I got Sonic and the Black Knight this week and after playing the game for a few hours, I wondered why I am even a Sonic fan despite most of his games sucking lately. This made me also think about Nintendo in general. Why do I keep defending them and playing their games? Probably because they made some great games in the past, just like there was a time when Sonic was great. But how much longer should I stick with them when they are not the same they used to be?
Let's be honest here: Most of us (as in Nintendo fans) would have defended Nintendo no matter which choices they made this generation. Here are some examples:
Graphics: Last generation we were proud to say that our console of choice, the Gamecube, was a technological masterpiece. Higher performance than the PS2, but still more affordable. This generation? Graphics somehow hit the point of being good enough, now that Nintendo has backed out of the race for more horsepower.
Online: It had hardly any importance at all during the last generation, because aside from Sega's Phantasy Star titles, no games supported it. This generation we drool over Mario Kart Wii because it has lagfree online play. There are these friend codes and some other annoying things, but all in all, it's once again "good enough". The features of Xbox Live or PSN aren't really needed for us to enjoy online gaming (at least that's what we say).
Controller: With the introduction of the Wiimote we started to claim that playing console games the old way was getting boring and that it was time for something new. However, a button press replaced by shaking the controller, like it is used in countless games, is hardly innovative. The pointer has some advantages, but it doesn't take away from the fact that the Wiimote simply has too few buttons to work with more complex games. Nevertheless, we Nintendo fans defend it as being one of the greatest innovations in gaming history.
So yeah. As you can see, we are happy with everything Nintendo does and would defend them no matter what. Some of us even bought Wii Fit and/or Wii Music, like the sheep that we are. But as a wise man once told me:
"I have no problem with being a sheep as long as Miyamoto is my shepherd."
There's certainly a lot of truth in those words for many of us. After all, Nintendo raised our sorry asses better than a parent ever could.
Thanks for reading.
