Alex Hardy

… at the weekend. Just the console, and Zelda (of course!).

Y’know, the more I read about Nintendo’s new box, the more I’m looking forward to it. I read the other day that Super Mario RPG is coming out on the Virtual Console. This is actually pretty significant: Mario RPG is a gem of a SNES game, that came out right at the end of the SNES’ life. In fact, it was never released in the UK.

If it’s Nintendo’s plan to make tasty treaties like this available in ways that they weren’t ever before, then that’s pretty exciting stuff. I’ll probably spend a few quid to saunter through Sonic the Hedgehog and such, but I’ve been there and got the t-shirt with those games. I’d much rather have a go at stuff I never got to play…

Rumours abound also that Neo Geo and Saturn games are going to make their way onto VC. Woohoo! Go on Sega, get Mega CD games in there too, I wanna play Sonic CD! I wouldn’t be surprised if a little industry springs up to do translations and VC conversions of obscure titles *crosses fingers*

C’mon Nintendo! Here’s a little wish-list for you to get cracking on!

SNES

Chrono Trigger, Cybernator, Ganbare Goemon 1 and 2 (aka: Mystical Ninja), Parodius, R-Type 3, Rockman & Forte, Secret of Mana, Shadowrun, Starwing and Starwing 2 (rumoured to be completed but never released), Super Tennis, Super Mario Kart, Yoshi’s Island

Megadrive/Mega CD

Micro Machines, Sonic 2, Sonic CD, Vectorman

N64

Blast Corps, Goldeneye, Paper Mario, Perfect Dark, Yoshi’s Story

Saturn

Burning Rangers, Grandia, Guardian Heroes, Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter, NiGHTS into Dreams and Christmas NiGHTS, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Radiant Silvergun, Sega Rally, Shining Force 3, Vampire Saviour (aka: Darkstalkers 3)

Between Nintendo’s WiiConnect24 fiasco and Sony’s instruction to users to await updates to fix the shortcomings of the PS3’s UI, does anyone else feel a little nostalgic for the time when consoles didn’t have all these multimedia aspirations, the games came on cartridges and things actually worked?

Ho hum, I guess that’s “progress” for you.

According to Amazon, Okami isn’t out until February 9th… A Wii it is then

I’ll pick up Okami when it comes out, yessir.

I’ve decided not to get a Wii - not for Christmas anyway.

Instead, I’m going to get Okami. I’ve been waiting for Okami for some months now, and I know that if I bought a Wii so soon I’d probably never get around to playing it properly. Which would be a crime

It’s something of a cliche amongst so-called “hardcore” gamers that the dying days of a console are its creative prime. That by the time the wider industry wants to render a platform obsolete, the most talented developers have cracked the strengths and weaknesses of the system and are making its finest games. Games which in many cases defy popular opinion of what the hardware is capable of.

For instance:

• The SNES had Yoshi’s Island
• The Saturn had Panzer Dragoon Saga, X-Men Vs Streetfighter and Radiant Silvergun
• The N64 had Zelda: Majora’s Mask
• The Dreamcast had Rez and Shenmue

Etc etc…

I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the PS2. At first I sneered at it for having lousy games, then I resented it for so successfully crushing the Dreamcast, then I gave in and bought one - which I never played, then I sold it and got a Gamecube, then when I moved into the shared house I bought a new one - a slim model mainly to be used as a DVD player.

This last couple of years though, the PS2 has earned my respect. Games like Ico, Fahrenheit, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War etc have delivered on the PS2’s original promise and vindicated all that ‘Emotion Engine’ PR.

And now there’s Okami. I won’t labour the details of what the game’s about, but suffice it to say that it’s an epic adventure and possibly the most beautiful game ever made.

… running on the least powerful machine still in production.

I’m not going to buy a Wii for Christmas because the PS2 deserves its last hurrah before it’s retired to my cupboard.

I think I’ll pop into Game in town at the weekend and pre-order a Wii.

I’ll get the obvious, tired joke out of the way. *Coughs* I’m bursting for a Wii *cymbal clash*

It’s a bit of a disappointment that it doesn’t play DVDs (yet). Means that my unloved PS2 remains next to my telly, rather than in a box for a little while longer. Okami might even let it see a bit of action other than playing films.

If the best Sony can come up with is a HD version of Gran Turismo (which I always found about as much fun as watching paint dry) at some point in the future, then the “Wii360″ combo idea looks pretty good to me.