I’ve had a revelation recently. Nintendo makes good games. I know, that doesn’t seem like much of a revelation, but what I found was that while the games are good titles, they are never excellent titles.

Nintendo has been around the video game industry now for well over 20 years. Those of us in our late 20’s and early 30’s fondly remember the NES System. Packaged with the all-time best selling game Super Mario Brothers, it became and instant and life long addiction for us all. The game featured the Mario and Luigi on the quest to save Princess Peach from the evil Bowser. But the game was never about the story, it was always about the gameplay. Four Nintendo systems later, we have Super Mario Galaxy, which as it stands now is currently the #1 reviewed game of all time. I’ve played the game, I’m playing the game, and I agree it’s a great title. But after a few initial marathon sessions, and several stars later, I find myself with little incentive to go back.

I’ve been trying to answer this question. How can the #1 game of all time not hold my interest long enough to want to complete it? Recently I’ve been playing a lot of really solid titles. I’ve completed Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and Mass Effect. All exceptional titles. All different titles. All titles with a unique and fresh story. And I think that’s the answer to my question.

You see, Mario has had the same story now for countless iterations. The princess is captured, and it’s your job to save her. And that’s fine and all. But as an almost 30 year old male this doesn’t drive me. The story doesn’t captivate me. So after getting over the initial wow factor, and after discovering all of the game play mechanics in the game, there was no real incentive for me to continue playing.

This kind of thing carries over to other games on the system, though maybe not to the degree that is Mario Galaxy.  Wii-sports is another example.  After you get over the initial wow factor of the controls, things begin to get stale.  That’s not to say it isn’t fun to pick up and play every few months, but overall the game just loses it’s spunk.  Even great titles like Metroid Prime 3 and Zelda: Twighlight Princess seemed to fall flat.  And while they were both reviewed really well in the media, I don’t exactly agree.  I really enjoyed the titles for the first few hours, but after that I lost interest.  What’s unique here is that while these games have different stories than their predecessors, the same basic theme is present.

I know a lot of people get all uptight when someone says Nintendo makes kids games, but you know what?  It’s true.  When you get right down to it the stories in their first party titles are extremely shallow and repetitive.  My guess is that if any of the above mentioned games use any other characters that weren’t Nintendo characters they’d be 5-10 points less on average.

I guess my point in all of this is I guess I’m a little sad.  The games and characters that I used to hold so dear to my heart no longer can do the same.  It’s a bit like watching your favorite movie again that you used to love when you were 10.   You won’t believe how bad that movie is, yet when you were 10 you could have sworn it was the best thing ever.   I still enjoy the games Nintendo makes, I guess I just enjoy them for different reasons.

Well, we just got put on “standby” for the Nintendo Press Event. What a fucking joke. If you are going to have huge press conferences at a scaled down E3, the least they could fucking do is be able to accommodate the estimated amount of people coming. Way to drop the ball ESA/Nintendo.

I’ve decided to start my behind the scenes E3 coverage today with some news.

As you may or may not know I’ll be attending the brand new E3 Business and Media Summit this year representing Evil Avatar.com. The ironic thing of this is the exclusive nature of the event this year, being invite only. While in the past the staff at EvAv.com had a bitch of a time getting official access.

The first event of the show will be Microsoft’s Press Conference on Tuesday July 10th. I just confirmed my registration for the event, and they decided to ask some odd questions. Confirming involved telling them my favorite game, favorite achievement, favorite band and my gamer zone. Odd. But the bottom line is I’m going.

Next up is Nintendo’s Press conference on Wednesday morning. The big 3 Press Conferences are Invite only (like the event) so I’ve been trying to gain access. Nintendo responded with a “We’ll do our best, but won’t know until closer to E3″. Um…ok…gee thanks.

And then last of the big 3 is Sony. Sony. Dear Sony. What the fuck are you doing? I’ve sent out no less than 5 Emails to 4 different people without even the courtesy of a fucking response. Either they don’t have their shit together, or they just don’t give to shits about EvilAvatar.com. Ah well.

The good news this years is James Young aka Fitbabits from EvAv will be coming as well. This should help us provide better coverage. I’m looking forward to finally meeting him, hell we’ve been working together for over 3 years now.

More as it becomes available…

I just got word from a source in distribution that a whole bunch of Wii systems and accessories, including those impossible to find Wii-motes, should be hitting retail shelves late this week or early next week. Those of you still looking for either the system or accessories should start looking come Thursday.

Consider the following quote:

Given different costs of living, the price of an Xbox 360 is not the same in San Francisco and Topeka. How do you deal with that?

Moore: It’s more expensive in Topeka. But we don’t just look at the console cost in isolation. We look at what it takes to be up and running and have the best experience. We call it “TCO,” total cost of ownership.

Now this is pretty interesting to consider. What if Game Consoles were priced according to cost of living in an area. I know some consumer electronics are SLIGHTY adjusted for this, but we’ve never seen it on consoles. The thing is now that console prices are so high there’s a huge difference between the cost for someone. $200 might not be a big deal to anyone, but $400 most likely is, and surely $600 is a big deal to everyone.

So why not adjust the price accordingly, even if just slight. I wonder if sales would increase in areas where it’s typically lower. I mean, cost is already different per region of the world and with a country as big as the US why not adjust cost per region in the country?

Building an empire, an Xbox at a time | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

technorati tags:why, do, consoles, cost, so, much?

Legendary developer Peter Molyneux believes that gamers may be too lazy to truly enjoy Nintendo’s upcoming Wii console. He believes one of the reasons games are so popular is because they ARE a lazy activity. Interesting

… laziness inherent in games would need to be preserved to keep gaming popular:

“I’ve realised I’m an incredibly lazy person when I play games, and actually slouching back on the sofa, playing on my beer belly, is my most comfortable position. When I have to get up, it’s painful. I make noises and start grunting.”

I know a lot of people really think the Wii is going to be incredibly popular. But the more I’ve talked to some of my more casual gaming buddies the more it seems people have no interest in this style of gaming. It looks like this could end up being this niche’ gaming market that Nintendo picks up on. All in all, it may not be the Revolution Nintendo originally intended.

bit-tech.net | Molyneux fires warning about Wii controller

technorati tags:molyneux, wii, gaming

What’s cooler than videos games or Legos? Videos games AND Legos!

The New Gamer | Journal - Lego Art

technorati tags:legos, video, games

It’s the rebel Nintendo vs. the Galatic Sony. Who will prevail? And how can they take down the Playstation 3? By hitting it’s weak point for MASSSIVE Damage of course!

Console Wars: Episode IV

This thing is pretty damn sexy.

What? I don’t know about you but I think this is just pretty lame. From The Gamerscore Blog.

In an interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, the author writes:

But the name Wii not wii-thstanding, Nintendo has grasped [an] important notion that (has) eluded its competitors. …Don’t listen to your customers. The hard-core gaming community is extremely vocal–they blog a lot–but if Nintendo kept listening to them, hard-core gamers would be the only audience it ever had. “[Wii] was unimaginable for them,” Iwata says. “And because it was unimaginable, they could not say that they wanted it. If you are simply listening to requests from the customer, you can satisfy their needs, but you can never surprise them. Sony and Microsoft make daily-necessity kinds of things. They have to listen to the needs of the customers and try to comply with their requests. That kind of approach has been deeply ingrained in their minds.”

I understand where he is coming from, but there comes a point where you have to listen to some degree to your target audience. Granted, Nintendo’s TA with the Wii is the non gamer, but to completely alienate your loyal following is pretty lame IMO.