I have a Wii and a DS, for the first post I'll focus on the Wii.

I like a few of the games that I own. Code Lyoko, Cruisin', Geometry Wars Galaxies, House of the Dead 2 and 3, Marble Mania, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime, Metal Slug Anthology, Namco Museum Remixed, Hall of Fame Pinball: William Collection, and Dream Pinball.

But I don't like the Wiimote on a number of the games. I think the HoF Pinball was better on the PS2 than the Wii just based on the controls, which is sad. I get frustrated there aren't Classic Controller options on some Wii games that not only force the Wiimote, but don't support remapping controls.

There are some games where using a Gamecube controller is preferrable to the Wiimote, Metal Slug Anthology is a good example.

So yeah, I like the games I own, but not necessarily the controls.

Then there are many games being released on the 360/PS3 that aren't being released on the Wii.

I'm not saying I'm unhappy owning a Wii, I just feel that the 3rd party support will hurt the system in the long run. There will be games that people want to play that aren't coming out for the Wii. It may be considered a secondary system.

The new and improved King of Lamers 2003!

Not that I regret buying a Wii but I'm pretty much dissapointed by the console. There's only a handful of good games while tons and tons of shit gets released all the time. I hope there won't be a Wii 2, seriously, they can't think of anything good to do with the wiimote except for a few games. Bowling is still a favorite for a lot of people, and maybe the only game they'll bother to play. It's like a gadget that it's nice to have, not a console to play lots of games on.

Wii and DS here too.

DS: A great mix of the best of the capabilities of the GBA (and with now enough buttons) mixed with the 3D output of a PSX combined with a really cool touch panel. I feel in some cases the touch panel when forced hosed a game and made it suck hard like Starfox. In many cases though I find even if tacked on it's a nice choice, but some games and genres are just fantastic using it like FPS, Turn Based(Civ Revolution), various puzzles, etc that just are slower or clunky with buttons+d-pad. I like the double screens as they allow for a bit of added info I used to have to pause/unpause back and forward to do so it saves a step. I think it was the next logical step in handheld gaming and was worth every penny.

Wii -- Got off to a rough start by little fault of Nintendo and mostly 3rd parties who had no faith, and the few that did nailed down 1mil copy movers. When reality sunk in it was muddled in trash and shovelware while companies struggled to get projects up knowing they'd take 1-2 years to get to market so things got slow and scary up to Metroid Prime 3, MOH H2, Mario etc mid-later into last year. While not HD, I say it represents the next smart step into gaming finally moving away from the dated but still great classic pad as it gives more interactivity and ease in some genres (FPS, RTS, Turn Based, puzzles, driving, simulations, etc) while others like fighters and platformers see less value. Personally the system revitalized my interest in console gaming as far as being able to glue my ass on a couch for more than 1-2hours which I hadn't done since working at Midway...and I started finishing console games too with greater frequency. Personally to stop the whiners it would have been nice to be in say HD, even 720p...but then it would have cost a lot more and games too which I wouldn't have been happy with as the other 2 jumped a generation to far ahead as prices and costs to 3rd parties have shown.

I have a Wii, DS, PSP, PS3, and 360. I've got about 34 Wii games, 12 on 360, 10 on PS3, 9 on PSP, and 16 DS.

I think the consoles all got started too early. The last generation could have gone on for another year judging by the first few generations of games for each console. There must not have been a lot of devkits floating around.

The DS got started a long time ago and seems due for a successor soon, which is sad because DQ9 may finally release when the new portable shows up. The DS has some strong games, but Nintendo is ignoring it as far as new first party titles for the core gamer (where's the New SMB followup?). The Wii is kind of the opposite. Both systems provide fun though. Nintendo needs to be more like Disney and have a kiddie division and another division that focuses on more mature games. Not that they have to be full of blood and sex, but they don't have to focus on the saturday morning cartoon crowd.

> I'm not saying I'm unhappy owning a Wii, I just feel that the 3rd party support
> will hurt the system in the long run. There will be games that people want to
> play that aren't coming out for the Wii. It may be considered a secondary
> system.

I kind of agree. However these are some of the games I own for the Wii and use motion controls well, and some are even first generation games:

Excite Truck
Boom Blox
Geometry Wars
Medal of Honor Heroes 2
Trauma Center
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Metroid Prime 3
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
No More Heroes
Endless Ocean
Super Mario Galaxy
Wii Sports
Elebits
Super Monkey Ball

I think it could be done better on some other games too but overall it's not bad and there are some good games to play. All the systems need more games that take advantage of their strengths though, not just the Wii. A lot of games for each system seem very half baked, or like a tech demo or concept. There are a ton of bugs and patches for many games, it's really sad. Luckily the Wii doesn't really suffer from it.

The PS3 and 360 have some good games, and at first there were more for the 360 I liked but now I am buying a lot of PS3 games and haven't had a reason to pick up my 360 in a long while (at least since Halo 3), and I think overall more can be done on the PS3, it just depends if developers will take the time (like with MGS4). There's definitely some good games down the road on the PS3. I think I'll even pick up the updated Bioshock seeing as how I couldn't finish that game on the 360 because of the bugs (especially the fucking save bug, and a Halo 3 save bug hit me too which pissed me off but I was persistent with that game just because everyone else was playing it at the time).

I'm surprised at how much of an Excite Truck clone Motorstorm is becoming with Pacific, but I don't really mind, that makes me want it a lot more.

FYI this comes off my family who still works in games, but Nintendo had been considering popping news both of Icarus (notice I dropped Kid) and a DS successor at the E3 show. Obviously they decided to wait for a later one now because they see E3 as just a mainstream media press waste of time. Hopefully at PAX or GDC we'll see one or the other.

Also he did state, and I dunno how he heard, but NSMB2 is in the works. Obviously I can't be verified on this, but hey whatever...enjoy it or ignore it.

> FYI this comes off my family who still works in games, but Nintendo had been
> considering popping news both of Icarus (notice I dropped Kid) and a DS
> successor at the E3 show. Obviously they decided to wait for a later one now
> because they see E3 as just a mainstream media press waste of time. Hopefully
> at PAX or GDC we'll see one or the other.
>
> Also he did state, and I dunno how he heard, but NSMB2 is in the works.
> Obviously I can't be verified on this, but hey whatever...enjoy it or ignore it.
>
>

That's definitely good news. I hope they model NSMB over the classics... i.e. NSMB = SMB, NSMB2 = SMUSA, NSMB3 = SMB3...

Either way very glad to hear about those.

> > FYI this comes off my family who still works in games, but Nintendo had been
> > considering popping news both of Icarus (notice I dropped Kid) and a DS
> > successor at the E3 show. Obviously they decided to wait for a later one now
> > because they see E3 as just a mainstream media press waste of time. Hopefully
> > at PAX or GDC we'll see one or the other.
> >
> > Also he did state, and I dunno how he heard, but NSMB2 is in the works.
> > Obviously I can't be verified on this, but hey whatever...enjoy it or ignore
> it.
> >
> >
>
> That's definitely good news. I hope they model NSMB over the classics... i.e.
> NSMB = SMB, NSMB2 = SMUSA, NSMB3 = SMB3...
>
> Either way very glad to hear about those.
>
>

SMUSA, are you sure? Well, I'm hoping the Japanese get a New Super Mario Bros version of their SMB2 - I'll import that ;o)

> SMUSA, are you sure? Well, I'm hoping the Japanese get a New Super Mario Bros
> version of their SMB2 - I'll import that ;o)

It didn't add very much except for warp zones that take you back a level, and gaps in the ground that you can never jump over (yeah I know luigi jumps higher, but maybe I missed some secret vines?) There were bloopers that floated in the air for some reason, underground bullet bills and hammer bros, and other enemies where they didn't belong. It's cool to mix it up, but I think that game just made things challenging for the sake of players who already beat SMB.

SMBUSA has classic elements introduced into the Mario series, such as walking backwards (gasp), multi-level backgrounds you could jump on (such as the hills) ladders, doors, multi-scenario levels (you could go inside, outside, etc). It also brought in some classic enemies, such as Bob-Omb, Pokey, Spark, Shy Guy, Beezo, Sniff-It, Ninji, Phantos, Tweeter, Panser, and Cobrat. The pick up/throw mechanic was also probably the inspiration for holding/throwing shells. It had some classic levels of platforming as well. The style of the game was pretty good as well, and if combined with the game mechanics of other SMB games (stoping for some enemies, pick up/throw for others, an underwater level, other classic enemies, etc) it could end up pretty good. Yoshi's Island did a good job of it, the eat/spit thing is pretty much pick up/throw, and it also had Shy Guys and some others.

Maybe they don't have to base NSMB2 on SMBUSA directly but they can draw a lot more from it than the other games. It would be a good homage to a game that deserves it.

When I was a kid and I got SMB2 one christmas, it was an amazing game and had excellent graphics and was an instant favorite. Then I rented SMB3j months in advance of the american release and really dug it, and couldn't believe how far they had gone with the series. I remember when I beat the first world I thought it was the end of the game and was disappointed, but then I learned there were 8 worlds, holy shit, I needed to play it some more. Since I couldn't read japanese, I tried to go back and rent it again but I ended up with SMB2j. Holy fuck was I disappointed. I thought it was a pirate cart or something, it wasn't until emulation that I found out it was a real game. Ever since then I had a bad opinion of that game. I tried as much as I could to play it but it's just fucked up. It's challenging, but most of the time it just tricks you, so there is a lot of trial and error. It's not very fun, it's aneurysm-causing.