Nintendo, you had me and you lost me

Dear Nintendo, you had me and you lost me.

You see, you and I go way back. I had a GameCube. In fact, that was my main console of the last generation. I loved the Purple Lunchbox. Sure, it looked goofy, but I thought it had a magnificent controller, and as long as you could put up with a lack of RPG's, there wasn't a bad lineup of games. Most cross platform games came out on it, and it was certainly more powerful than the PS2.

When the Revolution was announced with that awesome trailer, you had me on board. A different way to play, what a great hook! We had been stuck in a gaming rut for years, and it was time for you to shake things up. That trailer had a guy doing FPS control, sword play, gun play, drums, tennis and golf. That made complete sense in my book. I was On Board.

Nintendo, you handled the release of the Wii perfectly. At the time, PS3 was priced in the stratosphere at $599. You had a nice price point of $279, less than half of the PS3 and less than the 360. You had a fantastic early lineup and it was a stroke of genius of including Wii Sports. Wii Tennis and Bowling worked perfectly, and it was a promise of something Great. Early titles like Trauma Center were very solid, and many couldn't be done on any other system. Rayman was weird, but incredibly fun. The future looked Bright. Big Brain Academy came out shortly thereafter, along with Warioware. Everything was Good.

But then, what happened? Good swordplay was nowhere to be seen. FPS control never felt right. Time passed. I bought fewer and fewer games. Then WiiWare was introduced and I became excited again. World of Goo absolutely blew me away. Small games sold on the cheap, what a brilliant idea! But then, where was the next good game? Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out and that was fantastic, but what now? Speaking of Brawl, the only True Control for Smash was the GameCube controller! Doesn't that seem a little strange that the best way to control a flagship game is with a controller from the last generation?

Nintendo, do you know what would be fun? Playing games online and talking to my friends. Other than Animal Crossing, NO first party game supports voice chat. The only other game is The Conduit. I got Tiger Woods with Motion Plus, and it was amazing, but can I talk with other players while we play a social sport? Nope! I feel that the Wii has been reduced to a heap of casual shovelware games with dodgy "motion control" (read: shake the controller and maybe something happens). Seriously.

Last month I bought a PS3, and immediately there was a huge library of deep games to play. The online store had dozens of good titles available to download, and many of which had playable demos so I could try before I buy. I constantly have a feeling of being plugged in, as I can see my friends log in and out of the system. There is integration with my home theatre as I can watch DVD and Blu-Ray. I can listen to CD's, or even better - stream audio over from my PC's over my WiFi connection. There is just so much that I can do with my PS3. And that price advantage that you had at launch? The PS3 is now TWENTY DOLLARS more expensive. The Wii makes zero fiscal sense any more. Also, how about the price of controllers? To fully equip another controller, you need a Wiimote, Nunchuck, and a Motion Plus adaptor, the three of which comes in very nearly $100. Again, this is utter nonsense. So Nintendo, you had me at the beginning, but you've lost me. Perhaps someday we can be good friends again, but while you concentrate more on the Oprah and Ellen crowd, we're merely going to be acquaintances.

Yours truly,

A disenfranchised fan.