another year draws to a close, and the internet has been abuzz with retrospectives and previews. in the former category IGN has pretty nice 6-page year in review features for all the various video gaming platforms, including the wii and DS. the features include a look back at the year’s news, game highlights, and a look ahead. it’s almost impossible to believe that the wii, in its third holiday season, is still selling out, but the big N continues to dominate, even with its DS in its fifth holiday season.
there’s no question that they’re making big bucks, but nintendo’s fanbase has been increasingly disappointed ever since this past year’s E3. (i hesitate to say their “core” fanbase b/c the true core fanbase are an almost painfully loyal group and don’t get disappointed easily.) wii music and the new animal crossing failed to satisfy any of the “hardcore” gamers, and nintendo’s press release of what we have to look forward to in Q1 of next year (which somehow omitted capcom’s offerings) has left a lot of them despairing (like most online groups they’re a rather melodramatic lot). for nintendo’s first party offerings it does seem they could have paced their releases better, but the backlog of great games on the virtual console and wiiware doesn’t make me personally feel like i’m twiddling my thumbs with nothing to play (not to mention the literally hundreds of retro games i have lying around waiting to be touched). in terms of third party games it seems we’re still in the midst of the gap left from the releases put out by early developers (the gamblers who banked on the wii’s success and were proven right) and those that are still being developed by the ones who were waiting to see how the wii would fare before they committed to developing for it. but once we bridge that gap hopefully we’ll see a steadier supply from both nintendo and third parties. or am i just being optimistic?
anyway, as for me, i’m just psyched we have a US release date for fire emblem DS (feb. 16!!!). the other game on nintendo’s list that i have my eye on is retro game challenge (apparently actually not due out until feb. 10), featuring versions of classic arcade games with xbox-like achievements as their main focus. in terms of the rest of 2009 i’m keeping my eye out on rhythm heaven, an apparently warioware-like rhythm game, punch-out!! wii, and wii sports 2. and of course looking forward to getting our hands on the DSi and the accompanying DSiware. (can virtual console game boy and game boy advance games be far behind? fingers crossed.) in any case i trust that the head honchos at nintendo know what they’re doing and that they have more than a few surprises up their sleeves. it’s a couple of weeks early, but what the heck: here’s to a great 2009!
video games rock 