I warn you, this is very long. Just curious what other gamers might think.


I first started gaming in the early 80's. My stepdad brought home an Atari 2600 shortly after the popularity died and games could be found cheap. At that time, it was the greatest thing ever. I was also only seven or eight years old and had only seen a few arcades here and there. So needless to say, I was hooked on their versions of Pac Man, Moon Patrol, Pitfall and numerous others despite the fact so many of the games were actually pretty bad. I even had a copy of ET which I knew was garbage even as a kid.

So I played the Atari 2600 and didn't see much of the NES other than a few commercials here and there. I knew of some kids in school who had it and they always talked about. Later, some would also talk about Sega and the Master system and eventually the Genesis as well as NEC's TG-16. Finally, in 1989 and 1990, I started seeing more of the NES and wanted one badly. Some of the games I remember were Ninja Gaiden, John Elway's Football and a couple others. Then later that year, Christmas of 1990, I received my own NES. Games like WrestleMania, Friday the 13th, Narc kept me busy for hours. It was when I got Ninja Gaiden 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3 that I fell in love.

Shortly after, there was talk of a "Super" Nintendo. Well, I had to have that. It released in 1991 if I'm not mistaken. The first games I saw were Super Mario World, Final Fight and F-Zero. I was blown away by the graphics, the new controller with... six buttons? (Gasp!) Then I learned of this Street Fighter game at the arcade and there was one coming out for the SNES. Well, I had to get one. So Christmas of '92, I got my SNES along with a copy of Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior. I picked up a lot of games and got excited at the thought they would add a CD adapter to it for enhanced games. At one point, it was Phillips and before or after that, it was Sony. Well, we all know what happened there.

Eventually I would get the N64 despite the competition for Sony with it's new Playstation. I saw it and played it at a few of my friend's house but it didn't interest me at first. In time though, they started to get a lot of games that interested me that I didn't see on the N64. It was a little upsetting too seeing as many 3rd party games were $60 on the N64 and PS games were $40 or $50 and often featured more content because it was disc based and Nintendo stuck with cartridges. N64 ended up doing pretty well but was far behind the Sony Playstation in sales and because of that, this is when they first started to fall behind in 3rd party games.

So the next generation, I had a choice to make. Sony had released their PS2 which was very popular right from the start. Later Nintendo would release the Gamecube almost the same time that Microsoft would enter the market with their new system, the Xbox. At the time of launch of the PS2, I didn't yet have a DVD player so there was a big reason to go ahead and buy a PS3. A cheap DVD player cost over $100 at that time and big name players could easily go $200 or more. I decided to wait and after a while and a promotion from a store, I decided to go with my heart and again buy Nintendo. Once again, I bought numerous games that I loved but missed out on some games I wanted by going Nintendo.

This brings me to the current generation of gaming. I've always gone with Nintendo and greatly enjoyed their games but felt left out of some of the big games the previous two generations. I wasn't sure how I felt about the Wii and if it would be successful. Right away, it became obvious that the Wii would be popular. This made me feel confident they would get more 3rd party support. I knew I could always count on Nintendo for their games. I knew the limitations of the Wii and that eventually I would buy an HD console as well. So just a couple months after launch, I got lucky and found a Wii in stock and bought it. I had a great time with the Wii and many of it's games.

I picked up Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart and some others along with some "hardcore" games. After a while though, it seemed more and more, Nintendo kept releasing family games and these games were big sellers. So right away, almost every 3rd party tried to emulate them and we got a rush of shovelware. Now it didn't bother me too much because I can swim through the crap to find the good stuff. The problem is that about a year ago, Nintendo stopped releasing actual meaningful games and now just releases party games and stuff your mom, grandparents and little sister to play. Even some 3rd parties are surpassing Nintendo in quality lately. I've only bought one Nintendo published game in the last year, maybe two? When did Mario Kart release? Anyway, that's it for what I've bought of them. I see games that Nintendo is choosing not to release that could actually appeal to traditional gamers.

Personally, I don't like the term hardcore that much because any gamer can be hardcore. I like the term traditional because since the days of Atari 2600, games have been similar in nature if you really think about it. You had a mission of sorts and had to figure it out and beat the bad guy or something along those lines. Now everything is about being simple and games where you can't and don't lose. Well, if you can't lose, you can't win either. I want games that give me some challenge too and just impress me. I haven't had that feeling with the Wii for a while now and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

I did buy that HD system, the Xbox 360. I don't get to game as much as I used to when I was a kid or even when I was younger and just working part time and still living with folks. That's a message in it itself. Enjoy gaming while you can if you're still young. Working and responsibility sucks! So while I haven't played as much and haven't even opened a few of my games on the 360, I've been playing the hell out games like Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter 4, games I won't see on the Wii. I even enjoyed a party game (Scene It: Box Office Smash) more than many of those I've played on the Wii. I just want the old days of Nintendo where they published countless games for gamers and a fair balance of unique games. I don't want this new Nintendo where almost every game they make is some family game.

Sorry if I'm coming off as whining and I'm sure some, if not many of you will say that I am. It's just how I feel about the situation.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

I'm kind of neutral on this. I agree that Nintendo doesn't offer some of the bigger games, but they do seem to be more reliable than others. They are also cheaper.(Until XBOX360 went down to $199)

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I agree with you completely. Although, I felt that satisfaction of playing a great game recently with Madworld, and even though it was a 3rd party title, it still gives me hop that someone out there still wants to make good games for the Wii. Also, as long Nintendo stays in the hand-held market, I'll probably always be with them in that sense.

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"Hey Mark!"

I started on Nintendo when my mother got me baby games for the original NES, and I worked my way up. My family has almost every system Nintendo has ever made. I played the PlayStation games but always enjoyed my SNES and N64 way better. I still play Gamecube games on Wii, and have more Wii games than I do Xbox even though my Xbox is 4 years old, and my Wii is only a year. DS and Gameboy, I don't play much. Nintendo may not have the best graphics, but in my mind they have always had the better games than PlayStation. Sega games and Nintendo was one of the best things that ever happened. I am not a hardcore gamer, but both me and my wife find ourselves playing Wii all the time.

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2005-2006 Season: Carowinds Rides - Hurler/Drop Zone
2007 Season: Emerald Pointe Grounds - Sweep/Breaker

I have to agree with you (coasterlove) That Wii hasn't made as many "traditional" games like they did. If you look at Mario games, they now only release one per generation of console.
There are a lot of pros with Nintendo, but can also be a lot of cons.
I had a PS1, NES, and GB when I was growing up (sounds funny only being 15) But the NES was of coarse out of date (as far as new games) and the GB was going out of date fast too. The PS was fun, but I always felt I was missing mario and other nintendo charitars. So, I guess there isn't a way to be happy with just one.

Now I have a Wii, DSi (which is really cool btw) GBA, and my old PS1 still.
But yeah, there are a few too many games that are "family" games. in reality, most familys will play like one game. (you know how much gaming our parents had when they were young.) *cough* pong *cough.

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1st ride on Renegade for the 2009 season.

What kind of Roller coaster are you?