I've just be trawling through a huge page on Nintendo's site detailing what we lucky Europeans will be getting on the run up to Christmas (Link).

I am in awe, and not just at the total disregard for XHTML and CSS Standards; why bother putting using doctype? anyway... No! There's just too many games to comprehend. Go ahead, look at them all, it's beautiful. I can't wait to get my hands on...

- Space Chimps (W.T.F.), or
- Jeep Thrills (Hahahaha, I see what you did there, give the man a raise -- Oh, now I'm doing it!), or
- Carnival Games: Mini Golf (because that collection of mini-games was so amazing the Palestinians and Israelites put down arms for a day, just to play it).

Oh right, it's the summer line-up. The line-up where we EUs wish for the Christmas line-up we won't even get until February, the year after. Oh well, guess I should just sit back and relax for 7 months.

It was like this, this time last year, wasn't it? A drought? Were I had to make do with the games I'd bought between December and June; the pickings were slim, even then. I'm trying to contain my excitement for 3 year old PC leftovers like De Blob (which is free on PC), and World of Goo. But its difficult, you know?

I can't be the only fool who thought Nintendo would deliver on better gameplay, surely? The Wiis white casing stood for a purity of gaming. It didn't matter what the graphics looked like, it would bring us all together to play, anything. We didn't need the latest High-Def grays and browns for innovation. So why does the whiteness of the Wii now look like make-up, caked on to disguise the infections of shovel and casual ware?

The only original game I've seen in a while has been the £7 Lost Winds. This should shame every games development studio. A little UK developer has done with a few short hours of gaming, what others fail to do with 10 times that amount: A feeling a discovery, an immersive (that's not even a word is it?) world with only 2 Dimensions, and a true urgency to complete it. This could have been the Avatar: The Last Air Bender game, But that was a dumbed down Diablo clone.



So whilst I might check out Wario's mysterious new game, or Skate Its control scheme, I can only see our promise of innovation this year coming from WiiWare. And the only obstacle there is Nintendo, who apparently have over 100 games either nearly or are ready to be released, but wont. It doesn't matter anyway, since my Wiis 512 is full, and it would be rude to ask for more, wouldn't it?

Oh, and I see Baroque is on this list. It'll be released July 18th, whilst Rising Star still reports it as August 1st. Does this mean we'll have a rushed, half-localised game? Will German sentences end abruptly in American "Yeeh Haw!", "Dawg", and "Do the chickens have large talons?". That's the only way I can see how it could take so long to "localise".