He may have taken six pages to say it, nevertheless Eric-Jon Waugh points out that Nintendo more than anyone is in need of something new and exciting to captivate the minds of gamers. Ever since the announcement last fall that revealed the Revolution controller, debate continues about the viability of the platform as a destination for some original – and practical – titles. He accurately points out that merely developing around the control scheme is not a solution; rather, the game’s concept should be the governing factor. Five pages of game controller history may have benefited the point somewhat, but I focused on the underlying theme – Nintendo is too comfortable in its strategy.

Of course, this isn’t entirely their fault, as third-party developers have become deathly afraid of their platforms since the moderate successes of the N64 and the Gamecube, and so Nintendo have had little to rely on except their existing franchises. We’re seeing this again with the Nintendo DS, where new and improved versions of guaranteed sellers (Super Mario 64, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and the recently announced Tetris) are overshadowing the unique releases (Meteos, Nintendogs) that explicitly take advantage of the platform’s features. Not that there’s anything wrong with releasing a better Mario Kart, but…it’s still Mario Kart. Is that really the limit of their vision?

As always, it’s impossible to predict where these things are going to end up. I’m as excited as anyone to see what the console has to offer beyond the tech demos and the resultant gameplay scenarios conjured by overactive imaginations and the radical redesign of what we’ve come to accept as a controller.

these clothes don’t fit us right