Hole in the Net

The old Nintendo, I mean…I can’t put my finger on it, but the Nintendo that brought us the Wii seems to be quite a different Nintendo than the one that brought us Super Mario World. Don’t get me wrong, I think the Wii is a great system, but despite what I’ve played on it so far, I’m not heartbroken that I don’t own one. Maybe it’s too early in the system’s life, or maybe my gaming tastes have changed too much over time, but it’s really telling when today’s release of Metroid Prime 3 should have me lamenting the fact that I don’t own a Wii, yet I’m not. This is the first Metroid title I won’t be playing, and oddly enough, I just don’t care. I thought the last two Prime titles were amazing, but why hasn’t that same sense of excitement and anticipation carried over to this new title, I wonder?

Gaming has changed a lot over the last ten years, so much so that even Miyamoto himself seems to think that the games of the ‘old Nintendo’ may be a thing of the past. I suppose I should get used to the fact that things change, but that still won’t take away the nostalgia of Mario flying around in a yellow cape, racing the timer in Super Metroid, or tossing the latest Zelda cartridge out of a second story window.

Oh yeah, I hate the Zelda series. We’ll go into the hows and whys another day.