Okay, first of all, let me establish something - this isn't the opinion of some Sony fanboy, or XBOX nerd who loves "awesum graphix" or "mature gaming" (roughly equated to lots of blood and perhaps partial nudity) - I'm not one of those guys at all. My favourite game of all time is probably Zelda: Majora's Mask, and my first (and favourite) games console was the N64. I lvoed playing it, and I regret selling it.
I never got a console from the generation after that (Dreamcast/PS2/Gamecube/XBOX), and decided to get a Wii when to came out. Put simply, the console is dissapointing. It comes down to one fundamental flaw - game catalouge. First of all, Nintendo made a big mistake letting Rare go. I know their games on the GC weren't THAT decent, but looking to the N64 - Banjo Kazooie/2ooie, Donkey Kong 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Jet Force Gemini, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark - they could definetly produce quality games, and were almost as important to that system as Nintendo themselves. Of course Wii had decent games from Nintendo themselves - Zelda, Mario Galaxy and (probably) Metroid Prime all stand up well compared to anything the other systems have to offer - but pretty much all the third party titles are crap. Of course there's a few decent ones - I recently bought Resident Evil 4 and it's good so far, and I will probably get Okami at some point - but there's not a whole lot out there. Smash Bros Brawl is pretty fun (I think that was third party - but maybe not), but the other games I've played have been poor. SSX Blur tred to incorporate some control scheme dictated by drawing patterns in the air, and the Sonic game released on launch ued the Wiimtoe as basically a NES controller - both control systems were awkward and played like crap. I can udnerstand Nintendo being able to harness the controls well (Mario Galaxy beign the best, most natural example I feel), but third party developers are inevitably going to find it difficult - or mroe likely - not bother. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 was horrendus - the controls made the game actually less intuitive and less in depth than playing with a PS2 controller. I ended up returning that game. Games like GTA and FF XIII are goign to be released on both the other consoles - but, because of, amongst other things, the awkward control system, Nintendo won't get them. That's all fine and well, but Nintendo doesn't hae enough games on its own system to compensate. One of the highest rated Wii games on Gamespot is WarioWare - if I wanted to play crappy minigames, I'd just go to one of the many websites on the internet to do it.
What will Nintendo do for their next console? Will we finally get a worthy sucessor to the N64 - after the substandard Gamecube and Wii? Will Nintendo carry on pursuing their policy of making games everyone other than gamers will enjoy? Or will they give us a console truly everyone can enjoy - and back it up with a decent library of games?
I never got a console from the generation after that (Dreamcast/PS2/Gamecube/XBOX), and decided to get a Wii when to came out. Put simply, the console is dissapointing. It comes down to one fundamental flaw - game catalouge. First of all, Nintendo made a big mistake letting Rare go. I know their games on the GC weren't THAT decent, but looking to the N64 - Banjo Kazooie/2ooie, Donkey Kong 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Jet Force Gemini, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark - they could definetly produce quality games, and were almost as important to that system as Nintendo themselves. Of course Wii had decent games from Nintendo themselves - Zelda, Mario Galaxy and (probably) Metroid Prime all stand up well compared to anything the other systems have to offer - but pretty much all the third party titles are crap. Of course there's a few decent ones - I recently bought Resident Evil 4 and it's good so far, and I will probably get Okami at some point - but there's not a whole lot out there. Smash Bros Brawl is pretty fun (I think that was third party - but maybe not), but the other games I've played have been poor. SSX Blur tred to incorporate some control scheme dictated by drawing patterns in the air, and the Sonic game released on launch ued the Wiimtoe as basically a NES controller - both control systems were awkward and played like crap. I can udnerstand Nintendo being able to harness the controls well (Mario Galaxy beign the best, most natural example I feel), but third party developers are inevitably going to find it difficult - or mroe likely - not bother. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 was horrendus - the controls made the game actually less intuitive and less in depth than playing with a PS2 controller. I ended up returning that game. Games like GTA and FF XIII are goign to be released on both the other consoles - but, because of, amongst other things, the awkward control system, Nintendo won't get them. That's all fine and well, but Nintendo doesn't hae enough games on its own system to compensate. One of the highest rated Wii games on Gamespot is WarioWare - if I wanted to play crappy minigames, I'd just go to one of the many websites on the internet to do it.
What will Nintendo do for their next console? Will we finally get a worthy sucessor to the N64 - after the substandard Gamecube and Wii? Will Nintendo carry on pursuing their policy of making games everyone other than gamers will enjoy? Or will they give us a console truly everyone can enjoy - and back it up with a decent library of games?
