For history try: Hotel Dusk, Phoenix Wright, Super Paper Mario, Fatal Frame (one of my favorites), Dragon Quest VIII, Chrono Trigger, Max Payne, Bully, Indigo Prophecy, Kingdom Hearts (only the first game), Zone of Enders, Monkey Island and Day of Tentacle.

I covered almost all genres and audiences with this list. That does not mean I think they are all great. If you do not like even one of these games stories, then just give up. You can not expect scenario writers to be as good as novelists and all time classic writers.

Hey guys, before I make any mention of my thoughts on this whole thing, I'm curious if anyone else had some major issues with buffering for the videos?

My connection has been a bit buggy today, but while attempting to watch the videos, I must have had nearly two dozen moments were the video was in need of buffering and stopped.

I also had some major lag a few days ago when playing Strikers online. Oddly my PS3 is next to my Wii and doesn't seem to have nearly a much lag or hangups with the online features as I've seen recently with my Wii.

I can surf the net ok on Opera, and accessing other online features appears to run smoothly, so I'm not sure if there is an issue with my connection, or this is just the par for the course thus far with Nintendo's online features.

maybe I've been using the PS3 too much, but when my wii lit up this morning and it said "Metroid Prime Preview!" I was expecting a playable demo. Still looks worth getting though.

Gonna have to disagree with you there. Sure, a story isn't essential to a game, but it's by no means of such meager use. While a story's effects upon a game are less tangible than gameplay's, they are by no means nonexistant. Despite just describing stories' effects as less tangible and more abstract, I will attempt to explain them in a tangible manner:

Stories lead to a more immersive game. They allow you to better connect with the characters and makes it feel more like you're in the game and are the main character than watching the game and controlling the main character. Like you said, it also justifies what would otherwise be random and useless, albeit extremely fun, actions. For me, watching the story unfold (or making it myself) is just as fun as actually playing the game. It's a rare sight for me to skip cutscenes (unless I'm replaying a game, and even then, only the uneventful ones). I know you probably won't believe me, but I'll gladly overlook and/or put up with shortcomings in gameplay if the story is excellent, and vice versa.

I do think, though, that story is much more important in certain genres than others. In my opinion, much more emphasis is necessary in adventure games and RPGs on story than in, say, a platformer or racing game. Regardless, stories are not as narrowly useful as you make them out to be.

Edit: @DoesWhatNintenDont: The actual download took about three minutes and I only had to buffer for about 2 seconds before watching each trailer in its entirety. 

Note: This is on a DSL UltraFast (aka regular broadband -_-;) connection. 

Okay, now that I'm back and I have the rant out of my system, I must point out that this is only my opinion, and if you don't agree, no problem.

Just looking over the games mentioned here, I see stories about vampires and knights with magical swords and, of course, space mercenaries fighting space pirates. It isn't that such stories can't be fun, as they have entertained me: I'm just tired of it. I don't read pulp fantasy/science fiction any more, and I don't play "story driven" games for the same reason.

The stories of games -- perhaps especially games that are lauded -- are very akin to blockbuster action movies: a single hero (in the case of video games, you) shoots or slices or fights his way to victory, beating insurmountable odds. Often, he saves the world in the process. There's nothing wrong with such entertainment, it's just not for me anymore. Again, personally, I find it all rather silly.

I'm still awaiting the first game that's just a simple -- perhaps even subtle -- story about a person who goes through every day life. I've seen a few attempts, most notably the games of Wil Wright and Ian Bogost, both of whom are lambasted for making "boring" games (especially the latter) apparently because they don't involve blowing stuff up, and there is no "winning." Personally, I'd much rather see games go in that direction (I very much appreciate Bogost' games that detail the social and political ramifications of oil use and trading) than in the blockbuster action movie direction, but that's just me. Again, for emphasis, I'm not trying to force anyone to agree with me. 

Tarheel....I accept your disagreement graciously.  First off, I don't skip cutscenes.  I sit back and enjoy them.  I'm a sucker for cinematic effect.  And while a good story can make up for a bad game, I find that oftentimes I wish they would just leave the story out and let me play the game.  As Bodhesatva says, these stories are done.  They are trite.  Or just plain bad.  Take for instance, Elebeits.  The gameplay in this game is great.  I don't need to know why I'm uncovering all the little Elebits.  But they felt the urge to make up some cheesy story and wrap it up with some horrible (horible repeated again for emphasis) voice acting.

My original point is that I don't care what the story will be in Metroid Prime 3.  I play the game for its atmosphere and its exploration, not its intriguing metaphors or abstract parallels to real world politics. 

I'm excited to play Super Mario Galaxy, and I hope the story is kept to a minimum. 

Nintendo: "Save the princess." 

Me:   "Okidokey" 

 So I think I agree with both Tarheel and Bodhesatva.  Games with great stories are amazing.  Unfortunately they don't make good stories very often.  Err on the side of good judgment and give me solid gameplay, please.  Ifg the controls feel good, the story will tell itself.

 Well, I'm only familiar with about 25% of the story in the Prime series to date, but I'm gonna guess it's a Phazon meteorite much like the one which crashed into Tallon IV. And it's probably heading someplace very important...

Prime 1 and 2 were both heavy on the story. Why are we surprised to see this? It's not like the scan visor didn't do anything in Prime 1 and 2...

The were A LOT of Chozo ruins to encrypt with a lot of text to understand. Plus it was AWSOME uncoving an old civilisations' history. Now we are going to delve deeper into Samus's own story etc. I think going to the Galactic Federation's HQ is awsome. We have been hearing about them since the first Metroid, now we have a chance to see it with our own eyes.

I think that this is what will happen:
- Space Pirates attach GF HQ, Samus tries to hold them off, HQ destroyed;
- Samus escapes only to find out that she was the only one...
- ...but throughout her journey she meets the other survivors, the other bounty hunters who are all in search of one being - Dark Samus.
- and all this time the phazon inside of her is corrupting her...
- ...which leads to the BIG surprise that Retro will not unveil unless we play the game.

:D

You mate just won my trust lol. Why didn't that come to my mind?! That's exactly what it is!!! It also might be driven/controlled by Dark Samus herself!!

ANDROO: Did anyone notice the floating alien mass thing (alien ship?) floating in space at the end of the trailer? What was that?!

i'm guissing by the blue thats it's like a giant creature comet thing made of phazon, that i guess will probably be the final boss or close to it.