What's this about a drought?

Now that the initial launch "WOW" is over, everybody seems to think there is a problem with the Wii. Something about no new games, or not enough games? or not enough original content? Or not slicing your bread while cleaning your room and satisfying your wife all at once? Christ you people are fucking needy.

The system has only been out a mere 4 months. You see the PS3 owners complaining about a lack of software even though Resistance is still the only worthwhile game on the system (and may remain that way with Virtua Fighter 5 not having online play)? What about the 360 right now? Can you really say that Lost Planet & Crackdown (out Tuesday) are the answer to all your gaming ills? Forgetting that the Virtual Console has provided enough classic content to dissuade any drought all by it's lonesome in the last month, two major titles (Wario Ware & Wii Play) came out just in time for those getting done with Zelda & Rayman. And the next two months look incredibly promising as well. Sonic & The Secret Rings is reportedly the best 3D Sonic since the original Dreamcast game over 8 years ago. SSX Blur, the first Snowboarding game even released in in 2 years, and probably the first one that has the potential to be something really new with the Wii controls. Tiger Woods will be out a mere 2 weeks later, finally delivering a fully-fledged real golf game, which we all know the Wii remote is well-suited for. Cooking Mama comes out a week later, which'll be fun for all aspiring chefs or those looking for some fun minigames, along with an exclusive release of The Godfather for those craving something a little more mature and visceral. And that's just the short list for about the next four weeks.

Finally, if for some reason these releases (or most of the ones I skipped over) end up being either cruddy ports with no real effort or rely too much on cheap gimmicks with the Wii's unique setup up, just remember the DS. When the DS first came out, everyone (me included) thought it was the next virtual boy. The initial launch lineup sucked, the first several months were filled with gimmicky uses of the touch screen and crap kiddy games. Everyone thought the PSP would just come along with it's superior power and multimedia capabilities and slaughter it. Now everyone is deservedly calling the PSP a dog and believing Sony should drop it or drastically alter their game plan in order to at least lessen the humongous gap between the two. What happened? Well shitty software on the PSP, for one. But developers learned not only how to effectively utilize the dual screen and touch screen functions of the DS, but that you don't have to even utilize them all that much to make a truly great game. Worst case scenario, this will be the Wii. But assuming the next couple of months really delivers on the software and they keep it up, that won't even be the problem. Drought? Hardly.

Stand Up of the Week: JIM GAFFIGAN



FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: RETRON