Since a short while ago, something has begun to irritate me. Just a little bit at first, such a weak feeling infact, that I found it easy to ignore and wondered whether I was just imagining it. I knew it had something to do with games, so you can’t say it was a bug bite on my butt. All the same, it was a small issue that at inconstant times of the day, I would dwell on and try to work it out. The more I thought about it, the more it irritated and soon it began to just plain annoy me. I didn’t know if it was that I could put a finger on what was annoying me, or whether the actual issue which was the source of my ire.

So I tried to bring to mind the time that I noticed this first annoyance. I counted back the days and realised that it coincided with the day I did the live blog on the Nintendo presentation at the E3 show. So thinking about that I recalled what Nintendo have unveiled that day and whether it had anything to do with that.

It did.

I realised that the titles show cased really weren’t catering for a seemingly select group of gamers that are always looking for something more. In fact, the realisation that I was now perhaps in a ’select’ group of people who enjoyed games made me think more deeply. We all know how unprecedentledly successful Nintendo’s latest console has been, and I for one have enjoyed it as much as the next person. I have lauded the Wii and acclaimed Nintendo for its ingenious reinvention of its image, I have marvelled outspokenly about its reinterpretation of how we as gamers interact with games. And most of all, I cannot deny that I have raved about the fact that Nintendo have blown wide open the perceived nerdy gamer stereotype, and crossed all boundaries through age and gender, to become the most accessible gaming console ever.

This is the issue that I and many gamers like me have been annoyed by. The E3 conference showed no real depth of gaming technology. Many have argued that Nintendo in its bid for global domination have forgotten the bread and butter of its industry. The hardcore gamers, are seemingly being ignored whilst Nintendo bash out title after button bashing title, but seem to lack the real depth of gaming experience that satisfies the more discerning gamer.

There is a growing concern amongst the hardcore gamers that as Wii titles spread further and further afield from their usual audience, they may be overlooked as Nintendo focus on these larger and ultimately more lucrative markets. The worry is that Nintendo may take advantage of the boom in ‘casual gamer’ audience and  wheel out weaker and shallower games because they are faster and cheaper to produce. Now that there is a proven market for these type of games, It is becoming an increasing worry that titles such as Zelda and Mario will suffer severely as the time, effort and financial commitments of producing the top quality games seem to lack the global marketing power. I too worry that they may not make as much money as Wii Fit and the likes, and as such disappear (as we know them at least) from our consoles forever!

Itchy anyone?

Well there is hope in the salve of this response. Nintendo have (to use a ridiculously over exaggerated but aptly media word) ‘blasted!‘ this notion citing that the core gamers are ‘critically important’ and many titles such as Zelda and Mario are currently underway and will certainly not being lacking in the depth of story and integrity that is widely being feared at the moment.

What do you think?