Watch and witness how Nintendo tried to suck people into what was arguably one of their biggest flops. The soothing, semi-detached and slightly echo-y announcer's voice was even then synonymous with "artificial intelligence." (Thank you HAL 9000) And let's face it, a person telling you something is cool is one thing, but if a computer or robot tells you it's cool, then it must be true. So, if you've ever wondered how to market your own headache machine that will eventually become an industry joke and desktop novelty, now you know.

Number 7 is the Wii. Calling Nintendo's decision to focus less on graphics and more on motion controlled gameplay into question, the author poses a bleak future when the PS4 makes the Wii look ancient and folks are fed up with waggle.

Unless there's some other gameplay innovation on the horizon, Wii could be viewed as a fad, susceptible to the same fickle emotions that killed snap bracelets, pet rocks and Sega. And if Nintendo bites the bullet and gives the machine a visual kick in the pants, well there goes its whole mantra that graphics don't matter. There's just enough steam with this idea to last one generation, and none after that.

Gasp! The dreaded f-word! Is the Wii just a fad? Are gamers too blinded by the fun loving nature of the gaming behemoth and will that goodwill toward Nintendo ever turn against them? It's possible.

Where I don't agree is that the Wii needs to justify its use of the Wii remote for every first-party game. Can't we be satisfied with simple controls now and then? Michael McWhertor

The Top 7... Nintendo mistakes [Games Radar]

Nintendo has released some truly inventive products, which are collecting dust. Take the Virtual Boy and the Power Glove. The company was pushing the boundaries, but that's all that happened. They were pushed, and there wasn't the software there, causing the products to ultimately collapse. In short: They reeked of gimmick. In an interview with AOL, Nintendo of America prez. Reggie Fils-Aime assured that the same is not true of the Wii:

I think the bongo controllers are actually a great example. The first Donkey Konga? Great. Jungle Beat? Great. But what else have we done? I mean yes, we did Donkey Konga 2, but what else have we done?

Three games that made use of the bongos? It's not enough.

Imagine if we'd made three games that made use of the DS touch screen. It wouldn't be enough. And so that's why every game makes innovative use of the Wii remote in some way, shape or form, whether it's based on the sensor bar, the direct pointing capabilities or the use of the nunchuk. Every single game makes use of the Wii remote. That's why I'm confident it won't be a gimmick.

And there you have it, folks! Reggie's confident and wants better bongo use. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [AOL] via Infendo

In Freshman philosophy class, my professor once invited us to indulge in a thought experiment: imagine, for a second, that you were grown in a test tube in a completely ascetic laboratory. You spend the next 21 years living in a single room of this laboratory... you can do anything you want, but the scientific puppet masters behind the scenes are conducting an experiment on you. The experiment is this: your entire environment is designed so you never, ever see the color red.

The thought experiment was this: would you actually still know what red was? Is a knowledge of colors ingrained? Or would your mind shatter into a thousand pieces the first time the doors opened and you were presented with the mind-bending phenomenon of a red fire hydrant.

Yes, it was a stupid thought experiment. But you don't need to have been denied any firsthand knowledge of the color red since birth to have your mind gorily dehisce when you check out Retro Gaming's Virtual Boy retrospective, "Games That Defined the Nintendo Virtual Boy." There's screenshots galore, and every one resembles a Game Boy title played after both ingesting Clorax and driving your thumbs into your eyes. Florian Eckhardt

Games That Defined Nintendo Virtual Boy [Retro Gaming with Racketboy]