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For the last couple of months I've been collecting video games. Some games are in the form of collector's editions and others are Xbox Live Arcade games. Finding the time to actually play the games has been something of an issue lately. Fortunately I did make time to try out one new game and found it interesting enough to share my first impressions.

You've undoubtedly been hearing quite a bit about the 3DS all around the internet, this blog included. You really can't blame anyone for bringing it up, because a number of things about it look great. And hopefully it will get the media, and most gamers in general, to take portable gaming seriously. They did for a time around the PSP's launch, but that quickly dissipated when Sony fumbled about with how to market the system. The 3DS is already looking to be home to some great games, but there's a potential problem.

The thing about the 3DS is that only the top screen, a 3.5 inch widescreen display, is capable of showing 3D, with the touch screen being the same 3 inch one you see now on your DS or DS Lites (albeit with better horsepower behind it). Instead of allowing developers to have a focus on any screen given they had an even aspect ratio with the original model, all attention looks like it will be primarily fixed on the top screen this time around. This could hinder the development of games that primarily rely on using the touch screen.

The technology currently exists to make a touch screen capable of reverting between 2D and 3D, but it's possible Nintendo incorporated a non-3D one to keep the cost of the hardware down -- for them and you. That, or they fell having two different screens capable of 3D would cause illnesses or blow the minds of players. Or that the touch screen wasn't efficient enough to be used for gaming. The worrying aspect is we may not get games on the scale of Kirby's Canvas Curse or The World Ends With You; that is, game's that used the system's touch screen in an innovative manner and couldn't be done on other systems.



This could also mean something to people who play comparatively smaller games like Solitaire and Bejeweled. Those aren't games that could use 3D for any serious function, but a little added eye candy wouldn't hurt. Anyone who owns those games would have no incentive to purchase a new version of the aforementioned games. You Bejeweled fans can just sit around and ponder how good a Puzzle Quest game could look with the pieces popping out at you. You won't get that here.

That is...unless developers can find a viable workaround. It may be possible to replicate what's on the touch screen on the top screen to present it in 3D. It's something that would require the player to look constantly at the top and bottom constantly. That would work well for a puzzle game, and would be OK for a TWEWY-esque game (because it requires that anyway), but would be impossible for a game like Canvas Curse. And here people thought the 3DS would be less challenging to approach than the DS for developers.

None of this is doubting that the 3DS won't have the ability to have some great games. In fact, its initial lineup already looks incredibly promising, and it will have enough support at this point that any competitor wouldn't stand much of a chance at this point. The question will be how developers can deal with a new obstacle. Whichever way it turns out, it's going to be an incredibly fun ride, to watch and experience.

And the pointless babble continues with where I left off yesterday.


Sony on the Move (continued)


Complaining aside, there are quite a few things that interested me about Sony's offerings. While the push for exclusive content and exclusive limited editions were actually nice I was ultimately indifferent toward them. What really interested me was the PlayStation Move which can be summed up by the words, "Wii HD." As with Kinect, Move didn't really show off anything that hadn't already been done on the Wii. Unlike its competitors Move is taking a more visually realistic approach to motion control gaming. The results were gorgeous titles like Sports Champions, The Fight: Lights Out, and Sorcery, all of which look pretty fun and already seem to appeal to core gamers turned off by the cuteness of Miis and Avatars.
 



The Move has already been priced but at its most expensive it will cost around $130 for the camera, the Move controller, and the navigation controller. Although gamers can avoid paying $30 for the navigation controller by using the Dualshock 3 instead. For the gamers who want a solo experience with the Move it is a better value over Kinect. If the Move becomes a family affair it can quickly become expensive at $50 per Move controller and $30 per Navigation controller. It'll be some time before we found out if Sony's bid for the casual fans pay off, but unlike the competition the Move seems to be generating buzz among many core PS3 owners.

As for the PSP no new hardware was announced. Considering the massive effort initially put behind the PSP Go the lack of a PSP successor is not surprising. However, it was nice to see that Sony is still supporting the PSP. Perhaps a more aggressive ad campaign and a steady release of new PSP games will help counter slow sales. But with the upcoming 3DS ready to dethrone the PSP as the more powerful handheld one can only hope that Sony has a proper PSP successor in the works.


Nintendo's Core


For the last few years Nintendo catered to the casual gaming audience and the move literally paid off. With a huge influx of revenue from new gamers many longtime core gamers felt ignored by Nintendo. For years fans begged for more franchise games as well as revivals of older games. As the games were slow to come many longtime fans began to feel jaded. All of that changed this year with the announcement of no less than six first party titles announced or further detailed at Nintendo's press conference. Additionally, several more third party titles were announced or detailed. And despite Microsoft and Sony's best efforts the biggest news coming from E3 is the 3DS and how it really works.

If Nintendo can be faulted for anything this year it would be a stunning lack of new IPs. Just about everything in their line-up consisted of sequels and remakes of familiar titles. The barrage of game announcements and live demos felt like a "take that" aimed at disgruntled Nintendo fans at worst. At best it can be said that Nintendo finally gave longtime fans what they wanted for several years now. Only a nitpicker or hardcore Sony/Microsoft fan could find serious fault with Nintendo's offerings.




Since Geoff has gone into detail about Nintendo's upcoming line-up I'm going to focus on what caught my attention. I was actually very surprised to discover a new Donkey Kong Country game is due out later this year. I actually cut my teeth on the series starting with the Donkey Kong Land games on the original Game Boy, and later moved onto the Donkey Kong Country series on the SNES. The games themselves were extremely challenging but rewarded the tenacious player. So when Donkey Country Returns was announced I found myself happily surprised. Retro Studios is now handling the franchise but video and reports suggest the game captures the feeling of Rare's work quite well. And the addition of two player co-op should be an interesting feature.




I was also pleased to see gameplay footage from Disney Epic Mickey, which is shaping up nicely. I haven't played a Disney game since the Sega Genesis days and everything since then (excluding Kingdom Hearts) hasn't really been worth a second look. My habit of abstaining from Disney games will change when Epic Mickey is released later this year. Another game I'm looking forward to is Kirby Epic Yarn. I can't say that I'm a Kirby fan because I've never really bothered to play the games since owning a Game Boy. Epic Yarn seems like a good place to start. As for the DS I'm looking forward to Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, and Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. All and all, it's going to be a pretty busy end of the year for Nintendo fans.




The biggest buzz generator to come out of E3 was the Nintendo 3DS. The device itself wasn't the surprise as it was announced months beforehand by Nintendo. The big surprise lies in the fact that the handheld works as intended (affordable 3D without having to wear special glasses), and how much support third party developers have announced for the 3DS. Twenty two publishers have vowed to support the 3DS, and at least 50 games have been announced in some form. Of those 50 planned games, about 20 of them already have titles, early screen shots, and some were even demoed at E3. Even if half of those are launch titles the 3DS is bound to enjoy a variety of gamer support. With graphics as powerful as the GameCube, the ability to turn to scale down or turn off 3D effects, downloads in sleep mode, improved WiFi support, backwards compatibility with DS games, and 3D movie support, the 3DS seems poised to be one hell of a Nintendo handheld. As of this writing a price and release date have not been given for the 3DS, nor does it have a final look. I'm sure the handheld will cost $250 at the most, but here's to hoping it isn't priced higher than $200. Either way, it would be surprising if the 3DS doesn't sell well at launch and beyond.

E3 2010 will most likely be a memorable show. Microsoft and Sony catered to the causal gamers with their answers to the Wii. Conversely, Nintendo focused on more serious gamers by announcing or further detailing games to appeal to all fans. There's also no doubt that Nintendo's 3DS stole lots of momentum away from Sony's PlayStation Move and Microsoft's Kinect. It'll be interesting to see how all of this new hardware fairs once it hits the market. On a final note I'm sure gamers everywhere have one last thought for Microsoft and its pre-E3 show: We can all do without bizarre Cirque Du Soleil performances at future E3 shows, thanks.

Level 5 finally confirmed last week that White Knight Chronicles 2 will come packaged with an enhanced version of the first game, despite that fact being leaked a few weeks beforehand. The version being included with the sequel will fix some of the flaws the original had, along with having some visual enhancements. This is a pretty good deal for anyone who either missed the first game, or wanted to play through the game again. The second game will also complete the story, nullifying prior conjecture that this was a trilogy.

This is a wonderful idea, and something a lot of publishers should do with their sequels -- especially if they're set right where the previous game left off. But there's a problem; the stipulation here is that Level 5 is forcing you to complete the first game before you jump into the second game. If you have a save file from the first game, it has to be a "Clear File." Otherwise, you'll have to start over with the enhanced game included with the second game if you don't want to finish the current version.

On the surface, this doesn't sound too bad. For instance, I don't particularly mind being forced to abide by this rule, since I'd like a chance to check out the game's prequel in its entirety. I'm sure anyone else in this mindset feels the same way. However, that doesn't defend the fact that it's an awful idea. It's the principle of it that's the problem. Is it a good idea to play a sequel without knowing all of the details of the previous version? Probably not, but that doesn't mean a company has the right to restrict anyone from wanting to do that.

But the good news is that they still have time to fix this mistake. The problem here is the principle of restricting freedom, a specific precedent of freedom that's never been violated before. No one really wants to see this happen now, especially with a company that we all expected better from. What we have now is the equivalent of them shaking your hand with one arm and punching you in the face with the other. The force of that punch depending on how much you hate this idea.

Aside from whether they'll keep the idea (which has a high probability of "yes"), there's also whether Sony will actually localize this one. And if they do, hopefully the domestic version will also include both games. You'd think this would be guaranteed, but Sony has done some silly things this generation, so you'll never know. And hopefully they won't take 14 months to release it like the last one. In the meantime, two videos uploaded to the Japanese website show off some of the changes made to the battle system. The game releases in Japan on July 8th, and maybe it will make an appearance at E3 next week.

When I first read about Nostalgia, the premise interested me and I tucked it away in my GameFly queue.

It's a quaint DS RPG, harkening back to simpler design principles while injecting some fresh variety. It mixes normal combat with ship-to-ship battles in the sky, and has adopted a more modern system of learning and improving skills. The dungeons are small enough to never feel like you're slogging through them and the plot, while slow to develop, is quick to push your from point to point. A few side quests, mostly involving go-out-and-kill-these, may be needed to actually explore the areas you go visit.

These pictures previously turned up in the very first edition of Geoffrey's Cover Art Chronicles.

So I've said a lot of nice things about Nostalgia... but did I finish it? No.  Do I intend to? No.

Why?

Nostalgia's good... but not good enough to work its way into my backlog.

From Nostalgia to nostalgic

If this were 10 years ago, I would have played through an equivalent game of the era (so long as it wasn't Quest 64. That music drove me batty). 

When we were younger, There was more time and fewer games. This was a boon, considering that we were more or less on our own to get by the hard or less than obvious parts. We needed the time and lack of distractions to actually get anywhere in the games of the 80s and 90s.

It took me many weeks of exploration, dying and repetition to get to the end of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and many many more to find my way through that maze of a palace, and finally kill the thunderbird with enough life and magic left over to take on the shadow and emerge victorious.

YOU try doing this without Nintendo Power. Map from ZeldaWiki.

It's a feat I managed repeatedly before I was 15, but have been unable to repeat since. It took a lot of practice and luck, and not in a way that's like riding a bicycle. But in the olden days there were fewer games to distract me from giving any one my all.

Fickle environment

As I've said before, there is plenty to play today. That, and the time constraints of this welcome-real-life era means that there are so many "A" games that I haven't the time for the "B+" games. I might play everything interesting by renouncing all other forms of media and writing posts for Damage Control (though some might half-rightly say this is already happening).

The other side of this coin is that I have no patience for BS in games (forget for the moment that I play Pokémon. This part will have fewer logic-holes if you do). Compulsory grinding, glitches to work around, cheap or ineffectual AI, escort missions, luck-based missions, trial-and-error gameplay, backtracking, inconvenient or too few checkpoints, monkey-in-the-middle plot devices, arbitrary locks on content, unnecessary padding, buggy releases that should never have been put on a gold master with mandatory patches to render the retail release playable, DRM and paying more money to play a game I've already bought.

(I don't mind a challenge, but challenge is far from the only reason I -- and doubtless many other people -- play games. If a game is ONLY challenging due to poor design choices and poor testing, it's artificial challenge intended to test our obsessiveness, not our skills.)

An otherwise good game possessing one of these may be rejected. An otherwise good game with many of these will likely be summerly rejected in favor of other good games with less BS.

Nostalgia, fortunately, doesn't suffer from too many of these flaws, so I would recommend it if you have the time for for it.  As for me:

Just started: The Lost Vikings, Pokemon Platinum

Still Playing: Braid, Earthbound, Final Fantasy: Disidia, Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Edition, Pokemon Soul Silver

Lagging behind: Brood War, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Persona 3: FES, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 

Just Finished: Ace Attorney: Miles Edgeworth Investigations, Portal, Soulblazer, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

Up Next: Torchlight, Dragon Quest IV, Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman: What Did I Do to Deserve This?, Jumping Flash 2, Kingdom Hearts, Mega Man 9, Mother 3

Despite the first look existing within the pages of Famitsu and Game Informer for a few weeks, the first direct feed bull screen shots were revealed for Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds a couple of days ago. When Capcom expressed their desire to make the game look similar to a comic book, they were completely serious. That's regardless of how most of the game's potential fans thought it was a little farfetched -- especially after them saying the individual character designs were actual in-game models -- and how some of them really would have liked to see the anime-style look from the previous game and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom transferred to this game.

And then you have the small-though-vocal subset of them that would love to have this thing in 2D, despite how unachievable it sadly is. I like 2D as much as any other dedicated fan, and I definitely prefer the look of Street Fighter III to Street Fighter IV -- mind you, I still think the latter looks great. But the reality is SFIII cost Capcom a lot of money, money they definitely didn't make back because of the reception towards the game. Part of that had to do with the gameplay systems, but a sadder reason for that is that a lot of people prefer 3D to 2D. The only games you'll see in 2D are games where you know the publisher will definitely recoup the cost. A game as wonderfully animated as Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is a rare sight these days.

But it might not be so bad if some companies can successfully blend the two styles together to make a 3D polygon-laden game look as visually appealing as a hand-drawn one. It's harder than it sounds, but looking at MvC3, I think we're making it there. SFIV was a nice attempt but some aspects of the looks were a little off. Specifically, some of the character models didn't look as nice as their 2D counterparts (like both Ryu and Ken, for instance). The backgrounds, save for Super Street Fighter IV's newly introduced ones and the African airport one, needed some work. But it was the first attempt at this for Capcom's fighting games, and it's well worth some respect.


Considering how good it looks, I can understand how some fans may have a problem with the way MvC3 looks right now. The stocky-armored Iron Man of the 90s has been replaced with the lankier iteration seen in the 00s, an expected change given how Capcom wants this game to appeal to a wide of an audience as possible. I prefer the old one, honestly. Some don't like the look of the Hulk either (more specifically, his hair), but I think he looks fine. Chris Redfield is about as buff as he was in Resident Evil 5, and he needs to be if he wants to take on the Hulk. And we all know he can.

I'd also like a good look at Morrigan. Not because of what you're thinking upon reading that. I just want to see how her new comic book-style look will be represented in-game is all. Yeah.

For people who think that it doesn't look to great now, Capcom has plenty of time to refine its visuals. Street Fighter IV looked a little rough when it was first introduced back in early '08, but it came a long way in a short time. We'll probably get our first real look at the game in two weeks at E3, but these screen shots probably confirm that the Shinkuu Hadoken animation at the end of the Captivate trailer was probably in game. For pure 2D, we'll have games the Blazblue and King of Fighters titles, but this will serve as a fine alternative.

Sunday night marked the end of another successful year of Fox's Animation Domination comedy block. Unlike the myriad of network TV shows either being cancelled or simply ending (see Numb3rs, Law and Order, 24, Lost, etc.), Fox's Animation Domination is still going strong-- albeit without King of the Hill. Although I've fallen out of the loop with watching The Simpsons I'm still following Seth MacFarlane's various comedies. This year Family Guy ended its eighth season, American Dad successfully finished a fifth season, and the first season of The Cleveland Show made waves. While I'm convinced that Family Guy gets a little worse with each season since its revival, The Cleveland Show was a pleasant surprise and American Dad continues to be strangely awesome.




Upon learning about The Cleveland Show spin off I was apprehensive. Out all the characters on Family Guy I found Cleveland Brown to be the least interesting. To me he was just the token black guy. Being a longtime fan of Seth MacFarlane's work (all the way back to his days at Hanna Barbera), I decided to give the series a try. I was happy to discover how logical the premise of the show was and how much continuity it actually shared with Family Guy. Cleveland never got much air time because of Peter Griffin's over-the-top shenanigans. Cleveland is finally fed up and forced to leave Quahog after losing his house to his ex-wife in their divorce settlement. He and his son eventually end up in his hometown of Stoolbend, Virginia. There he marries his old high school sweetheart Donna, and moves in with her two children. Between his son, Cleveland Jr. and Donna's children, Roberta and Rallo the pieces for a typical sitcom neatly fell into place.

The first few episodes of the first season lacked some of the wacky humor found in both Family Guy and American Dad but the show was solidly amusing. From the start, the show established that it would not take itself seriously, even including a funny in-show TV promo about white people who attempt to make shows for black people in the second episode. In fact, the writers always seemed aware of potential skepticism and broke the forth wall as much as possible. Halfway through the season the show began to use more of the signature humor that marks Family Guy, while adding a unique twist. The continuity between The Cleveland Show and Family Guy also aided the show greatly, as opposed to completely ignoring the seven seasons of Cleveland's history with Peter and friends. Unfortunately there was a bit of history rewriting and odd moments in the show that didn't quite match up with the said history. Cleveland Jr. is one such example. He first appeared on the early seasons of Family Guy as a thin, hyper, young boy with a clear cut case of attention deficit disorder. Suddenly he's back, calmer, smarter, several years older (while no one else has aged), and considerably fatter. No official explanation for his radical change is ever offered. Also, Cleveland claims Stoolbend as his hometown but episodes of Family Guy clearly have him spending his teenage years in Quahog as Peter's best friend. Again, no explanation is offered. Considering the show's continuity these questions are worth asking and do present an annoying lack of detail.


Cleveland rants on about why he's leaving and asks for a special favor from Lois and Bonnie. I'll file this one under les yay.


Still, the overall continuity works well. Like the show it was spun off from, this show makes liberal use of cutaways and the writers seem to enjoy poking fun at celebrities, especially black celebrities. Unlike Family Guy, Cleveland is refreshingly less of a jerk and the show captures much of the lighthearted nature that was lost with its parent show years ago. In fact, The Cleveland Show is closest fans will ever get to Family Guy returning to its pre-cancellation roots. In short, I'm glad I gave this newest series a chance and I'm looking forward to season two.  

Season eight of Family Guy kicked off with the said continuity related to Cleveland's departure. At first it was a little strange not to have Cleveland around, but after the first few episodes it felt normal. His absence could either be due to the relatively minor role he's come to play in recent years, or that his spin off show fills the gap nicely.  But in a nice surprise one of the last episodes of season eight did feature Peter and friends taking a trip to Stoolbend and inviting Cleveland along on a wacky adventure. Cleveland or not, Family has been something of a mixed bag in recent years and season eight continues the trend. Which is a shame considering how funny season started off with episodes like "Road to the Multiverse" and "Jerome is the New Black." Longtime fans of the series will note the pre-cancellation episodes of Family Guy have a very different vibe from the post-cancellation episodes. Once the series was revived it noticeably took a more mean spirited approach and seemed to dare the executives at Fox to cancel it for a third time.




It went from being a lowbrow comedy with weird but amusing situations to an outright offensive series at times. Just about every character has taken a turn for the worst and Peter who was once a likable dumb-ass is just an outright jackass. Even the family itself became more dysfunctional as everyone's personality simply devolved. The lighthearted humor and lessons learned from said sitcom situations from the first three seasons are long gone. Additionally, the show has taken more of a political position in recent years. At times Family Guy feels less like a comedy and more like a super liberal, decidedly anti-religious platform for the writers. Those particular episodes (especially when they're devoid of any real humor) can be almost painful to watch. Still the overall entertainment value can occasionally trend toward "so wrong but kinda funny," depending on your personal tastes.




Despite my complaints and the complaints of many other fans, Family Guy manages to remain a solid series for more forgiving fans. Unlike The Simpsons, the show is in a downward spiral but the series has not yet crashed and burned. Sure, much of the magic left when Seth MacFarlane stopped doing much of the writing himself, but this series still has quite a bit of admittedly offensive humor left. Going back to series' hit or miss syndrome, I found myself completely unimpressed with the 150th episode simply titled "Brian and Stewie." Watching Brian and Stewie for nearly an hour trapped in a bank vault with an episode that consisted entirely of dialogue was not a particularly interesting fit for Family Guy. It was definitely a case of your mileage may vary. Still, the hour long season finale "Something Something, Something Dark Side" a parody of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was actually pretty decent and made up for "Brian and Stewie" many times over. While the episode was more of a movie than anything else, it reminded me of how much I still enjoy Family Guy when the series hits its mark. That said I wouldn't be surprised if the upcoming season nine continued the downward slide of the series.

My favorite Seth MacFarlane show in recent years is American Dad. I relate it to what Matt Groening did with Futurama and how it became more interesting than The Simpsons. I've enjoyed American Dad more than I've enjoyed Family Guy in recent years. When I think about it, I initially hated the first half of season one but the series became likable when the writers ditched the overly offensive political and social humor. The series started out as biting satirical response to the George W. Bush presidency and the Far Right but tried way too hard to offend everyone. Despite being from the same studio as Family Guy, it didn't bother with any of the signature cutaways or clever lowbrow humor that marks MacFarlane's work.  Instead it relied heavily on smart political humor and to fully enjoy the show viewers had to be aware of recent politics. At the end of season one, it became clear that taking a very different approach to comedy than Family Guy was the right decision. The show took a turn for the ridiculous, and has not strayed from that territory since. Amazingly, the show is all the better for it.


I totally forgot the set up for this episode, but crack AND guns are easily the solution to life's drug gang problems.


In subsequent seasons American Dad has become more of a strange family adventure sitcom, with the occasional nod to politics. Instead of lowbrow humor, the writers have opted for something more subtle and off-the-wall. The show isn't immune to mean spirited humor, but such humor is often well placed and not done for the sake of simply being mean. Surprisingly, the characters have also grown into their own over the last five seasons. Even Stan Smith, who unlike Peter Griffin has become (slightly) less of a jerk as the seasons stretch on. Nevertheless, this show is at its best when it goes for outright weird and over-the-top situations.



Thankfully, season five was no exception. Between Steve becoming a Vietnam War reenactment veteran to Stan being left behind during the rapture (and Stan becoming a badass bounty hunter as a result) to Roger's attempt to kill the entire family after a being insulted on his birthday, this newest season was a blast. The only thing that dampened season five was the actual airing schedule, unlike Family Guy and The Cleveland Show, American Dad went long stretches without being aired on Fox at all, including reruns. Scheduling gripes aimed at Fox aside, I'm ready for season six.

Many avid fans of RPGs have noticed a pricing trend for the big boy -- Square Enix's -- games after the lions share of genre releases jumped to the PSP and DS.

Many new games for the DS start at $30 or $35. Most (but not all) PSP games start at $30. But not Square Enix games. Every last one of them on either system makes their debut at $40. This tendency has led to widespread use of the phrase "Square Enix Tax" by fans bemoaning the premium pricing.

But we're not talking about that. Sure, it's a bit of a pain in the wallet that games I want cost more than the games from other developers, but I know that in a year's time the price will drop to $30 or even $20. I have no such reprieve with the REAL game taxers who, mysteriously, I've never seen or heard griped about.

This real tax? The Nintendo tax

In the Game Cube era, Nintendo was notorious for it's retail pricing strategy with first-party (their own) titles: $50 until its rereleased (years later) with an ugly yellow stripe on the box (better known as "Player's Choice"). Some popular titles, like Super Smash Bros. Melee, never made it until the last year of the console's lifespan. Others, such as Mario Kart: Double Dash never made it there period.

For the Wii the same remains true.... except there are no longer any Player's Choice releases to force price drops.

Would the launch of Super Mario Galaxy 2 perhaps allow us to buy the first one for less? A week away and no news on that front. I can't wait to update this article with Galaxy 1 and 2 side by each with twin $50 price tags.

[UPDATE]: As seen in Best Buy (full disclosure: In a rash display of unethical photography, I moved the Super Mario Galaxy 2 display up so it could be next to the original rather than its actual position below it for easier comparison).

Ready for liftoff

While I could hem and haw over more recent titles like Mario Kart Wii or Wii Music (which is a fun toy, but it wasn't worth $50 when it came out and sure hasn't become more valuable with age), I'll go right to the point and call out the earliest-possible titles; the games which were born with the system.

The big Wii launch title, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess? First game out the door three-and-a-half years ago, still $50. Further, if you can even find a Game Cube copy new, it's $50 too.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves? Still $50.

Excite Truck? Retails for $50, too (if you can even find a retail copy).

Even on the DS, the sting is felt with Nintendo titles getting stuck at $35.

The ridiculously-titled Super Mario 64 DS? $35.

5.5-year-old launch title WarioWare: Touched! with a sequel out? $35.

Compare, if you will, to first-party PS3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man, which debuted at $60 and has since been Greatest Hits'd with a MSRP of $30.

Best-selling

Back in the day (SNES/N64/GBA), all it would take was a million sales (or thereabouts) for Nintendo to drop a "Player's Choice" label on the next print run of a game.

Nowadays the market is different.

114 DS games and 79 Wii titles have sold over one million copies (numbers that also count non-Nintendo titles which are irrelevant to this griping) ... and that only counts through March. Yet there the "Player's Choice" has been absent despite deserving titles springing up left and right. Though, worldwide sales of Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver made the million-seller point four times over -- each -- the first week it was on sale in the States. Perhaps a million is now a very low bar if any title can jump it so quickly.

Evergreen

While the whole forever-pricing strategy does slows sales to any given person, enough buyers take the plunge to keep pushing the titles off shelves at top-price.

Does this have something to do with sales decline curves. Economically speaking, when supply is greater than demand, the so-called "invisible hand of the market" (better known as nervous retailers and publishers) pushes price down until the supply can sell-out (or sell enough). But if demand stays steady the price will too in equilibrium (and if demand increases beyond supply, you get gouged on eBay). With Mario Kart Wii still selling over 600,000 units in the first quarter this year, there's probably little incentive for Nintendo to charge less. You can also see this basic financial strategy evident when a new DS model comes out only when sales of the last one slow down.

Let's take a look at sales for a recent member of the $50 club, and compare it to the game Reggie Fils-Aime called out, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

       

While Call of Duty won the famous challenge, observe how much its total sales relied on its first month of sales. While both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions outsold New Super Mario Bros. Wii in November, Mario turned the tables for every month thereafter. Also note that only Mario enjoyed a holiday boost.

Unfortunately, we do not have sales figures for either version of Modern Warfare 2 for March or April. Why? Examine this third chart, the most telling of all:

Despite not having bested the life time sales of the Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2, Mario has never left the top-10 since release -- and only once dropped out of the top-5. Modern Warfare 2 has slid down at a steady clip, eventually passing that top-10 threshold were NPD no longer reports units sold (hence the bank bits on chart No.1 and No. 2).

A closer look at staying power shows many big hits dropping like rocks. March launches took the top 6 positions in March's NPD top 20 (perhaps why Mario Slid out of the top-5): God of War III, Pokémon Soul Silver, Final Fantasy XIII (PS3), Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (360), Pokémon Heart Gold and Final Fantasy XIII (360).

In April, God of War III dropped from No. 1 to No. 5, Soul Silver stayed at No. 2, Heart Gold moved up to No. 4, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 dropped from No. 4 to No. 7 and both versions of Final Fantasy XIII dropped off the top-20 entirely. (further, Wii Sports Resort went up to No. 6 from No. 11 and Wii Fit Plus went up one spot to No. 8). Also on the April chart: No. 13 New Super Mario Bros. ($35, 2006) and No. 18 Mario Kart Wii ($50, 2008).

Is it the quality of the games, scope of the audience, slow release cycles or something else that keeps their games selling when even the best titles on other consoles fade away?

Frankly, Big N is probably not going to change a thing. What they're doing, while it keeps economically-disadvantaged players from having every first-party game they'd like to, works very well for their ledger.