As I count my nickels and dimes and glance at possible trade-worthy games in my classic collection, I'm clueless as to how I'm going to afford, let alone play, the games I want that are coming out in the next few months.

The current debate of choice was raised by some demo you may have heard of that came out this week: BioShock vs Metroid Prime 3.



First of all, I'm of the mind that none of us have the right to tell Nintendo how to do anything until after the sales numbers are in from NEXT years holiday season. I'll be the first one in line to defend their next niche' idea, but I can't help but be a little jealous of the ignorant Wii and DS owners who have become their target audience.

The classic Nintendo gamer has been forgotten. The stubborn of us who lapped up the scraps falling from their barren N64 and Gamecube tables, while Nintendo limped along until their current meteoric rise. I'm happy for my old friend, but I wish he'd impact a few games designed specifically for the old guard.

Buying into everything about the Wii, pushing aside the graphics and technology debates, the online friend codes, and their new target audience - I'm excited for Metroid Prime 3. Honestly, I salivate at the previews that I read about how solid the gameplay is and its amazing innovations in First Person Shooting/Adventuring control. If I focus on the positives, and never look away, I can't be disappointed.

Then, the BioShock demo comes along and jars me back into reality. Until this demo Gears of War was the stand out game that welcomed us to next gen gaming. The BioShock demo easily trumps the initial Gears experience and brought forward the awesomeness of a totally immersive gaming experience built on both the latest in gaming technology and gameplay. I admit that 80-90% of the 360/PS3 games are garbage and most sell on style over substance. Which is why I support Nintendo's focus on gameplay. I cannot however, help but be frustrated at Nintendo when games come along that I want to hold up to Nintendo and say, "We can have both!"

I know I will buy both games. I will enjoy both games for completely different reasons. There will be moments when I'm playing Metroid and I'd wonder what jumping around using the Screw Attack would look like in the Unreal 3 engine, or that I'd like to voice chat with one of my friends that just showed up online. There will also be moments in BioShock where I'd think Telekinesis would really feel better with a wii-mote than an analog stick.

You know the team at Retro has to wonder what their game could look like with more power behind it, their end vision of Samus couldn't have just been a polished and smoother running version of the Gamecube game. At the same time, if the team at Irrational chose to implement some wii-mote abilities into their game, it would be used for something pretty wicked. While I'm dreaming you may as well just combine the teams and make the ultimate Metroid game, complete with nerve-wracking exploration of an unknown planet which has, oh, I don't know, a wrecked ghost ship as one of the areas.

I'm going to stop for now so I'm not disappointed in both games.

This does just barely scratch the surface of the wealth of knowledge and creativity that Nintendo is holding back from established 3rd party developers. We would all benefit from future collaborations as gamers and industry supporters.