These are truly dark times for a Nintendo fan. When my wife came home that fateful day almost 2 years ago with a Wii under her arm with this, “holy fuck!” look on her face because she actually found one in stock at a Zellers near our home, I had mixed feelings. What I had been reading and seeing on various sites led me to believe that something was a little different in the land of Nintendo. I had been a pretty ardent supporter of the Gamecube, even through the incessant lean times between decent releases. But after experiencing what Mark Pacini with Retro Studios had achieved with the Metroid series, after the brilliant Resident Evil 4, and most importantly after what had been achieved with Legend Of Zelda, my favourite series of all time; Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess over the years I felt that ultimately time and faith would bear out.
Well here we are in, granted, the early part of 2009 and “our” (and you know who I mean by “our”) game lineup includes; LoZ:Twilight which is a Gamecube port, a clever but lacking Super Mario:Galaxy, the sublime “Metroid Prime 3”, a “Brawl” game that is essentially a “Melee” port with online features, a “Fire Emblem” that is stupidly hard but is a good game but does nothing to advance the series, a very logical “Okami” port, and a “Kart” Wii game that is fun for nubs and fanboys like myself but is a little short on new content. Sure other games like No More Heroes and Zack and Wiki have shown what is possible if you are clever and creative but this is not enough. Just because Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band along with Wii-Play have made the Wii profitable is no excuse for what is going on now.
The creative black hole that Nintendo have created around their latest console is now a serious media atrocity, the likes of which have not been seen since Boy George and Madonna made the world more cynical because apparently shit can be smothered in cheap perfume and sold for top dollar to the thoughtless and the sad. I can swallow a lot from Nintendo, but when Reggie Fils-Aime kept a straight face when he stated the “Core” game Nintendo was offering for Q4 in 2008 was Animal Crossing I became one of the haters. To be this far into a generation with no real Zelda title, and the corporate focus on casual games that utilize a controller that I have come to loathe more than Karma-karma-karma-karma-karma Chameleon, is to be in a vicious state of gaming hell.
Shigeru Miyamoto has lost faith in his craft and has clearly reached that level of middle-aged indifference that we all likely will face at some point. Where nonsense and regret meet is where Miyamoto now lives with his copy of Wii-Music. He needs to start reading more poetry and less music because not everyone can, or even wants to really make music, but we all communicate with language in one form or another. We can split hairs all you like about music as language, but expressing coherent thought and plot highlights is better accomplished in physical form through language or pictures than it is through sounds and music.
Mr. Miyamoto, I refer you to the American Poet Robert Frost and his poem “Two Tramps In Mudtime” ;
“Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done”

and, please make 2009 the year that Nintendo comes back.

Also, Cocks AND Bawls. ;)