E3 went down a few weeks ago and while there were no real earth shattering announcements (thanks to the ever persistance subculture of everything getting leaked), all in all it was a pretty good show. The rest of the year is looking pretty good indeed, with some of the smaller titles like Child Of Eden, Catherine, and Shadows of the Damned (all of which you should buy, for the inevitable rarity if nothing else) coming now to avoid the epic cluster**** that is the fall launch lineup. But the future of gaming? That is an entirely different story altogether. Let’s take a look at current state of gaming, focused on the three big console manufacturers.

First up: Nintendo.

Oh how the worm has turned! Actually, not so much. Analyzing Nintendo is always a fun prospect, simply from the fact that Nintendo of America seems to enjoy trolling their fanbase. For example, look at Operation Rainfall. In case you missed it, Operation Rainfall is a concentrated internet letter-writing, facebook commenting, twitter posting campaign to bring three hardcore RPG’s to the United States. The three games are Xenoblade Chronicles, the latest title from the mastermind behind the legendary Xenogears and Xenosaga franchises, The Last Story, the latest title from Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu (the director and composer behind the Final Fantasy series), and Pandora’s Tower, an action rpg much in the vein of Castlevania. So after all the letter writing and various other campaigning to get these games released worldwide, Nintendo announces that all three titles will, in fact, be localized and released…. in Europe. In fact, they released what could be viewed as a rather snarky message on the official Facebook page saying that while we should “never say never,” they don’t intend to release the game in North America. Even though they’re already translated and voice acted and everything for Europe.

Then there’s the case of the Wii U. First off, let’s all just agree that Wii U is a dumb name. That being said, so was the Wii, and the Xbox and PlayStation are also stupid names we just got used to. But back on topic: if you look at Nintendo’s E3 presser, NoA President Reggie Fils-Aime basicly starts off saying, “Hey, we get it. The hardcore have been feeling neglected lately; you want some games for you! Don’t worry. We got you covered.” Then they proceed to show hardcore ports of games that, by the time the Wii U launches, will have already been on the competitive consoles for some time. Furthermore, the sizzler reel still had a lot of happy family, Wii Fit, casual nonsense for something supposedly aimed at the core. On top of everthing else, I have this nagging suspicion that the Wii U, with its dual screen technology and single touch pad second display, is destined to become yet another stop on Nintendo’s seemingly unstoppable nostalgia train by become an HD port machine for popualr DS titles. Why make something new when they can sell you something you’ve already bought? Yes I’m looking at you, Star Fox 64 3D and Ocarina of Time 3D.

Speaking of nostalgia, let’s talk about the 3DS. More specifically, let’s talk about the games being released for the 3DS. I look at the 3DS and the future games to be released on the system and I hate myself for even considering purchasing one. Look at the top five games released thus far on the system, according to Metacritic:

You can check out our reviews for Zelda, Street Fighter, Ridge Racer, and Dead or Alive, but basically of the top five games released on the system thus far, only one can be said to actually be an original title. Zelda and Street Fighter are ports of varying quality, DOA is more or less just a condensed version of the first four titles and Ridge Racer is pretty known quantity at this point. While it’s a good racer, it is just good; I’ve never met anyone who gets worked up about a new Ridge Racer like they do a Burnout, Gran Turismo, or Forza in spite of what Kaz Hirai might think.

Looking at the 3DS launch compared to the original DS and PSP launches is equally distressing. The PSP came out of the gate with Lumines and Metal Gear Ac!d along with some quality ports of console titles. Even the DS had the tech demo turned quirky game Feel The Magic XY/XX and Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt were a promise of things to come. All I have seen in the 3DS is the promise of more ports and sequels or new IP I’m fairly certain will never make it out of the Land of the Rising Sun, like Fantasy Life and Beyond the Labyrinth. That, coupled with the altogether unhealthy trend of making games with undeleteable save files like in Super Monkey Ball 3D, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, and Pac-Man and Galaga Dimensions makes the 3DS a questionable purchasing venture. And let’s not even get into the whole 3D backlash everyone is having at the moment.

All in all, things look rather shaky for the Nintendo empire, at least from artistic and quality standpoints (standpoints Nintendo seems to have realized they don’t have to put much effort into reassuring). Yet, in spite of all, I’m still super excited about Nintendo in the future. The 3DS is a certain buy for me, mainly for one game. The Wii U, I’m less certain about, but if they announce some unique titles for it, I’ll be on board.