Alright, let's start with a little history.
The first major interactive electronic I had been introduced to was the personal computer. This way way back when I was still two to three years old. I could point, I could click, I could engage in interactive storybooks, and I could attempt to play the Bicycle Bridge card game, although I had no idea how it actually worked - I was merely clicking on things with the mouse.
I was introduced to video games around the age of three, four, five? I can't remember, but one day I went over to a friend's house, and there was an NES hooked up to the TV in one of the bedrooms, where we played Super Mario Bros. I wasn't very good at it, but I was still fascinated. For some reason I always thought that there would be more and more mushrooms which would cause Mario to keep growing and growing until immensely large. I also got the chance to play video games when I visited my cousins over in Tennessee. Jessie was queen at Mario, and I always looked up to her. At one point I went over to one of their neighbors, who had a Super Nintendo, which hosted some amazing graphics and sound. I played Super Mario World and I always wondered why Mario did a drill when he jumped.
My first video game system was the Game Boy Pocket. I had received numerous games for this little device, such as Super Mario Land, Super Mario Land 2, Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle II, even some more obscure games like Mole Mania (also made by Nintendo for those unaware). It got dropped on a few occasions, causing the speaker to vibrate and it partially corrupted the graphic data in my Donkey Kong Land 2 cartridge. This made me sad and it taught me to take better care of my electronics. The Color version came out shortly after, and brought some new life to my games.
Then came the Nintendo 64. I bought this with my own allowance and it introduced some amazing new concepts for its time. I couldn't believe witnessing Mario perform so many moves with combinations of the A, B, and Z buttons, and every time he jumped, he made a different grunt. It was incredible. Shortly to follow was the Gamecube, which had some gorgeous cinematic effects and a controller that was incredibly comfortable. I bought quite a few fun games for both of these systems. Friends owned games for their Nintendo systems that they let me try out or even borrow. While I had a decent amount of games, I was still missing out on a lot of great stuff, and that was the beauty of things.
At the same time came the Game Boy Advance with its 32-bit capability and 4-player single-game linking, and the Nintendo DS with its 3D and dual screens, one of which was a touch-screen. Good times were had.
When the Wii was introduced, I thought it was nice that they were extending the gimmick of the DS to the television. I did enjoy it when I got it originally, despite the somewhat lackluster launch titles. I waited around for some good new games, but the ones I did get related to my favorite franchises proved to be disappointing in some way or another. To make matters worse, it would seem Nintendo isn't bothered to rectify the situation.
Here's the deal. I've been using Nintendo's products for over a decade now. Offerings by other systems didn't even come close. I mean, what? I went up to a Playstation booth in the video rental store and it had this 2D side-scroller with some random fighter guy God-knows-who in a desert God-knows-where doing God-knows-what in a game that had absolutely no kind of recognition or redeeming quality whatsoever (anyone care to identify what this game was?). Meanwhile, Nintendo had Super Mario 64 or Diddy Kong Racing. Which of the booths do you think I'd go for? The one exception I'd make would be Sonic the Hedgehog. Back when his games were actually good.
The thing is, Nintendo delivered where other companies had failed. I wanted crazy platforming action, they had Mario. And of course it didn't stop there, for there were many other franchises available, each with their own quality games. Oh, and Yoshi. How the hell can I forget Yoshi?
I'm not convinced the Wii is all it's cracked up to be. Previously, Nintendo's systems have each brought something new to the table that had factored into the games in relevant ways. The Wii was somewhat impressive initially because instead of pressing a button, I could shake a hunk of plastic up and down. Unfortunately, Nintendo's decision to stop upgrading the graphics at around the Gamecube level was poor and ill-conceived. All the competitors have delivered technologically superior systems, despite their high prices, and the Wii has been left in the dust with blurry textures and a laughable 640x400 resolution. It's a fine screen size for 2D, but for 3D it just doesn't make the cut anymore. A computer monitor can display at least six times the amount of information the Wii can. It's pathetic.
And while the Wii has made advancements in interfacing and extras, all the features present in the console and its software are either pointless or have yet to reach maturity and feature-completeness. Compare the Wii to the PC. On Windows you get image editing, web access through all kinds of programs, protocols, and methods, just about every piece of software ever developed under the sun, as well as Steam, which provides digital game distribution of quality titles, as well as a means for social interaction between players (as if IRC and forums weren't enough). The Wii doesn't even come close, and even other consoles do better in this area. I know that Nintendo has primarily focused on games, but if you're going to add extras, you need to make them count. This is a total half-assed effort on Nintendo's part.
Oh, and the games. Where in hell are the games? No, I'm not talking about Wii Sports or Wii Music or Wii Sports Resort or Wii Sports Country Club or Wii Sports Racing Country Club. I'm talking about the kind of stuff I grew up with. Oh, what's this voice I hear? Brawl? Anything else? ...Brawl? And someone else mentioned something about licensed movie garbage. Too bad I don't have a reason to play Brawl, since right now I don't have real-life gaming friends anymore. You know, back in the days of the N64 and Gamecube. Oh, that's right, they've all moved on to bigger and better things. Like the 360. Tough luck, Nintendo. It looks like you need to try harder. Much harder. Because, while you've garnered relationships with young fans, you've completely dropped the ball and decided to shut them out now. Yes, the fans who have bought your systems and games for the past twenty years. Don't they deserve something better?
In the process you've also made some huge blunders. You've lost second parties who have made great games, and then attempted to create sequels to those in a first-party manner with disastrous results. You've also given first-party material to unremarkable second parties for them to make a complete mockery of your creations and disappoint all of your fans. All while you sit around and do nothing but develop Wii Lacrosse in a short effort and then spend the rest of your "labor" on marketing. And thanks to your poor decisions relating to the hardware as mentioned earlier, other developers don't want to hop aboard due to the vast differences in terms of platform specifics. Either that or they're busy churning out shallow casual games based off of movie licenses. Meanwhile, Yoshi's been bastardized and you don't give a damn anymore. And Donkey Kong is completely meaningless.
Oh, and Cammie Dunaway. Nothing quite says ignorance and lies like this and several other new press releases, which, among other things, advertise lavish shopping "paradises" filled with fifteen jacuzzis each, while you entertain numbnut celebrities with a not-so-exciting-as-previously Mario game that was released several years ago instead of anything different and potentially more satisfactory because you can't be assed to make anything new and instead decide to sit on top of your money like a proud hen doing absolutely nothing productive besides deceptive marketing which on its own might even bring into question whether or not it is actually considered productive:
http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=17109
Just look at that list of games. Just. Look. At. Those. Games. They call this a diverse lineup? Oh yeah, and you also said once that Pikmin and Animal Crossing would be enough to satisfy "core gamers" as you call them. Have you lost your touch this much?
This is why I don't like the Wii anymore. Argue all you want, but it'll take more than "BRAWL!" to convince me to stray away from Steam since Valve is actually smart and cares about their loyal fanbase, attempting to fix bugs, exploits, and address classic gameplay problems in new and exciting ways. Meanwhile, in an ironic twist, Nintendo is bringing out the same old stuff, and fading into the distance as their brand recognition moves away from exciting characters to plastic bobbleheads.
