo shows that-again and again-Nintendo's system's areoutperformed graphically by other offerings, yet succeed in sales. Why is that? When the Sega 32X (We know it as the Genesis), a 32-bit system, was getting stomped on by the NintendoSNES, a 16-bit system, a puzzled press asked a Nintendo representativethe reason for the SNES success over its technically superior partner. His response? "Games make the system, not graphics".

Beautiful.Hit the nail on the head. While the SNES was getting Mario, Link, Mortal Combat, and other such gold titles, the Genesis was getting flops, rushed projects, and poorly done ports. Who cares how good a game looks if it sucks? As for me,graphics have always been second rate in myopinion. Honestly, I don't much care for amazing graphics. Sure, its nice, but gameplay and storyline mean so much more. As an exmaple, I enjoy Call of Duty on my Wii considerably more than I do on a PS3 or 360. Are the visiuals sub-par on the Wii? Yes. But the control scheme more than makes up for it in my book.

So, right now, some of you are thinking, "Whatever, Nintendo's under poweredsystems have sold well because of kids, thats all.Graphics are the real sale point of a system". Well, here is another tidbit to back up my opinion. The PS2, despite beingnine years old, is stelling selling respectably well. Why is that? Because of its amazing graphics? Compared to todays systems, its graphics aren't anything special, so no one should be buying it anymore, right? Wrong. The PS2 has a plethora of outstanding titles spanning every imaginable genre. RPGs, FPS, rythm games, and a laudable amount of highly unique games. Titles like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Shadow of the Colossus, Time Splitters, Okami, Parapa the Rapper, ICO, Guitar Hero, and much more made this system strong. There is a wealth of instant ****cs and must-not-miss games on the PS2. Heck, their still developing games for it today!

And why has the DS become the best selling game system of all time? Amazing titles. Sure, there is alot of junk to sift through to find the good titles, but some simply outstanding games have been, are being, and will be developed for the DS. Many games on it are a can't-miss experience, and the DS's sales reflect that.

So, back on track. Nintendo, why do you think your Wii sold strong, then flat-lined a fewyears later? Maybe, I dunno, its because of the complete lack of good games bieng developed? Yah, that might be it. Almost nothing but shovel-ware and senseless periphreals have graced Wii in the last two years. There certainly are good titles for the Wii, but a steady stream (or even anoccasional stream!) of quality titles are needed to sustain a system's worth.Nintendo systems are all I have everowned, but thisgame draught for the Wii has pushed me over theedge and into buying a PS3.

Nintendo, you single handedly brought the gaming industry back from the brink of collapse by creatinga system(the NES) with high quality titles,keeping down shovel-ware by instituting the "Nintendo Seal of Quality".In this way, you pulled theentire industry back into existence, even after poor quality games had turned the publicopinion to that of believing gaming was a "fad", and that it was "done and over". So, don't fell victim to something that, by conquering, made you great. No more junk, no morefoolishness, no more periphreals, no more gimmicks, no more Mario Galaxy 2 (seriously...); bacl basics. Remember who your realfans are: not the Wii Fit buying sixty year olds, but the teen to young adults who truly love your offerings.

Learn from your past to shape your future. That is all.