Email: Resignation

That’s the word to describe how Nintendo fans are reacting to the announced game lineups and general direction of the company. We know we’re falling back into the same old rhythms from Nintendo. We know that the only thing that ultimately changed from Gamecube to Wii U are regular 2D Mario appearances, incremental Wii Fit updates, and little compilations like NintendoLand. But we all started to realize that Wii was not going to totally fulfill its promise 2-3 years ago. And we found out last year that Wii U would also not fulfill that promise. So this year we are more comfortable with the unexciting offerings Nintendo has. We’re over the excitement and letdown of Wii, and happier to celebrate the limited but excellent quality offerings we know we can count on.

I will probably buy a Wii U if/when a 2nd 2D Mario is confirmed for the system. This is totally different from my getting a Wii right away in 2006, but I’ll still end up getting the system sometime, probably. Smash Bros., Mario Kart, NintendoLand, a handful of good 2D platformers (Rayman Legends already looks like a decent 2nd one)… it seems like there is enough there for me to buy into Wii U at some point. I know that the reasonable value I got out of Wii, Gamecube and N64 will be there on Wii U.

But there is no passion or emotion behind my potential purchase decision. Nintendo are just falling back into a somewhat larger pool of regular customers who will buy a system for that handful of A+ games you can always count on from Nintendo. The passionate customers of Wii (including the haters) are all gone. We are in a state of resignation to our fate.

Lack of passion doesn’t make emails like this.