Nintendo

Nintendo's end is coming. Its doom is palpable to the tongue. The Wii was great at first, but after a while, the coolness factor of wielding two nunchuks of mighty power is fading. There were many times when playing Twilight Princess that I just didn't want to have to swing the controller to make Link attack. Just let me press a button to make him do that.... Please? There were a few times I avoided playing TP just because I didn't want to swing the controller around.

Perhaps it wouldn't be such a problem if the motion sensing actually sensed your motions. Playing Rayman: Raving Rabbids the other day was frustrating because the Wii kept misreading my movements. Sure, the MotionPlus is coming out someday, but the Wii has been out for over 2 years. This new motion sensing technology is long overdue. Also, the Wii has 512 MB Harddrive space to store all of your game saves and Virtual Console downloads. That's not even 1 GB of space, while the Xbox 360 Pro comes with 120 GB - That's 240 times the amount of Harddrive space.

What makes me believe that Nintendo's end is coming is that the Wii is so weak compared to the Xbox and PS3. Sure it's a neat system and it's innovative. But does Nintendo even have the resources to create a new system that is HD-ready and has the processing power of either of the current competitors? If it does, then the big N has given no indication that it can do such a feat. Nintendo is so far behind in power that I'm going to have to buy an Xbox 360 or PS3 just to play Resident Evil 5. For shame.

I've been a fan of Nintendo for a long time, and I would hate to see the company get left behind in the console wars. Sure, the DS is a fine system and Nintendo has always been the leader in the handheld market, but I would hate to see them die off in mainstream console gaming.

Microsoft has had massive problems with the Xbox's red ring of death and other hardware problems, and Sony has had problems selling PS3's for many reasons. But Nintendo hasn't had any problems with console systems ever since the NES's game reading problems, which were solved by blowing on a game cartridge. It would just be a shame to see Nintendo get left behind after so many years.

Some things that would make me happy with Nintendo's next system:

-No more motion sensing crap, except in first person shooters. Resident Evil 4 is fantastic on the WiiMote, but everything else is just a gimmick.
-An actual harddrive. And no more of this 'Blocks of free space.' Speak to me in English. I know how to read the number of megabites I have left. I still don't know how much space a 'block' is.
-More online play. The Wii is a great party system, but put more emphasis into online play. Hypothetically, I can play Mario Kart with my friends, but I would have to talk to them on AIM.
-More power! Since it will be after February 2009 when the next Nintendo system is released, let's get some high definition! More processing power and better graphics would make the next system much more desirable. Recent gaming news shows that developers are just starting to utilize the full potential of the Xbox 360, but it will take developers quite a while to find a way to use the PS3's full potential. And the Wii? It's potential was maxed out on release day with Zelda: Twilight Princess. You might could argue that it's potential was reached a year after release, in which Super Mario Galaxy showed that the Wii could create some beautiful graphics and smooth gameplay. But still, it only took one year at most.

I cross my fingers for Nintendo. I don't want to see them go the way of Sega and create their games for other systems, or be stuck in the handheld market - But N has to make some major changes to keep me loyal.