This is the first time I’ve ever been so frustrated with Nintendo.

I honestly just can’t play games anymore. I power-on the Wii, flip through games I would consider playing and realize I’ve played each one far too many times, then turn it off. WHERE have all of the great games gone? I decided to play a bit of Breath of Fire II for hours and hours and barely scratched the surface of all the secrets in that game. Even more surprising was that the 16-bit game made me more emotional than ANY Wii game I’ve played so far (excluding Galaxy, which was awesome). I didn’t want the game to end, and THAT’S how games should be made. They should leave you wanting more. Why do I not get that feeling anymore from any current games out for Wii? I played Okami and stopped a little while after killing Orochi; it just got too repetitive.

Don’t reply with a simple “play more games” or “you’re not looking”. Nor do I believe my taste in gaming has faded. Why though, do I enjoy Chrono Trigger and BOF more than Twilight Princess? It’s not that I’m stuck on older games, I just feel that there’s a missing X factor from most of these new games. I can’t put my finger on it though…

When I look at trailers for new PS3 games though, I feel like those are the games I want to play (obviously, trailers always emphasize only the great cinematics and epic battles). I can’t believe that after years of adamantly loving Nintendo I want to abandon ship so strongly.

I’ve reread this post and I doubt that anyone’s going to understand half of what I’ve written. I can’t articulate my feelings properly because I don’t really understand them much myself. I also find that this post makes me sound much more of a nerd than I am. Still, is anyone here on the same boat as me to at least some degree?

Motion sensing is pretty hardcore if you ask me.

I will say that the one thing that has been insanely overlooked is the price difference between the Wii and others. The Wii is much, MUCH more affordable, and for some of us, that’s a big consideration in terms of which system to buy, if we can only buy one. (Which is, shock and awe, often an unfortunate reality.) Certainly, I wouldn’t buy a system based solely on price, but I’m not going to buy based solely on graphics, either.

But let me get to the point, and come out with my assuredly unpopular opinion: The Wii is novel, and it has good, very entertaining games. I think sometimes we get a little too worked up about graphics and “next gen,” and forget that it didn’t used to cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars to play a good game. Maybe I’m missing something, but isn’t enjoyment the whole point? There are a lot of classic games that are still quite beloved. They didn’t need the best of the best graphics to be FUN. Maybe there’s something to be learned from that. Those classics have good stories and challenging, well-designed puzzles and play, and they can hold their own. Sometimes that’s good enough. Especially when it means I can be just as entertained and with a little extra cash to show for it.

So, yeah, I’ll miss out on the new GTA (which I expect to get on PC) and some others. And yeah, the graphics aren’t as impressive. But overall, I’m happy with the Wii–both gameplay, and as a bonus, price.

I love Zelda, but I love Wii Sports too. I love GTA, and I love Katamari. I love Half-Life 2, and I love The Longest Journey. And, hell, I like Scrabble, Monopoly, and Arkham Horror, if you really wanna get diverse. Maybe the key to satisfaction is learning to be a little more well-rounded, to take pleasure where you find it. Even if it means having to admit you enjoy a game that your grandma wouldn’t be offended by.

And just to head off those of you who like to make assumptions, let me point out that I’m not some old, uninformed fogey or soccer mom who “just doesn’t get it.” Try woman in her early 20s, with nary a kid in sight.

There are a couple exceptions for nintendo, I enjoyed brawl. It’s a fun game but still falls in the category of casual gaming. Metroid is a great game and possibly the most notable. Other than that Nintendo is a niche console for exactly what they have been doing. Casual gaming for children and family fun. Being that casual is the opposite of hardcore I would say that the “hardcore” tag doesn’t really fit with nintendo. There’s nothing hardcore about 98% of the games available for wii. It’s a subpar sytem with subpar games.

The Problem is Nintendo put all their eggs in one basket and released all these games within a year and a half( which is unprescedented for Nintendo). I don’t think people remember the staggered releases of the N64 and the gamecube. I think Nintendo got caught in the hype of their own machine and figured 3rd party developers would come and start releasing quality games en mass. So instead of staggering these releases over 2 and a half years they changed it to a year and a half. They figured 3rd party developers would have some big releases this holiday season, which they didn’t.

Nintendo didn’t foresee that any developer with ambition toward games can more easily see their ambition translated with the horsepower of the 360 or the ps3. I am upset with Nintendo, but more upset with 3rd party developers and their lack of quality development for the system.