Well, this was fairly entertaining. ^_^

Ok first I need a formal definition of this so call hard core gaming. In my opinion the platformer is the most hard core by far. after that then maybe the fps but the rts may be higher on that list since the rts has star-craft which is nearly a genre on its own.
I think the author of this post is missing a critical piece of the gaming puzzle. I am a proud wii owner who supplements his wii with a mid level laptop so I can arkham, bioshock, left 4 dead, and civ 4 to name a few. do I think I have the best combo, I think so since I still get galaxy, brawl, kart, no more heroes, and RE4 wii.

On a slightly more serious note, Nintendo fans seem to be the only group where you don't actually have to like the company, consoles, or series in question to become a fan. It seems like a lot of Nintendo "fans" out there are the more vehement anti-Nintendo demagogues (especially true if you've been lurking and watching the devolution of the GoNintendo community over the past year or so, like i have)

Very true... and i think i've got a part of the explanation...

The love/hate relationship some of us have with Nintendo, is due to two very different aspects of the famous company...

There's on one side the "artistic and creative" Nintendo, the makers of some of the best classics in videogame history, some of the most brillantly designed games and consoles we've experienced, and some of the most fun, too... add the simple presence of Miyamoto-san, one of the greatest ever in this industry, and you will have a kind of admiration from the fans, well deserved...

And there's on the other side the "business" Nintendo... Nintendo has always done profits, huge profits... but in the last thirty years, they also had very frustrating business strategies: the mess between SNES/N64, leading to the existence of the Playstation brand itself - the relationship with 3rd parties back then -  the look and strategy of GC - the "outdated tech" of the Wii - the decisions to not release certain games overseas - or the fact they only have 4000 employees, while with all that money, they could have way more teams, and release way more excellent games... many little things during all those years...

And i think it's very healthy that some fans may be overly critical... the artistic side may be important, but economically, we're the customers, and we're the ones who know what's better, we vote with our wallets... if the "artistic and creative" side is strong, we may still buy the products of Nintendo, or any other creative company out there... but it doesn't mean we have to agree with everything they say or do... they're not gods, they're not perfect, by any means...

To end this post, i'd like to add that i don't understand the admiration some people may have for Microsoft, or even Sony: the quality and quantity of their first party games can't compare - historically, they don't have the same "gaming aura" as Nintendo or Sega - their innovations are very limited - and on a more business side, they're far worse (Sony) and extremely worse (Microsoft) than the "greedy side" of Nintendo...

But to each his own... we're all free men, right?

Yeah all the biggest real Nintendo hate comes from Nintendo fans. It's almost impossible to hate Nintendo, until you get in too deep.

@68soul: nice points, totally agree!

@Mr Khan: what are "vehement anti-Nintendo demagogues", i didn't get your post :/

HOW DARE YOU call the developer of Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude a shovelware developer!

HOW?

DARE!

YOU!!!

That is all.

You misunderstand. HE said "former." I said "former?"

Next stop. 5 reasons to hate PC fans.

Being the people who are constantly coming out and saying "Oh, fuck you Nintendo" over every little thing they do. And i mean little things, like with the 4.2 update (before we knew about the bricking, at any rate), these people are like "Nintendo takes homebrew away from us because they hate us" disregarding the fact that it's Nintendo's perogative as platform-holder to shut down potential paths to piracy, or the people who discount every core game Nintendo releases for some reason or other (lol, a DS port for NSMBWii. lol, choo-choo for Spirit Tracks), or the people who bitch and moan after every single goddamn Nintendo Minute at IGN, because Denise Kaigler didn't declare WiFi Connection to be garbage, announce a new title out of the blue, or declare the Wii's holiday lineup to be weak.

We're not talking about people who have legitimate disagreements or problems, there's a dedicated core of so-called Nintendo fans who just seem to enjoy whining about every damn thing Nintendo says or does.