Sad Wii

So I recently got a new HDTV which I am rather proud of.  I will refrain from blathering on about how awesome I think it is unless I can think of a legitimately good reason to do so beyond how awesome I think it is.  In other words, an actual topic revolving around HDTVs.

Why do I bring it up, then?

Whilst playing around with my shiny new toy, I eventually found my way back to my Wii and turned it on again (after a huff and a puff to blow off all of the dust).  I made sure the video and the audio were working, played a little bit of LostWinds to see what the picture would be like (fuzzy and decidedly low-res through the lame composite cables, but still much more colorful and vibrant than on my SDTV, for the record), and did a little memory management while I was at it.

Then I decided to check the calendar.  It had been three-and-a-half months since I had last turned on my Wii.

Three-and-a-half months.  Since I had even so much as bothered to turn it on.  And that was for a quickie hour of Mario Kart.

I've been a Nintendo fan since as long as I can remember.  I've stuck up for the Wii many times when others do not and will continue to do so.  Part of me wants to blame some of this on myself to deflect the problem away from my beloved Big N.

I was busy.  I didn't have time to play as much with this busy semester of college.  I could have played a couple of games, like de Blob or Wario Land: Shake it!, but I was low on money and never got around to renting them like I wanted to.  I was busy playing other games.

Wait, hold it.  Now I done gone and discovered the truth.

I was busy playing games.  Here's the sad truth: Yeah, I might have missed out on a couple of relatively smalltime games because of the extenuating circumstances listed above.  But the bigger problem is that Nintendo didn't give me jack shit to play, because my beleaguered wallet will tell you that if they had, I sure as hell would have bought it.

Instead, Nintendo busied itself releasing a couple of half-assed efforts that by all rights don’t even deserve to do well among their coveted casual market.  Rock Band and Guitar Hero are casual enough as it is and Wii Music’s childish remote waggling should be embarrassed to be anywhere near the same genre as those two classics.

And as for Animal Crossing?  Don’t get me started on how angry I am at Nintendo for taking this long to release the same game for a third time.  It’s inexcusably lazy and a crushing blow to fans like me who were waiting anxiously for fun new changes to the addictive fuzzy animal life simulator thing.

I’ve forgiven Nintendo for some pretty egregious violations of lazy sequel syndrome before.  After all, if the fortieth iteration of the same formula ain’t broke, well… don’t fix it, right?

I’m beginning to wonder.

The bottom line is, I still cherish my memories of Nintendo and continue to hold them in high regard, which makes it all the more painful that they have seen fit to totally ignore just about everyone this holiday season.

New buyers still can’t find Wiis in stores.  Hardcore gamers have nothing to play.   Casual gamers have only a couple of crap titles to play.

Who could possibly be happy with the Wii this season?

It’s not like this kind of thing is unprecedented.  It’s about this time in all Nintendo’s console life spans where things start to dramatically fall apart, releases slow, and the console dies a slow, painful death into obsolescence until Nintendo releases a successor in a couple of years.

I was really hoping it wouldn't come to all of that this time around.  And it still might not.  Nintendo still has time to save my beloved Wii.  They have made comments indicating that they are at least trying to make us think they’ve seen the error of their ways.  I’ll believe it when I see it, but I can hope.

The Wii is a console that, despite what just about everyone seems to be saying these days, I still think has great potential.  I would like to see it stick around for a long time to come and avoid Nintendo’s usual pathetically short console lifespan.  Some imitation of the DS or, even better, the PS2 would be a welcome change.

But boy oh boy does Nintendo have a lot of work to do.  Every passing day with nothing new to play leaves the poor little Wii further and further back in the minds of gamers everywhere.

Come on, Nintendo.  Over three months of abandonment from a Nintendo nut?

That’s just sad.

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