It's cheap. It's original. It's innovative. And I hate it.
It's been almost a year since Nintendo released the Wii a console that single-handedly saved the ailing videogame publisher and developer from, if not extinction, than at least obscurity. In no time the system has moved to the top of the console heap selling 13 million units worldwide and posting a six-month profit of $1.13 billion.
In other words, it's a hit.
The Wii's motion controls, ease of use and low price compared to Microsoft's and Sony's machines were all major selling points, not just to gaming enthusiasts, but to casual gamers old and young.
And therein lies my problem with Nintendo's wunderkind—it's gaming at its simplest and most unrefined.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty to be said for the simplicity of the classics, but where as games like Pac-Man and the Mario series relied on solid fundamental elements like platforming or pattern recognition to create engrossing experiences, many Wii games are essentially gimmicks that force you to rely on Nintendo's unique control scheme and little else.
We are at a generation of console development where games' visuals and audio have finally caught up to imaginations of the developers who created them. Games can finally achieve a level of involvement similar to, if not more engrossing than, film. Characters can now be expressive and environments can now be as dynamic as the real-world counterparts.
The Wii can create similar levels of immersion with its control scheme, but it's graphical power falls dreadfully short. And while solid gameplay still equals great games on the system, it's lack of a quality assurance department means a lot of crap also gets through.
The reason Nintendo's actions are so detrimental to sophisticated gaming is because Sony and Microsoft are watching. Like any big industry, videogame systems would rather imitate than innovate. And a company doesn't sell 13 million units in a year and turn a billion and change within two financial quarters without its competitors taking notice. And I'll give up gaming before I flail my arms and legs like an idiot, just to play the next Tetris.