Another year, another E3.

Ho-hum.

Sorry, I meant: "Holy Heck, did you see that? I mean, did you actually see that?!"

Yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen, that was the sight and sound of Nintendo blowing everyone away at this year's event.

From Mario to Metroid, Zelda to Super Smash Bros, Starfox DS to those quite frankly jaw-dropping visuals and the promise of new �and most importantly, revolutionary ways to play, Nintendo had the full run of the conference floor with four-hour waiting times for the Mario Galaxy demo and the interestingly different uses of the Wii-mote. Yes indeed, this was the year of Nintendo.

Forget Microsoft, showing off a barrage of gorgeous but uninspired second-generation Xbox 360 games; what the 360 has visually, it surely lacks in innovation. It's nice to look good, but like any relationship counsellor will tell you, it's personality and diversity that counts. Right now, the 360 would pretty much get dumped after the second date, there is simply nothing there to prove to me it has long term potential for growth and evolution.

Forget Sony with their embarrassingly half-hearted attempt to add motion control into their games; had an original idea lately, guys? No, I didn't think so. E3 proved to me what I have suspected for all these years: Sony is a cynical, half-assed, cock-sure copycat corporate giant that has been riding the coat tails of greatness for years on the strength of increasingly tedious yearly updates that at best are causing gaming to stagnate, and at worst are turning gaming into my personal Hell, populated with swearing rap-stars, soulless mascots and hollowed out franchises so long past their sell-by date that they stink up the shelves of game stores the world over.

And to think I was feeling the same way about Nintendo last year.

Last year with another Zelda video, last year with the poor and humorously gigantic Reggie Fils-Aime attempting to sell the GBA Micro as a hot lifestyle accessory. Last year with the no-show Revolution. Last year was a shambles, and I'd really rather that Nintendo never ever repeated their performance again. But for a year like this year� I'm willing to accept a small drop in quality, only a small drop though.

Nintendo often slip up, and I'm frequently among the first to criticise them when they do (actually, I might be 52nd in the queue, but I'm pretty high up there) but praise where praise is due, and I would like to praise Nintendo for an excellent showing.

Perhaps it's just my age, but I have really become quite jaded with gaming these last few years. New generations have arrived without anything more than a whimper for me; I've bought the consoles mechanically, simply because I felt I had to. Then the DS came along. Critics dismissed the touch-screen as a gimmick, a fly-by-night and a wasted opportunity that nobody would use. Just a map, people said, turning their noses up at the future. Just another stupid idea from a stupid company out of touch with the common gamer that makes stupid games for kids.

The DS re-ignited my waning interest in gaming in the way that only Nintendo can, other companies can make handheld consoles that a replicas of their home console brethren, but what's the point for me as a gamer if I'm not interested in the home console games anyway? I love sitting around in a public place, frantically blowing in the microphone and squealing in frustration at Tom Nook and his under-inflated turnip prices (I'm coming for you, Nook�). It gives me a real buzz to do something different, to try something a little bit kooky, a little bit quirky, but a lot entertaining.

So no for the first time in nearly a decade, I'm really excited about the prospect of an entirely new home console that is, I hope, going to bring a little bit of that gaming magic back to my sofa. I can't stop cruising the sites, looking for new tidbits of news, hunting out screens and clips I haven't seen yet. The light gun adapter has my trigger-finger quivering in anticipation; beating off my foes with the nunchuck is making me seriously consider investing in a ninja costume to get in the mood.

Yes indeed, I'm looking forward to having a Wii.

Iun Hockley
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