Teh worstest Nintedo game everz!!!

It's generally accepted that the large majority of the Wii's library is filled with piles and piles of completely useless shovelware. Why does anybody continue to buy it, then? It can't just be Wii Sports Resort & Wii Fit, right? Oh alright, it probably can. But odds are if you are not one of the casual gaming crowd (i.e. somebody who actually made trash like Carnival Games a success) and you own a Wii, it's pretty much for the first party exclusives that you can only get your hands on by owning a Nintendo system. There are a couple other hot properties Nintendo has, but generally they've kept an extremely loyal hardcore following with the holy gaming triumvirate of Mario, Link & Samus. These 3 legendary gaming icons and their series are generally considered some of the finest gaming ever offered. Nearly every title has been met with resounding critical acclaim and huge sales. The most amazing thing is probably that though these are Nintendo's flagship franchises, they have rarely played it safe. Each entry is usually a drastic departure from the previous one, and in over 20 years, this has rarely resulted in a bad game.

With this in mind, Metroid: Other M hits today, and reviews started popping up Friday. And compared to the usual high praise, it's taking quite a beating. The majority of reviews are positive, but even those have similar complaints of a terrible story and a very clunky first-person mode. I'm honestly not sure if this will affect sales much, Nintendo loyalists tend to treat anything given less than an outstanding review as "bias" and will snatch it up. I most likely will be picking it up later today, so hopefully I'll be able to at least give some impressions next time I update (most likely Thursday).

Also out today may be the sleeper hit of the year for the Wii. Earlier I said most of the Wii's more casual oriented library is pure garbage. Which frankly might be an insult to garbage. But once in a blue moon, the planets align correctly and you get a really fun game that's aimed at casual crowds yet really well done. This may very well be Disney's own take on Clue, Guilty Party. Not only are the early reviews pretty solid, this quirky little out of nowhere title got quite a bit of attention at E3 for actually being quite fun. I also hope to pick this up today so I'll give my impressions on that as well.

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Actually Gamestop apparently has a plan to detail with the inevitability of everything going digital, and boy is it stupid. Granted, I don't think the day where you download all your games is only 5-10 years years away. The PSPgo being a total and utter failure is evidence of this. There's still a lot of things to work out in the digital space, proper pricing probably being the biggest one, but also that the public is slow to adapt to a huge shift in media. Sure, internet savvy users are already chomping at the bit, but if the internet actually represented anywhere close the majority of the populace, the Wii would be a failure and Scott Pilgrim would be the highest-grossing film of all time. That being said, Gamestop's so-called solution is pretty stupid. Who is going to want to go to the store, purchase content to download, then go back to download it? It's probably still a couple decades off really, but once games truly go digital, Gamestop is in big trouble.

Microsoft has really had a hard time continuing to truly justify charging people to access features most other consoles give you for free (streaming netflix, online play, etc.). So what are they doing about that? They are raising prices.

Sure, that makes sense, the economy is just booming right now, so why not raise prices? Granted, if you buy in before the price hike, you actually save $10 off the previous price of $50 (and if you buy cards instead of renewing online you could be set for years). But I feel most will see this as a ridiculously ludicrous expense just to play Halo: Reach online.

Ok that's all I have for today, but hopefully I should be back Thursday or Friday with impressions of both Metroid: Other M & Guilty Party as well as anything else going on. Til then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The Town