On paper, 2005 appears to have given us little in comparison with other players in the market. The PS2 steamed on with an exciting mix of mainstream-grabbing and jealously artistic titles, further cementing its position as gaming's norm; the Gamecube limped its way through the twelve months, with occasional greats but a decidedly vapid overall showing. Xbox delivered a successor, springing from unveiling to release in a mere seven months, backed by Rare's almost mocking Nintendo adoptives; Nintendo showed us a console and a controller, with little else planned for months. And the handheld market, traditionally Nintendo's territory, saw invasion by Sony's own miniature Playstation. In the year that Mario turned twenty, what would he have thought of his creators?

One hopes he would've been rather proud, actually. Because, although the year saw Nintendo face many challenges, it was against these forces that they remained defiant and strikingly brilliant. More than anything, it reminded us that they might have tough times, but they are still one of the best exemplars of vision and heart in the business. The 'new Nintendo' I mentioned in CE's exclamatory post-E3 '04 is taking its time to emerge, but it's coming. It's in this context that earlier worries are largely debunked.

There's no beating around the bush with the Gamecube: it wasn't a great year. One of the saddest things about the N64, besides being criminally undervalued by the world at large, was its painful winter. It was undignified to have the console that brought us to gaming's stratosphere crawl towards its rest as it did, with a most sporadic release radar and public invisibility. We hoped Gamecube would be spared a similar fate, but things didn't quite work out that way.

The building of relations with developers early in GC's life suggested that Nintendo had some kind of long-term grasp on what they were doing with the console, but this hope faded in the past year or more. Developers continued with the assumption that the PS2 and Xbox were the systems of preference, both for middle-level titles and ambitious projects, leaving the GC to rely on Nintendo and multiformat licensed games. Exceptions exist, mostly from Capcom (Resident Evil 4 and Killer7 were remarkable in different ways), but these were limited. Twilight Princess, the great white hope of the year, fell into 2006 (a noble gesture, but hardly a help for the console's yearly showing). The last-ditch efforts from Nintendo to salvage the year � more Mario spinoffs � were particularly indicative of their lack of foresight or imagination, relative game quality aside.

By contrast, the success story of the year has been a console that, more than remaining unreleased, has yet to display any software. The Revolution, or, more specifically, its controller, is easily 2005's headliner. Far from simply a plus point of Nintendo's next console, it's the point around which everything positive about the company is galvanised.

In a single stroke, Nintendo re-ignited videogames. The consequences cannot be overemphasised: for me, and many others, it was the Tokyo Games Show that made videogames interesting all over again. Before it, we were resigned to the view that the future of games was just endlessly recycling of ideas of convergence and photo-realism, a vision Sony and Microsoft were certainly promoting. It was hard to look to the future with much optimism when you were faced with such an unoriginal resolution. No company seemed poised to truly break away; it's fitting that the task fell to Nintendo, the fairly dependable stewards of gaming breakthroughs.

The whole architecture of the medium's expectations has changed for the better as a result. Edge noted in their Xbox 360 issue that Microsoft's console may have changed videogames' rulebook, but it's with the Revolution that standards are really being usurped. We're no longer resigned to accept traditional as the only norm; there are now alternatives to multi prongs and button maps. As a result, the 360 appears oddly�out-of-date. The big clunky device endorses a gaming philosophy that seems almost quaint with the Revolution's wildly innovative control interface on the horizon. Rather than the jump-on point for something grand, the 360 seems too expensive, too big and too familiar. The Live setup represents a big leap in online friendliness, true, but otherwise there's little to be psyched about besides the obligatory fancy new graphics. We have relatively little to fear from the console, because we know we're in for something truly medium-changing next year.

Speaking of having little to fear, one has to be amused by the PSP's predicted theft of the handheld market and the surprising resistance of the DS to Sony. The little gimmicky piece of equipment really has caught on, becoming the fastest selling console in Japanese history with after hitting the 5 million mark in just 13 months. The most blatant example of Japan's love affair with the console was the Christmas week, which saw unit sales hit an astonishing 600K. This demand meant the system was 'sold out' in the country, the first Nintendo console to do so. Worldwide sales stand at 13 million. Recent reports give it a 3 to 1 sales ratio to the PSP, and a handheld market share of 35%, compared to Sony's machine's 13%.

Such comparisons are, of course, a little unfair. The DS has had a much longer time to gain appealing software than the PSP, and in some territories the former is falling behind. The point to draw from this isn't really about which can outdo the other in the numbers game, but that the public is more than comfortable with the two co-existing. Reservations existed about how people would react the 'gimmicky' handheld, with conventional logic stating it would languish in relative obscurity compared to the mighty 'portable Playstation', but conventions are being rewritten.

Attitudes towards what we want from our videogames are seeing considerable change. Such change has been brewing since around halfway through this console generation, when traditional game experiences were broadened. Xbox Live broke the confinements of binary game experiences; the PS2 has seen considerable peripheral proliferation with the Eyetoy, Singstar and Buzz!; the Gamecube attempted to join console and GBA worlds, rather failing, and gave Donkey Kong a new leash of life with a great bongo-based line of rhythm games. With the prospect of a medium free from the tyranny of technical power on the horizon � the exponential rise in hardware ability renders this inevitable � manufacturers have been forced to diversify their output.

This testing of the water has met with relative success, and is set to continue throughout the next generation. The DS' stellar performance validates this, signalling that the gaming community is happy with two screens, or a microphone, or touch functions; with new kinds of games and new ways of interacting with these games. It bodes well for the Revolution, although obviously it is quite a more sizable departure from the norm. (To digress for a moment, it's worth considering the PS3 and Xbox 360 in this context. They try to out-boast each other with their specs, but the respective companies are still aiming for other areas: the 360's reworked online framework and the PS3's 'media hub' desire.)

This may be a review of the year, but much of that year has to be cast in terms of what's ahead. We're approaching a videogame watershed, when priorities will be shuffled and traditions overturned. 2005 has left us with the promise that anything is possible again for Nintendo. That even if they cannot reclaim their place on gaming's throne they can still slug it out in their own unique style. 2006 will depend on how exactly the Revolution is handled; we know it can deliver us the world, but will developers be willing to do that? And will the public be convinced to depart from console convention? Is it the beginning of another golden era for Nintendo, or their final folly? It's hard to be exactly sure, but the joy is in knowing that something really wonderful is within reach.

Conor Smyth
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