Sunday, May 4, 2008

Now That Mario Kart is out, I officially Have Nothing To Look Forward to on the Wii


Let’s face it, the Wii’s not a very good system. And while I know I’m going to be tugging on quite a few rabid fan boy’s dog chains with that last statement, let’s all admit it together—the Wii really is a piece of garbage.

The graphics are last gen, the controller is more a novelty than anything else, and the games for it are mostly crap with pretty packaging.

Hey, it hurts me just as much to say it as it does for you to hear it, because I’m a Nintendo fanboy, too, always have been, and, even with the unbearably crummy Wii, always will be. Ipso, facto.

But with the release of the recent Mario Kart (Read my review—I’m not entirely pleased with it), I ask you fellow fanboy, what’s there to look forward to now that all the great first-party titles are already out? As has been the case for the last two or three Nintendo systems, the power of the house of N has always been in their first party software, as gaming staples like Mario, and, to a slightly lesser extent, Metroid and Pikmin were the only really great reasons to get excited for anything on Nintendo’s horizon as those were the only good games that would come out for the system.

Wait, let me correct myself with that last sentence. Nintendo’s first party games were not good, they were great, and they made me (and millions of others), into the die hard Nintendo fanboy that I am today.

It’s the third party stuff that I’ve always been worried about for the system, and that’s all I can see far and wide for the rest of the year for Nintendo.

Let’s see, what’s coming out soon? Dream Pinball 3D? Space Chimps? Don King Presents: Prizefighter?!?! Does THIS sound like the roster of a system that was meant to thrive?

Sure, Steven Speilberg’s heavily consulted, Boom Blox might be a fun little diversion, but will I rush home to play it like a Mario Galaxy or a Smash Bros. Brawl? I don’t think you’d have to be a gambling man to answer a swift and easy, “no.”

The fact of the matter is this—Nintendo put all of its eggs in one closely knit basket, and now they have to deal with the fact that casual gamers can only play Wii Sports, Mario Kart, and the probably going to be a hit, Wii Fit for so long before they start to get tired of them and want something more.

And as much as I’d hate to say it, I guess that’s where the Playstation 3 comes in. Metal Gear Solid 4 is going to be, well, huge, and if Nintendo had only gotten Solid Snake to stick around a little longer after his Smash Bros. Brawl cameo, well, well thenwe may have been in business. But as of right now, Nintendo is a sinking ship, and we fanboys are the only passengers who are going to stick around, even after the hull has reached its dead weight sandy bottom.

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