Ninten-Dos

-Increased 3^rd Party support

Don’t get me wrong, Nintendo’s first party titles are legendary franchises. Link, Mario and especially Fox McCloud need to be on the new system. But after all the power stars are collected and Hyrule is safe again, the lack of 3^rd party titles leaves gamers feeling empty, especially since we know that 3^rd parties can create some greats for Nintendo as GTA Chinatown Wars showed. But since the days of the N64, Nintendo’s been losing out in this area. While Miyamoto may be a genius, he’s not the only one and without big new hits from Ubisoft, Valve, Konami and the like, Nintendo fans will keep sighing when their logo is the only one not to appear at the end of a particularly awesome commercial. Much as the fanboys love new hardware and old franchises, an updated Wii Sports and a new Zelda isn’t enough to sustain a system for 6 years.

-Backward compatibility with the Wii:

Backward compatibility itself is a great addition to any console. One of the saddest moments in gaming history occurred when I discovered that I couldn’t play Halo 2 on the 360 in my common room  in college. Moreover, keeping the Wii compatible with the Gamecube controller was a big plus with some of the current generation’s best games, like SSB Brawl or Goldeneye. But in Nintendo’s particular case, there’s good reason to continue to support the Wii format: mommy money. Despite losing out hardcore gamers to Sony and Microsoft this generation, the Wii has never the less outsold them by a huge margin because of its simple and innovative control system. When Nintendo figured out that they could co-opt the same people who’d been telling their kids to turn off that idiot box with hits like Wii Fit, it turned their new system into a cash cow. Having disappointed hardcore gamers for the past few generations, Nintendo shouldn’t swing to the other extreme and leave grandma fumbling with 30 buttons. Keep the Wiimote and Nintendo will keep this new demographic.

The Controller:

According to various sources, the big innovation for Café will be its controller, which will include a 6 inch, touch sensitive screen. If this is true, it would be an amazing step forward. Think about the possibilities. Image an FPS where you use the controller to clear out a room of badies, pop open a panel and have to disarm a bomb on the controller screen itself. But aside from interactive game play, such a controller would blend the lines between console and handheld, allowing players to download minigames directly to their controllers and continue the game after shutting of the TV. If these designs, or something like them, prove to be genuine, they will represent a leap in controller design equal to the N64’s analog stick.

Is this the Future?

Ninten-Don’ts

-Graphics on Steroids

Don’t get me wrong, Project Café is going to be a next generation console and should definitely have some power under the hood, especially compared to the somewhat underpowered Wii. But one of the worst tendencies of the industry has been to equate better graphics with better games ever since Sega turned “Blast Processing” into a slogan. For it own part, Nintendo made the same mistake with Star Fox Adventure, which allowed you to see every hair on Fox’s face as you raced through an 8 hour long Zelda rip off. More recently, Sony and Microsoft have tried to bolster sales of numerous identical shooters by plugging how many millions of shades of grey your grizzled marine will encounter. Story, control and gameplay need to be at the heart of any good system. Plugging the system because its HD or can render ever more detailed shadows means that Nintendo is more focused on the arms race between silicon chips rather than gamers experiences.

-Peripherals

Occasionally, a great peripheral like the Rumble Pak comes along and becomes an industry standard. Most of them, however, end up like the Power Glove: difficult to use, unappealing after the first week and so over hyped and uninspired that they end up sitting in a cabinet with our old Gameboy link cables. When a company starts pushing specialty items that can connect to a system, it suggests that the system is incomplete and incapable of delivering a good time by itself. If Nintendo starts pushing Café’s connectivity with the 3DS or launches with an updated vitality sensor, it means they know the console is no good.

-DVDs, Blueray players and 3DTV

Trying to turn a gaming system into an all-purpose entertainment system is often an expensive but futile proposition. Very few people buy a game system because they can post achievements to facebook or upload pictures to it. This is especially true of DVD players, which were a useless addition as most households already owned one. They drove up the cost of consoles in the current generation and blue-ray may be poised to do the same at even greater cost. Higher prices and distracting from the games will do little to enhance gamers experience while draining their wallets. But at least these are marginally useful. 3DTV is an expensive magic trick that became irrelevant to gaming once the N64 was released. Passing off a background popping out at gamers is the ultimate distraction and would demonstrate that Nintendo has so little confidence in what’s going on in front of the screen. The wow factor will wear out quickly, but unlike useless peripherals, it can’t be put away and will drive up the initial purchase price. Nintendo would do well to remember the last console which they pitched for its advanced 3D effects was the Virtual Boy.

Whatever comes out on stage at E3, it is sure to be big. The question is, will Project Café explode onto the market, or will it explode in Nintendo’s face?

Before you dive into a fictional world made up of polygons and textures, you should probably have a reason to spend so much time and effort to enjoy video games. I personally believe that video games will one day join the ranks of literature and film as an “art form.” Video games allow you to interact with the world you’re put into whereas movies and books prefer to bring you along for the ride, as long as you don’t touch anything. Because of this reason, video games can supply an experience that is totally unique and you may never get a second chance to try out.

Video games are still a very young industry, and still has time for its Citizen Kane to be created

The medium is still pretty young, with the initial creation dating back to 1972 when Pong was released almost forty years ago. When compared to cinema, forty years is nothing. The most renowned and well-known films such as Citizen Kane or The Godfather didn’t even have scripts yet. Meaning there’s still sometime for that one game to come out that changes everyone’s mind about the industry and deem it “acceptable.”

Similar to books and movies, video games also have genres and not every genre is for every person. There are plenty of games out there that are designed specifically for a demographic I like to call “Bros.” These games are usually ultra-violent, extremely competitive, and very difficult to understand if you don’t have a history playing them for a few years; games like Gears of War or Halo would be in this category.

There are also games designed for veteran players and have increased difficulty and try to challenge the player as much as possible; games such as Resident Evil, or Grand Theft Auto would fit in this niche. If you’ve made it this far into the article, you’re probably not the type of person who would enjoy either “bro games” or “hardcore games.” Luckily for you, there are more genres that are more fitting to your interests.

In addition to the previous genres mentioned there’s also the “casual” market as well as the “hobby” market. Casual games consist of what most people think of when they think video games. Tetris, Pacman, Wii Sports, Peggle, etc. The “hobby” library consists of games that you’ve probably heard of before, but require a bit more skill than the “casual” games, such as Mario, Zelda, or The Sims.

Grand Theft Auto is very well-known, but it hardly represents what video games are about

So if you’ve never played a video game before, you’re best off starting in the casual area. These games seem simple at first, but are fairly rewarding and provide a basic vocabulary for how games tend to work. There’s usually a goal that you have to accomplish, and once you complete that goal you “win.” This is a pretty vague description, but it has to be established at some point. Video games share a lot of similarities with books. When you were in first grade you weren’t reading The Great Gatsby or even Harry Potter, they were far too advance and you’d lose interest and quit before you got to the good parts that everyone was talking about. Video games have a similar build-up.

Casual games are the “picture books” of the industry, very simple, very short, but enjoyable nonetheless. If you decide that you’re intrigued by the concepts laid out during the early stages you’ll want to upgrade to “hobby” games. Hobby games still stick to a simpler level of complexity, but they increase the scope. Instead of guiding Pacman through a maze and collecting white dots, you’ll get to control Mario and guide him through a 3D world and collect coins and stars. Hobby games are what Harry Potter is to books. Pretty rudimentary when it comes to concept, but even if Harry Potter had the least complex language in the history of text: there are still 500 pages of it and it’s going to take some time to burn through.

It’s quite possible than many people out there in the world have already made their way up to a Mario game on their own without a guide like this one, but that’s usually where the trail goes cold. These people usually don’t know where to go next, and assume it’s always the same thing and get bored of the hobby, which holds some water. Mario games have been around for 25 years and they’re all practically the same thing, so if you played nothing but Mario for four years I could understand why you didn’t feel so optimistic about future opportunities.

Simple games, such as Bejeweled, are a great way to introduce the way video games work to newcomers

The unfortunate fact is hobby games don’t even crack the surface of video game potential. Up till this point, every game mentioned flexes the players’ reflexes and processing ability that you use to solve a jigsaw puzzle, which is fine, but they’re capable of more intellectual thought. That’s where “entry-level” games make their appearance.

Entry-level games (despite their misleading name) are for people who have grown to understand how games work. These games focus more on what to do, rather than how to do it. The games to check out in this category include Prince of Persia, Fable 2 and Shadow of the Colossus.
The French developed Prince of Persia follows the tale of a scruffy thief traveling through the desert during ancient times when he stumbles upon a young woman who is in the midst of trying to save her kingdom from an ancient evil. This fantasy-filled, character focused story is for anyone who enjoys a good teasing love story with an ending you won’t see from Hollywood.

Fable 2 designed by British developers takes place in a fictional world entitled “Albion” you play as a Hero in the world who must fight off a corrupt King whose ambitions to save his deceased family turn into a quest for world-domination. Fable takes a lot of its atmosphere and storytelling from classic children’s books fairy tales.

The unique aspect of Fable is the long-lasting ramifications your decisions make. At one point in the game the player is asked to help a sheriff arrest some hoodlums in the town; if the player helps the town turns into a booming richville ten years down the line, but if they refuse the place turns into a dump filled with crime and prostitution.

Prince of Persia’s forgiving difficulty and focus on characters makes it the perfect entry-level game

Finally Shadow of the Colossus is another fantasy story coming out of Japan. A teenage boy brings his recently deceased love to a temple and begs the gods to restore her life. One god responds and says he will only return her to life after The Wanderer has destroyed 16 colossal stone giants in the fields. This is a story that’s told primarily through visuals and atmosphere keeps the player thinking both logistically and creatively. After all, what did these sixteen giants do to deserve death?

If any of those three concepts sound interesting to you, than hopefully I’ve inspired someone to make the commitment and try out video games for the first time. If you’re interested in playing any of the games I’ve mentioned you’ll have to buy the game, and the console that it’s for. Just write down the game you’re interested and go to your local Best Buy and say “I want to play ________ how can I do that.” Or if you want some more personalized buyer’s advice I suggest leaving a comment just below this article, and I’ll respond as fast as I can.

Even if you don’t go so far as to playing games, perhaps you’ll think twice next time you see an uninformed FOX news report about how they’re “destroying the youth.” If you do that much, I’ll be a happy man.