Sony sneers at Nintendo, Wii pees itself

Y'know, I was always a Nintendo supporter. I had every console, minus the Gameboy 3D or Virtual Boy or whatever the snot it was called (that thing was a headache monster of doom). So if you think about it, that is brand loyalty spanning approximately 20 years.

I have innumerable joyous memories associated with Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Link, Zelda, Ganon, Kirby (gaaay), Samus Aran (to a lesser extent), the Belmont clan, Cecil, Kain, Rosa, Rydia, Tellah, Palom & Porom (yes, f'realz), Cid, Yang, Fu So Ya, Golbez, Terra, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Shadow, Relm, Strago, Locke, et al (y'know, the wild kid, the noble king dude, the gambler guy). The fact that I can name all those Final Fantasy characters from memory is a testament to the hours and hours spent playing FF2 and 3.

Now, if you were to give me a Wii, I'd probably smile politely, do a little homo-jig...and turn around and eBay it as soon as you were out of sight. It's not that I don't imagine some of it's games are fun, it's just that I have 0% interest in supporting Nintendo anymore.

With the onslaught of the next-gen systems, it was made very clear that Nintendo sought to create a new fanbase for itself; EVERYONE. They forsook (yep, I said it) power under the hood for things like accessability, casual appeal and charm. Yes, they still have Mario, Link, Samus, but what they don't have is the decency to spare us from titles like Cooking Mama Eleventy Billion or Collection of Sports Games Starring Cartoon People With Giant Heads: Ultra Shiny Deluxe "I Gots Ma New Teefs" Edition.

Nintendo went from being the powerhouse, the leader, nay, creator of the video game industry to being the childrens toy. I can appreciate that they wanted to expose videogaming to sectors of the market that otherwise would have laughed at the thought of playing video games (wahoo! Grandmas got herself a Wii Fit! Now she can keep her cankles to a minimum!).

In doing so, however, they have given up on catering to all us video game nerds that want real games, real graphics (fyi, they do matter Non-Mindo), real lasting entertainment. Wii Fit may have sold a whack of copies, but who is going to sit down and write a crappy little blog piece in 20 years talking about how many fond memories they have of playing it? Answer: no one. It's not a video game.

Plus, the amount of utter CRAP released for the Wii is just ludicrous. Again, Nintendo is no longer striving to put out real games. They're just hucking wad of pooh after wad of pooh at the wall and seeing what sticks (and what DOES stick invariably gets Wad of Pooh: Ultra Shiny Deluxe "I Gots Ma New Teefs!" Edition)

Turn to Sony now, maker of the shiny, wonderful PS3. Hello beautiful. *waves*

When this next-gen business starting rolling around, about the last thing I saw myself buying was the PS3. There had never really been many PS-exclusives back on the PS2 to make me want to stick around. LOVED my PS2, don't get me wrong! It was outrageously expensive, too. Again I thought, "man alive, have all these companies decided to completely alienate gamers?!".

Cut to now, where I could gleefully (and lord knows, I have) spend hours upon hours in a row, sitting on my couch, geeked out on either Uncharted or Bioshock or FF13 or God of War 3 (soon, my preciousss!) or any other host of games. HEAVEN!

When PS3 released the new version of the hardware, all slimmed down and shined up (thank you, Jenny Craig) for oodles cheaper, I finally took the plunge and bought it. I figured, "ok, now we're talking!". I bought Bioshock, Street Fighter 4, Soul Calibur 4, GTA 4, Devil May Cry 4 (hello #4) and since then have played other excellent games like the aforementioned Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Dragon Age: Origins, inFamous and, oh yes, FF13. Uniformly I am impressed with these games, because they are truly games and not 'entertainment free-for-alls' like Nintendo values. In years to come, so long as I can retain my mental faculties, I will still look back and think to myself "wow, remember when the building collapses in Uncharted 2...with you in it", or I will still recall leaping off a building and ganking a guard in ACreed2. I will marvel still at how enormous Chun Li's thighs have become and I may just tear up at recalling Vanille and Sazh's big confrontation in Nautilus.

The PS3 does now what Nintendo used to do; not just kill time with pretty shiny things, but actually amuse, engage, move and surprise me. I know it sounds kind of silly to make the PS3 sound so significant or mighty but to someone who has lived and breathed video games since he was a wee tyke, it IS a big thing. The PS3 does for me what Nintendo used to, but has since abandoned.

...

A thought just occured to me: I spent almost my entire 'video game life' with Nintendo, right? Then with the Wii they almost entirely abandoned videogaming as they had previously supported; In essence, they abandoned us loyalists too. Maybe that's where some of my disdain stems from. Don't you know my inherent abandonment issues Nintendo?! *shakey fist*

Anywho, long story short, I have oodles and oodles of love for my PS3 where once I had only suspicion and disinterest. As for Nintendo, where once they was love, loyalty and fond memories, there is only disappointment, irritation...but still some fond memories (ahh, learning how to do backflips in Mario 64. Good times.)