The recent announcement that Nintendo will be releasing a sku this summer of the Metroid Prime Trilogy with updated graphics and Wii-mastered controls for Metroid Prime and MP2 all on one disc is a little bittersweet for me. When I picked up my Gamebcube, which seems like a generation ago, Metroid Prime 2 and Resident Evil 4 were my first two purchases and frankly they ate up months of my gaming time because of the incredible gameplay and value contained in both titles. I tried Metroid Prime after the fact, I know I'm a bit of an ass-backwards kind of guy, and while it was impressive I had already burned out a bit on scanning and back-tracking. When I bought a Wii, Metroid Prime 3:Corruption was one of first purchases because the reviews were great and I knew that it was part of a great legacy. I always meant to go back to Metroid Prime but again, I felt like they had nailed the controls perfectly for Corruption and couldn't see going back to the original in the series with old school controls. And now Nintendo are Wii-Mastering the controls for the first two games in the 3D series(I don't include The DS-MP:Hunters in this, but it's a solid title too). And frankly I'm confused as hell about how I feel about this.

On one hand I think this could be great value and a lot of fun because there are very few games on the market that are as challenging and rewarding as any of the MP titles. On the other hand, I am tired of Nintendo printing money off of older titles. Do I seriously plan to spend the excess of 30-40 hours it would take to play through MP and MP2 with new controls? With The Conduit coming out in June? With inFamous and Fuel out soon as well? With all of the other current-generation titles that are slated to come out in the Fall around the time that this sku will drop like Drake's, Modern Warfare 2 and Bioshock 2? No, just no.

Skus with previous iterations of games has been a clever and viable marketing approach going back to the earliest days of PC gaming. I think everyone I knew at one point in the mid-ninteties had that Doom pack with all of the pre-Doom3 titles and chapters and updates. Sierra and EA used to regualrly release box sets of four or five games at a time with the previous content for titles. Damn I used to love Sierra's RPGs!

My point essentially is that while the Metroid Prime Trilogy and Wii-Mastery of the first two titles is great in one way, all it does is show that Nintendo is still more interested in profit than in art and innovation. There are great titles for the Wii and any new Wii owner should feel very comfortable that the AAA titles available for it are some of the best on the market. However, what does it say about game development in general when we are so excited about games that are over a decade old being updated? What does it say about the bulk of the gaming consumer market that Nintendo continue to dominate by recycling so excessively. I think that it is intellectual sloth to just say that Nintendo are shit and the Wii is a child's toy. That's for the morons and fanboys of the world who no one really listens to anyway.

I just hope that Nintendo has a big E3. They have made a truckload of money by faming older titles, but there is a point where they need to invest in new IPs and that point is now in my opinion.