Nerd Mentality

Point / Counterpoint 6: International Incident

Posted April 6th 2006 by Gareth Trinkwon and Curtis Brunet.

It can only get better for Nintendo, profits are rising, the DS is kicking butt all over, and Zelda + Revolution = Amazing. Are there still things to look forward to? Yes, of course there are. First you have the The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess; a game that not only Nintendo fans, but even non-Nintendo fans are excited to see.

Yes, Nintendo has dropped quite a few bombs in the news sector over the last few months. Twilight Princess with exclusive Revolution content, expanded Virtual Console confirmation, a new Zelda title by the name of Phantom Hourglass on DS, and even the latest leak: screenshots of a Revoution FPS titled Red Steel. But there's plenty more to come.

There are still so many questions to ask, and E3 is promising to be an outpour of information not only concerning the story, but also some hinted at Revolution compatibility. Speaking of Revolution, how could Nintendo not steal the show? We've seen what the Xbox 360 can do. We've seen what the PS3 can do. We still have yet to see a game running on Revolution hardware, or, better yet, being played with the RevMote. With Revolution games and Revolution hardware going to be on hand, Nintendo will not only steal the show at the conference, but the show floor as well. I haven't even mentioned the Virtual Console portion. How about games? How about pricing? How about other companies coming aboard? These are all things to be excited about. That, and did I just say Game Boy Advance 2? I didn't? Well I guess that's good that I didn't.

Nintendo is well known for only putting on a good show in crescendos, and with 2005 having been a fairly decent showing, I wouldn't be surprised if 2006, despite the hype, leaves many fans disappointed. Nintendo may have the Revolution and DS Lite to show off to their fans, where are the games? Twilight Princess is certainly a big hitter for them, but it was first unveiled two years ago. We've seen as much of it as we need to see before it's finally released. Even the big surprise announcement that the game will feature additional enhancements when played on the Revolution has already been unveiled. What else is there? DS Lite? It's really nothing more than an upgraded model for the DS, and besides, we've seen it already, too. We've seen comparison shots with the original DS, we've seen the different brightness levels it has. We've even seen a few alternative colors for the system. There's really not a whole lot more they can give us on the Lite. And yes, it's true that we'll finally be seeing software running on the Revolution hardware, but with Microsoft and Sony's systems wowing everyone with their next generation graphics, and the Revolution pumping out visuals only slightly above what we have right now, they're going to have a very hard time impressing the mainstream audience. I realize that Nintendo is downplaying the importance of graphics in the new generation, but is that what gamers want? Can they really avoid disappointing people when their system is so vastly underpowered when stood next to the competition?

As for a new Game Boy Advance, even if it were a reality, do we really need another handheld? The DS, GBASP and GBA Micro are all doing well for themselves, but the release of Sony's PSP has certainly put a dent in DS' sales and popularity. They'd be shooting themselves in the foot by releasing yet another competitor in the handheld market.

So, really what are we waiting for? Finally tossing aside the codename "Revolution" and revealing the system's real name? Stop the presses.

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Posted in: Features

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