My thoughts on the casual future of Nintendo

This year's E3 Nintendo conference was disappointing for some, embarrassing for others. I never want to hear a story about a ski trip again, that's for sure. It will only remind me of the sadness. Gamers are concerned about Nintendo's new and seemingly casual future. We forget that before our Grand Theft Auto and Halo driven gaming community got started, the industry did rely on the same ethic that Nintendo is pushing - family gaming.

When I was a little girl, I have no fonder memories than the ones of my father and I playing Duck Hunt and Super Mario Brothers. I was a little young to get into the game play, But for years to come, I would come into the kitchen to get a drink of water at 2 or 3 AM, and I would see my father in the adjacent living room, trying to beat Metroid or Zelda. When he did beat it, regardless of what time it was, he would always call me in to see the end sequence. Those are my first gaming memories. But time changed things, and the nature of gaming became more precise, with bigger button sets and more things to do. As I grew into this new 3 dimensional gaming world, gaming stopped being such a huge source of bonding for me and my Dad.

Years later, Wii Sports brought my Dad back into my game, and a new player - my Mom - who had never been bitten by the gaming bug before, but now asks me often why I haven't bought Mario Kart Wii yet.

I love our hardcore gaming community, and what it means for the standards that new games are held to. For anyone who played games like Bioshock and GTA IV, it is easy to see that the industry is anything but casual. As far as Nintendo is concerned, I don't really see what the problem is. We've had some great titles from Nintendo including a new Zelda, Mario, and Metroid. These are titles that gamers beg for.

Casual titles are big business for Nintendo. Children already want the Wii. It doesn't hurt that mom wants to excersize on it too. Nintendo is the cause of a lot of great gaming memories for all of us, and they are only trying to secure those memories for our children with these casual titles. What they've forgotten is that they already had us convinced.