I know that safety is important.  As a father of small children, I know I would never want a videogame to put them in harm’s way.  However there are a lot of ways Nintendo could have allowed a lot more social interaction without compromising safety.  They could easily have only allowed preprogrammed "safe" text response options and sound clips when interacting with non-friends online, but once you know and enter their friend code, you could have full voice chat and keyboard support.  The whole point of City Folks was that it was meant to be a social game and going to the City should be a big part of that, and that is where the game is severely lacking.  The whole point of Wii Music is meant to be creation, and why did Nintendo neuter the creative aspects of it, the supposed rhythm games allow you create original music and share it via DLC, but this one that is meant to be truly creative does not.

The reason Animal Crossing gets beat on for having marginal improvements is because there is so much room left to improve considering the times.  Call of Duty 4 was already on the cutting edge when it came out, and marginal improvements made to it in the next iteration are only meant for it to be kept there.  Madden is a sports game which already pushes the hardware, all you can really do us make it a bit more realistic each year, tweak the controls, and update rosters.  Since there aren’t that many improvements left to be made there, there isn’t as much criticism for the lack thereof.

I have liked Nintendo games, and still do when they really put some effort into them.  Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Brawl, and Mario Kart Wii are examples of good updates to existing franchises, and Wii Fit and Wii Sports are good new IPs.  City Folk and Wii Music are unfortunately not. 

OP - you are not alone.

I am in the same boat. Once you get older and more established in life then you simply do not have the time to set 1-5 hours aside to play a friggin game. You're lucky some days to have 10-15 minutes.

So yes, I love the Wii and the games on it because for the majority of the games I own I can play in short, fun, bursts. Nor do I need to remember what the complicated control scheme was on a game I havn't played in 6 months because the controls are all pretty intuitive. Nor do I have to remember some complicated plot and where I was in it.

Now don't get me wrong, I would love a deep plot and lots of combat option if I had the time to sit for 1-2 hours a day and play through the game. But I don't. I have maybe 1-2 hours a week.

I also love playing with my kids. Or my girlfriend. Or my buddies. With Wii that's easy. There's lots of games we can all play together and enjoy together. 360 has a few, granted. But PS3? Sony went from the most socialable to the least.

So yes, you're not alone.

I see where you're coming from, but I definately don't want all games to become too simplistic or "toned down". I looked at the games you have listed in your profile - de blob and world of goo in particular are fantastic examples of accessible but really well made games. Games like these are great, but I enjoy such a broad range of games that limiting and excluding games based on meaningless criteria (violence, sex, too casual, too complex, etc) means that you will ineviatbly exclude games worthy of attention because of your own personal biases. I enjoy experiencing something from every genre, but I suppose most gamers aren't like that.

Casual toned down games are good, but I would hate it if over 25% of the industry was just that......

There is a place for everygame, an most of the games I've bought over the years are considered on the "hardcore" end of things I guess. So far this gen i've bought the following games.

Burnout Paradise
Call of Duty 4
Disgaea 3
Folklore
GTA4
GT5p
Little Big Planet
Metal Gear SOlid 4
Siren: Blood Curse

And so far I plan to get:

Valkyria Chronicles
Dead Space
Bioshock
White Knight Chronicles
FF13
FFvs13
Killzone 2
Sonic Unleashed
Naruto UNS
Resistance 2
InFamous

Out of the 20 games I've just mentioned, only 2 are fully considered casual. [LPB and Naruto UNS]. That's only 10%.....

So I would say that I'm fine with toned down games aslong as there is a place for the many Core games that I mainly buy and will buy in the future.

I liked last gen better, so no.

I see your point in there being more room to explore in AC, and Wii Music. Personally I think all this came at Nintendo faster then they anticipated, and are suffering a lil' from it. They are taking a risk, and has been mention before were more then willing to become a handheld only company if the Wii failed.

...I think it's telling that it looks like what Nintendo has planned for 2009 seems so much larger in scope, as well as 3rd parties. I think we will eventually get the AC you're talking about, but I don't know if it's this gen when it would count the most. =/