11/19/2006

Never thought the game I played least would be Zelda

And Zelda absolutely rocks, but whereas you know Zelda is going to be a marathon gaming session of at least a few hours to get anything truly noteworthy done, quick games of Wii Sports (especially bowling) or a few quick but exhausting minutes with Rayman are ridiculously tempting. I rented Madden and haven't even touched it so far today. And that's in addition to creating a lot of my friends and family as Miis in order to populate Wii Sports.

But the launch does still carry a lot of questions. The VC console is off to a good start, but is Nintendo really going to just leave these classics completely untouched? Sure, they'll still sell for nostalgia's sake, but if Nintendo's really looking to broaden their audience, they can't just offer the same old game we played years ago. Multiplayer could be added to nearly every title (F-Zero being a shining example since it is available for download and is only 1 player period). And at the very least, some sort of gamer online scoreboard for most would boost the life of these considerably. Nintendo's always seemed to riding the short bus when it comes to the real potential of online (how many games actually support Wifi on DS now?). I really hope they realize the potential of what they have here.

A second more interesting thought did occur to me. Even if it's massively successful, is the Wii Nintendo's last console? Probably not, but consider the revolutionary style of play and Nintendo's message of gameplay over graphics. The Wii could be around a lot longer than most consoles. I mean really, where does Nintendo go from this point? If they release a system that has much prettier graphics, it'll make them look like hypocrites. They'd basically have to come up with an entirely new way to play yet again, which I don't see coming for a long time (course nobody really saw the Wii coming either). Just some food for thought.

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