E3
That's pretty much how I feel about the big 3's presentations at E3 this year. Microsoft still can't figure out who their console is trying to be targeted to (hint for them: frat boys), Nintendo failed to announce 1 game that I was excited about for my Wii, and Sony, well, basically announced nothing.
I like my Wii, I really do. I'm just tried of having tons of plastic crap "controllers" sitting around that cost money and do nothing. With the announcement of these new Wii MotionPlus and Wii Speak addons,there are now 6 official Nintendo add-ons for the Wii: Nunchuck, Classic Controller, Motionplus, Wii Wheel, Wii Speak, and Wii Zapper. All of these cost $20 or more, and most of them are just pointless pieces of plastic that I'd rather play the games without (especially Mario Kart). This MotionPlus addon will actually add some new functionality, but it's a feature that the Wii should have had in the first place. Playing any game that attempts true motion controls on the Wii right now--such as Wii Sports Golf or Wario Ware--is a total pain riddled with complete guesswork due to the controller's insensitivity to small movements. Motion plus fixes this problem, but for an additional cost. Nintendo hasn't said how much that is, but I can be damn sure that most Wii games released in the next few years will require it, and it will up the price of a "full" Wii controller to over $70 without a doubt.
The games they announced utilizing these new features? "Wii Sports Resort," an underwhelming looking sequel to Wii sports with Jetskiing and Sword Fighting, and "Wii Music" a music game that takes no skill or effort to play. All you have to do is press the buttons on the Wiimote and music is played. No grading, no timing requirements, assigned notes, or failure. Just press the buttons, and the game plays a song for you. This is taking "casual" gaming to an extreme, as this seems more like a toy than an actual video game. Are they trying to get babies into video games now? Come on.
As much success as Nintendo is having with the casal gamers, there are some people who enjoy being challenged when they play a game. So far Nintendo has made a grand total of 3 good, long, challenging singleplayer games for Wii: Twinight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, and Metroid Prime 3. I'm sure some more like that are in the works, but being a longtime Nintendo fan I am highly dissapointed in their showing at E3 this year, and I'm pretty sure alot of others like me are too. Just because more people who subscribe to "Good Housekeeping" are buying Wii's now doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of people who like real games buying them too.