So, Nintendo revealed their mysterious Revolution controller (above) at this week's Tokyo Game Show. As has become standard by now with Nintendo revelations of this nature, the first reaction is often, "What the hell?" which is quickly followed by, "Nintendo has oatmeal between its ears" and quickly punctuated with the hopeful, "Well, maybe it's genius" and finally culminating in, "Sigh. Poor, stupid Nintendo does it again."
Mind you, I'm about as Nintendo fanboyish as they come. But with each piece of hardware the company puts out, they seem to alienate more and more of their core fanbase. I'm going to buy the Revolution anyway, but does Nintendo REALLY think that the average (translation: mainstream) gamer is really going to have the guts to get within 10 feet of that controller? When the Xbox 360 is so much more accessible? And the PS3 so much more (undoubtedly) versatile?
Not to mention this whole "ultimate backwards compatibility" issue, which clearly won't be free and is really just sad, in my opinion. Nintendo, who hasn't had a good original franchise since Pokemon (sorry, Pikimin) and relies way too much on its back catalog, is using it's ENTIRE DUSTY LIBRARY as a selling point for this new console. It's a value-add, and a great one at that, but not the main reason to buy the thing. People want new games, not old ones.
God, Nintendo is so frustrating.
Obviously, the company is still making money. It has successful games on the market (Nintendogs, Pokemon, RE4) and has a few amazing titles on the way (Zelda, at least). Nintendo makes the best and most polished first-party games in the business. I will never hate Nintendo. I just hope I can like them again.
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