Sorry, this is a very long read but I wanted to share my feelings and see what others thought or felt on the subject.

I first started gaming in the early 80's. My stepdad brought home an Atari 2600 shortly after the popularity died and games could be found cheap. At that time, it was the greatest thing ever. I was also only seven or eight years old and had only seen a few arcades here and there. So needless to say, I was hooked on their versions of Pac Man, Moon Patrol, Pitfall and numerous others despite the fact so many of the games were actually pretty bad. I even had a copy of ET which I knew was garbage even as a kid.

So I played the Atari 2600 and didn't see much of the NES other than a few commercials here and there. I knew of some kids in school who had it and they always talked about. Later, some would also talk about Sega and the Master system and eventually the Genesis as well as NEC's TG-16. Finally, in 1989 and 1990, I started seeing more of the NES and wanted one badly. Some of the games I remember were Ninja Gaiden, John Elway's Football and a couple others. Then later that year, Christmas of 1990, I received my own NES. Games like WrestleMania, Friday the 13th, Narc kept me busy for hours. It was when I got Ninja Gaiden 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3 that I fell in love.

Shortly after, there was talk of a "Super" Nintendo. Well, I had to have that. It released in 1991 if I'm not mistaken. The first games I saw were Super Mario World, Final Fight and F-Zero. I was blown away by the graphics, the new controller with... six buttons? (Gasp!) Then I learned of this Street Fighter game at the arcade and there was one coming out for the SNES. Well, I had to get one. So Christmas of '92, I got my SNES along with a copy of Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior. I picked up a lot of games and got excited at the thought they would add a CD adapter to it for enhanced games. At one point, it was Phillips and before or after that, it was Sony. Well, we all know what happened there.

Eventually I would get the N64 despite the competition for Sony with it's new Playstation. I saw it and played it at a few of my friend's house but it didn't interest me at first. In time though, they started to get a lot of games that interested me that I didn't see on the N64. It was a little upsetting too seeing as many 3rd party games were $60 on the N64 and PS games were $40 or $50 and often featured more content because it was disc based and Nintendo stuck with cartridges. N64 ended up doing pretty well but was far behind the Sony Playstation in sales and because of that, this is when they first started to fall behind in 3rd party games.

So the next generation, I had a choice to make. Sony had released their PS2 which was very popular right from the start. Later Nintendo would release the Gamecube almost the same time that Microsoft would enter the market with their new system, the Xbox. At the time of launch of the PS2, I didn't yet have a DVD player so there was a big reason to go ahead and buy a PS3. A cheap DVD player cost over $100 at that time and big name players could easily go $200 or more. I decided to wait and after a while and a promotion from a store, I decided to go with my heart and again buy Nintendo. Once again, I bought numerous games that I loved but missed out on some games I wanted by going Nintendo.

This brings me to the current generation of gaming. I've always gone with Nintendo and greatly enjoyed their games but felt left out of some of the big games the previous two generations. I wasn't sure how I felt about the Wii and if it would be successful. Right away, it became obvious that the Wii would be popular. This made me feel confident they would get more 3rd party support. I knew I could always count on Nintendo for their games. I knew the limitations of the Wii and that eventually I would buy an HD console as well. So just a couple months after launch, I got lucky and found a Wii in stock and bought it. I had a great time with the Wii and many of it's games.

I picked up Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart and some others along with some "hardcore" games. After a while though, it seemed more and more, Nintendo kept releasing family games and these games were big sellers. So right away, almost every 3rd party tried to emulate them and we got a rush of shovelware. Now it didn't bother me too much because I can swim through the crap to find the good stuff. The problem is that about a year ago, Nintendo stopped releasing actual meaningful games and now just releases party games and stuff your mom, grandparents and little sister to play. Even some 3rd parties are surpassing Nintendo in quality lately. I've only bought one Nintendo published game in the last year, maybe two? When did Mario Kart release? Anyway, that's it for what I've bought of them. I see games that Nintendo is choosing not to release that could actually appeal to traditional gamers.

Personally, I don't like the term hardcore that much because any gamer can be hardcore. I like the term traditional because since the days of Atari 2600, games have been similar in nature if you really think about it. You had a mission of sorts and had to figure it out and beat the bad guy or something along those lines. Now everything is about being simple and games where you can't and don't lose. Well, if you can't lose, you can't win either. I want games that give me some challenge too and just impress me. I haven't had that feeling with the Wii for a while now and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

I did buy that HD system, the Xbox 360. I don't get to game as much as I used to when I was a kid or even when I was younger and just working part time and still living with folks. That's a message in it itself. Enjoy gaming while you can if you're still young. Working and responsibility sucks! So while I haven't played as much and haven't even opened a few of my games on the 360, I've been playing the hell out games like Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter 4, games I won't see on the Wii. I even enjoyed a party game (Scene It: Box Office Smash) more than many of those I've played on the Wii. I just want the old days of Nintendo where they published countless games for gamers and a fair balance of  unique games. I don't want this new Nintendo where almost every game they make is some family game.

Sorry if I'm coming off as whining and I'm sure some, if not many of you will say that I am. It's just how I feel about the situation.

i agree. Nintendo's consoles have been suffering from lack of Quality 3rd party titles. However b4 the Nintendo fanboys kill me i will say that nintendos games are awesome but there has not been consistant quality 3rd party support since the SNES.

Overall i agree with you and your experience is much like my own and i have found myself gravitating farther and farther from nintendo. However i would not say i will never be a nintendo fan again because they do make awesome games

please man talk about cry me a river.

AAA games take time to develope, especially with Nintendo. If your a fan you would know this.


The difference for Wii v GCN is that 3rd party support is crap and full of shovelware.

In the past even 3rd party games were awesome on the gamecube which filled the void when Nintendo didn't release a game. This is what made the LACK OF NINTENDO GAMES seem like they were not that far apart.

You can't blame Nintendo for making great games and taking their time to do so and not blame 3rd parties for their shit efforts on Wii.

That's your choice, good for you.

It's pretty simple, if you aren't happy with something, don't support it.

I want more games for the Wii, but until they have the games I want I will buy games for my Xbox360. I wasn't happy with the experiences I had with my multiple PS1s and PS2s so I stopped supporting Sony.

Nintendo is still making games, they just aren't rushing them all out as fast as they can like the 3rd parties did. You can't blame Nintendo for what the shovelware makers have done.

well to be honest I have no idea how you survived this long without an HD system. The Wii can be pretty cool but most of the time mine is collecting dust. Nintendo really has just done a terrible job lately in supporting the people that built their company in my opinion. Sure whenthe next zelda and mario show up it'll be cool but i'm not into only owning one console where I'll get a good game for it maybe every 6-8 months. Sorry to the Nintendo fanboys but thats just the way I see it.

it happen to me too =( , the last game i bought was kart too, i later sold the wii while i could make a profit.
i am not so excited for the next zelda anymore, the next zelda comes around by a third party every month.
i did bought a ps3 a year after i bought the wii.

btw: i changed in the ps2 era, because Of KH FF x x-2 and xii but i bought the wii first due the next zelda  what a disappointment it was.

Don't think it sounds whining, don't worry about that but expect replies against it like this one.

Basically don't think fanboy is a too committed stance, the market was different back then and Nintendo was the main focus for most developers. Now things changed and you like something else. Next generation things could change and you may like something else, so on and so on.

Don't dramatize this Nintendo "fanboy" memory, you just played the king console like everyone else did. This is more of a remembrance of older gaming where there was atari, nintendo, sega but mostly Nintendo.

Now with THREE consoles with big companies behind them opens up the playing field where even now Wii is breaking records and poised to be the best selling console can't have the "king title" again

Your story is almost exactly like mine. I supported Nintendo blindly for years and years only to find the games I was interested in coming less and less. I can't remember how many fond memories I had playing NES and SNES, but it must have been 5X as many then there were in the N64/Gamecube era. Uhhh remember the hell of waiting for a decent RPG on N64? Quest 64 was like the ONLY RPG for N64.

I knew the Wii would be a success but I also knew Nintendo would continue to have lackluster third party support. Add that to the fact that I wanted HD and it was a no brainer to switch over to the PS3. I regret not switching brands sooner.

I picked up a Wii and a PS2 in December, and the PS2 is getting twice the playtime of the Wii. And I play the PS3 more then twice the two of them combined. Don't get me wrong I'm glad I have the Wii for parties and such, but I will never be a Nintendo fanboy again.

Congratulations ....... What was the point of that story again?