There's an article going around on GameSetWatch, it is about the Smash Bros. game, and I think it is, quite silly. In this piece JC Barnett explains why he believes that Smash Bros. Brawl could very well be on the wrong console altogether, claiming that titles like SMG or NMH end up falling into the market gap created by the fellas at Nintendo, this is "the casual-hardcore gap" as I like to call it, acording to Barnett, it's easy to predict Brawl's performance in the market by simply checking the trend that hardcore-oriented games, like the ones mentioned above, are currently showing.

I'm sure you've heard things such as "Galaxy could have done much better", "NMH is too radical even for the hardcore", "Japanese people are crazy and only care for witch-rubbing related affairs", bla, bla. Somehow, even quality games like Metroid, broad-bound games like Wii Fit or extremely japanese games like Suda's NMH just aren't doing as well as they should. They fall in the gap.

My opinion is that this is not a gap, this is a sort of cheddar cheese effect, with many little holes and cracks, the problem with Wii aren't the games themselves but the actual platform, there are twenty million Wiis out there, but honestly how much of that gaming mass is made from people that would even care for something like Metroid, about 1 or 2 million? Wii is selling too fast! Just too fast! There are at least 5 or 6 types of consumers that use their Wii for very different porpuses, some Wii Fit, some Metroid and some just want to get on the waggle train of media populi.

I know it's frustating to hear that some shovelware title has surpassed the 10 million milestone and that something like NMH just didn't manage to appeal to a large crowd. But it's just the natural curse of mother nature, every title that is realeased on Wii goes through the cheddar cheese effect and while must of us, dedicated gamers would reject crappy and sloppy third party efforts and go for the Mario stuff, it is the complete opposite somewhere around, well, the cheese. Japan is not to blame, this is a global effect, I mean, c'mon the UK folks could care less for anything non-FIFA. If you want your Wii game to sell, you really have to know who are you selling it to, and market it so.

It's only been a year, and even when Wii is gaining users everyday, I doubt that game-wise (and by this I don't mean hardcore) users are the prominent market share. But...that doesn't mean Wii is casual. There are like 10 types of casual gamers anyway (those who are clueless about games, those who don't have time for playing, the sport fans, the HALOZ IS WIN!1 dudes) and not everyone is gonna jump into the same casual sales target.

It's a very tricky mix.

Sure, it's hard to guess what could happen to any game on Wii when it comes to sales performance. But that doesn't apply to Brawl for one second. If a game is ever gonna sell on Wii, it will be, without a doubt, a Smash game. Why? Because I'm sure that at least half of the six million Meele buyers that exist bought the damn thing just to play the damn game. So Smash = Success, it may sound too easy but it's just too clear, this is something that not even the Wii cheese effect can change, I mean I could very well say Brawl will be Wii's biggest hit and a very few Wii Blank fanatics would disagree, sure, Wii has a lot of casual gamers, but nobody knows for sure how casual they are or if they really won't grow along with the console, I mean that's the whole point right? give them Wii Sports for free so they purchase Smash, right?.

Anyway, my final thoughs: nobody has a clue about who these casual folks are or how casual they are. Smash will be Brawl biggest hit, mark my words (it's cheaper than Wii Fit), any game can appeal to a casual gamer, not just casual games. Gamers grow with their consoles and eventually buy more complex titles, it is still too early for Wii. Shovelware only works for a limited amount of time, check the DS history. If there is a trend on Wii it's only that a lot of different people are buying a lot of different games. And, finally, I still like Killer 7 the better.

And anybody who disagrees with my Smash luv is just silly.