The Nintendo Fiasco and the Golden Opportunity Missed

With the big threes press conferences out of the way at this years E3 convention, it's safe to say the last conference left a lot of gamers somewhat underwhelmed. The Nintendo Wii U, guilty last year of confusing its traditionally less tech-savvy Wii user base by not clearly stating it was new hardware, squandered what can only be described as a rare chance for them. The chance at hand took the form of capitalising on Microsoft and Sony's announcements of being able to use tablets or the latters Vita in conjuction with games to create the same effect of the Wii U's unique tablet control system. Whilst Nintendo pandered to its long time fans sporadically with titles such as the launch game Pikmin 3 or New Super Mario Brothers U (yes, sequels are finally going past the traditional x into all forms of algebraic equivalents) and a handful of handheld titles it was Nintendo's swan song that left the potential Wii U-ser base (this hopefully will be the only time this pun is used ever, but alas you know it won't be) deflated.

Above: Like this but replacing the quaint "tree-top village" vibe with "Fisher Price does Disney World"

I am of course talking about "Nintendo Land"which looks like Playstation Home, but instead  instead of the most soul-less shopping centre in history it carries the form of a theme park decorated by the contractors responsible for the most garish counties of the Mushroom Kingdom. The park is apparently populated by "new multi-player experience" which, you'll realise once you've seen it in action, is code for NOVELTY FAMILY FRIENDLY MINI-GAMES skinned up in your favourite franchises. This image into Nintendo's future looks disturbingly like a HD/First Party mirror, being held up at the third party turgid faeces of the now obsolete Wii's dying days. I do not dispute that the Wii-U has massive potential still to take hold of its competitors position in the market, in fact i would adore to see my childhood fanboy-ism be restored back to its once nauseating levels but if Nintendo were aiming to convince the "Hardest of the Core" (he actually said that), Reggie Fils-Amie and co got it bang wrong. All it would have taken for me to put the rose tinted glasses on and repress the other monotonous drones of "Fitness" and Call Me Maybe to which i've become accustomed to, would have been one other familiar face outside of that fetid theme park where even the most racist Disney characters of the past would be ashamed to be represented. If Link popped up with a dirty gritty HD face or Samus Aran being badass (provided not developed by Team Ninja) would have lifted me out of this hole. Hell, even a sodding Pikachu frying something wouldve been better than "You say future, we say mini-games." The worst part of all this was that they introduced it like a revolutionary step in the Smash Brothers series, a game that would have assured them many first day buyers. But no, hope left faster than Andy Coulson runs from a court-room audience.

Above: Wii, Wii never changes

There's still time however for Nintendo to patch up this zit of a press conference with its show floor and possible 3DS announcements, but the bottom line is they already risk losing the hardcore before the system even hits shelves. The golden situation of Microsoft and Sony already giving into peer pressure and making their systems able to accommodate    other devices to mimic the console is brilliant news for Nintendo in the third party development arena, but if they lose the core, they turn this advantage into a threat. Unless Nintendo pull the Meowth out of the bag, I predict another 3DS-esque launch and a possible crippling drop in their share-price. This being said, at least Wii M-U-sic wasn't announced.