I love Nintendo again

Just five short months ago, anticipating Nintendo’s lackluster performance at the Game Developer’s Conference, I speculated that we might be on the brink of a new video game crash. I haven’t totally abandoned that view, but Nintendo’s offerings at this year’s E3 have given me hope.

Let’s start with the new stuff. The announcements of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2 are pretty damn cool. Why they didn’t just call their new side-scroller “Super Mario Bros. 4″ is beyond me. I think it would have been a great tie-in with the four-player aspect of the game. What remains to be seen is whether NSMBW can break out of the rut that the original DS title quickly ran itself into and avoid being a poor man’s Little Big Planet. However, I would not mind if Galaxy 2 was just more of the same. The game looks amazing, and the addition of Yoshi was a nice touch. I felt the original just ended too quickly, so I wouldn’t mind some more.

Then there was that other Franchise announcement – Metroid: Other M. Dumb name. Weird developer choice. But I’m salivating at the thought of another third-person Metroid. I loved the authentic, atmospheric job that Retro did with the Metroid Prime series, but the control scheme irritated the hell out of me. I may pick up the re-issued Prime with New Play Control soon. But I’d rather see Other M become the ass-kicking action game that this series needs it to be. I do not want to see “Samus Gaiden” or a bunch of overwrought, stupid plot scenes with terrible voice acting. Might just have to suck it up, though.

On the active side of things, Nintendo introduced Wii Fit Plus, which seems to include all the things that the first fitness game should have included to begin with, like the ability to set up a workout routine…or weigh your dog (!?). I’m not sure why Nintendo feels we need yet another hardware device, like the Vitality Sensor, to measure our heart rate … or blood oxygen level or whatever. I’m already drowning in Wii devices. Oh, and knowing the Balance Board’s “limitations,” that platforming minigame looks like hell on earth. But Wii Sports Resort looks like a blast, even if it does come with a new, expensive, battery-draining add-on. The archery alone looks worth it.

I got to say I’m also glad to see that Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Cursed Mountain and Muramasa: The Demon Blade are still around. The first two horror titles should fulfill my need for pants shitting this year, even though Shattered Memories wussed out and got rid of all the blood. Muramasa’s continued survival means that I might not have to dust off the Playstation 2 play Odin Sphere after all.

It looks like I’ll have a reason to dig my DS out of storage this year. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks still looks great, and hopefully won’t contain a repetitve fatal flaw like Phantom Hourglass. Golden Sun DS is enticing, even though I’m all just about old-school RPGed out. But I know one title that’s going straight into my cart slot on release day – Professor Layton and the DIABOLICAL FUCKING BOX. The last Layton title made a zombie of me the whole week after Christmas. The Japanese already have two more Laytons to enjoy. Level 5 needs to get snapping on this translation thing.

I got a distinct “meh” feeling from several titles. Red Steel 2 doesn’t look like Motion Plus will be enough to save it from its own gayness. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers looks like the lovechild of FFX’s irritation characters and FFXII’s action-packed fighting system. I’m going to need some hands on time before I believe this is worth a purchase. Another year, another Rabbids sequel, and it doesn’t look like Ubisoft is even trying with Rabbids Go Home. The art direction screams of cost-cutting. And finally, it will be a cold day in hell before I drop any Wii points for Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. I love the Spoony Bard as much as the next nostalgia head, but they could have at least updated the art assets on this thing.

Opera is not king of my Blackberry

Over at TechGeist this week, Michael Klurfeld springboarded (sprangboard?) off a single statistic to declare Opera the King of all Mobile Browsers. O rly?

I would like to point out two things:

First, Opera’s hold on 24.6 percent of the mobile browser market in May is an impressive statistic, but hardly a market-cornering majority. We’re not talking Microsoft IE levels of market penetration here. I don’t see the kind of mindshare that will allow Opera to dominate the handheld market for years to come.

Secondly, on a more personal note, Opera may be the only third-party browser installed on my Blackberry Curve, but it’s hardly The King. Elegance and ease of use are not the hallmarks of the Opera browser. In fact, the only function its clunky controls and server-side rendering have been useful for is navigating the full Facebook site, since Facebook’s mobile application is still 10 kinds of retarded. I’d rather read everything else in a stripped-down fashion on the native browser, since it automatically formats to the small screen.

My Blackberry is the second low-wattage device on which I’ve used Opera. The other being my Nintendo Wii. As with Blackberry’s native browser, the Wii’s native applications are far more integrated and useful than the Opera browser. Opera may be installed on a lot of difference devices, but, in my experience, the service it delivers is diluted at best. Opera may be everywhere, but so is generic toothpaste.