Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Revolution. Not as powerful as the Xbox 360; not as powerful as the Playstation 3; an ugly machine with a dual-wield controller that comes straight out of a twisted nightmare.

Great.

I would like to stress here that all of the above are simply my opinion �bar the first two points, of course, which are depressingly true. There are no doubt those among you who are intrigued by the 80's style design and the curious controller, and that's just super. Believe you me, I'm desperate for Nintendo to make up for the ground lost over the last generation, but let's face it: on the face of the evidence, this next round is going to be as frustrating as the last.

Let's talk about that controller, shall we? Nintendo had it billed as a mind-blowing piece of high-tech wizardry, a marvel of the modern age that would blow all our minds. We searched the internet for gossip and rumours, desperately hoping that the rumblings abouta dual-screen, touch sensitive input were true. The company had us all salivating at the prospect of seeing the new controller, citing fears that competitors would steal their innovative ideas should pictures ever surface.

Pull the other one.

Instead of a marvellous leap forward in technology and step towards the true future of gaming, we loyal Nintendo fans get a remote control and grey banana. I personally laughed and made a mockery of the silver-grey boomerang PS3 joypad �now I'm paralysed with incredulity at the audacity of Nintendo. After months of speculation and rumour-mongering, to be faced with such and anticlimax is galling to the extreme.

Before you sharpen your knives and come hunting for me, let me point out that I want Nintendo to succeed in the next generation as much as any other Nintendo fan. But you have to admit, the controller looks a bit freaky and is hardly likely to entice customers into anything more than looks of puzzled bewilderment when faced with the choice of a traditional control pad offered by the other two marketed consoles. Innovation may well drive the industry forward, but driving the industry forward is only truly an achievement if you can remain profitable in the face of stiff competition. Besides, what most people seem to want from their console is an easy to use interface that lets them slip into the game world with ease. It's going to be hard to explain to consumers why they should go for innovation over the familiar, especially if the other hardware is more powerful.

Nintendo is all about driving the industry forward, and that's one of their greatest assets, but also one of their largest downfalls. Nintendo pioneered shoulder-buttons, analogue control, rumble features, the true 3D platformer and the affordable and energy efficient portable console, to name but a few of their achievements. It is however, their astounding arrogance over their own achievements that grates the most. Take, for example, the EyeToy, a great piece of hardware, that when seen by ordinary customers, caused Playstation 2 consoles to almost walk out of shops and into people's houses all by themselves. When questioned by the press whether or not they would consider developing the same technology for the Gamecube, a Nintendo representative coolly replied "We already did it on the Game Boy."

Wow. You already did it before. Personally, I can't think of a better reason to not make money. We already made money in the past, let's not make any more, making money is so passé, let's push the industry forward by instead of making money and giving gamers what they want, telling gamers what we believe they should be playing. (Note: Sarcasm)

Prove me wrong, if you can, I'd be happy to hear it. The Gamecube has made money, true, but has hardly made a meteoric impact on the gaming scene. Games like Wind Waker, Donkey Konga and Pokemon Coliseum may well herald a sharp spike in sales, but ultimately this is impossible to maintain in the long term, and instead of going down the bread-and-butter route of providing gamers with plenty to be playing between now and the next innovative industry-impacting title, we are forced to wait lengthy periods between the quality tiles and suffer a dearth of excitement for months on end.

I applaud the efforts of Nintendo in making waves in the industry, for having the guts to stand up and say that the industry needs changing, I believe wholeheartedly that the gaming experience needs to improve significantly to avoid stagnating in the long term, or else risk becoming as dull and uninteresting as the music scene. However, it will take more than one maverick �and once mighty, industry member to change the situation. The evolution must be gradual or it will send the industry into recession as carefully won casual gamers reject the new direction due to confusion and lack of staple titles.

Nintendo need to get third party developers firmly onside in order to secure growth and expansion for their next generation efforts �a task that I genuinely believe will be far more difficult as a result of the quirky controller and the relatively low-power of the machine in comparison to its rivals. With the security of extensive third party support, Nintendo will be able to maintain a policy of creating new and exciting titles, but without this, they are doomed to failure. Time will tell if the Revolution is or is not a success.

Many gamers, and I among them, fervently hope that Nintendo do well next generation. If they do however, it will no doubt be in spite of their best efforts.

Good luck, Nintendo.

Next Week: Iun takes a look at the other side of the coin. Could it actually be a Step Forward? Oh, the ambiguity.

Iun Hockley
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