Nintendo: Lost and Found?

This week on GBE2 the topic Lost and Found. Before Nintendo's E3 conference, I was sort of lost on what to write about.

Let's start at the beginning. I own all three consoles. In my house the PS3 and the Xbox 360 gets played way more then the Wii. Why? Because with the Wii, Nintendo lost its way. What? Don't I love my Wii? (yes, I do) What I mean is the motion control  of the Wii, the fact that it's not in HD or as graphically powerful as the other two meant that some "hardcore" games couldn't be played on the Wii. Instead what we got was tons of third rate "party" casual games. Yuck. I like Wii Sports, but any party type game that wasn't made by Nintendo was sucky. So my Wii sits, waiting for the next Mario, Zelda, and other games like that. And I love those titles enough that my Wii is definitely worth having. It's been 5 years since the Wii came out and it's no doubt Nintendo lost its way with the kids who grew up to be hardcore gamers.

But yesterday at E3, the Wii U  was shown and boy, what a showing it was. I'm not going to repeat everything I talked about yesterday, but I'm confident that Nintendo is trying to find its way back to the core auidence of gamers and I am so excited. The Wii could never handle titles like Ninja Gaiden or Battlefield. Besides the graphics, the Wii tried to go into the casual market. It didn't release many M rated games. Many of the titles for Wii U that were teased yesterday aren't family friendly. There's nothing wrong with family friendly, but not at the expense of the hardcore.

The Wii U is being touted as the console that can be all things to all gamers. I say good. I want to be able to play quality FPSs on my Wii. I also want Mario games and Zelda and other series I grew up with. If the Wii U is everything it says it is, it will be a great day for gamers when it's released next year. Then Nintendo will find its way back to the adults who grew up to be gamers because of  its early consoles.

W is for Wii

I have to admit, I don't play my Wii as much as the PS3 or Xbox 360. But I still love it and won't trade it for anything. Why? Because Nintendo makes good consoles. The Wii isn't as powerful as the other two, but their games are still great. Games like Twilight Princess, Mario Galaxy, Donkey Kong Country Return, the Resident Evil rail shooters and Super Smash Bros are just a few. And of course the new Zelda, Skyward Sword, is coming this year. As long as Nintendo still makes Zelda games, I will buy their consoles.

In fact, when the Wii was released, I stood in line for hours and hours to get one. I wasn't even crazy about the idea of motion control, but I wanted one because I believed Nintendo would make it awesome. And they did. But I still regret that the system became a wasteland of crappy third party "casual" games. Many of them are just terrible and made some gamers feel that the Wii was the "lesser" console. But, you still can't beat their exclusives. They have made quality Nintendo titles since the 1980's.

But the big news lately has been the new Nintendo console that should be released in 2012. It's suppose to be way more powerful then the Wii, rivaling the PS3 and Xbox 360. It's suppose to cost $350.00 to $400.00. There might be a touchscreen on the controller. I've heard it called Stream, but the name will probably change. We will find out more at E3 in June.

As for now, I will just wait for Skyward Sword with my Wii remote in hand.