Barring any super spectacular unannounced items, it appears that Nintendo has once again failed at video games this year. Microsoft came out with guns blazing, showing off games like Beatles Rock Band, Halo Reach, Splinter Cell: Conviction, and many others. Then they blew everyone away with Project Natal. Playing games with nothing but your body. Pretty cool. I was stoked to see what Nintendo had in store… until they actually started talking.
First of all, everything was way to rehearsed. It felt like an apple event, and it was just about as dissapointing. The majority of the time was spent talking about a product they spent a lot of time on last year, the Wii Motion Plus. Don’t get me wrong now, that little bugger is pretty cool, but we already knew about it. I was looking for something new, something exciting. They went through some new games, none of which peaked my interest, and then the president of Nintendo, Mr. Iwata himself came out and proceded to give a lecture on gamers for about 20 min. He then announced a new piece of equipment they were working on called…. the wii vitality sensor?!?!?!?!? It looks like a little pulse detector that you stick on your finger… wait, that’s exactly what it is? Huh? Anyway, thanks to third part games like Red Steel 2, and The Conduit, plus a couple of first party games (Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid the Other M), the show wasn’t a complete bust, but it was highly dissapointing.
Then came the Sony press conference. Microsoft and Nintendo better watch out. Sony is coming in, and they’re coming hard. Yea their stuff is pricier than the other two, but have you actually taken the time to look at what that system is capable of graphics wise? If not, do that now. They are absolutely amazing. Yes the 360 is good, but I will stand behind the PS3 in graphics period. Also, they now have a motion controller coming out that seems to take the Wii Remote and Project Natal and smash them together into something that could very well put sony right on top. It uses the PS3 camera, the Eyetoy, and sensors in the new remote, to provide true 1:1 tracking, as well as many other cool features… and it’s expected to come out next spring. Wow.
So now, even though I have always loved Nintendo, and always will be a fan of the Zelda series, as well as Mario and some of the others, I can slowly feel my allegience (and my wallet) being pulled in three different directions. Of course I want to continue to play my wii (after I get it fixed), but I’m really tempted to try and save for a 360 or PS3 too, and to be honest with you, if it wasn’t for the price, the PS3 would definitely be my next console. It might still be too, we’ll just have to see.