The Wii - Not a Revolution

There was a time when I expected the Wii to become the gateway to a new age of game design. And no, not for the nifty controller/katana/baseball bat/additional way to get young boys to exercise their forearms. I assumed that for an entirely new generation of youngsters, The Legend of Zelda, Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger would become easily accesible.

This excited me, as perhaps with the combination of modern technology and simplified access, people would look at the games that had succeeded in the past and using those principals to make something new. Who knows what a young designer could see in manic design of Uniracers or the ultra-tongue-in-cheek-itude of Clay Fighter that the rest of us missed and turn it into something exciting. It appeared to be a creative font.

But after some thought, I found myself eating my own words. What Wii does, that video did for film, is not make games accessible. It makes games available. These are two essentially different points. For the great games of the past never went away. If a feature was said to be amazing, then all you had to do was stalk a EB or 2, maybe even emulate it like an anti-idleness internet Robin Hood, stealing from "them that weren't using their license." The games have always been here. All this does is make is easy to get at them. And what passionate filmmaker ever waited until video?

They hunted their loves down.

And what is the value of what the Wii is bringing back? While early Nintendo was certainly ground-breaking, as we reached 64 bits, the PC took over as the truly groundbreaking source for gaming. And no one is talking about making lost wonders like Sam and Max or The Neverhood available.

I will not rule out the chance that some wunder-kid could find his/her way through the Wii's downloadable Library of Alexandria and be inspired to rewrite Homer, but it seems something of a false prophet. I guess we'll just have to enjoy Wii for what it is - a near bottomless source of enjoyment.

Darn.