All the controversy surrounding Nintendo's lackluster E3 announcements helped me to search my soul and discover the startlingly truth. The Nintendo I had grown up with died with the decline of the Nintendo 64.

The N64 brought so many of Nintendo's beloved IP's to the 3D world in a grand fashion (Mario, Zelda, F-Zero, Starfox to name a few). Not only that, but it library was heaping with fresh new IP's (Smash Brothers, Paper Mario, Mario Golf, Mario Party, Mario Tennis, Animal Crossing, all the Rare games, etc). And then we come to the last truly great Nintendo game, Majora's Mask.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is the perfect Nintendo game in my mind. They took the established formula from Ocarina and what did they do? Did they add funky cel-shaded graphics and dumb down the gameplay? Did they add gimmicky motion or stylus controls? Did they rip off the SNES version with a light/dark world and tack on a lame werewolf transformation complete with much easier puzzles and combat? No, they did not. They did what every true Nintendo gamer would want. Nintendo made it much harder, more intricate, expansive, engaging, and fresh without any apologies.

This was not a game that held your hand. If you didn't play Ocarina, you were at a severe disadvantage. It's time travel plot device was not a gimmick. It weaved a beautiful ground-hog day esque story that has yet to be rivaled by any other Nintendo game. It broke the rules. From the mask collecting to the diary, everything about this game was brilliantly innovative and challenging without being dumbed down. Unfortunately, this was the last time we'd see such greatness from Nintendo.

So along came the Gamecube. There was nothing really innovative about it, except perhaps its size. Not even a Mario launch game. Lugi's Mansion had a great atmosphere but it's gameplay was terribly repetitive and easy. Then finally came Mario Sunshine. The Captain Planet gameplay, while innovative and somewhat challenging, lacked the pure fun of Mario 64 (by a long shot). Then came all the rehashing of the N64's new IPs. All the new Mario sports, Party, Kart, Paper, Starfox, Smash Bothers, F-Zero, etc had prettier graphics for sure, but did not really innovative or challenge in any way. Sure there were a few exceptions (Wave Race), but this was generally the rule of thumb. And new Ips? Pikmin was great, and of course the Metroid Prime series was brilliant, but that was about it.

Also, like the Nintendo 64, the Gamecube got two Zelda's. Wind Waker was an abortion. Not because of the graphics (I actually liked them) but because of the fact that's its only innovation, sailing, was boring as shit. Not only that, but I was able to handily beat it in less than three days without dying once. And with the Gamecube's dying breath/Wii birth came Twilight Princess. At last, I thought, maybe there was some hope yet. Hardly. While leaps and bound better than Wind Waker, TP did nothing for me. The puzzles? Easy. The combat? Super easy? The whole wolf thing? Not nearly as fun as the mask system. Innovations? Zero. Story? Boring and predicable. At least it took me a solid week to fully complete. And with that, came a whole new era of suckiness.

Nintendo has forgotten about us, and the Wii is proof. The recipe for a great Nintendo game contained the following ingredients: Fun, challenge, freshness, innovation, and accessibility. With the Wii, Nintendo has thrown out the first three, and overdosed on the last two. Oh, and replace innovation with gimmicky. There is nothing great about the Wii. It has rehashed, and dumbed down all my favorite games. Mario Galaxy is perhaps the closest it came but for me, it still couldn't quite rekindle the magic . I'm sick of waving my hands around like a loon. I'm sick of losing at party games because of randomness. I'm sick of seeing junk innovations in control and not gameplay. Fuck accessibility, fuck Nintendo. Give video games back to the gamers. /rant